Financial Systems BY: Jeremy Rock FOCUS ON THE NUMBERS Financial ERP Systems For many years, advances in business technol-ogy and applications in the hospitality industry have typically centered on revenue-generating systems. The focus has been on property-related applications such as property management (PMS), point-of-sale (POS) or spa systems. Additionally, reservation systems to revenue management sys-tems (RMS) have been targeted to aid in the drive to increase average daily rate (ADR) and revenues. We’ve also seen an increase in business intel-ligence reporting tools and inventory management applications. However, there’s been little effort to target fi nancial reporting systems and effi ciencies created by managing the back end of the business. In an effort to overcome system shortcomings, many operations spend vast resources on unsafe, outdated processes. Properties cobble together systems to track numbers from night audits to gen-eral ledgers, and eventually to back-end reports. Operations relies on daily reports to unearth key operational triggers. In-depth fi nancial statements come on a monthly basis with no interim or daily reporting options. That won’t cut it in today’s competitive environment. Property manag-ers must make key decisions based on real-time information. They can’t afford to wait a month or more for fi nancial statements or analysis. To stay competitive, hoteliers must be able to make informed decisions with accurate, detailed up-to-the-moment information. The business that gives both sides of the house equal attention will have the edge. One could argue that for many years there were no signifi cant changes to fi nancial system applications, however, in today’s competitive environ-ment you have to play both offense and defense in PROPERTIES COBBLE order to stay in the game. Too often you see a focus on integration and streamlining of front-end (FoH) TOGETHER SYSTEMS systems while on the back offi ce (BoH)side things TO TRACK NUMBERS are neglected. Hotels are still working with manual FROM NIGHT AUDITS Excel worksheets and workarounds to piecemeal the TO GENERAL LEDGERS accounting and fi nancial reporting requirements. The unfortunate side effect is that hotel staffs tend to expend tremendous resources on outdated processes and workarounds that lack data integrity in an effort to overcome the shortcomings in their systems. That’s where the selection and implementation of an effective hospital-ity-focused enterprise resource planning (ERP) system can really make a difference in an operation by providing effective information to make informed decisions. 12 Summer 2017 HOSPITALITY UPGRADE www.hospitalityupgrade.com