Stripe fees are recorded in your books at the time the Stripe deposits are made for future reservations, which does not coincide with the date of the guest reservation. The Stripe fees are recorded through VRPlatform's Payment Journal Entries Automation. If it's unnecessary for the Stripe fees to appear on the owner statement at the time of the stay, you can configure your Payment Journal Entries Automation to assign the fee to either the owner or the property manager when the fee is incurred on the Items - Payment Processors section of the Mappings page, and a Stripe Fee Automation is not needed.
If you wish to record the Stripe fee at the time of the stay, continue reading this article.
Stripe Fee Automation
VRPlatform enables the creation of a custom fee automation, ensuring that Stripe fees are recorded in your books at the time of the stay on the owner statements. The process for Stripe fee transactions is outlined below:
Expense Recording: The Stripe Fee automation records the expense (debit) to the owner statement under "Trust Liabilities: Owner Payables: Net Earnings: Credit Card Fees" on the balance sheet.
Income Recording: It simultaneously credits "Other Guest Fee Revenues: Processing Fees" on the P&L statement on the reservation date (invoice date). This results in a zero-value bill in your books, with no open balance to pay.
Example: Stripe Fee Automation ($0 Bill)
Recorded on the Guest Reservation Check-in Date - 5/4/2023
Account | Debit | Credit |
Other Guest Fee Revenues: Processing Fees |
| 56.40 |
Trust Liabilities: Owner Payables: Net Earnings: Credit Card Fees | 56.40 |
|
The $0 bill is automated in your books and is recorded to the vendor assigned in your configurations on the invoice date of the guest reservation:
Payment Journal Entry Automation
The automated payment journal entry, matched in your bank feed, captures the expense at the time it is incurred. This offsets the "Other Guest Fee Revenue: Processing Fees" income account on your P&L.
Example: Payment Journal Entries Automation
Recorded on the date the expense is incurred - 4/30/2023
Account | Debit | Credit |
Other Guest Fee Revenues: Processing Fees | 9.94 |
|
Other Guest Fee Revenues: Processing Fees | 46.46 |
|
Trust Assets other than Cash & A/R:Payments in transit to Trust:Payments Clearing - Stripe |
| 1,563.21 |
STR TRUST - Checking (8307) | 1,506.81 |
|
The automated journal entry for the Stripe Fee is matched to the Stripe deposit amount in your bank feed.
Key Points
The income account "Other Guest Fee Revenues: Processing Fees" does not record income to the property manager on the Profit and Loss (P&L) statement.
The automated journal entry capturing the expense nets to zero against the Stripe Fee Automation revenue amount recorded to the "Other Guest Fee Revenues: Processing Fees" account on the P&L.
There may be a timing difference in income and expense recording for the fee on the P&L, which might cause the account to carry a balance for a specific month, but it will net to zero over time.
For detailed instructions on configuring your Stripe Fee automation in VRPlatform, please refer to this Guideflow: Stripe Fee Configuration.