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Hotel & Hospitality Accounting Software
What is Hospitality Accounting Software?
With huge turnover rates of customers, the hospitality industry, including hotels and restaurants, processes a lot of data. Software designed specifically for hotels and restaurants, in addition to standard accounting functions, will accept and process reservations and include other features to manage daily operations, such as labor scheduling, food cost control, and billing customers based on room charges and additional services.
Hospitality-Specific Functionality
Hospitality and hotel accounting software will include the following industry-specific features:
| Reservations | Whether online, over the phone, or both, managing reservations is one of the foremost functions of software for the hospitality industry. Tying directly to your website, the accounting and reservations functions should be integrated so that deposits and payments can go directly into the system once the reservation has been made. |
| Customer Relationship Management | Particularly in the hospitality industry, it’s crucial to turn every lead into a sale. Hospitality software manages leads from initial contact to final reservation, and stores customer (or potential customer) data for future marketing campaigns. The more robust systems for hotels and resorts expand this into “tour management,” offering the user an online tour. |
| Daily Operations | Front desk, concierge, room charges, housekeeping, security, special events, facilities maintenance, and all the other aspects of managing the hotel should integrate seamlessly with the accounting functions. This enables costs and revenues to be tied directly to the relevant department. |
| Labor Scheduling | For most hospitality companies, labor is the number one expense. Scheduling software offers basic graphs, and advanced programs can even create those schedules for you based on sales trends, history, and employee availability. Helping managers streamline operations, this feature can also cut labor costs by scheduling employees based on fluctuations in activity, contain overtime costs, ensure the best employees are serving at peak times, and facilitate scheduling of routine tasks during lulls. |
| Food Cost Control | One of a restaurant’s largest controllable expenses is the cost of the food. Certain restaurant management programs help control food costs by identifying variances in actual versus ideal food usage, excessive waste, theft, margins, and other inefficiencies. They may also include budget & forecasting capabilities to support the decision-making for menu changes, specials, or promotions. |
Evaluating Hospitality, Hotel and Restaurant Accounting Software
The challenge in finding software today is to locate a program that offers a solution that deals specifically with your company’s needs. Resorts, hotels, and restaurants all have different challenges that need to be addressed. A fine dining establishment will have different needs than a fast food joint.
Specific questions to ask when evaluating hospitality industry accounting software are:
- Do you need reservation capabilities? Will this need to be integrated into your website?
- About how many employees do you have to schedule, and how many shifts need to be covered?
- What kind of customer data are you looking to collect? Does the software store that data? How many records will it let you have?
- Are your frontline employees using the software in day-to-day operations?
Have an opinion on this guide? Email the authors. We appreciate the feedback.
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Intacct Financials and Accounting System
A Web-based financial accounting software system, Intaact can support applications for core accounting in hospitality such as time and expenses, revenue management, order and billing, and purchasing.
Microsoft Dynamics GP
A financial accounting system for ideal for small to mid-sized hospitality businesses, Microsoft Dynamics GP has expanded to encompass a range of functionality increasingly consistent with a complete enterprise resource planning.
Multiview Enterprise .NET n10
Multiview Enterprise is a suitable option for small and mid-size hospitality organizations with annual revenues that range from $6 million to over several hundred million. Offers complete G/L, A/R, A/P, inventory, and more.
Oracle JD Edwards - Accounting
JD Edwards EnterpriseOne offers support for multiple vertical industries including food & beverage and hotel & hospitality. The system includes applications for core accounting, project accounting, fixed asset accounting and more.
NetSuite Financials
NetSuite’s software can support small to medium-sized hospitality organizations. The system can track room balances, handle billing & invoicing and support in-house payroll with features for multiple currencies and languages.
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Sage 100 Standard and Advanced ERP (formerly Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200)
With modules that can be individually chosen to meet your operational needs, Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 systems deliver the flexibility and technology to automate accounting functions specific to the hospitality industry.
Sage 300 ERP (formerly Sage ERP Accpac)
Sage 300 ERP systems offer a solid accounting solution, as well as applications for service and customer relationship management. Great for the hospitality sector, it's designed for small to mid-sized businesses.
Royal 4 Enterprise
Royal 4 Enterprise is a complete accounting solution for the hospitality industry. With both on-premise and cloud deployment options, it is a flexible system to help organizations of any size track the entire business process.
SAP Business One
SAP Business One is a solution for small restaurants and large hotels alike. It can help run all parts of your business, from tracking inventory items and sales to managing product orders.
Fishbowl Enterprise
Flexible enough to support both small to large companies in a number of industries such as Hotel & Hospitality, Fishbowl Enterprise is an affordable comprehensive ERP/MRP solution that provides a complete set of accounting tools.
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