How My Ocean Rental Freed Up 20+ Hours Weekly During Busy Season

My Ocean Rental manages 90 properties in Folly Beach, South Carolina. Despite its strong reputation, the company faced significant challenges in its financial operations due to a surge in transaction volumes. Natalia Enos, the Revenue Manager, was responsible for both accounting and revenue optimization. However, before implementing Topkey, most of her time was spent on manual accounting tasks.

My Ocean Rental's existing technology stack included Streamline for property management and QuickBooks for accounting, a common setup for companies of its size. When manual processes became unsustainable, Natalia and her team sought a solution that could integrate seamlessly with their current systems and drastically cut down the time spent on routine financial tasks.

The Challenge: Manual Processes Consuming Valuable Resources

Spreadsheet-Based Accounting System

Before Topkey, My Ocean Rental relied on an intricate system of color-coded spreadsheets for credit card transactions. Natalia explained, "We had a spreadsheet that we shared with three people that all worked on it. And it took us three team members and a lot of time to fill out those spreadsheets." This manual system demanded constant attention and coordination, involving:

• Maintaining shared spreadsheets for multiple credit cards (Chase, Capital One, and American Express).
• Color-coding transactions by status and payment batch.
• Manual data entry for every purchase.
• Cross-referencing with Streamline vendor accounts.
• Reconciling totals across multiple systems.

Significant Time Investment

The most striking issue was the amount of time consumed by these manual processes. Natalia revealed that accounting work required approximately 20-25 hours per week across the team. "Now my time is free for revenue management, my co-workers' time is free for operations," she noted, highlighting the substantial time drain.

Error-Prone Manual Data Entry

Manual data entry led to frequent errors. Natalia expressed her frustration: "People can mistype the numbers. And then I come in and I'm trying to match it and I can't, it's off by $15. Then I would have to go back and unselect everything in Streamline and one by one select until it matches or until I find the mistyped amount." These errors created a ripple effect of additional work, including:

• Time spent identifying discrepancies.
• Manual reconciliation of mismatched amounts.
• Reverting and re-entering transactions in Streamline.
• Lost productivity due to frustration and repetitive tasks.

Receipt Management Challenges

Like many vacation rental companies, My Ocean Rental struggled with collecting and organizing receipts. The team had to chase down receipts from various members, organize both physical and digital copies, and manually match them to transactions. This was particularly challenging with frequent Amazon purchases, which required downloading and organizing extensive reports.

Limited Focus on Revenue-Generating Activities

Crucially, manual accounting prevented Natalia from focusing on her primary role: revenue management.

As she stated, "I now have more time on revenue management, which is, to me, even more valuable, because that's how we make money."

The opportunity cost of a revenue management expert dedicating most of her time to data entry was substantial.

The Solution: Seamless Integration with Existing Systems

Choosing Topkey for Seamless Integration

My Ocean Rental selected Topkey for its ability to integrate directly with their existing Streamline and QuickBooks systems, avoiding a complete overhaul of their processes. The initial implementation focused on credit card management, which was their most time-consuming manual task.

Credit Card Integration and Automation

Topkey's primary benefit came from connecting their three main credit cards (Chase, Capital One, and American Express) directly to their accounting workflow. This eliminated manual data entry and spreadsheet management through features like:

• Automatic transaction imports from all credit cards.
• Integration with QuickBooks for seamless expense tracking.
• Automated receipt capture and attachment.
• Property and category auto-assignment based on pre-configured settings.

Amazon Integration for High-Volume Purchases

Given My Ocean Rental's frequent Amazon purchases for supplies and maintenance, the Amazon integration proved extremely valuable. Natalia explained, "We do most of our purchases on Amazon. So having the Amazon integration in Topkey is great. The receipt automatically attaches to the transaction and is just incredible. In one click, you know what it is and you fill it out."

Implementation: Quick Time-to-Value

Rapid Onboarding Process

My Ocean Rental adopted a strategic phased approach, starting only with credit cards rather than attempting to implement all of Topkey's features at once. This minimized complexity while maximizing immediate impact. Natalia advised, "My recommendation would be to at least start with credit cards because that's not hard at all."

Results came remarkably fast with Topkey. The return on investment was evident within the first week.

Natalia observed, "This is a no brainer. The week we transitioned to Topkey, I saw immediate time savings."

This quick time-to-value was crucial, as they implemented Topkey just before going into their busy season, instead of waiting for the off-season. "My goal was to get onboarded in the off-season. It was scary but Topkey is so easy to use that it was no problem," she recalled.

When asked if other vacation rental companies should wait until off-season to implement Topkey or start now, Natalia's recommendation is straightforward: "This is a no brainer. The time you get back is the most valuable. Even though it looks or sounds overwhelming, it's so easy. It immediately give you time back in your day” 

“If you're going into busy season, your time is more valuable. You need more time because you don't have enough. And if you start with just one easy part of Topkey, which is the credit cards and receipts, that immediately saves you time with almost no effort on your part."

Results: Dramatic Time Savings and Improved Focus

Significant Reduction in Accounting Time

The results of implementing Topkey were immediate and substantial. The team's weekly time investment in accounting processes dropped from 20-25 hours to approximately 8 hours - a reduction of 60-70%. Specifically:

• Natalia's time: Reduced from 12 hours to 6 hours per week.
• Operations manager time: Reduced to approximately 2 hours per week.
• Other team members: Completely freed from accounting tasks.

Elimination of Manual Data Entry

The most significant operational improvement was the complete elimination of manual typing and data entry, which removed the need for:

• Manual entry of every transaction into spreadsheets.
• Retyping information into Streamline.
• Time spent cross-referencing multiple systems.
• Errors caused by manual data entry.

Improved Revenue Management Focus

Perhaps the most valuable outcome was enabling Natalia to concentrate on revenue management activities that directly boost the bottom line. This shift allows the team to:

• Dedicate more time to pricing optimization.
• Improve operational efficiency.
• Enhance customer service.
• Focus on strategic growth initiatives.

Enhanced Accuracy and Reduced Errors

Topkey's automation eliminated the human errors that previously required significant time to identify and correct. "Human error is out of the picture now because everything is coming from the actual transaction and just going straight into Streamline as is," Natalia confirmed.

Streamlined Receipt Management

The automatic receipt capture and attachment functionality transformed their receipt management. Instead of manually chasing and organizing receipts, they are now automatically attached to transactions, which is especially valuable for high-volume Amazon purchases.

Conclusion

My Ocean Rental's implementation of Topkey illustrates how the right technology can revolutionize operational efficiency in vacation rental management. By eliminating manual processes that consumed 20-25 hours per week, they've not only boosted immediate productivity but also enabled their skilled team members to focus on revenue-generating activities.

Key success factors in their implementation included:

• Starting with the highest-impact feature (credit card management).
• Implementing during a period of operational need rather than waiting for ideal timing.
• Recognizing the strategic value of freeing up expert resources for higher-value work.

For vacation rental companies grappling with similar manual accounting processes, My Ocean Rental's experience offers a clear path forward: technology exists to eliminate these time-consuming tasks, implementation can be quick and low-risk, and the results are immediately evident. The question is no longer whether such solutions provide value, but rather how much longer companies can afford to have their most valuable resources consumed by manual processes that technology can automate.

Topkey is a financial technology company and is not a bank. Banking services provided by Thread Bank; Member FDIC. The Topkey Visa Debit & Charge Cards are issued by Thread Bank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. and may be used everywhere Visa cards are accepted.

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