Business software consultancy, Percipient, examines the importance of accounting standards in the hospitality sector, and explains how the latest digital edition is expediting best practice across the industry.
The bedrock of any organisation, the accounting function not only processes core financials, but delivers analysis and management insights from which to inform planning and strategy.
Many hotels across the world have utilised USALI (Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry) a 74 year old reference guide which supports a consistent means of presenting operating statements and financials, for many years, in order to support this function.
The framework allows hotels and hospitality organisations to organise information, measuring the assets, providing data to both internal and external stakeholders, including regulators, and then using the insights gained to plan, develop strategies and budget appropriately. Typically, this spans pricing, sales, purchasing, cost of goods sold and materials, and cost of staff, to better understand the level of profitability at both a departmental level, for example, bar versus spa, as well as comparisons across different hotels within a group.
Reflecting the digital nature of most organisations’ current finance departments, USALI’s latest edition is available in an easy-to-access online format offered as a subscription, which can be embedded into modern software platforms, and is available on multiple digital, mobile devices, to deliver seamless processes and consistent reporting to hotel owners, managers and stakeholders.
So irrespective of market, hotel size, or management structure, hotels within a chain can be compared in a quick, consistent, easy to understand way, to identify trends, anomalies or flag performance issues. It can look at the extent to which it is advantageous to maintain certain services or staff arrangements in order to generate profit, without having to manually crunch numbers which inevitably will results in a lag and potential for inaccuracies.
Through making this information available in dashboard format to all stakeholders, best practice is adhered to, accuracy and timeliness optimised, and consistency guaranteed. Detailed data can be uploaded according to location, whether it pertains to EPOS, time & attendance or sales, to track the relationship between resources and income, and maintain tight control over spending and profitability in real-time.
Sage Intacct: A Best Practice Approach
Sage Intacct is a great example of a platform which encompasses the USALI principles, methodologies and categorization/has the USALI principles, methodologies and categorization embedded as standard. It provides customers with the ability to better manage, track and code processes to ensure consistency, clarity and in addition, facilitate the smooth integration of entities as and when mergers or acquisitions take place.
In tandem, USALI and Sage Intacct deliver the very latest capabilities and standards from which to demonstrate best practice, optimise process performance and drive optimum levels of efficiency in the sector.
Having the very best foundation from which to launch new services, initiatives, whether internal or external, is imperative as we embrace a new era of hospitality. Taking a modern approach to standards is without doubt, a game changer in instilling resilience, and driving market share.
