Keystone Bookkeepers “makes life easier.”
Ben Coons and the team at Keystone Bookkeepers provide full-service bookkeeping for Coastal Stay Property Management, including monthly bank reconciliations, monthly owner statements out of VR Platform, invoices, reimbursements and more. Amanda loves how everything ties together and says their owners love the reports they get now.
How Keystone Bookkeepers helped a short term rental management company in northern Michigan
Amanda Friesz-Vorac, Coastal Stay Property Management: Keystone Bookkeepers are “fantastic, responsive and helpful.”
Founded in 2020 by Dandan Zhu, Coastal Stay Property Management helps owners of vacation rentals in Northern Michigan by taking care of all their property management requirements. They offer full service for their clients which means they don’t have to worry about messaging guests, organizing maintenance, or keeping the property stocked—Coastal Stay handles it all.
Before Keystone Bookkeepers, there was so much room for error.
"When I came on board, I was doing everything myself and it was all manual,” Amanda Friesz-Vorac, General Manager of Coastal Stay says. “I would match bank reconciliations manually on spreadsheets and do owner reporting via Excel. There was always so much room for error, lost receipts, and general accounting issues, especially in this sector because property management accounting is complicated.”
“As we grew, it got more and more time-consuming, and we knew we had to find a better solution.”
In October 2023, following a recommendation from a trusted friend, they started with Ben and the team at Keystone Bookkeepers. They were interested in VR Platform, a vacation rental software platform that Keystone Bookkeepers specializes in. In fact, Amanda attended a webinar with VR Platform to see if it was something they could do on their own but felt it would be beneficial to outsource it to an expert.
From the start, Keystone Bookkeepers has been fantastic for Coastal Stay Property Management. “We had several meetings with Keystone Bookkeepers before we signed up. From the start we liked Ben and clicked with him. He completely understands property management accounting which is very different from normal accounting, and having an accountant and bookkeeper that knows the ins and outs of [the short-term rental space] is great.”
Moving to Keystone Bookkeepers
Amanda admits that while moving to a new software platform is never easy, including switching from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online, Keystone Bookkeepers were very helpful throughout the process. “Quite a few things have to be brought over, including some of it manually, and Keystone Bookkeepers did the heavy lifting for us.”
Ahead of schedule
“Working with Keystone Bookkeepers saves me a lot of time and effort. I’m not doing things manually anymore and we’re fully processed by the 15th of the month, which was a key goal for us. We now get our Owner Reports out early, thanks to Keystone Bookkeepers doing the work with figures and formulas in the background.”
“Keystone Bookkeepers is fantastic. They’re helpful and definitely on top of their emails so they’re very responsive. If you’re struggling with your property management finances, I don't recommend doing it on your own. Find someone like Keystone Bookkeepers, you won’t regret it.”