Beta: Setting up bank reconciliation for the first time

 Use bank reconciliations to verify that the amounts recorded in Guesty are accurate compared to the amounts in your bank accounts. Bank reconciliation is done in the currency of your Guesty account. 

Once you've followed the steps below for the pre-reconciliation setup, learn how to manage bank reconciliations as a regular part of your Accounting maintenance.

Before you begin

Ensure you have the following set up in accounting before the pre-reconciliation setup.

Multiple cash accounts

• Set up your bank accounts and select a default cash account.
• Additionally, if a transaction is associated with an account other than the default, you will need to move transactions from the default cash account to the relevant account.

Payment processing fees and reserves

• Turn on GuestyPay automations.
  • If using GuestyPay, you can automate key accounting processes like fees, reserves, and grouped transactions.
• Download your payment activity reports from Stripe or Booking.com.
  • Manually record processing fees as debit to PMC, credit to cash. Record reserves as debit to cash, credit to same cash account.

Group transactions

We recommend grouping transactions to streamline the reconciliation. Make sure the "group date" you enter is when the funds were received in the physical account according to your bank. If you already grouped your deposits, edit the date if needed.

A group transaction is distinguished from a single transaction by the multiple files symbol:

Record additional transactions

• Channel commission payments
  • For channels that pay gross, you need to manually record the commission paid to the OTA.
• Bank fees and interest
  • From your bank statement, identify monthly bank fees as debit to accounts payable (PMC), credit to cash. Identify monthly interest earned as debit to cash, credit to accounts payable (PMC). 

Set up your pre-reconciliation

The pre-reconciliation setup allows you to select uncleared, past transactions to be included in the first reconciliation, and to set the correct beginning balance.

A journal entry will be created automatically to adjust the difference between Guesty’s cash balance and your bank’s opening balance.

Step by step:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click the mode selector and select Accounting mode.
3. Click More, then Cash management, then select Bank reconciliation.
4. Click the bank account name to select a different cash account, then click Start setup.
5. Select the date from which to begin reconciliation in Guesty. All transaction before that date will be ignored.
6. Enter the opening bank balance for the selected date.
7. (Optional) Click Upload file to upload your last bank reconciliation report.
8. At the top right, click Continue.
9. Select uncleared, past transactions you would like to include in the first reconciliation. These should be transactions that are from before the date selected (in step 5), but not yet reconciled in a previous system.
10. At the top right, click Finish setup.
11. In the pop-up, review the details then click Complete setup.

Any mismatch between the Guesty balance and bank balance will automatically post a journal entry debit/credit: Cash vs PMC.

Edit pre-reconciliation transactions

If needed, you can go back into the setup and include additional transactions that were missing from the pre-reconciliation. Be aware that changes to the pre-reconciliation setup can affect reconciliations that were already submitted.

Step by step:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click the mode selector and select Accounting mode.
3. Click More, then Cash management, then select Bank reconciliation.
4. Click the bank account name to select a different cash account.
5. At the top right, click Pre-reconciliation setup.
6. Select additional uncleared, past transactions.
7. At the top right, click Finish setup.
8. In the pop-up, review the details then click Complete setup.

Additional journal entries will be automatically created to adjust the difference between Guesty's cash balance and your bank's opening balance.