1. Downloading transactions from your bank
Open up trust account using online banking. Check the date of your last successfully completed posting of transactions and ensure that the previous transaction dates were completed in full and the account balance was reconciled with OTA Plus. If the balance wasn't reconciled, ensure you have investigated the cause. If possible, reconcile any variances so the previous dates do balance. Download your bank statement from the date after your previous posting date to yesterday as a CSV file. Save the file to the same location each time , ensuring the start date and end date of transactions is in the file name, so you can see a history of statement downloads. Enter a new column for booking references (guest name or booking ID) and make note of the balance in the trust account at the end of yesterday if it isn't mentioned on the file.
2. Entering Airbnb payments
Log into Airbnb to confirm bookings related to payments (Airbnb payments are usually posted as ‘DIRECT CREDIT Payoneer Austral’). Airbnb payouts may be for multiple bookings that only appear as a single payout on your bank statement, so you will need to break them down into individual payouts within the CSV file.
First log into Airbnb > Switch to hosting > Menu > Transaction History
From here, you can scroll down and see each payout amount - these should match up with the "DIRECT CREDIT Payoneer Austral" transactions on your CSV File. If a payout holds multiple bookings it will say "x transactions" under the date. Select the drop down arrow on the right to show how much each booking payed out.
On your statement of transactions csv file, you will need to enter extra lines underneath any payout for multiple bookings and enter each of the booking payout amounts and guest references (name/booking ID).
You will also need to enter these payments into Felix and then push them through to OTA+. Locate each booking one by one in Felix and mark the pending payment as paid (if it matches the payout, otherwise you will need to delete the pending payment and manually enter a Channel Collect payment for the correct amount). You will then need to push the payment to OTA+. This can be done either of two ways. You can use the OTA+ payment webhook in the Mail & Actions tab of the booking (at the bottom in the Webhook section), or you can scroll to the bottom of the Log tab of the booking and click on the 'Resend Booking Notify' button.
3. Downloading Stripe transaction details
Log into Stripe to confirm payout details (Balances > Payouts). Stripe payouts may consist of multiple payments for different bookings appearing as one payout item on your bank statement, so you will need to break them down into individual payouts within the CSV file.
Log into Stripe > Balances > Payouts. From here you can scroll down and find the matching dates/costs with your CSV file. To break them down, select the payout.
On the next screen the total amount will be broken down into individual bookings, including the total, the booking ID, and the guests name.
Note: Do not use the Gross and Fee column - it is the net payments that will add up to the payout amount.
You do have the option of clicking on the export button to download the breakdown of transactions as a separate csv file. In this instance, you should keep only the 'Net' and 'Description' columns and delete all other columns and copy and paste into the bank statement csv file.
Just as with Airbnb payouts that involve multiple bookings, you will need to enter extra lines underneath any payout for multiple bookings and enter each of the booking payout amounts and guest references (name/booking ID).
4. Posting transactions into OTA+
Post transactions in OTA+ by going into Bookings > Payments (Or press F8). Copy and paste the guest name or booking number from your bank statement csv file into the search bar immediately above the payments on the right hand side to locate the relevant payment. Click anywhere inside the row pertaining to that payment (except for the Post button - do not click on this yet) to ensure that payment has been selected and there is a tick in the box on the left hand side for that payment and select "+ Edit Payment".
Edit the date to when the funds hit the bank account. Check the payment amount is correct (always should be), then select "Save" - "Yes, Save Payment Charges" - "OK". Once this is complete you may select "Post" at the far right of the payout line - "Yes, Post the Payment".
5. Entering refunds
There will be some debits on your bank statement csv file which pertain to bills loaded in OTA+ and marked as paid. Because these are already posted in OTA+, you can ignore these or highlight as already posted (see section 7 below - Marking off your progress). All other debits will need to processed in OTA+ as refunds.
There are two methods for entering refunds, depending on whether a booking has been cancelled or not. For both scenarios you need to action the refund inside the booking itself as refunds are not considered payments in OTA Plus. Enter the guest name or the booking ID in the Booking Search bar at the top of any screen and click on the details box on the right hand side of the row pertaining to the correct booking.
Partial Refunds
If a booking hasn't been cancelled and the guest has just been provided a partial refund, the refund needs to be loaded as a fee.
Go to the 'Fees' tab of the booking and click on the '+ Add New Fee' button, then the 'Yes, Add New Fee' button. In the pop-up screen, choose the 'Refund' or 'Guest Refund' option in the Select Fee setting, enter the refund amount, enter a description, then click on Save and then 'Yes, Save Fee Changes':
Then go to the 'Check & Disburse Funds' tab and click on the 'Pay Now' button at the end of the row pertaining to that refund. Choose the date that the refund came out of the trust account and click on the Post Amount button, then confirm the post in the popup window.
Cancellations
If a refund pertains to a booking which has been cancelled, this needs to be actioned from the 'Cancellation' tab of the booking.
Click on the Cancel booking button and in the pop-up window select 'Yes, Cancel This Booking' and then 'Proceed with Disbursements'.
There will be a number of different disbursement options. You will need to edit the guest refund disbursement to be the amount refunded to the guest. If the guest wasn't refunded in full, you will need to decide what to do with the remaining funds in the booking ledger. Funds can be sent to the property manager via the Management Cancellation Fee and to the owner via the Property Owner Cancellation Fee. The total disbursements must match the net amount posted to the booking ledger. Make sure you select the date that the refund to the guest that you are trying to post came out of the trust account as the disbursement date and then disburse the cancellation.
6. Payments not related to bookings
For non-booking related payments, you will need to post them manually as "Payments" or "Receipts" under the "Trust Account" tab in OTA+. Payments is for money coming out and Receipts is for money coming in.
Payment Example:
Sometimes a guest may cancel and you have refunded the guest in full. If that guest paid by credit card you won't be able to post the entire refund out of the booking ledger because Stripe does not refund fees.
For instance, a guest pays $1000, but you only receive $960 after Stripe fees. $960 would have been posted to the booking. If that guest is refunded in full, you can only refund $960 from the booking. The remaining $40 refund needs to be posted elsewhere as a payment. In this instance you would separate the refund on the bank statement csv file in two - one for $960 attributed to the booking and a separate refund of $40 as Stripe fees on the cancelled booking.
To post the Stripe fees, you go to Trust Account > Payments. You can either charge the Stripe refund to the owner or your own business. To charge the owner, you select the first from the left of the 4 green buttons and then search for the relevant property in the popup window. Select either the owner ledger or the contingency ledger in the Sub Ledger box and select Credit Card as the Payment Type.
*Please note, you can only charge a payment to a sub-ledger with funds available. If both the owner ledger and the contingency ledger have a $0 balance, you will not be able to charge the owner.
Alternatively, you can charge a payment to your business via a holding account. For this, click on the second from the left of the 4 green boxes to open up your holding account options. Choose the relevant holding account, remembering that, again, you need to have funds in that holding account to post the payment against.
Click on the Add Payment button to open up the remaining settings. Make sure to select the date the funds came out of the trust account, enter the amount, Stripe as the 'Payee' and 'For the Benefit Of' and then a description such as 'Stripe fees on cancelled booking 12345678' and then click on the 'Save Payment' button.
Receipt Example:
Sometimes owners may have expenses (such as repairs or renovations) which they want to go through the trust account to be included in their financial summary. Sometimes there may be insufficient funds in the owner ledger to cover those expenses. In such instances, the owner can deposit funds directly into the trust account to cover those expenses.
To post these deposits, you need to go to Trust Account > Receipts. Follow the same advice above to select a property, then choose to post the receipt to either the owner ledger or the contingency ledger. We recommend using the contingency ledger. If you post to the owner ledger, the owner will be paid this money back via the end of month batch owner payout process. Funds in the contingency ledger won't be paid out and bills can be charged directly to the contingency ledger. Follow the same process as a payment using a description such as 'Funds deposited by owner to cover expenses'.
7. Marking off your progress
Highlight each posted transaction green in the bank CSV file to keep track of your progress.
8. Checking your balances - partial reconciliation
Once all transactions have been posted and highlighted on your csv file, you will need to perform a ledger balance report to ensure the balance in OTA+ matches the balance in the trust account.
Go to Trust Account > Reports > Ledger Balances. Select the last date of transactions on your csv file (which should be yesterday) and click on Create Report:
Copy the net balance showing in the bottom (totals) row of the Balance column and paste into your bank statement csv file. If the figure matches the balance of the trust account on that day, then OTA+ balances and you have successfully posted all transactions - a job well done!
If the figures do not match, you will need to locate the error. Try testing balances on other days to locate the date in error which will assist your investigation. The most common cause is a payment that was edited, but not actually posted.