Per-property books for Airbnb, VRBO, and direct-booking owners across Montana. We reconcile every payout, keep lodging taxes organized, and hand you reports that show which property is actually making money — through the summer rush and the quiet months alike.
A vacation rental looks simple from the outside: guests book, money shows up. But once you own more than one property — or once cleaning fees, platform fees, lodging taxes, and a manager's statements enter the picture — the money gets tangled fast. We untangle it, month after month, so you always know where you stand.
AJM Consulting provides monthly bookkeeping for short-term and vacation rental owners across Montana, from single-cabin hosts to multi-property portfolios. We're based in Kalispell, in the heart of the Flathead Valley — one of the busiest short-term rental markets in the state — and we serve owners both here and fully remotely, wherever you and your properties happen to be.
The single most important thing we do for rental owners is per-property tracking. When every deposit and expense lands in one undifferentiated pile, your portfolio can look profitable while one property quietly loses money every month. We set up your books so each property carries its own income and expenses, and you get a clean P&L for each one alongside the combined view. Owners are regularly surprised by which property is really carrying the others.
The second is payout reconciliation. Airbnb and VRBO don't deposit your rent — they deposit what's left after their fees, and sometimes after taxes they collected on your behalf. If your books just record the deposit, your revenue is understated, your platform fees are invisible, and your cleaning fee income disappears into the noise. We break every payout back into gross rent, platform fees, cleaning fees, and collected taxes, then reconcile it all against the platform statements and your bank. Direct bookings get folded into the same picture, so nothing lives in a separate spreadsheet.
Every property tracked separately in QuickBooks Online, so you know exactly which ones make money.
Airbnb, VRBO, and direct-booking payouts broken into gross rent, fees, and taxes — matched to your bank.
Montana's combined 8% lodging taxes tracked by property and booking channel, organized and filing-ready.
Cleaners, management fees, repairs, and supplies categorized per property so turnover costs stay visible.
Monthly reports in plain language — occupancy-season performance, expenses, and cash position by property.
QuickBooks Online configured with classes or locations per property — or cleaned up if it's drifted.
Rental owners spend real money making a property guest-ready: furniture packages, hot tubs, new decks, appliance replacements, and the endless stream of small repairs. From a bookkeeping standpoint, those aren't all the same thing — a repair that keeps the property running is recorded differently from furnishings or a capital improvement that adds lasting value. We keep those categories clean and consistently applied so the distinctions are visible in your books. Your CPA determines the actual tax treatment; our job is making sure they have accurate, well-organized records to determine it from.
Rental income in northwest Montana isn't a straight line. Properties near Glacier National Park can do the bulk of the year's revenue between June and September. Ski-season rentals around Whitefish get a second winter peak, while lake places in Bigfork, Lakeside and Somers, and Polson live and die by the Flathead Lake summer. We build your reporting around that rhythm — comparing seasons honestly, flagging what the peak needs to cover, and helping you see whether the shoulder months are a problem or just the pattern.
If last summer left you with months of uncategorized payouts and a shoebox of receipts, that's a normal starting point — not an embarrassing one. We'll catch the books up, reconcile the season, and put a simple monthly process in place so it doesn't happen again. For a deeper look at how rental books should be structured, see our full guide to short-term rental bookkeeping.
Montana charges a combined 8% on short-term stays of fewer than 30 days — a 4% lodging facility use tax plus a 4% lodging sales tax. Who handles it depends on how the guest booked. When a stay comes through a marketplace like Airbnb, Montana law generally puts the collection and remittance obligation on the platform for the bookings it facilitates. When a guest books directly with you — your own website, a phone call, a repeat guest — collecting the 8% and remitting it to the Montana Department of Revenue is your responsibility. And in resort communities, a local resort tax can apply on top of the state 8%.
That mixed picture is exactly where books go wrong: platform-collected taxes recorded as your revenue, direct-booking taxes never set aside, or the same tax counted twice. We track lodging taxes by property and by booking channel so the numbers are organized, filing-ready, and never a scramble. We're bookkeepers, not CPAs — we keep it accurate and tax-ready, and your CPA or tax preparer confirms the right treatment for your situation.
Short-term rentals are one of our specialties — and we bring the same industry-specific approach to the rest of the Flathead Valley's economy.
Free 30-minute consultation. No pressure, no commitment — just a real conversation about your rentals, your payouts, and what clean per-property books would change.