# Finance & Taxes for Rentals (TIDY)

> TIDY is an AI Property Manager that keeps rental accounting per property, automatically. The owner syncs a bank account and TIDY pulls in and classifies the transactions; rent, pro payments, bills, deposits, and taxes land on the property they belong to and roll into a Monthly P&L with net operating income — actuals against projected, per door and across the portfolio. Lodging taxes are tracked everywhere and filed where that is available and authorized, 1099-Ks are filed automatically for pros paid by card, stay lengths and participation hours are tracked, and every property gets a year-end tax package for the owner's return. Short-term, mid-term, and long-term, for 3.9% of gross bookings or rent. TIDY is not a tax advisor.

Last updated: 2026-08-21
Canonical HTML: https://www.tidy.com/rentals/finance-and-taxes

## Scope and limits

TIDY is a technology platform with human account managers. It is not a CPA firm, a tax advisor, a tax preparer, a bank, or a law firm, and nothing here is tax, accounting, or legal advice. TIDY keeps the records, tracks the obligations, and prepares the reports; which taxes apply, what is owed, what treatment an owner is eligible for, and how and when to file and remit remain the owner's responsibility, to be worked out with their CPA. Payouts go to the bank account the owner connects. Pros on TIDY are the owner's own pros or independent businesses, never TIDY employees. The audience for this page is rental owners, landlords, and hosts.

## 1. Accounting, per property

- **Monthly P&L and NOI (the marquee view)** — The year in columns (one per month plus a total) with Income, Operating expenses, and Net operating income (NOI) for each property. Actuals and Projected views compare what happened against the forecast. All Properties gives the portfolio total; a single property gives the per-door view, where entries can be reviewed and edited. It stands current rather than arriving once a month, because rent, bills, bank activity, and taxes roll into it continuously. NOI is the number TIDY works to grow. Docs: https://www.tidy.com/docs/pm/monthly-pl
- **Automatic bookkeeping** — Property-level books keep themselves. Every credit and debit carries its date, amount, type, and the property it relates to, so income, operating expenses, and NOI stay accurate with nothing re-keyed by hand. A dedicated human account manager builds specific reports on request. Docs: https://www.tidy.com/docs/pm/accounting and https://www.tidy.com/docs/pm/reports

What rolls into the books:

- **Rent collection** — A receivables pipeline of everything owed, overdue, or paid, tied to a guest or tenant and their reservation or lease, with statuses Due, Overdue, Paid, and Failed. Recurring rent generates payments automatically on an active lease. Every request gets a branded hosted pay page with no TIDY login for the payer, an activity timeline, and one-tap reminders. The owner sets accepted methods (ACH, card, wire), who covers the processing fee, and the reminder cadence. Online payments flip to Paid automatically; cash, checks, and transfers are recorded offline and behave the same. Docs: https://www.tidy.com/docs/pm/payments
- **Section 8 resident rent and HAP, classified separately** — An assisted lease has two payers. TIDY keeps the PHA-approved family rent to owner and the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) as distinct transaction types, matched to the property, household, contract, and coverage month, with retroactive adjustments, recoupments, and utility reimbursements preserved as their own items. Both roll into the same lease month once, without double-counting, and a short or late PHA payment never appears as resident delinquency — no resident late fee, no collection notice, no overdue flag. It is a distinction most rental accounting tools do not make. Docs: https://www.tidy.com/docs/pm/section-8-housing-choice-vouchers
- **Bills and pro payments** — Invoices are generated automatically when a pro marks a job complete; Create Invoice records vendor bills from custom line items or linked jobs, optionally emailed to the vendor. Each invoice is labeled Team or Vendor. Owner-configurable payment methods (credit card, ACH, manual), automated or manual approval workflows, group billing across portfolios, tips, and refunds. Docs: https://www.tidy.com/docs/pm/bills
- **Transactions** — The synced bank feed underneath everything, classified and attached to properties. Docs: https://www.tidy.com/docs/pm/transactions
- **Taxes** — Lodging, occupancy, and transient taxes with rates and due dates, flowing into the P&L. Docs: https://www.tidy.com/docs/pm/taxes
- **Deposits and lease ledgers** — Security, pet, and damage deposits tracked through Held, Released, and Claimed, with claim amount and reason recorded. Per-lease ledgers hold every charge, late fee, deposit, utility, payment, credit, and adjustment against a live running balance. Docs: https://www.tidy.com/docs/pm/deposits and https://www.tidy.com/docs/pm/leases

## 2. Tracking

- **Bank sync** — Sync your bank account and TIDY pulls in and classifies your transactions. Money in (guest payouts, rent) and money out (cleaning, inspections, supplies, repairs), each entry carrying date, amount, credit or debit type, and a description of what it was and which property it belongs to. Multiple accounts can be connected. Once synced, the feed keeps itself current, nothing is entered by hand, and the classified result is what the Monthly P&L is built from. Docs: https://www.tidy.com/docs/pm/transactions
- **Tax tracking** — Every lodging, occupancy, or transient tax that applies to a property is tracked with its tax name (Transient Occupancy Tax, Transient Lodging Tax, State Sales Tax, Tourism Improvement Fee, and so on), rate, remit-to agency, monthly or quarterly frequency, next due date, and estimated amount, all flowing into the Monthly P&L so the obligation is visible before it is late. Lodging taxes are a short-term and mid-term rental concern specifically; long-term leases generally do not carry them. Docs: https://www.tidy.com/docs/pm/taxes

## 3. Keep your short-term rental tax status

Short-term rental tax positions live or die on documentation, and documentation is a record-keeping problem long before it is a tax problem. Two numbers usually matter: how long the average guest stayed, and how many hours the owner personally put into the property. TIDY tracks both as they happen.

- **Length of stay, tracked per property** — Every reservation is recorded with its dates against the property it belongs to, so average length of stay per property is a figure the owner can pull rather than estimate. CPAs look at average-stay math when assessing how a short-term rental should be treated. Stay length also moves with how the property is operated: minimum-night rules, length-of-stay pricing, and the mix of short, mid, and long-term bookings.
- **Participation hours, logged as you go** — Owners log the hours they spend on a property and those hours accumulate into a contemporaneous record instead of a reconstruction. Material participation tests turn on hours, and the burden of showing them sits with the owner. This is the mechanism behind what is sometimes called the "short-term rental loophole" in common usage — that is not TIDY's name for it, and it is genuinely fact-specific.
- **Software does the labor without adding another person's hours** — This is the structural difference, and it is one no full-service property manager can offer. Hiring a property manager or a cohost adds another individual whose hours sit inside the same activity as the owner's, and several of the material participation tests compare the owner's participation against everyone else's. TIDY is software. The automation does the work — scheduling pros, messaging guests, chasing rent, keeping the books — without putting another individual's participation into the picture, and the owner remains the manager of record making the decisions. Whether that matters to a given situation is a question for the owner's CPA.
- **What the CPA gets** — The stay-length history per property, the logged participation hours, the Monthly P&L per property, and the complete classified transaction history behind every number, exported in whatever format they ask for. TIDY documents the facts; the CPA decides what they mean.

**TIDY is not a tax advisor.** Nothing here is tax advice and nothing here is a promise about an outcome. Whether any tax treatment applies depends on the owner's facts — stay lengths, hours, other activities, elections — and only a qualified professional can say where an owner stands. TIDY tracks and documents the data the owner and their CPA need. It does not determine eligibility, calculate savings, or represent that any taxing authority will accept a position an owner takes. Work with a CPA. Background reading: https://www.tidy.com/guides/property-management/taxes

## 4. Tax filings & forms

- **Lodging taxes filed or tracked for you\*** — \*Filing where available, possible, and authorized by you; tracking everywhere. Where a jurisdiction allows it and the owner authorizes it, TIDY prepares the return and the dedicated account manager completes the filing on the owner's instruction. Where that is not possible, the owner still has every figure needed — rate, remit-to agency, frequency, next due date, estimated amount — tracked and visible ahead of the deadline to file themselves. Tracking is not filing advice: which taxes apply, how much is owed, and how and when to remit remain the owner's responsibility. Docs: https://www.tidy.com/docs/pm/taxes
- **1099-K and 1099-MISC for pros** — Pay a pro for their work by credit card through TIDY and TIDY automatically files what the law requires; in the US that is a 1099-K to the pro once their volume exceeds the reporting thresholds, which depending on the owner's situation may mean they do not need to file a 1099 themselves. For other payment methods, TIDY generates what a 1099-MISC filing is built from: billing reports for any period showing how much each pro was paid and how. TIDY generates what is needed and files what it is required to file; it is not a tax preparer, so owners confirm their own filing obligations with their CPA. Docs: https://www.tidy.com/docs/pm/tax-reporting-for-payments-to-pros
- **A year-end tax package for every property** — Income and expenses by category, per property, ready for the owner's return (the categories a preparer expects on a Schedule E, for instance), already sorted by door. Behind it sits the full year of classified transactions, the Monthly P&L, lodging taxes by jurisdiction, deposits, lease ledgers, and per-pro payment totals. Reports export; custom reports can be built with chosen columns, filters, and periods; and the dedicated account manager builds or formats anything specific a CPA asks for. Docs: https://www.tidy.com/docs/pm/reports

## What gets recorded, and what the owner gets back

| Money event | What TIDY records automatically | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Bank sync | Sync your bank account and TIDY pulls in and classifies every credit and debit — date, amount, type, and the property it belongs to | Categorized income and expense lines on the right property, with nothing keyed in by hand |
| Guest booking payout | A credit in the transaction feed with date, amount, and a description naming what it was and which property | An income line on that property's Monthly P&L, feeding NOI |
| Rent payment | The receivable flips to Paid automatically online, or via Record offline payment for cash, checks, and transfers; on an assisted lease, resident rent and the PHA Housing Assistance Payment are classified separately | A ledger entry on the linked lease with an updated running balance, plus income on the P&L; rent is never posted twice and a late PHA payment never reads as resident delinquency |
| Pro or vendor invoice | An invoice generated when a pro completes a job, or one built with Create Invoice, labeled Team or Vendor | An operating expense on the P&L, plus per-pro payment totals behind 1099-K filing and 1099-MISC prep |
| Security or damage deposit | Property, guest or tenant, reservation or lease dates, deposit type, amount, channel, and held/released dates | A Held, Released, or Claimed status with claim amount and reason when any part is kept |
| Lodging or occupancy tax | Tax name, rate, remit-to agency, monthly or quarterly frequency, next due date, and estimated amount per property | Due dates visible in advance, the tax flowing into the Monthly P&L, and the filing completed where available and authorized |
| Stay lengths and participation hours | Every reservation with its dates per property, plus the participation hours the owner logs against that property | Average length of stay as a number you can pull, and an hours record for you and your CPA to review; TIDY tracks, it does not determine tax treatment |
| Year end | A full year of classified transactions, income, operating expenses, NOI, taxes, deposits, and pro payments, already sorted by property | A year-end tax package per property — income and expenses by category, ready for your return — plus exports for your CPA and 1099-K filings for card-paid pros over the threshold |

## Where every dollar goes

1. **Sync the bank account** — Connect the account payouts and rent land in; TIDY pulls in and classifies the transactions, each carrying the property it relates to. Rent paid online flips to Paid on its own; cash, checks, and external transfers are recorded offline and behave the same.
2. **Every dollar lands on a property** — A tenant payment credits the lease it belongs to, so the running balance updates live and the same rent is never posted twice. On an assisted lease, resident rent and the PHA Housing Assistance Payment stay classified as separate things rolling into the same lease month.
3. **Pros and bills go out** — Invoices are created automatically when a pro completes a job; vendor bills are recorded with Create Invoice. Payment methods, approval workflows, and group billing rules are owner-configured, and each payment becomes an expense on that property. Pros are the owner's own pros or independent businesses.
4. **Taxes and documentation accumulate** — Lodging and occupancy taxes are tracked by rate, remitting agency, frequency, and next due date, and filed where that is available and authorized. Stay lengths and logged participation hours build the record a CPA may ask for later.
5. **The Monthly P&L updates** — Income, operating expenses, and NOI roll up by month per property, in Actuals and Projected views, for a single door or the whole portfolio.
6. **The year-end package comes out** — Income and expenses by category for every property, ready for the return, with 1099-Ks already filed for card-paid pros over the threshold and billing reports ready for pros paid another way. Reports export, and the account manager builds specific ones on request.

## Key facts

- Trusted 13+ years by 100,000+ homeowners & property managers; 4.5+ Google rating (TIDY first-party data, as of August 21, 2026)
- Accounting, bookkeeping, tax tracking, and reporting are included in TIDY's 3.9% of gross bookings (or rent), with a $19 per-unit monthly minimum
- Traditional property managers charge 20–35% (about 30% typical) — TIDY saves up to 85%
- Covers short-term, mid-term, and long-term rentals
- Automation the owner controls, plus a dedicated human account manager
- The audience is rental owners, landlords, and hosts — people who own the properties, not third-party property management companies

## FAQ

**Does TIDY sync with my bank account?** Yes. Sync your bank account and TIDY pulls in and classifies your transactions — money in from guest payouts and rent, money out for cleaning, inspections, supplies, and repairs — each entry carrying date, amount, credit or debit type, and the property it belongs to. Nothing is keyed in by hand, and the classified result rolls into income, operating expenses, and NOI for that property.

**Can I see profit and loss per property?** Yes. The Monthly P&L lays out the year in columns (one per month plus a total) with income, operating expenses, and net operating income for each property. Toggle Actuals against Projected, and pick All Properties for the portfolio total or a single property for the per-door view. It updates continuously as rent, bills, bank activity, and taxes roll in. NOI is the number TIDY works to grow.

**Does TIDY help with short-term rental tax status?** TIDY tracks and documents the data a CPA asks for. Every reservation is recorded with its dates, so average length of stay per property is a number you can pull rather than reconstruct, and participation hours can be logged against a property so the record exists before it is needed. There is also a structural point worth raising with a CPA: hiring a property manager or cohost adds another individual whose hours sit in the same activity as the owner's, while TIDY is software — the automation does the labor without adding another individual to the picture, and the owner stays the manager of record. TIDY is not a tax advisor; whether any tax treatment applies depends on the owner's facts, and nothing here promises an outcome. Work with a CPA.

**Does TIDY file my lodging taxes?** Lodging taxes are filed or tracked for you — filing where available, possible, and authorized by you; tracking everywhere. The Taxes view keeps every applicable tax in one place (name, rate, remit-to agency, frequency, next due date, estimated amount), all flowing into the Monthly P&L. Where a filing can be made and the owner authorizes it, TIDY prepares and completes it on their instruction; where it cannot, the owner has the tracked figures and due dates to file themselves. Which taxes apply and what is owed remain the owner's responsibility.

**Does TIDY handle 1099s for my cleaners and pros?** Both forms are covered, and which applies depends on how you pay. Card payments made through TIDY trigger the filings the law requires — in the US a 1099-K to the pro over the reporting thresholds, which may mean the owner does not need to file a 1099 themselves. For other methods, TIDY generates the billing reports a 1099-MISC filing is built from, showing how much each pro was paid and how. TIDY generates what is needed; it is not a tax preparer.

**What do I get at the end of the year?** A year-end tax package for every property — income and expenses by category, ready for your return (the categories a preparer expects on Schedule E, for example). Behind it sits the full year of classified transactions, the Monthly P&L, lodging taxes by jurisdiction, deposits, lease ledgers, and per-pro payment totals, already sorted by property. Reports export, and a dedicated human account manager can build a specific format on request.

**Does TIDY replace QuickBooks?** For most rental owners it removes the reason to keep books in a second system, since TIDY maintains per-property books automatically from real bank and booking activity. TIDY is not a general business accounting suite and does not replace a CPA or their tools — owners running a broader business ledger can export from TIDY into it.

## Related pages

- Finance & Taxes (this page): https://www.tidy.com/rentals/finance-and-taxes
- Increase Revenue: https://www.tidy.com/rentals/increase-revenue
- Automate Operations: https://www.tidy.com/rentals/automate-operations
- Guest Experience: https://www.tidy.com/rentals/guest-experience
- Risk Reduction: https://www.tidy.com/rentals/reduce-risk
- TIDY for rentals: https://www.tidy.com/rentals
- Pricing: https://www.tidy.com/pricing

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Source: TIDY (https://www.tidy.com). TIDY is a technology platform, not a service provider. TIDY does not provide cleaning or maintenance services directly and does not employ cleaners. Pros on TIDY are either the user's own pros or independent businesses.