Accounting should be able to provide a hotel owner reliable
insight into the operations and financial well-being of their business. Insightful reports must be available without
delay all the time to all key personnel without the owner or others waiting for
their accountant to get around to creating the reports. To operate your hospitality business
efficiently, here are some more features available in a good accounting
program:
1. Strong Security – With a web-based accounting program
you want to know that your data is secure. Data should be kept only on the
server and there should be added security measures like encrypted
communications and database encryption. Also, advanced security features within
the software should allow you to control when and where your staff access the
system. Your accounting software should also have the ability to let you assign
specific roles and limitations to deny or grant access to individual line item
accounts and processes. This specificity of control allows you to delegate more
efficiently without compromising confidential information. You control who sees what.
2. Drill Down Reporting – Have you ever been reviewing
past profit and loss statements, and seen an unusually high expense? If you
have to go track down invoices, you’re wasting your time. Look for a program
that has drill down reporting. ‘Drill down’ means you can easily click on one
journal entry and it seamlessly opens another inquiry screen until the original
line item entry and even the document is revealed, and you can see who made the
entry, or who approved it if it's approved.
Perhaps there was a large party which required extra supplies for that
time period. With drill down report, you can accelerate your decision-making
with quick access to past information and provide insights into future needs.
3. General Ledger Consolidation – You can integrate
financial reports across multiple hotels, still keeping separate books, to get
consolidated financial reports. Use these reports to get an overview of your
entire portfolio's performance in any period, or one grouping of hotels, with
support for multiple ledgers. Also, it’s a great tool to compare hotel sets
within your portfolio. To do this, maintain the three C's, same Chart of
Accounts, same Calendar year, same Currency, at the hotels to be rolled up into
consolidated reports.
4. Advanced Financial Reporting –Programs with advanced
financial reporting offer integrated reporting tools which are customizable so
you can design financial statements that are tailored to your hotel(s) and
create multiple budgets for different scenarios. Take advantage of built in
financial reports which provide year-over-year comparison and budgets versus
actuals, or show expenses as PAR or POR, for a deeper understanding of
operations.
5. Integrations – Consolidate the
tools you use to manage your business more efficiently with other products which
integrate with certain web-based accounting programs. For instance, manage
employ functions with an employee portal. Other simplifying integrations
available include Accounts Payable Automation, Microsoft Office 365 and Power
BI, to list a few.
We will be hosting a free live webinar on how to get more
from your hotel accounting on Tuesday August 2nd. I hope you join us
for this educational event focused on improving hotel accounting efficiencies.
Register at http://mbahotels.com/?page=webinar_register
What are your thoughts on or frustrations with your current
hotel accounting program? Are you
looking for a better solution? I’d love
to hear from you. Email me at Charlie@mbahotels.com.
‘Till Next Time,
Charlie Fritsch
www.mbahotels.com
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