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Management commissions

Updated over a week ago

How to Create and Apply a Management Commission in VRTrust

This article walks through how to create, test, apply, and manage a Management Commission in VRTrust, along with best practices for editing commissions when owner statements have already been published.

Step 1: Create a New Management Commission

  1. Navigate to Settings → Fees & Commissions.

  2. Click Add and select Management Commission.

  3. Enter the following:

    • Commission Name

    • Commission Rate

    • Booking Channels the commission should apply to

Step 2: Configure Advanced Settings

  1. Open Advanced Settings.

  2. Select the Revenue Recognition Method.

    • This must match the default revenue recognition method selected in your Reservation Settings.

  3. Choose whether the commission applies to:

    • Booked reservations only, or

    • All reservations

      • Select All reservations if cancellation revenue should be commissionable.

  4. Select a Tax Rate, if applicable.

Step 3: Select Revenue & Expense Accounts

  • Revenue Account

    • Management Commission Revenue

    • Posts to the Property Manager Income Statement

  • Expense Account

    • Management Commission Expense

    • Appears on the Owner Statement

Step 4: Choose Commissionable Accounts

Select which revenue and expense accounts are included in the management commission calculation.

By default, this may include:

  • Net accommodation fare (rent)

  • Channel fees

  • Merchant fees

  • Cancellation revenue (if paid to the owner and commissionable)

If other amounts are included in the commission calculation, review your accounts and choose.

  • For example: If Cleaning Fees should be included in the commission base, select the Cleaning Fee revenue account.

  • Select any expense accounts that should be considered in the commissionable base.

Reviewing Line Types

Each account shows which PMS line type it is linked to.
These mappings are configured in Settings → Reservations → Reservation Mappings.

This allows you to confirm exactly which line types are included in the commission.

Impact of other Fee templates on commissions

Here’s a clean “Important Consideration” section you can drop straight into the article:

Important Consideration: Interaction with Other Fee Templates

Management commission calculations can be impacted by other fee templates applied to a reservation.

If you have additional fee templates—such as channel commissions, taxes, or other fees—and those fees post to accounts are selected as commissionable within the management commission setup, their amounts will be included in the commissionable base.

This means:

  • The management commission will be calculated net of those fee amounts

  • The most common scenario is booking fees, channel commissions and merchant fees, which managers want to deduct from the commissionable base.

Best Practice

  • Carefully review which revenue and expense accounts are selected in the management commission

  • Be intentional about accounts use in other fee templates (channel fees, taxes, or other custom fees) should be commissionable

  • Use the Preview tool to validate how multiple fees interact before publishing owner statements

This ensures the management commission reflects your intended calculation and avoids compounding fees unintentionally.

Step 5: Test the Commission Using Preview

  1. Open the Preview window.

  2. Select a Booking Channel (for example, Airbnb).

  3. Choose a specific reservation to test.

In the preview, you will see:

  • All invoice line items

  • Commission calculated per line

  • Total management commission revenue

👉

Best practice:
Test the commission on each booking channel to ensure accuracy.

If any amount is missing, return to the fee setup and include the additional commissionable accounts.

Step 6: Save the Management Commission

Once the commission calculation has been reviewed and confirmed, save the fee.

Step 7: Apply the Commission to Listings

  1. Go to the Listings tab.

  2. Select the listing.

  3. Add the newly created Management Commission.

  4. Set the Start Fee From date:

    • Recommended: 1–2 years before your VRTrust go-live date

Important Notes on Start Dates

  • Setting the start date earlier does not create journal entries before your general ledger start date.

  • If the commission includes merchant fees, setting the date back will include merchant fees from advance deposits for stays after go-live, even if paid earlier.

  1. Save the listing.

Removing a Management Commission from a Listing

  1. Open the listing.

  2. Select Remove next to the commission.

  3. Confirm removal.

Best Practices

  • Always test management commissions across all booking channels

  • Validate commission calculations before publishing owner statements

  • Finalize fee structures before putting any owner statement into review or published status

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