Bookkeeping for Branson businesses and short-term rentals

Branson is about an hour and ten minutes south of me. Everything I do runs through QuickBooks Online and Zoom, the same way I work with clients in other states. That suits most Branson operators. The ones I talk to already run the business from a phone, checking payouts between turnovers and approving cleaning invoices from the road.

Short-term rentals are the reason this page exists

By most counts there are thousands of active Airbnb and VRBO listings around Branson and Table Rock Lake, plenty of them run by professional managers. I built my short-term rental bookkeeping service around how those businesses actually get paid. Platform payouts land in your bank account net of fees, so the deposit never matches the booking. Record the deposit as income and your revenue is understated and your platform fees disappear. I gross up every payout, reconcile it to the penny, and give you a P&L for every cabin and condo so you can see which listings make money.

Then there’s the tax nobody warns you about. The City of Branson charges a 4% tourism tax on short-term lodging, and as of this writing the platforms don’t remit it for you. Airbnb collecting some Missouri taxes leads a lot of owners to assume the city tax is handled. It isn’t. I keep the records that make those filings simple, and I wrote a plain-English Branson short-term rental tax guide if you want the details before we ever talk.

Not a rental? I keep those books too.

The 76 strip runs on service businesses, and I keep books for them too. Restaurants and food vendors, the cleaning crews that turn cabins and condos between guests, the suppliers behind the attractions, and the contractors who keep it all standing. If you invoice customers or ring up sales anywhere in Branson, service business bookkeeping covers you, and contractor bookkeeping adds job costing and 1099 prep for your subs.

How virtual bookkeeping works from an hour and ten minutes away

It’s the same every month. Your bank and card accounts feed QuickBooks Online, I enter and categorize everything, reconcile the accounts, record any payroll runs from your payroll provider, and send your Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow by mid-month. When something looks odd, I pick up the phone and ask. Questions in between get answered by email, phone, or a quick Zoom. I'll call you back within 15 to 20 minutes during the day. Monthly bookkeeping is a flat monthly fee, quoted in writing after a free review of your file. The pricing page explains what moves the number.