How JZ Vacation Rentals Saved 15-20 Hours a Week with Topkey's Breezeway Integration

JZ Vacation Rentals has built an impressive portfolio across two major markets while maintaining a lean core team of five employees who have worked together for nearly eight years. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, the company manages 56 short-term rentals split between 19 properties in St. Louis and 36 properties across three buildings in Denver. Beyond vacation rentals, they've expanded into co-working spaces, long-term rentals, and construction project management.

For Nikolai Kronk, who started in maintenance and evolved into the company's operations manager and sole bookkeeper, the challenge wasn't just growth, it was maintaining financial accuracy and operational efficiency across multiple revenue streams and dozens of properties.

The Challenge: Manual Processes Creating Financial Chaos

Before implementing Topkey, JZ Vacation Rentals faced the all-too-common problem of expense leakage plaguing the vacation rental industry. With technicians constantly moving between properties, making purchases, and completing repairs, tracking expenses and billable hours had become a nightmare of disconnected systems and manual processes. Despite using multiple systems including Breezeway for work orders and various expense tracking platforms, the company was hemorrhaging money through missed charges and inefficient processes.

Missing Expenses and Lost Revenue

Before implementing Topkey, their maintenance department appeared to be hemorrhaging money. The reality was far different – they simply weren't capturing all the billable work and expenses flowing through their operations.

"We were missing expenses from one of our technicians, because there would be times where he would forget to grab a receipt, or they wouldn't always turn them in." 

The financial impact was significant. Nikolai explains: "We weren't always catching the time and charging correctly for it because it wasn't being put in [Breezeway] correctly." This led to a maintenance department that appeared to be losing money when it should have been profitable.

Complex, Time-Consuming Systems

Previous expense management solutions created more problems than they solved. "Every other system we've tried has been so much more complicated, there are so many extra questions that need to be filled in, when I'm able to sit down and try and give them all of the information they need, or make a video, because they're in the field, they don't have the time." 

Field technicians were frustrated with the burden placed on them: "My field technicians don't have the time to stop and do 10 minutes worth of extra steps to get five transactions in for you. They aren’t going to do that." 

Time as the Hidden Cost

While missing expenses created one problem, the time required to manage the chaos created another. Every transaction required multiple touches, systems didn't communicate, and the burden fell squarely on Nikolai's shoulders. The expectation had always been that he would "just figure it out" – a time-consuming process that pulled him away from more strategic work.

"I was literally having to go through all of the different expenses between every single one of my technicians, my cleaning supervisor for all of the supplies, everything, and try and track down all of the different pieces," Nikolai describes. "And make sure that it was being put in, and we weren't actually billing for everything, and we didn't realize it."

Disconnected Financial Workflow

The biggest challenge was the lack of integration between systems. While work orders flowed from Breezeway to Streamline, financial data couldn't sync to QuickBooks. "None of the information was able to sync into QuickBooks from Breezeway or Streamline. In Topkey, all of that information is there and I can push it into Quickbooks, audit it, match it and I’m done. " 

"There were still additional steps because I still had to go in, make sure everything came through, and then I'm still searching to find all the transactions," Nikolai explains. "Were they put in? Did they hit the work order? Well, did that actually come in?"

The Solution: Building Bridges Between Systems

JZ Vacation Rentals had actually evaluated Topkey a year and a half earlier but went with another expense management solution. However, when they reconnected at a conference and learned about Topkey's new integration capabilities – particularly with Breezeway – they knew it was time to make the switch.

JZ Vacation Rentals implemented Topkey, focusing on three key areas:

Breezeway Integration for Streamlined Work Orders

The real magic happened when JZ Vacation Rentals activated Topkey's Breezeway integration. Now, work orders from Breezeway flow through Topkey and into Streamline, with all the financial data properly tagged and categorized.

"All of our work orders flow through you guys and then flow into Streamline," Nikolai notes. "And then we're utilizing it for external credit cards. So all of our external credit cards do go in through Topkey’s system."

Simplified Expense Capture

The transformation began with making expense capture simple for field technicians. Instead of complicated forms and multiple questions, Topkey's text-based system required just a few pieces of key information.

"When they come in to do their transactions in your guys' system... it's so much easier. Because they only have to put in a few options, a few pieces of key information," Nikolai explains. "Every single other system we've tried has been so much more complicated, where they go in and they try to put all of this information in, and there are so many extra questions."

Automated Quickbooks Sync

Perhaps most importantly, all of this financial data now flows automatically into QuickBooks – something that was impossible with their previous setup.

"I can literally come down into the accounting tab, and anything that is ready can immediately be shoved over into QuickBooks," Nikolai describes. "I go into my QuickBooks, audit to make sure the information came in correctly, match it, I'm done."

Results: Dramatic Improvements Across Operations

The results of implementing Topkey have been nothing short of transformational for JZ Vacation Rentals. What appeared to be an underperforming maintenance department has revealed itself as a profitable operation – the money was always there, it just wasn't being captured.

1. From Cost Center to Profit Center

The most dramatic change has been in how the maintenance department appears on the books. In just six to seven months, JZ Vacation Rentals has recovered over $15,000 in previously unbilled expenses and labor.

"We've found thousands of dollars a month in leakage that we just were not billing for," Nikolai states. "A mixture of materials and labor that just wasn't being caught."

The shift has been so significant that the maintenance department has gone from "looking like it's losing a whole bunch of money to actually being profitable."

2. Massive Time Savings

For Nikolai personally, the time savings have been life-changing. He estimates recovering 15-20 hours per week – nearly half a work week – just from eliminating manual research and auditing tasks.

"I've probably gotten back at least 15 hours a week, 15 to 20 hours a week, just in research and auditing alone," he calculates. "Because there were so many different manual steps that had to go into everything because there were still so many pieces that were disconnected."

This efficiency extends to monthly closing. For the first time in seven years, Nikolai is ahead of schedule: "I'm like, we're a week and a half ahead of schedule from normal, from when I normally have my statements done, which is not anything I've had happen in probably seven years."

3. Better Decision-Making Through Data

With accurate, comprehensive data now flowing through their systems, JZ Vacation Rentals can make better business decisions. They're discovering patterns and improving their estimating accuracy.

"We're actually starting to be able to see patterns and be able to see where projects should be estimated differently. We did this particular project last year that we estimated would take four hours. But looking back in the system, we actually took six hours. So we can now make adjustments" 

Why Topkey: Purpose-Built for Vacation Rental Operations

Designed for Ease of Use

Nikolai emphasized Topkey's user-centric design: "You can tell that your system was planned out for ease of use more so than just a profitability standpoint. You can tell that this system is built for the customer." 

Quick Implementation Even During Busy Season

Contrary to typical software implementations, Topkey delivered value almost immediately: "I was saving time within the first three to four weeks." 

For property managers hesitant about implementation timing, Nikolai offers clear advice: "Honestly, it's better to do it now, even in the middle of busy season, because you can take two weeks, even in the middle of your busiest season, it's not going to make any problems. It’s so smooth, so easy and you are saving time within days" 

He emphasizes the cost of waiting: "Once things get behind and you get overwhelmed it's so much worse to dig back out of that than it is to take the risk now.  You can get ahead so much easier than it is to dig back out of the problem." 

Advice for Other Property Managers

For operations managers considering Topkey, Nikolai's recommendation is clear: "If you value your team and you value the ease of a system, it's probably one of the best moves the company could make." 

His advice on timing is equally direct: "There's no reason not to take a leap when you know that you're going to be saving time within one to two weeks of that change." 

Conclusion: A Foundation for Continued Growth

JZ Vacation Rentals' experience with Topkey demonstrates how the right financial operations platform can transform a business from struggling with basic expense tracking to generating significant additional revenue while freeing up team members for strategic work.

The numbers speak for themselves: $15,000+ in recovered revenue over six months, 15-20 hours weekly saved in operations time, and monthly closes finishing 1.5 weeks ahead of schedule for the first time in seven years. But perhaps more importantly, Topkey has enabled JZ Vacation Rentals to build scalable processes that will support their continued growth across multiple markets and business lines.

Ready to eliminate expense leakage and transform your financial operations? Schedule a demo with Topkey today to learn how we can help automate and improve your vacation rental financial operations.

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*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 anywhere Visa cards are accepted.

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