Believe it or not, there was a point in time when hotels would track and manage check-ins and check-outs, bookings, housekeeping, and other operations all on paper. You couldn’t just go online and make a reservation for nearly any hotel anywhere in the world. As you can also imagine, this made running a hotel somewhat more difficult and required much more organizational skill and training. Fast forward to today and, while many operational tasks for hotels have almost entirely been switched over to a digital system, many hotels are still using manual processes for their accounting, including things like generating reports, expense tracking, NOI or RevPAR, and many other accounting-related tasks. If you’re reading this article, you may be one such hotel, which means you’re likely tired of the stress and exhaustion that comes with manual hotel accounting.
At Payday HCM, we’re very familiar with how time-consuming manual hotel accounting can be. We receive plenty of questions from our clients in the hospitality industry on different ways they can streamline their manual accounting processes. While there are many different options for doing this, usually the best first step is looking into a capable hotel accounting software—one that can automate those currently manual processes and take some of the administrative burden off of your back.
So, in this article, we’ll be going over our picks for the four best hotel accounting software. Before we get into the specific software, we’ll first discuss the kinds of things that make a good hotel accounting software and the importance of things like automation and multi-site functionality. After that, we’ll go over the specific accounting software that is up to the challenge in terms of helping your hotel become more efficient. Finally, we’ll cover which of these softwares are best for which kinds of business.
In this article, you will learn:
- What Makes a Good Hotel Accounting Software?
- The Four Best Hotel Accounting Softwares
- Which Hotel Accounting Software Is Best For My Business?
What Makes a Good Hotel Accounting Software?
Before we dive into our picks for the best hotel accounting software platforms, we’ll first go over what actually makes a good hotel accounting software platform.
Automation and Efficiency
When it comes to hotel accounting software, or perhaps any software a business may be looking to integrate into their processes, automation and efficiency are perhaps the most important factors to consider. This is especially true of hotel accounting software, as reporting and reconciliations can involve a large amount of manual entry.
Automation can be a game-changer for hotels that currently utilize manual processes for things like financial close, accounts payable, and daily revenue reporting. A sound hotel accounting software should not only help hotels automate these kinds of processes, but also do so while keeping other operational processes intact.
Cross-Property Compatibility and Software Integrations
For companies that manage portfolios of several properties, ensuring accurate reporting and accounting is a must. That being said, manual processes can leave the door open to errors and inconsistencies across properties. A capable hotel accounting software helps to ensure accounting procedures remain consistent between properties.
Hotel accounting software also likely isn't the only software platform that your property is utilizing. For most properties, you likely also have a hotel property management system (PMS) that manages things like check-ins and check-outs, housekeeping, and bookings. A good hotel accounting software should integrate seamlessly with your PMS of choice.
The Four Best Hotel Accounting Softwares
Now that we understand the elements that make up a good hotel accounting software, we can look at the four software platforms that stand above the rest in terms of improving productivity and efficiency.
M3 Hotel Accounting Software
If you run a hotel or operate a portfolio of hotels, you’ve likely heard of M3. If you’re looking for a capable, tried-and-tested hotel accounting software, it’s hard to go wrong with M3. By and large the industry standard, M3 combines powerful automation tools with seamless integration and cross-property functionality to deliver a smooth experience for users and operators.
Whether it’s generating reports, managing expenses, NOI tracking, or pretty much anything else relating to hotel operations, M3 has you covered. Their software platform is built to scale, largely designed for property owners or property management groups with multiple properties in their portfolio, providing seamless integration with PMS platforms regardless of location.
Inn-Flow Hotel Accounting Software
While M3 may be the most popular option, it’s far from the only one. Inn-Flow is another great option for operators looking to streamline operations across locations, bringing together accounting, facilities management, and other operational sectors onto one unified software platform.
Inn-Flow’s founder, John Erhart, first designed Inn-Flow to help manage his own family’s hotel. This means that Inn-Flow’s software platform has been built from the ground up with streamlining hotel operations in mind. Like M3, Inn-Flow allows operators to automate accounting processes, ensure consistency across properties, and designate permissions across various roles within the company.
Actabl Operations Platform
For operators looking for a future-forward approach, Actabl provides a suite of different software options aimed at streamlining each sector of hotel operations. Their products include:
- ProfitSword: a business intelligence tool aimed at improving financial forecasting and decision making.
- Hotel Effectiveness: labor management software designed with hotels in mind.
- Alice: A PMS platform focused on improving guest communication and service delivery.
- Transcendent: an asset management tool to help optimize asset utilization.
Actabl is great for operators looking for a more customizable solution with financial forecasting and operational optimization at the forefront. Pairing one of Actabl’s software solutions with a more traditional hotel accounting software platform can help businesses maximize their financial resources and increase operational efficiency.
Otelier Hotel Management Software
Otleier’s software platform is aimed at bringing the four different sectors of hotel management—operations, finance, sales and marketing, and revenue management—under one technological umbrella, providing powerful software integrations (M3, for example) to bring data from across other PMS and accounting software to give you a birds-eye view of your hotel’s operational efficiency.
Otelier provides operators with streamlined reports that are easy to understand and interpret, giving you access to immediate insights on how to better allocate resources and improve operations. Its financial tools can also help your hotel or hotels remain compliant with financial tools built to improve OTA reconciliation and income journaling.
Which Hotel Accounting Software Is Best For My Business?
It’s possible that which hotel accounting software is the best, perhaps isn’t the most important question. In some ways, it may be better to ask which software is best for your business.
Hotel Accounting Software For Enterprises or Multi-Property Portfolios
For operators with either large hospitality operations or multi-property portfolios, you’ll need a hotel accounting software that doesn’t just improve the operational efficiency of one property—you need software that automates and streamlines processes either across multiple large departments or properties.
M3’s software platform is built best for either individual owners or hotel management groups with multiple properties or more complex operations. Its automation tools and powerful accounting software are hard to beat, especially with how it integrates with other hotel property management systems and maintains consistency across locations.
Hotel Accounting Software For Single-Property or Smaller Management Groups
For those with only a single property in their portfolio or a smaller group of properties with a more manageable number of rooms and employees, it may be best to start with a more customizable set of tools that you can then grow into as your property or portfolio begins to grow.
Inn-Flow’s simple design and grass-roots upbringing make it a great option for operators entering the hotel accounting software space for the first time. The segmented software offerings of other platforms, like Actabl and Otelier, are also great options for operators on a tighter budget looking for ways to streamline processes without breaking the bank.
Better Accounting Software, Better Hotel Operations
A good hotel accounting software can be one of the foundational elements when it comes to hotel operations, and yet, it can be hard to know what makes a hotel accounting software good, let alone which software options are the best ones. And, with as many ways the internet has made it easier to find different service options, it’s also possibly made it more difficult in several different ways, too. Trying to sort through the never-ending sea of sponsored results and hyped-up products can be a tough task. Luckily, with the information provided in this article, you’ll have the foundation you need to get your hotel started on its hotel accounting software journey and find the options that best suit your needs.
In today’s business landscape, technology is everything. How your business leverages technology can mean the difference between standing out amongst your competitors and falling behind. That being said, it’s not just about how your business leverages technology—it’s about building strategic partnerships with other businesses that are as forward-thinking as yours when it comes to technology. One of these partnerships includes your payroll provider. Luckily, we here at Payday HCM are constantly evolving our processes to find new ways to incorporate the latest technology. Learn more about how Payday is using integrations and AI to streamline payroll processes.
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