How to reconcile Airbnb payouts in QuickBooks Online?

Build one QuickBooks Online Bank Deposit for each Airbnb payout so the deposit total equals the net lump that hit the bank, with lines for accommodation, cleaning, host service fee and occupancy tax. Then Match the bank feed. Do not Categorize the Airbnb line as income.

This is the click path for a small property-management office on Guesty, AppFolio or Rentvine that keeps a few short-term listings, because the CPA lives in QuickBooks Online. Pull last month’s Paid CSV, the bank statement and the trust register.

What you are matching

The bank shows one number. Airbnb shows several. A payout is the lump Airbnb sent, not one reservation.

List	Where	What it shows
Paid earnings CSV	Airbnb, Earnings, Paid, Get report	Gross, cleaning, host service fee, taxes withheld, net
Guesty payout, if you use it	Reservations report	What Guesty thinks Airbnb paid
Bank feed	QuickBooks Online, Bank transactions	One AIRBNB lump, often days later
Trust or operating register	The account Airbnb pays	Cash that landed

Airbnb’s payout help, read 2026-10-07, writes the formula as nightly rate plus extra charges (cleaning, extra-guest) minus the host service fee and any co-host share. That net should equal the bank line.

How to reconcile a property management trust account in QuickBooks Online is the two-way rec after these deposits are in. This page is the split.

Pull the Paid report first

Do this in Airbnb before you touch the bank feed. Pick the bank-statement dates. The usual miss is matching a check-in date to a deposit that landed days later.

1. Go to Today, then Menu, then Earnings.
2. Open Paid. Filter listings, payout methods and the statement date range.
3. Click Get report, then create it.

Airbnb’s download help, read 2026-10-07, says that CSV includes earnings, the host service fee, cleaning, gross earnings and any taxes withheld. That file is the source of truth. The guest receipt is not.

Airbnb’s earnings dashboard says several listings with the same check-in day may pay out as one row. Group the CSV by the amount and date that hit the bank, not by confirmation code.

On ACH in the US, Airbnb’s payout timing is 3 business days after release, or 3 to 5 for a bank account. Weekend batches wait. A review can delay funds up to 45 days after check-in. Leave those unmatched until Paid.

If the listings run through Guesty, Guesty’s payout article, read 2026-10-07, says a short-term payout can take 72 hours to show, and a co-host split leaves Guesty seeing only the host share. Use Airbnb’s CSV when Guesty and the bank disagree.

Split the payout on one Bank Deposit

Airbnb sends one number. Put every component of that number on the same QuickBooks deposit.

Airbnb’s service-fees help, read 2026-10-07, lists two structures. Split-fee hosts usually pay 3 percent of the nightly price and host-charged fees, excluding the guest service fee and taxes. Hosts on property-management software are on the single-fee structure. Most of those hosts pay 15.5 percent, taken from the payout. Read the Airbnb service fee line on the earning, not a remembered rate.

Intuit’s record bank deposits help, updated 2026-08-03, is this path. Put the fee on the deposit. Do not edit a reservation.

1. Select + Create, then Bank Deposit.
2. Choose the account Airbnb pays, trust or operating. Date it to the bank date, not check-in.
3. Skip Undeposited Funds unless you already recorded sales receipts. Guests paid Airbnb, not you.
4. Scroll to Add funds to this deposit.
5. Accommodation: owner funds (Other Current Liabilities) on a managed door; rental income only if the firm owns the listing.
6. Cleaning: pass-through if the office pays the cleaner; income only if the firm keeps it.
7. Host service fee as a negative amount to a channel-fee expense. Intuit’s example is a $0.50 fee entered as –.50. Same shape, Airbnb as the name.
8. Occupancy tax paid out to you to remit goes to occupancy-tax payable. Tax Airbnb already remitted is skipped.
9. The deposit total must equal the bank line to the cent. Memo the payout reference. Save.

Example, not a real office. Accommodation $800, cleaning $150, host service fee −$147.25, occupancy tax remitted so it is not in the payout. Deposit $802.75. On r/Bookkeeping in April 2021 the same split showed up for fees that never hit the bank. A management fee you charge the owner is not an Airbnb line. Take it later as an owner-ledger draw.

Match the bank feed

Go to All apps, Accounting, Bank transactions. Open the account Airbnb pays. Find the AIRBNB lump.

If QuickBooks offers Match to the deposit you just saved, take Match. Intuit’s categorize help, updated 2026-08-24, treats Post or Add as a new ledger entry. Categorize on an Airbnb payout records the cash twice.

If nothing is in the register yet, Split the Pending line into the same accounts until Difference is $0.00, then Post. That is the first recording. Do not Split a line you already deposited. Turn auto-add off on any bank rule that posts AIRBNB to income.

Occupancy tax is not rent

Occupancy tax is money held for a tax authority, or already sent there. It is not rental income.

Airbnb’s tax-collection help, read 2026-10-07, says Airbnb remits certain taxes in specific jurisdictions, and that this does not change the host payout. It may collect a regional tax and not a local one. Check Listings, the listing, Settings, Taxes. No local tax-collection section means Airbnb is not remitting for that listing.

Texas is the example. The Texas Comptroller, read 2026-10-07, sets state hotel occupancy tax at 6 percent of the room cost. Airbnb’s Texas page says it remits that 6 percent, including cleaning, for stays of 29 nights or shorter, plus listed local taxes. Hosts still owe taxes Airbnb does not list. Other states differ. This is not tax advice. Check the listing, the agency and your CPA.

When the lists still disagree

Work CSV-to-bank first, then bank-to-QuickBooks.

Symptom	Likely cause	What to do
Bank is smaller than gross by about the fee	Gross in the books, net at the bank	Negative host-fee line on the deposit
Bank line has no matching deposit	ACH lag, weekend hold, or a review	Wait until Paid. Airbnb can delay 45 days
CSV total is higher than the bank	Adjustment taken from this payout	Airbnb adjustments come out of the next payout. Put them on this deposit
Guesty says Partially Paid	Co-host split on Airbnb	Guesty only sees the host share. Split from the CSV
QuickBooks income is the guest total	Categorize on the feed, or tax booked as rent	Reverse it. Match the split deposit
One owner ledger is short	Several listings in one lump	Re-split by listing. Hold that owner’s draw

On r/QuickBooks in March 2025, a host with three listings could not make cash-basis deposits match Airbnb’s 1099-K, because a 2 January bank line was prior-year earnings on Airbnb’s side. Tie the rec to the payout date.

What never gets its own deposit

Thing	Own QuickBooks deposit?
Host service fee	No. Negative line on the payout deposit
Cleaning fee	No. Line on the same deposit
Occupancy tax Airbnb remitted	No. It never hit the bank
Occupancy tax paid out to you	Same deposit, as a liability
One reservation already in the batch	No. Split it on that deposit
Typed deposit for the bank total, as income	No. That is a second copy of the cash

Airbnb wins the payout report. That CSV already knows the fee, the tax withheld and which reservations sat in the lump. Guesty wins reservation-level payout status. QuickBooks Online wins the two-way rec your CPA already knows. AppFolio, Rentvine and Buildium still win owner ledgers and the three-way trust rec on long-term doors. None of them splits an Airbnb lump for you.

Someone still has to group the CSV to the bank line, refuse Categorize, and keep occupancy tax off income.

How to tell this week is closed

Every AIRBNB bank line is Matched to a deposit that equals the statement to the cent. Each deposit has accommodation, cleaning, host fee and, if it paid out, occupancy tax. Rent for managed doors sat in owner funds, not income.

Pull last month’s Airbnb Paid CSV, the Guesty payout report if you use one, and the bank statement for the account Airbnb pays. Start with those three files. They already exist.