Introduction
This tutorial examines two core areas of GuestWisely’s Integrated Accounting module: Revenue Management and Expense Management.
The Revenue Manager lets you capture and manage various types of income—whether from bookings, owner transactions, or miscellaneous sources. It supports both recurring and one-time entries, allows revenue categorization, and integrates seamlessly with booking data and owner statements. All recorded revenue is compiled in the Revenue Report, for a clear, comprehensive snapshot of financial performance.
The Expense Manager serves three main purposes:
Unified View: Displays all your expenses in one place for easy oversight.
Booking Integration: Links with the Reservation Manager, letting you drill into individual bookings to review or edit booking related expenses.
Expense Management: Allows you to manage operational and business expenses beyond bookings—whether one-time or recurring.
You can assign expenses to specific properties or owners, upload in bulk, and track reimbursable costs incurred on behalf of owners. These expenses are automatically reflected in reports and Owner Statements.
Whether tracking revenue or managing expenses, GuestWisely’s accounting tools provide the clarity, control, and confidence needed to stay on top of your finances.
Our other accounting features and solutions —such as the Organizer, Cashflow Manager, Payout Dashboard, the Lock Settings function, and accounting Reports, including the Profit-Loss Statement —are covered in separate tutorials.
The Revenue & Expense Management is a key component of the Accounting feature. Learn more about the Accounting module here.
Revenue Management
Revenue Types
GuestWisely classifies Revenues into three main types:
Booking Revenues – Managed at the booking level in the Booking Editor (linked Revenue Manager for easy access).
Revenues from Owners - Includes commissions, retained funds, and reimbursable expenses paid on the owner's behalf.
Other Revenues – Miscellaneous income not tied to bookings (e.g., revenue shares or referral fees for local attractions), managed in Revenue Manager.
This guide will begin with how to manage Other Revenues created in the Revenue Manager, then cover Booking Revenues and Revenues from Owners.
Revenue Manager
Key components of the Revenue Manager include:
Dashboard: Displays all revenue with built-in management tools.
Primary Actions: Buttons to add and manage revenues.
Filters & Search: Find and display specific revenue efficiently.
To access the Revenue Manager, navigate to Solutions > Accounting > Revenue Manager.
Dashboard table columns explained:
Date: Revenue date (may differ from creation date).
ID#: Booking ID (if the revenue is booking-related).
Revenue Category: The revenue categories you create in the Organizer.
Item Name: Also pulled from the Organizer or manually entered directly.
Description: Notes related to the revenue.
Amount: Revenue total before tax.
Tax: Applied tax as configured in Property Settings. (Filter by individual tax or all).
Total: Revenue amount + tax.
Recurring: Indicates whether the revenue is recurring or not.
Remove: Enables you to delete the revenue.
Adding, Editing, and Deleting Revenues
Begin by setting up Categories in the Revenue Organizer. This will make it easier to manage your revenue in line with your business needs. View full tutorial here.
Click on the Add Revenue button in the Revenue Manager.
When the Add Revenue pop-up appears, fill in all revenue information.
All revenues automatically flow into Accounting reports.
Deleted revenues can easily be restored, as follows:
Booking Revenues
Booking Revenues (amounts received from the guest) are managed in the Booking Editor for accuracy but can also be accessed via Revenue Manager, with direct links to each booking.
In the Revenue Manager, you can:
View or hide booking revenues. (Does not impact the Revenue Report).
Click on the hyperlinked revenue to access and edit their corresponding bookings.
Booking Revenues include Rental Amount, Services, Tax and any Retained Funds. All automatically flow into Revenue Manager, Revenue Report and Profit Loss Report etc.
Revenue from Owners
You may receive revenue from property owners in various forms:
Commissions: your commissions auto-appear in the Revenue Report for confirmed bookings.
Retained Funds: Amounts collected from guests for damages or cancellations. These can be held or assigned as Owner Funds, with optional commission.
Owner Expenses: Property management expenses you pay upfront and classify as Owner Expenses, for subsequent reimbursed from the owner. This is done through a reconciliation on the Owner Statement.
Example: If you pay for maintenance and mark it as an Owner Expense, it will appear in the Revenue section as an amount owed by the owner.
Owner Booking Expenses: Expenses related to guest bookings, paid upfront and reimbursed by the owner.
Example: If you pay for a housekeeping service and mark it as an Owner Expense, it will appear in the Revenue section for reimbursement.
The Revenue Report
The Revenue Report provides a clear view of all income sources, including bookings, guest services, owner transactions, deductions like taxes and channel fees and any external revenue you add or upload into the system. Check out the full tutorial here.
Expense Management
Expense Types
Effectively managing expenses in GuestWisely is key to maximizing the benefits of our Integrated Accounting system, making the time you invest here well worth it.
In this part of our tutorial, we’ll walk you through essential expense management features. We’ll also cover related topics, such as booking expenses, credits, and owner-related expenses.
At the highest level, GuestWisely classifies expenses into two main types:
Booking Expenses – Managed at the booking level in the Reservation Manager (linked for easy access).
Other Expenses – Managed directly from the Expense Manager.
We will now examine the Expense Manager, then focus on managing Other Expenses, and conclude with Booking Expenses.
Expense Manager
To access the Expense Manager, navigate to Solutions > Accounting > Expense Manager.
The Expense Manager’s key components include:
Dashboard: displays all expenses with built-in management tools.
Primary Actions buttons: used to add and manage expenses.
Filters & Search: for finding and displaying specific expenses efficiently.
Dashboard table columns explained:
Date: Expense date (may differ from creation date).
ID#: Booking ID (if the expense is booking-related).
Expense Type: Expense Category (managed in the Expense Organizer).
Item Name: Predefined in the Organizer or manually entered directly.
Description: Optional notes related to the expense.
Amount: Expense total before tax.
Tax: Applied tax (filter by individual tax or all).
Total: Expense amount + tax.
Recurring: Identifies recurring expenses.
Owner Expense: Marks an expense as an owner’s cost.
Remove: Deletes the expense.
Adding, editing, and deleting Expenses
Click on the Add Expense button in the Expense Manager.
When the Add Expense pop-up appears, fill in all expense information.
All expenses automatically flow into your GuestWisely Accounting reports and Owner Statements. Check out the full tutorial for Accounting flow here.
Uploading Expenses in bulk
Expenses can be imported in the Expense Manager in bulk:
1. Click the Upload Expense button to open the upload pop up:
Use the icon legend on the top right corner as follows:
2. Download the Excel/CSV template, following the provided instructions.
3. Populate the excel file, then click the upload button. The onscreen template shown above is where your expenses will display first after your file upload.
4. Click the scan spreadsheet button: The system will highlight errors allowing you to correct and re-upload. If issues persist, email support@guestwisely.io for assistance.
5. Click the Owner Credits button for credit-related transactions (covered separately).
Restoring Deleted Expenses
Restore deleted expenses by accessing the Deleted Expenses section:
Booking Expenses
Booking expenses are costs incurred when providing services to guests, such as cleaning or airport transportation. Your cost to provide these services is considered a booking expense, while the fee you charge for them is recorded as revenue.
Configuring Booking Expenses:
Since Booking Expenses, Services, and Taxes are all typically part of a guest reservation, the way the GuestWisely logic works for each is essentially the same. However, in this tutorial we will focus on Booking Expenses.
1. Booking expenses are configured in the Booking Expenses are of the Property Settings part of the system, where they are categorized into one of two types:
Default Expenses – Marked as “Set as default”, these apply automatically to all bookings unless manually removed in the Booking Editor while managing the booking. They also appear as mandatory fees in your booking engine, meaning guests cannot deselect them. A common example is a cleaning fee.
Optional Expenses – These must be manually selected when managing the booking in the Booking Editor. In the Booking Engine, they appear as optional add-ons that guests can choose to include. An example of an optional expense is airport transportation.
2. Once configured, booking expenses appear in the Booking Editor, as shown below:
Default Expenses are automatically ticked, meaning they apply as standard unless you untick them on a case by case basis. Because they are mandatory, guests will not be able to remove them from their Booking Engine quote.
Optional Expenses are unticked and applied on demand. Optional expenses also appear deselected on your booking engine as standard and guests may select them if they wish. Airport transportation is an example of this use case.
Managing Booking Expenses
Booking expenses are managed at the booking level within the Booking Editor for data accuracy. They are also accessible through the Expense Manager, where they are linked directly to their respective bookings for quick modifications.
In the Expense Manager, you can do the following with Booking Expenses:
1. View or hide booking expenses using the provided checkbox.
2. Click on hyperlinked expenses to access and edit their corresponding bookings.
In addition to pre-configured expenses, you can create unique, one-time booking expenses directly within an individual booking using the Booking Editor.
Booking Expenses automatically flow to your Expense Manager, Expense Report, Profit Loss Report, and Owner Statements etc.
Owner Credits and Expenses
Owner Credits
The Owner Credit feature is used to facilitate balance adjustments and one-time reconciliations. It offers flexibility needed to meet various needs.
Owner credits are reflected as credits on the owner’s Owner Statement and recorded as an expense under Property Management Expenses in your accounting reports.
To issue an owner credit, click the corresponding icon shown in the first image of the previous section. This will generate the popup displayed below:
Then, enter the credit name and description, specify the amount and applicable taxes, select the credit date, and assign it to the relevant property and owner. The credit will then be reflected in their Owner Statement.
Owner Expenses
Booking Expenses can be classified in either of the following ways:
Owner Expense: A cost that the property owner is responsible for, which appears in their Owner Statement.
Service fees associated with managing an owner booking appear as Owner Expenses in the Property Management Services section of the Owner Statement.
My Expense: A cost covered by you, the property manager, which is not included in the Owner Statement.
To make an expense an Owner Expense in an Owner Statement:
1. Choose the relevant property.
2. Select the “Charge the owner to their owner statement" checkbox.
3. (Optional) Add a markup to the expense.
Accounting treatment of Owner Expenses:
Owner expenses are recorded as Property Management Expenses in your P&L statement.
Since the expense is passed on to the owner, it is also recorded as revenue, along with any markup applied.
This approach ensures accurate accounting and maintains your financial position.
Expense Report
The Expense Report provides a comprehensive view of all your expenses in one place, combining Booking Expenses from the Booking Editor with those tracked in the Expense Manager. This report consolidates and organizes your financial data for seamless tracking and reporting. With dynamic filters and flexible formatting, including Standard and Customized views, you can generate professional, tailored reports that fit your vacation rental management needs effortlessly.
Check out the full tutorial here.
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