QuickBooks is the household name for entry-level accounting, and it’s been the accounting go-to across countless industries for small businesses. But is QuickBooks the best accounting solution for hoteliers? Can it support portfolios that are trying to expand?
Out-growing QuickBooks, while frustrating, is a call for celebration. The accounting growing pains you have are a testimony to your success. Congrats!
When looking for a software alternative, look for one that is enterprise-ready and built for hoteliers. These are six key benefits to using a hotel-specific accounting software:
1. Industry-standard reporting
The most important tool for a hotelier is one with industry-standard reporting. It’s possible to find a solution that is USALI compliant, to analyze revenue and statistics across your entire portfolio. This allows you to provide lenders and investors with industry-standard financials with ease!
2. PMS integration
For an accounting solution to give you industry reporting, it should integrate with your PMS. The direct feeding of data from one system to the next will streamline your accounting processes while removing any human error. By integrating with each hotel’s PMS, you can access daily dashboards in real-time, always having your finger on the financial pulse of your property.
3. Hotel-specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Hotel-specific accounting solutions calculate CPOR, ADR, RevPar, and allow you to analyze your hotel’s actual performance against industry standards. With these metrics, you can create hotel specific budgets and make informed business decisions based on operational performance.
4. Enterprise-ready
Your software should be able to completely visualize the enterprise and allow for property comparison. How can you expect to make the best decisions when you can’t see the big picture? The right solution can combine financials of each hotel into a single report, increasing your visibility across your entire portfolio. This provides you with the essential information you need to be proactive when it comes to your hotel operations.
5. Control User Access
Scaling your business is exciting, but additional pressures and responsibilities fall to you when you add new properties to your portfolio. Consider a solution that allows property-level staff to handle some of the minor accounting functions, like uploading and coding invoices. Take some of the busy work off your plate, giving your staff a little more accountability. An accounting software with role permissions will allow you to distribute the accounting workload and streamline your accounting process.
6. ERP (one-stop-shop)
When evaluating hotel accounting software, you will be delighted to find that some solutions exist within a much larger ERP platform. ERP software includes a wide selection of tools to manage your entire portfolio. The best platforms are all-inclusive and support solutions across accounting, labor management, payroll, sales, procurement, and facilities. ERP is your one-stop-shop to streamline your operations and manage all facets of your hotel operations.
Think of Software as an Asset
If the accounting software you have right now is forcing you to make calculations and entries, then you have a vast opportunity to save time, reduce labor costs, and discover a platform to support your operations. Get excited about accounting software and get out of archaic spreadsheets—the software tools you invest in should work for you!
Accounting software built for hoteliers will provide significant value through industry reporting, logical workflows, easy navigation, automation, and streamlined operations. Find an accounting solution that can support all of your properties and give you room to grow on a robust platform.