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Month-end checklist

A step-by-step guide to closing your books and producing accurate owner statements

Updated over a week ago

VRTrust Month-End Checklist

  1. Import bank transactions

  2. Review non-reservation amounts and co-host deposits

  3. Reconcile Stripe and Airbnb deposits

  4. Record expenses

    1. Import expenses via CSV

    2. Import multi-line expenses

    3. Update expenses in VRTrust (if needed)

  5. Bank reconciliation - expense capture

  6. Review guest balances - add fee adjustments

  7. Review guest balances - add financial adjustments

  8. Review trust reconciliation report

  9. Review and finalize PM statement

  10. Publish owner statements

1️⃣ Complete Bank Reconciliations (Non-Negotiable)

Month-end starts with cash.

☐ Import all bank activity

  • Ensure all bank feeds are up to date through the last day of the month

  • Upload missing transactions via CSV if needed or if not connected via Plaid

☐ Reconcile all trust and operating accounts

⚠️ Owner statements should never be finalized before bank reconciliation is complete.

2️⃣ Review Unmatched Deposits & Non-reservation Items

☐ Clear unmatched deposits

  • Match deposits to:

    • Airbnb / OTA payouts

    • Stripe or card processor deposits

    • Manual payments

  • Confirm deposits are tied to the correct reservations

If deposits are missing,

☐ Review any deposits with non-reservation lines

Common examples:

  • Advanced Deposits / Guest AR receipts with no reservation attached. These lines should be assigned to a reservation if necessary or edited and reclassified as revenue or expense to owners or the property management company.

3️⃣ Validate Reservation Financials

☐ Review guest balances

Check for:

  • Negative balances

  • Unpaid reservations

☐ Make the necessary financial adjustments to guest balances

4️⃣ Verify Fees, Commissions & Taxes

☐ Review management commissions

  • Check to ensure that management commission columns in owner statements are consistent with the listing management commission rates

Need to make adjustments?

Add Fee Adjustments to Reservations

5️⃣ Post, Upload, or Pull Billable Expenses from External Sources

Before owner balances and statements are finalized, all owner-billable expenses must exist in VRTrust, regardless of where they originated.

Common sources of expenses include:

  • External accounting software (e.g., QuickBooks Online)

  • Operational platforms (e.g., Breezeway)

  • Spend management platforms (e.g., Ramp)

  • Vendor bills paid outside VRTrust

☐ Import or sync expenses into VRTrust

External accounting software

Operational platforms

Spend management platforms

  • Sync card transactions and bills

  • Review:

    • Expense account coding

    • Listing assignment

    • Owner vs PM allocation

Manual uploads

☐ Review expense readiness

For each imported expense, confirm:

  • ✔ Correct listing/property

  • ✔ Correct owner allocation

  • ✔ Correct expense account

  • ✔ Included in the correct statement period

  • ✔ No duplicates across systems

⚠️ Expenses that do not exist in VRTrust will not appear on owner statements, even if they exist in external systems.

To record operating expenses as reimbursable:

  1. Make sure expense reimbursement assignments are configured correctly

  2. Add a reimbursable expense

6️⃣ Validate Owner Statements

☐ Preview owner statements (Draft)

Review:

  • Net revenue totals

  • Expense details

  • Management fees

  • Formatting and visibility

☐ Resolve statement validation warnings

Address issues such as:

  • “Net revenue does not match GL”

  • Unmapped accounts

  • Missing template mappings

7️⃣Review Trust Reconciliation Report

☐ Run the Trust Reconciliation Report

  • Confirm:

    • Total trust cash = total trust liabilities

    • No unexplained variances exist

☐ Review trust liability components

Validate balances for:

  • Owner payables

  • Advanced deposits / guest balances

  • Deferred revenue

  • Other trust-held funds

☐ Resolve discrepancies

  • Investigate any differences between:

    • Bank balances

    • Trust liability totals

  • Clear or document any timing differences before proceeding

⚠️ If the Trust Balance Reconciliation does not tie, do not proceed to statements.

8️⃣ Finalize and Publish Statements

  • Confirm no further changes are expected

  • Ensure all reconciliations are complete

☐ Publish owner statements

  • Move from Draft → In Review → Published

  • Confirm owners have portal access

☐ Pay Owners

9️⃣ Finalize the Property Management Statement

This step confirms the property manager’s income and expenses are finalized.

☐ Review & finalize PM statement

  • Lock the period once reviewed

  • Ensure no further changes are expected

☐ Record transfers from the trust account to operating account

Sync to External Accounting Software (Optional)

If syncing to QBO or Xero:

☐ Push finalized general ledger data

☐ Resolve sync errors

  • Spot-check trust liability and operating balances

🔟 Month-End Sign-Off

☐ Final confirmation

  • ✔ Banks reconciled

  • ✔ Clearing accounts reviewed

  • ✔ External expenses included

  • ✔ Owner balances make sense

  • ✔ Statements published

☐ Document exceptions

  • Note any known issues carried forward

  • Flag follow-ups for support or internal review

📌 Best Practices

  • Reconcile weekly, not just monthly (Steps 1 - 7)

  • Import external expenses before owner payouts

  • Never edit prior periods after statements are published

  • Treat owner statements like financial statements — accuracy > speed

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