Revolutionizing Accounting: How A Luxury Hotel Automated Their Reconciliation Processes

Efficiency is the cornerstone of success in the dynamic hospitality industry, and being able to pivot when a roadblock appears is extremely important to stay competitive. This was one of the issues Evention addressed when implementing Total Recon at a certain 162-room luxury hotel.

The property was new with six outlets, and back-office accounting work was consuming valuable time and resources. However, the hotel was not alone in its struggles with efficiency in accounting. This scenario is a common headache for many hotels, leading to month-end reconciliation delays and data accuracy concerns.

The Problem

In the luxury hotel, staffing limitations and time constraints forced the reconciliation process to be pushed to accounts receivable, creating bottlenecks and anxiety about meeting month-end deadlines. Daily tasks include downloading reports from financial services like Amex, Elavon, and Opera, painstakingly matching transactions and manually tracking uncleared transactions. This manual process becomes even more challenging during staff holidays, resulting in a backlog of pending tasks.

The Evention Solution

Enter Total Recon — Evention’s comprehensive solution for Credit Card Reconciliation, Cash Reconciliation, and F&B Covers. Total Recon’s seamless integration with the Point of Sale (POS) and Property Management System (PMS) automates reconciliation, matching up to 99% of credit card transactions with our proprietary auto-match logic and reconciles cash transactions overnight with easy management of over/shorts.

This left the hotel’s team to focus on handling exceptions, streamlining back-office operations significantly, and providing detailed reports for an audit trail.

The Evention team implemented all three solutions — Cash Reconciliation, F&B Cover Stats, and Credit Card Reconciliation. We prioritized the implementation of Cash Reconciliation first, complimented with the cash recycling technology hosted by GLORY, followed by F&B Covers and Credit Card Reconciliation.

Despite the complexity, we completed the implementation within three months, seamlessly incorporating the property’s corporate policies and compliance procedures.

Implementation Specialists

Michael Špolc, Professional Services Manager EMEA and a key player in the implementation process, shared his insights: “What we usually encounter is that with the Glory machine combined with the automatic reconciliation software we provide, the hotel finance team needs to change their processes, which can often be difficult when people are used to doing things a certain way … Thankfully, because it was a newly opened hotel, they didn’t have any processes in place yet.”

With a blank slate, the implementation team completed the project with minimal roadblocks. One issue they occasionally see in properties, including this one, is that the data flow from third-party systems sometimes has bugs and requires communication with that company. The team at this property connected the Evention with that organization to address those issues quickly.

“We were able to utilize the property’s team to help escalate those issues with getting the data, which is a big help if you have an individual at the hotel who’s interested and engaged in the implementation process. The collaboration between our teams allowed for a more efficient implementation process.”

Michael Špolc, Professional Services Manager EMEA

Results

The results speak for themselves. With most transactions now auto-matched, exceptions are rare and easily investigated through Evention’s detailed check/payment reports. More team members are trained on the process, empowering them to handle reconciliation tasks without relying heavily on accounts receivable. This newfound efficiency keeps the team hands-on throughout the month. Where reconciliation used to take hours, now takes minutes, ensuring smoother operations and accurate financial reporting.

Role of Automation

Automation is the game-changer that modern hotels need. PwC cites, “More than 70% of hotel executives are turning to technology tools to automate a portion of their operations and boost employee efficiency.” Don’t let manual processes hold your hotel back. Change to automation and experience the transformative impact on your accounting processes.

Ready to Elevate Your Credit Card Reconciliation Process?

Evention’s Total Recon – Credit Card Reconciliation solution auto-matches over 99% of transactions and provides visibility down to the day and transaction. Access web-based reports with data at any level and over any date range, and when exceptions occur, Total Recon provides detailed insights right down to the individual check and payment level.