How Solely Beachfront Eliminated Expense Leakage with Topkey

Operating in the competitive Florida panhandle vacation rental market, Solely Beachfront has carved out a unique position by focusing exclusively on premium beachfront properties. This specialization has allowed them to maintain exceptional guest satisfaction rates while growing sustainably from a single property to their current portfolio of 30 high-end vacation homes.

From Graphic Design to Property Management

When Louisa Baldock and her husband Nick founded Solely Beachfront, they started small. With Louisa's background in graphic design and product development, they initially managed a single condo for Nick's father. That hands-on experience led them to launch their own property management company in 2013.

"We were working a lot and eventually decided if we were working a lot, we should work for ourselves," Louisa recalls. 

Starting with their first contract in 2018, they've grown to manage 30 properties while maintaining exceptionally low turnover rates for both employees and properties.

Louisa's graphic design and product development background proved unexpectedly valuable in property management. Her eye for detail and systematic approach to problem-solving influenced how Solely Beachfront structures its operations. Rather than pursuing rapid growth, they focused on perfecting their processes first.

"Quality control was always our priority," Louisa explains. "We wanted to grow, but only if we could maintain our standards for owners and guests." This approach has paid off - they've maintained a 95% owner retention rate while steadily adding new properties through word-of-mouth referrals.

The Challenge: Manual Financial Operations

Like many property managers, Solely Beachfront struggled with the complexities of vacation rental financial operations. Before Topkey, their process involved printing bank statements and manually matching receipts to expenses - a tedious and error-prone system.

"My team would hand me my card statements and then I would have to go through the statement manually and print off and tack every single receipt to the back," Louisa describes. 

This manual approach led to significant challenges:

• Lost receipts and unbilled owner expenses
• Double data entry between Streamline and QuickBooks
• Limited visibility into spending
• Time-consuming reconciliation processes

"We had no idea where money was coming in and going out," Louisa recalls. "Certain things weren't in Streamline versus QuickBooks and then we had to do both. So it's like essentially double entry for years."

The manual process was particularly painful during month-end closing. The team would spend days trying to match receipts to transactions, often discovering missing documentation when it was too late to bill owners. This created stress not just for the accounting team, but for maintenance staff who felt constant pressure to keep track of paper receipts while handling emergency repairs and routine maintenance.

The impact on cash flow was significant. Between unbilled expenses and the time spent tracking down documentation, Solely Beachfront estimated they were losing thousands of dollars annually.

Introducing Topkey: A Purpose-Built Solution

Louisa first encountered Topkey at an industry conference two years ago. "That is really cool. No one's doing that. I need that," she remembers thinking.

What caught her attention was Topkey's ability to automatically capture and categorize expenses - a stark contrast to their manual system. Her husband Nick also saw the potential immediately, deciding to implement Topkey even earlier than Louisa initially planned.

Real-Time Expense Tracking and Accountability

The impact was immediate, particularly in how Solely Beachfront manages day-to-day expenses and team accountability. Every transaction is now visible to management before it flows into Streamline and appears on owner statements.

The transformation in their maintenance operations has been particularly noteworthy. Their maintenance team handles everything from emergency repairs to preventive maintenance across their 30 properties. Before Topkey, tracking expenses for multiple properties visited in a single day was a constant challenge.

"Sometimes with our old system, people could fudge receipts. Now Nick and I can check what they're buying and verify everything." Louisa notes. The system has been particularly valuable for managing maintenance staff purchases and ensuring proper documentation and allocation. Their maintenance team can now instantly capture receipts via text message and tag the correct property, eliminating the common problem of lost receipts or forgotten charges.

The platform has also streamlined their work order process. While maintenance staff handle their work orders in Streamline for labor hours, Louisa reviews all parts and supplies purchased through Topkey at month's end. "At the end of the month, I review all the work orders then send them to their work order in Streamline – one for labor and one for parts," explains Louisa. This approach ensures accurate owner billing and maintains a clear record of all maintenance work.

Even more impressive has been how user-friendly the system is for their entire team. "Now there are no excuses for my team. They always have access to all of their charges."

Significant Cost Savings Through Reduced Leakage

The financial impact has been substantial. Nick explains that before Topkey, they would regularly have 10-20 missing receipts per month, primarily from staff making quick hardware store purchases. "These are either a maintenance guy or myself, where it's just a small hardware purchase, $10 to $20 or $30... If you miss 10 of those a month, there are months where I was losing 200, 400 bucks".

What makes Topkey particularly effective is its ability to capture these small, easy-to-miss expenses that add up over time. Instead of writing off small purchases or spending hours tracking down old receipts, the team now captures expenses in real-time. This has virtually eliminated cash leakage while improving the accuracy of owner statements.

The improvement in owner statement accuracy has strengthened their relationships with property owners. Instead of having to retroactively bill owners for discovered expenses or, worse, absorb the costs themselves, they now capture and bill everything in real time. This transparency has increased owner confidence and made monthly financial reviews much smoother.

Maximizing Revenue Through High-Yield² Banking*

Beyond expense management, Solely Beachfront has found significant value in Topkey's banking* features. "I made $20,000 plus on interest in my account" Nick shares. The switch to Topkey's high-yield² banking* has transformed these idle funds into a meaningful revenue stream.

For context, many property managers leave substantial amounts sitting idle in traditional bank accounts, earning minimal interest. During peak season, these trust accounts can hold significant funds from advance bookings and security deposits. Solely Beachfront recognized this as an opportunity to generate additional revenue without increasing operational complexity.

For a business focused on sustainable growth, finding ways to generate additional revenue without adding operational complexity has been invaluable.

Automated Financial Operations and Time Savings

The automation and integration capabilities have significantly reduced the time spent on financial tasks. "It probably saves me... 5 to 10 hours a month," Louisa estimates. However, she emphasizes that the value goes beyond just time savings: "When you don't have receipts and you're trying to track them down... it's really frustrating".

With Topkey, Louisa and her team can manage expenses seamlessly across their portfolio. Their maintenance staff receives automatic text notifications after purchases, prompting them to instantly capture receipts and tag the correct property. This real-time expense tracking not only saves time but also provides valuable documentation of work completed at each property, improving transparency with owners and ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.

What's particularly valuable is how the system handles complex situations, like split expenses across properties or recurring vendor charges. For instance, when their cleaning service bills for multiple properties, they can easily allocate costs across different units while maintaining clear documentation for each charge.

The Topkey Difference

For Solely Beachfront, what sets Topkey apart is its deep understanding of vacation rental operations. "It's hard to bridge people who understand financial stuff with the vacation rental space," Louisa explains.

Implementation was refreshingly straightforward. "You get your card and then you get a text and then you're off to the races," Louisa notes. Today, they consider Topkey an essential part of their technology stack. 

"For what you're getting, it's probably one of the most useful pieces in our tech stack for sure," she states.

Looking to the future, Solely Beachfront plans to continue its methodical growth while maintaining its high service standards. The foundation they've built with Topkey will be crucial to this expansion. "Having these systems in place gives us confidence that we can scale without sacrificing quality," Louisa notes.

Looking Ahead: A Foundation for Growth

For other property managers considering similar solutions, Nick offers this advice: "Don't wait until you're bigger to fix your financial operations. The sooner you put these systems in place, the more money you'll save and the better foundation you'll have for growth."

By implementing Topkey's financial automation platform, Solely Beachfront transformed its operations from manual reconciliation and missing receipts to a streamlined, efficient system. The results speak for themselves: near-zero missing receipts (down from 10-20 monthly), $20,000+ in annual interest earnings through high-yield² banking* accounts, and 5-10 hours saved monthly on financial tasks. But perhaps most importantly, they've strengthened owner relationships through improved financial tracking and transparency. 

For Louisa and Nick Baldock, Topkey isn't just an expense management solution - it's become a foundational part of their growth strategy as they continue to expand their portfolio of premium beachfront properties.

Ready to transform your vacation rental company's financial operations? Schedule a demo with Topkey today.

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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 everywhere Visa cards are accepted.

Accounts are eligible for pass-through deposit insurance only to the extent pass-through insurance is permitted by the rules and regulations of the FDIC, and if the requirements for pass-through insurance are satisfied. There may be a risk that pass-through deposit insurance is not available because conditions have not been satisfied. In such cases, funds may not be fully insured in the event the insured depository institution where the funds have been deposited were to fail.

Your deposits qualify for up to $3,000,000 in FDIC insurance coverage when placed at program banks in the Thread Bank deposit sweep program. Your deposits at each program bank become eligible for FDIC insurance up to $250,000, inclusive of any other deposits you may already hold at the bank in the same ownership capacity. You can access the terms and conditions of the sweep program at https://thread.bank/sweep-disclosure and a list of program banks at https://thread.bank/program-banks. Please contact customerservice@thread.bank with questions on the sweep program.

² The interest rate on the High Yield Deposit Account will be 3.31% with an Annual Percentage Yield (APY) of 3.36%. The interest rate on the Regular Deposit Account will be 1.71% with an Annual Percentage Yield (APY) of 1.72%. These rates are effective as of 12/19/2024. These are variable rates and are subject to change after the accounts are opened based on the Federal Funds Rate. Minimum opening deposit and average balance requirements may apply. Fees could affect earnings on the account.

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