How do I prepare for Financial Reporting?

In this article, we will explain how to prepare for financial reporting and how to understand the feature.

As you can read in the article about Formula Wizard, the system can create some formulas for you, default formulas that in the major part of the cases will work to create reports from different channels. These formulas cannot be deleted once created, but you can always edit or hide them.

All the financial information you can visualize in Financial Reporting, Analytics, Rental Activity, or Occupancy Reports comes from the formulas you have previously created.

Formulas can be set from the system as a whole, or they can be edited from a listing specific. If you go to Financial Reporting > Financial Settings you will visualize all the existing formulas for the whole system. Please note that you can edit and customize existing formulas as well as create new ones; also, when editing or creating new formulas, you can always use values as well as formulas within formulas.

Please watch the following educational video in which we explain in a simple way the main functionalities of Financial Reporting so you can start using it right away and take advantage of its full potential.

Change the financial reporting currency symbol

This option will only change the symbol in financial reporting. There will be no currency conversions.

You can find this option by following the next steps:

Go to your Hostaway Dashboard > Financial Reporting > Settings
Click on "Additional settings" > Change the financial reporting symbol

Setup your taxes

Different channels send taxes to Hostaway in different ways, making it difficult to compile these values for accurate financial reporting. This is where adding taxes to Hostaway's financial settings comes in handy. Therefore, before creating financial reporting for your listings, you must configure the taxes you would like to apply to those listings
These settings will apply to all channels except for Airbnb and Booking.com where the Taxes mapping option should be used. We'll be the source of truth for Direct, Booking Engine, WordPress plugin, Vrbo, and Marriott reservations, plus any add-ons entered in the guest portal. Therefore, setting up taxes will increase the total price for those channels. Hostaway will use this value to calculate Expedia tax values as well
New reservations will contain the tax after you "Add" it

To add your taxes you should follow the next steps:

Go to your Hostaway Dashboard > Financial Reporting > Settings
Click on "Add tax"
Select the "Tax Type"
Select the "Amount", and if it is a percentage or a flat fee
If percentage, select if it should apply to the Base rate and/or cleaning fee
Select if you would like to apply a different tax amount based on the number of nights
Click on "Add"

This will set up a tax on all your listings. If you need to change a specific listing, you can go to Listing > Edit > Financial Settings > New Taxes

When editing an existing tax in Financial Settings, it will update all unchanged taxes on the Listing level. If you have manually changed the tax for a listing, it can only be edited on a Listing Level. Editing on a Financial Settings level will not update this listing
Taxes will only be calculated for newly received reservations
New Taxes will be used to calculate the tax amount for external channels, for the Financial Reporting. We will not take the tax info that external channels send to us since they are too different depending on the channel
Taxes are used to calculate the total price for Hostaway channels (direct reservations, Booking Engine, and WordPress plugin)
For Booking.com and Vrbo we export the Property rent tax % under Listing > Financial fields as well. These taxes apply to all listings unless a different tax is set on the listing page
For Airbnb and Expedia, taxes should be managed in the channel

Create or Edit your Financial formulas

Formulas are mathematical calculations based on reservation fields. For all reservations (except iCal) we have Financial Formulas.

We have created some default formulas for you that you can't delete but you can edit. To create a new formula, you can go to Hostaway Dashboard > Financial Reporting > Financial settings > Add custom formula according to the business requirements.

Read and customize your reports

Analytics

We have built several charts for you to have an idea of how you are performing. You can use filters to have more accurate information.

Financial Reporting: Analytics

Rental Activity

All reservation information is aggregated in this report. You can filter and also download 3 different report types.

Financial Reporting: Rental Activity

Occupancy Report

This is another report based on your occupancy.

Financial Reporting: Occupancy Report

Expenses & Extras

This is a report based on your expenses and extras

Financial Reporting: Expenses & Extras

Custom View

You can create and reuse Custom Views in the Rental Activity, Occupancy Report, and Expenses & Extras.

Custom views save all your selected filters and the order of the table columns. This allows you to save and reuse a custom view at any time. This will help you save time when preparing reports as you can adjust filters, select, organize, and arrange columns and other options, and save the customization for future reports. If you regularly create different reports with different data, you never have to start from scratch every time.

These views can even be set with dynamic quick dates such as "Last Month" or "Year-to-Date (YTD)," so updating dates won’t be necessary - just select the saved view and your data will appear instantly.

This functionality is available to all users with access to these sections. However, views are saved on a per-user basis, meaning that each user can create and access their own custom views tailored to their needs.

Hostaway Reservations Breakdown and Optional Fees

By activating Financial Reporting, you are also activating Hostaway reservation breakdown and Optional/discount fees.