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STR Financial Starter Kit

Know what your rental really earns, not just what Airbnb pays.

A simple Excel and Google Sheets tracker for Airbnb, Vrbo and direct-booking hosts with 1–5 properties. Log payouts and bills, and it shows your real profit, your break-even nights and six KPIs. About an hour a month.

  • Real profit per stay and per month, after fees, cleaning and every bill
  • Test a new price first with the Pricing What-If and break-even nights
  • Lodging tax, personal-use days and 1099s organized for tax time
Get the kit, $97 See what’s inside ↓

Want it set up with Brian? Kit + Kickstart Call, $247

Instant download · Excel & Google Sheets · 14-day “it works for you” promise

STR Financial Starter Kit guide cover by Kellcat

Sound familiar?

Airbnb shows you what it paid. Not what you kept.

The payout is your only number.

It tells you what came in, not what was left after cleaning, supplies, the mortgage and the platform’s cut.

Pricing feels like a guess.

You change the nightly rate or the minimum stay and hope, without knowing how many nights you need just to break even.

Tax time is a scramble.

Lodging tax, personal-use days and 1099s live in five places, and your CPA still has questions.

A full sample year

See a finished year before you start yours.

The kit comes with a complete sample year for Pine Hollow Cabin, a mountain cabin rental. Twelve months of payouts and expenses, already filled in, so you can click around and see what every tab does.

It was paid $67,100 and made $11,963, and it lost money in 5 of 12 months. That’s exactly the kind of thing the payout alone never shows.

Pine Hollow Cabin is fictional. The numbers are a worked example, not a promise of results.

Pine Hollow Cabin’s sample year

Gross payouts
$67,100
Platform fees
−$2,807
Mortgage, cleaning, utilities, taxes & more
−$52,330
What it actually made
$11,963
Months that lost money
5 of 12

What you’ll know

Six answers you’ll have after your first weekend.

All from the sample year that comes with the kit. Your tracker calculates the same way from your own payouts and expenses.

Real profit
$11,963

Sample year, after fees and every bill

Month by month and for the year, not just the payout.

Break-even nights
9.9 nights

March in the sample year

How many nights you need booked before you make a dollar.

Profit on one stay
$973.80

A 3-night stay in the sample

What any booking earned after fees, cleaning and supplies.

Pricing check
6 KPIs

Each with a status

Occupancy, ADR, RevPAN and more, each telling you what to do next.

Slow season
5 months

Lost money in the sample year

See them ahead of time and plan pricing, minimum stays and cash.

Tax time
Schedule E

Ready for your CPA

Your year sorted by tax line, with checks that the totals match.

KPI Tracker tab showing six short-term rental KPIs for March in the sample year

The KPI Tracker tab, from the sample year that comes with the kit.

Inside the tracker

17 tabs. Most of the typing is on one.

Gold cells are where you type. Everything else calculates on its own, and the formulas are locked so nothing breaks. One property per file.

  1. Start Here
    how the workbook works, your first weekend and the monthly rhythm
  2. Revenue & Expense Trackeryou type
    every payout and every bill, month by month, with built-in checks
  3. Booking Profit Calculator
    what any single stay really earned
  4. Monthly Profitability Snapshot
    profit, margin, occupancy, break-even nights, RevPAN and ADR for every month
  5. KPI Tracker
    six KPIs for any month, each with a status and what to do
  6. Annual Summary
    your whole year against a monthly profit goal, with charts
  7. Mileage Trackeroptional
    a trip log at the 2026 IRS rate of 72.5¢ a mile
  8. Monthly Goals
    a revenue goal and expense budget for each month
  9. Depreciation List
    building, improvements and furnishings, ready for your CPA
  10. Year-End Tax Summary
    your year sorted by Schedule E line, with checks
  11. Pricing What-If
    compare today’s rate, cleaning fee and minimum stay with two other setups
  12. Startup & Furnishing Planoptional
    plan and track purchases; bought items flow to depreciation
  13. Personal-Use Daysoptional
    rental vs. personal days for the year
  14. Lodging Tax Tracker
    lodging tax collected, paid and filed by jurisdiction
  15. Cleaners & Contractorswhen you pay one
    who you paid, W-9 on file and a 1099 check at the new $2,000 threshold
  16. Key Dates & Renewals
    license, insurance, tax and filing dates that roll forward
  17. Lists
    the categories behind every dropdown

What you get for $97

Everything in the download, plus a little help.

One payment, no subscription. Here’s exactly what you download, and what comes with it.

The KPI Tracker tab in the STR tracker
Excel & Google SheetsThe 17-tab tracker

One property per file. You type payouts and bills in one tab; profit, KPIs and break-even nights fill in.

Annual Summary tab from the STR sample year
Learn by exampleA full sample year

The same workbook filled in for Pine Hollow Cabin (fictional), 12 months of payouts and bills.

STR Financial Starter Kit guide
PDF guideThe 36-page guide

Plain English, with a Quick Start, worked examples and how to read every KPI.

A page from the Printable Toolkit: the month-end checklist
Print itThe 5-page Printable Toolkit

Your numbers on one page, a month-end checklist, common expense categories, a repair-or-improvement guide and a CPA hand-off email.

14DAY
PROMISE
No risk14-day “it works for you” promise

Follow the Quick Start. If it still isn’t showing your real profit, we help you fix it, or you get a full refund.

Real helpEmail support

Stuck on a tab or a number? Write to [email protected] and we’ll help you sort it out.

Next-step credit$97 toward Real Estate Books Setup

Ready for QuickBooks Online or Xero? Within 90 days, your $97 counts toward Kellcat Real Estate Books Setup.

One payment: $97

No subscription. Instant download, in Excel and Google Sheets.

Get the kit, $97

From the sample year

Real screens. Calculated for you.

Every screen below comes from the filled-in sample year that ships with the kit. You type in the gold cells; the rest fills in.

Monthly Profitability Snapshot tab from the STR sample year
Monthly Profitability SnapshotMonthly profit, margin, occupancy and break-even nights for the whole year, calculated for you.
KPI Tracker tab
KPI TrackerSix KPIs for any month, each with a status and what to do next.
Pricing What-If tab
Pricing What-IfTest a new nightly rate, cleaning fee or minimum stay before you change your listing.
Lodging Tax Tracker tab
Lodging Tax TrackerLodging tax by jurisdiction: what you collected, what you paid and what’s been filed.

Tap a screen to see it full size.

How it works

Set it up once. Then about an hour a month.

TodayDownload

Open the sample year and the guide. Read the Quick Start.

This weekendSet up your property

Follow the Quick Start. Most hosts are tracking within an hour.

As it happensLog it

Type each payout and each bill into Tab 1. That’s the only place you type.

Month-endCheck your KPIs

Read your six KPIs and decide what to change: price, minimum stay or costs.

Is it right for you?

Built for hosts who want to know their own numbers.

A good fit if you

  • Host on Airbnb, Vrbo or direct, with 1–5 properties
  • Track your own numbers, or want to start
  • Have wondered if your rental actually makes money
  • Want tax time to be an email to your CPA, not a weekend of digging

Probably not a fit if you

  • Would rather hand the books off completely
  • Run a large portfolio or a property management company
  • Want software that pulls in your bank and Airbnb data for you

Long-term rentals or flips? See the LTR + BRRRR Kit, the Fix-and-Flip Kit or all three in the bundle. Want it done for you? Book a free Discovery Call.

Choose your start

Do it yourself, or set it up with Brian.

STR Kit

$97 one time

  • 17-tab tracker for Excel and Google Sheets
  • Full sample year to learn from
  • 36-page guide with a Quick Start, plus a Printable Toolkit
  • Schedule E year-end summary and 1099 check for your CPA
Buy the kit, $97
Most help

Kit + Kickstart Call

$247 save $47

  • Everything in the kit
  • A 60-minute Google Meet with Brian
  • Set up your tracker with your own numbers, together
  • Recording sent within 24 hours
Get the Kit + Kickstart Call, $247

Run long-term rentals or flips too? The Real Estate Starter Kit Bundle gets the STR, LTR + BRRRR and Fix-and-Flip kits for $197.

Already bought the kit? Add the Kickstart Call for $150. After about 90 days of numbers, a Financial Clarity Call ($197) walks through what they say.

Next step · $797 one time

Ready for QuickBooks or Xero?

Brian sets up QuickBooks Online or Xero for you, with each property tracked separately, booking income set up right and a property-level P&L. Your $97 kit purchase counts toward setup within 90 days.

See Kellcat Real Estate Books Setup →
14DAY
PROMISE

Our “it works for you” promise

Follow the Quick Start and set up your property. If the tracker still isn’t showing you your real profit, email [email protected] within 14 days of purchase and tell us what isn’t working. We’ll help you fix it. If we can’t, you get a full refund. One refund per customer. The Kit + Kickstart Call is fully refundable any time before your call.

Brian Kelly, founder of Kellcat
I built this kit from the same tracking system I use with my monthly bookkeeping clients. It’s the system I wish every host had before their first tax season.

Brian Kelly, Founder of Kellcat20+ years in accounting. 11+ years as a software engineer. Every formula is tested against a full sample year before a kit ships.

QuickBooks Advanced ProAdvisorXero Certified Advisor

Questions

Before you buy.

How do I get the files?
Right after checkout. Your download links appear on the confirmation page and arrive by email within a few minutes: the tracker, the sample year, the 36-page guide and the Printable Toolkit.
Does it work in Google Sheets or only Excel?
Both. It works in Microsoft Excel (Windows or Mac) and in Google Sheets: upload the file to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets.
I’m not a spreadsheet person. Will I get stuck?
You only type into the gold cells. Every formula is locked, built-in checks flag mistakes like a date in the wrong month, and the Quick Start walks you through setup. If you’d rather do it together, the Kit + Kickstart Call sets it up with Brian.
I have more than one property. Do I need more kits?
No. Use one copy of the tracker per property, and make as many copies as you need for the properties you own.
Does it connect to Airbnb, Vrbo or my bank?
No, and that’s on purpose. You log each payout and expense yourself, which takes about an hour a month and means you actually see your numbers. No logins, no subscriptions.
Is this tax advice?
No. The kit organizes your records and sorts them the way your CPA will need them. Your CPA still decides how everything is reported and files your return.
What if it isn’t right for me?
Email [email protected] within 14 days and tell us what isn’t working. We’ll help you fix it, and if we can’t, you get a full refund.
Ready when you are

Know your real numbers by this weekend.

One download, about an hour a month, and a clear answer to “does my rental actually make money?”

Get the kit, $97 Kit + Kickstart Call, $247
See all kits in the Shop Free Mountain STR Guides Free Financial Clarity Check