2024–2026
Finance operations for a five‑country rental operator
A short-term rental operator in Europe, Australia and the US
About 1,000 hours a year of manual finance work removed — while the business grew from one country to five.
Hours recorded during the engagement — 20–30 a week down to about 10 a month — not an independent audit.
- hours a year of manual finance work removed — about half a full-time role
- ~1,000
- countries run on the same system
- 1 → 5
- tax districts with their tourist tax calculated by rules
- 30+
- reservations with a complete financial record
- 17,000+
How it works
- 01Booking platforms
- 02Channel manager
- 03Tax & commission rules
- 04Owner invoices
- 05Bank reconciliation
Before
- The business ran one country, entirely on Google Sheets.
- Booking platforms sent dates, guests and a base fare. Tourist tax, commissions, VAT and owner statements were worked out by hand.
After
- Every booking gets its complete financial record automatically — tax per municipality across 30+ tax districts, commissions under three contract models, and VAT in each country.
- Monthly owner invoices come out of the system across six invoicing relationships, in the right language.
- Each month closes against the bank and the property manager's own figures — to the cent, before anything is sent.
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The situation
A short-term rental operator managed apartments for property owners. Bookings came in from Airbnb and Booking.com through a channel manager — but a booking only carries dates, guests and a base fare. The money that actually matters sits on top: tourist tax that differs by municipality, commissions that depend on each owner’s contract, VAT rules that change by country, and a monthly statement every owner expects to be right.
All of it was done by hand in spreadsheets. It worked for one country. It would not survive five.
What was built
A rules engine that turns every raw booking into its full financial record, then produces what the business needs from it each month: owner invoices and a reconciliation against the bank.
Correctness was treated as the product. Each month is validated against the property manager’s own export and must reconcile to the cent before anything is sent.
The result
The operator went from one country to five — Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Spain, Australia and the United States — while manual finance work fell from 20–30 hours a week to about 10 hours a month — roughly 1,000 hours a year back. The hours that remain are review, not production.