Choosing a Provider for Your Hotel Accounting Services? Consider These Things First

Accounting and bookkeeping are core, critical functions for any business, regardless of the industry. They are also time-intensive functions that require attention to detail if the results are to be dependable. Most of the time, however, the accounting and bookkeeping is taken care of by the founders or owners of the hotel. This practice may work for a startup, but as soon as the business starts to grow or enters a growth phase, it generates higher volumes of transactions that need diligent accounting and bookkeeping practices.

When the hotel owner chooses to get involved in accounting, it can virtually eat into the time and attention needed to ensure high quality customer service and business development activities.

A hotel accounting provider can prove to be very useful at these times.

What Areas Can an Accounting Provider Help With?

Customer service is key to a hotel experience, and the quality of customer service significantly impacts repeat business.

Also referred to as “guest experience”, customer service in the hotel industry can include accommodations, food and beverages, housekeeping, responsiveness of the hotel staff to customer requests, and management of bills or the billing system, etc.

Each of these areas has an accounting and bookkeeping element in the form of vendor transactions that generate invoices and bills that need to be paid. The accounting company will need to manage all of them simultaneously, so it is important to select the partnering accounting company carefully.

Listed below are some questions that can help in selecting an accounting services provider:

• Will they manage all aspects of basic accounting and bookkeeping functions?
• Can they help to streamline customer-facing hotel operations, such as accommodation management and housekeeping??
• Can they assist with managing inventory for food, beverages and supplies, including those specified for hotel rooms?
• What advantages do the hotel employees gain by using their accounting services? Will it help improve employee performance?
• Does the hotel accounting provider possess the ability to assist with tracking employee performance metrics and hotel KPIs?

Ideally, an accounting services provider can assist with reporting on all of the aspects listed above, streamlining tasks to leave the owner free to pursue business development activities, including managing customer service.

Streamline Daily Operations

A hotel accounting provider should offer tools and apps that enhance reporting on daily operations, including routine ones. This helps ensure critical operations are taken care of automatically.

Accurate Finances

Accounting and bookkeeping are essential functions for any business, but especially for the hotel industry where transactions can become complex due to various room charges, extended stays, etc. Streamlined accounting systems contribute to having confidence in the accuracy of financial records, thus providing hotel management with the confidence they need in the data to make critical business decisions under tight timelines.

Reporting System

Implementing a robust reporting system can help hotel management easily access data from across various operational areas, including room occupancy, room rates and costs, and employee metrics.

Assessing Performance

Hotel accounting solutions should help management assess and compare performance across the hotel easily. This includes hotel properties in multiple geographical areas, as well.

Before Finalizing the Contract

The right hotel accounting provider should be able to lighten the operational load for hotel management, leaving them free to address functions such as business development and customer service.

Thorough research must be conducted before finalizing the hotel accounting provider, while the hotel’s requirements must also align with the services that the provider offers.

A well-established hotel accounting provider can deliver the following:

• Complete accounting and bookkeeping, including basic to customized solutions
• A reliable reporting system that allows access to hotel data with minimum hassles
• Performance review and management system
• Robust document management

Have you ever hired a hotel accounting services provider? What are the capabilities you would look for? Please comment, and let us know.

At Analytix, we are passionate about customizing solutions to meet the business needs and requirements of our clients. We have helped scores of businesses find reliable hotel accounting solutions, drawing upon our own expertise and experience. Interested in knowing more? Drop us an email at sales@analytix.com or call us on 781.503.9002, and we will get in touch with you.

Written by

Analytix Editorial Team