Hotel Accounting guide

Hotel Budget, Variance and Rolling Forecast

Build a hotel budget by account and month from occupancy, ADR and covers, approve it with two people, track budget vs actual and roll the forecast.

You plan the year in the same shape as your ledger: one figure for each account in each month. Revenue is not typed in; it comes from the numbers you actually plan.

The drivers

For each month you enter:

Rooms: occupancy, rooms available and average rate
Outlets: covers and average check
Hall: number of events and average event value

Derive fills the revenue lines from these. It only changes driver-based lines and never touches one you typed. Payroll, utilities, marketing and rent you type yourself.

Versions and approvals

Your budget is built bottom-up; a target is the figure the owner sets from the top. A report shows the gap, so there is nothing to argue about. One person submits, a different person approves. Each hotel holds one approved budget of each kind for a year, and approving a newer version replaces the old one.

Measuring each month

Budget against actual by account and month, with forecast, variance, percentage and a comment explaining the variance. The comment sits on the approved budget and stays when the forecast is rebuilt. Funds still available on an account equal the budget, minus postings so far, minus amounts tied up in vendor bills already approved.

How the rolling forecast works

A fully audited month uses the ledger.
The current month uses actuals so far, then the budget's per-day figure for the days left, with a floor at what is already in the books.
A future month uses the approved budget, again with that same floor.

Every line shows which method it used. After twelve months of data, the engine behind the housekeeping forecast can supply a pickup curve; none is made up before then.

Other Hotel Accounting guides

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