How Elevated Homes Grew 67% while Cutting Accounting Costs by 25%

When Troy Daily started managing his first short-term rental in Traverse City, Michigan in 2017, he was simply exploring a new income stream. By 2020, Troy had obtained his real estate license and began taking on management clients and now Elevated Homes and Hospitality manages over 100 properties.

But growth brought challenges that pushed his team to their limits.

When Manual Expense Tracking Hit Breaking Point

The fundamental problem wasn't lack of effort. Troy and his team were working harder than ever. The issue was that manual expense tracking processes that had sufficed for a handful of properties simply couldn't scale.

Every morning began the same way: reviewing credit card statements from multiple team members and piecing together where money had been spent. "Prior to this, we were doing it every day, going in and looking at the credit card statement," Troy explains. The process consumed more than an hour of focused work each day—eight hours every week dedicated solely to tracking down expenses.

But time investment was only part of the problem. The bigger issue was accuracy. When asked to estimate how many owner charges were being missed or incorrectly applied, Troy's assessment reflected a common challenge in the vacation rental industry: "I probably wasn't charging half the charges correctly or at all.” On a busy month with $20,000 in legitimate owner charges, that meant potentially $10,000 in lost revenue.

"Before Topkey, I knew I was losing money, owners were getting free things, and it was way too hard to track operationally every day," Troy recalls.

The $120,000 Annual Revenue Leak

The revenue impact was significant and measurable. "Last month in July, we had billed like $20,000 in owner charges... I bet we probably would have lost $10k in July if I didn't have Topkey," Troy notes. Extrapolated annually, that represented $120,000 in revenue slipping through the cracks.

The inefficiency created additional hidden costs. "It used to be spreadsheets and Slack, and hoping we could get the credit card charge at Home Depot was then linked to this property. So it was all extremely manual and I know I was losing a lot of money," Troy explains.

Topkey’s Solution: Integrate Streamline, QBO, and Breezeway

The answer came when Troy found Topkey. What caught his attention was Topkey's approach to the exact problems he faced—integrating Streamline, QuickBooks Online, and critically, Breezeway into a unified expense tracking workflow.

For Troy, the Breezeway integration was particularly valuable. "Any Breezeway task that is a maintenance task can be integrated on Topkey and charged accordingly," he explains. His maintenance team was already creating tasks in Breezeway for every property issue. If those tasks could automatically trigger expense tracking in Topkey, which would then flow into owner charges in Streamline and ultimately into QuickBooks, it would create the seamless workflow he'd been searching for.

The decision came down to straightforward math: the platform fee would be easily justified if it could capture even a fraction of the owner charges currently being missed. 

Real-Time Expense Capture

"The onboarding process was great," Troy recalls. The key shift was moving from retroactive reconciliation to real-time expense capture. Rather than team members swiping cards and hoping to remember details later, they now needed to tag expenses immediately.

Within weeks of going live, the daily reconciliation ritual simply disappeared. "There isn't any daily reconciliation time needed anymore. There's no looking to see. It's all being done and completed and linked to a property or a guest in real time," he explains.

The Breezeway Integration Breakthrough

The true transformation came when Elevated Homes activated the Breezeway integration. The workflow became elegantly simple: a housekeeper discovers an issue and creates a maintenance task in Breezeway. The maintenance technician receives notification and assesses the problem. If repairs require materials, everything gets documented within the Breezeway task, and expenses automatically flow to Topkey for owner billing.

"The maintenance guy can link his material costs into Breezeway, and that all feeds right into Topkey, so then we can charge the owner," Troy describes.

The elimination of spreadsheets and Slack messages represented a fundamental shift in operational efficiency. "It eliminates kind of the oversight because everyone's able to do it in the field," Troy notes.

8 Hours Weekly Returned to Strategic Work

The most immediate impact was on Troy's schedule and that of his administrative team. The morning ritual that had consumed an hour daily simply disappeared. "Topkey saves us at least eight hours of admin work a week," Troy estimates.

Troy's bookkeeper saw immediate benefits. "They have a lot less questions," Troy notes. "Everything's on Topkey, it's being charged to owners correctly, and then it's going right into QBO, so it's all feeding into the right places," he explains.

25% Accounting Cost Reduction During Rapid Growth

Perhaps most remarkably, as Elevated Homes scaled from 60 properties in February 2025 when they implemented Topkey to over 100 by mid-2025—67% growth in just months—the financial systems scaled effortlessly alongside.

"It reduced accounting costs by probably 25%," Troy reports. This counterintuitive outcome—growing substantially while spending less on financial administration—represented a fundamental shift in operational efficiency.

Strategic Advantages for Short-Term Rental Operators

Beyond quantifiable financial benefits, Topkey delivered strategic advantages. The transparency created by real-time expense tracking strengthened owner relationships. Property owners appreciated detailed documentation for every charge, complete with photos, receipts, and context.

When Troy reflects on what makes Topkey uniquely valuable, several factors stand out. Unlike generic business expense management tools, Topkey was designed specifically for the unique financial complexities of short-term rental operations. "I'm excited to just continue using what you guys have built," he notes.

The Path Forward

"We've been able to grow and keep things in order as we grow," Troy explains. For property managers evaluating their own financial operations, his perspective is clear: "For other property managers, I would say this organization and freeing up time is huge."

The transformation of Elevated Homes represents more than just implementation of new software. Elevated Homes grew from 60 to over 100 properties while simultaneously reducing accounting costs by 25% and recovering substantial previously-lost revenue. The company became more profitable while growing faster—an outcome that seemed contradictory under the old operational model.

Ready to scale your property management business without scaling your accounting headaches? Schedule a demo with Topkey to discover how AI-powered financial automation can transform your operations and profitability.

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