Frequently Asked Questions
Your trust account holds money that isn’t yours yet: owner payouts, guest deposits for future stays, and taxes you’ve collected. Trust accounting proves every month that the account covers all of it, so you never spend owner money by accident, your owners trust their statements, and you know exactly how much of the balance is actually yours to move to operating. Most managers who have never fully reconciled their trust account find money they’re owed, or a shortfall they didn’t know about.
Read how PMI Blue Ridge recovered $50,000 from their trust account
Short-term rental property managers and co-hosts who are done doing month-end themselves. We’re built for companies with 10 or more listings, on Guesty, Hostaway, Hospitable, OwnerRez, Hostfully, Lodgify, and Uplisting.
A local bookkeeper sees one deposit from Airbnb. We see the reservations inside it: the cleaning fees that belong to the owner, your commission, the occupancy tax that belongs to the county, and the guest deposit that isn’t anyone’s income yet. We only do short-term rental bookkeeping, so trust accounting, owner statements by the 5th business day, and lodging tax across multiple jurisdictions are built into how we work, not taught by you each month. Keystone is an official VR Trust Expert Accounting Partner and the exclusive bookkeeping partner for STR Secrets members and PMI franchisees.
For a 10-listing company, Trust Essentials starts at $400/month and Full Suite at $880/month, including your company financials, with volume discounts as you add listings. Outside the monthly price: a one-time onboarding fee based on your listing count (no fee for listings you add later), your QuickBooks Online subscription on Full Suite (we can get you a discount), and optional add-ons for owner payments, vendor payments, and lodging tax filing.
Our agreement runs 12 months and locks in your pricing for that year. You can still leave anytime with 30 days’ notice, so we can close out your final month cleanly and hand everything back in order.
Our team is global and works only on short-term rental books. Everyone is a full-time Keystone employee trained on our STR process, and our leadership is based in the US. You get a dedicated main point of contact and bookkeeper, and everyone works in the same systems so the team is always up to date on your account.
Three things, all so your owner statements and trust account are always right: (1) all guest revenue lands in your trust account first, which means turning off Airbnb split payouts to co-hosts; (2) two bank accounts minimum – a trust and an operating bank account; (3) quick answers when we ask about a charge, which you do in our app in a few taps. On Full Suite, your books live in QuickBooks Online Plus.
Guesty, Hostaway, Hospitable, OwnerRez, Hostfully, Lodgify, and Uplisting. We connect Airbnb, Booking.com, and Stripe directly. We don’t currently support Streamline or Track.
If you run your own properties through your management company like any other owner (in your PMS, through your trust account, with owner statements), we handle them the same as the rest of your listings. If you also want separate books for the properties themselves, like your own P&L, mortgage, and taxes, we set that up as its own engagement with its own QuickBooks file so it never mixes with your company or your owners’ funds.
Read: should you run your own properties through your PM company?
Yes, as long as they run through your short-term rental PMS like the rest of your listings and most of your portfolio is short-term. They’re handled the same way and billed per listing. We don’t support long-term rental software like Buildium or AppFolio.
At least two: a trust account for guest and owner money, and an operating account for your company. Most clients use two to five. Column, Relay, Ramp, and Topkey banking all work well. Each month we tell you exactly how much to move from trust to operating.
New clients start on the 1st of the month, and each month’s onboarding group can fill up, so reach out early. Your first month-end close and owner statements come 35-40 days after your start date; historical cleanup can take longer. Our most experienced bookkeepers handle onboarding, because the first months are where books get fixed and set up right.
Give your current bookkeeper 30 days’ notice and keep them available for questions during the handoff. We’ll tell you exactly when to give notice. In some cases we start a fresh QuickBooks file so your books are clean from day one.
Yes, including a full trust account reconciliation. We review your books first and give you an estimate before any cleanup work starts; cleanup is billed hourly. If you’re up against a tax deadline, talk to us early, because a rushed cleanup is how mistakes get filed.
By the 5th or 10th business day of the month, depending on your plan. Every owner gets them in their own portal.
A dedicated bookkeeper for your weekly transactions and monthly reporting, plus a Client Lead who is your main contact and handles owner and vendor payments. After onboarding you get a monthly call and unlimited email, and we respond within 1–2 business days, depending on your plan.
Yes. Every owner gets their own portal login with statements for all of their listings through VR Trust. You and your team use our custom client portal, Keystone Connect, to send receipts and answer our questions.
Included in every plan. We license it on your behalf, and if you ever leave Keystone, the license transfers to you, so your history goes with you.
Full Suite runs on QuickBooks Online Plus, which you subscribe to directly (we can get you a discount). Books in Xero or other software would move to QuickBooks during onboarding, but if you want to keep doing your own books in those systems, our Trust Essentials plan would be a great fit.
Yes, as an optional add-on, including portfolios that file in several cities and counties with different rates, forms, and deadlines. We file for properties you manage or own.
Read how Traverse Hospitality files in six Colorado jurisdictions
Yes, as an optional add-on: vendors weekly and owners monthly, through BILL, Ramp, or Topkey, so the money side of month-end is done too.
Both. Our in-house tax team can prepare business and personal returns, or we work alongside your CPA and hand them clean year-end books.
Usually, yes. Each legal entity gets its own books so taxes and owner funds stay clean. We map your entities on the intro call and recommend the simplest setup.
Every bank account and credit card is connected, and revenue is allocated by listing through VR Trust. On Full Suite you can send receipts by email or snap them in our app. When a charge is unclear, we ask you in the app instead of guessing. Every month we reconcile all bank accounts, credit cards, escrow balances, and loans.
We record Stripe and card fees the way your management agreement says: charged to the owner, the guest, or your company, and they show clearly on owner statements.
Yes, including GST/HST.