Accounting
Accounting (Money → Accounting) keeps double-entry books for your business. You don’t have to post anything: payments, stays, sent invoices and expenses write their own entries, usually within a minute and at the latest overnight.
How income is counted
Section titled “How income is counted”The books count income when a stay happens, not when the money arrives:
- Money a guest pays before their stay is held as Guest deposits until the checkout date.
- On the checkout date it becomes income.
- Reports still shows money on the day it arrived. That’s why the two can differ within a month.
Apartments with a landlord. Only your management fee is your income. The rest is recorded as Owed to landlords until you pay them.
Costs you deduct from a landlord come off what you owe them, not off your profit.
Trial balance
Section titled “Trial balance”The Trial balance tab shows every account’s balance on a date you choose. Debits are in one column and credits in the other. The two totals must agree, and the tab says Balanced when they do. You can export it as CSV for your accountant.
Money movements
Section titled “Money movements”Some money moves where ShortletBox can’t see it. Record it on the Money movements tab:
- Pay a landlord. This reduces what you owe them. The tab lists what each landlord is currently owed.
- Move money between your accounts. For example, Paystack paying out to your bank, or cash you paid in.
- Airbnb or Booking.com payouts. Record what the guest paid and the channel’s fee. Their bookings reach ShortletBox without the money.
Anything recorded here can be cancelled. It stays on the record, and the books reverse it.
Journal
Section titled “Journal”The Journal tab lists every entry in the books, newest first, with who made it (“Automatic” for the entries ShortletBox writes itself).
Admins can post an entry by hand, such as an opening bank balance or an accountant’s correction:
- It needs a reason.
- Its debits and credits must be equal.
- It is never edited. To correct it, Reverse it, which posts a mirror-image entry dated today, then post the right one.
Accounts
Section titled “Accounts”The Accounts tab is your chart of accounts. You can rename any account; what it’s used for never changes. Add an account for each bank you use, and choose it when you record an expense or money moving.
Who can do what
Section titled “Who can do what”- Staff, admins and owners can read the books.
- Only admins and owners can record money movements, post journal entries or change accounts.
- Landlords never see the books; their statement is in the portal.