Hotel Accounting guide

Month-End Close Checklist, Approvals and Daily Sign-Off

Lock each month only after a month-end close checklist passes, snapshot the trial balance, route sensitive actions for approval and sign off every day.

You close the month knowing the numbers will not move afterwards. Locking a month is a checklist with an owner per task, mostly checked by the system, and reopening it takes two people.

The checklist

Mandatory: every day audited, and each sub-ledger in agreement with the ledger
Advisory until you make them mandatory: bank reconciled, GST return prepared, GRNI accrued, sign-off

A person ticks manual tasks; automatic ones run and record their evidence. The lock waits until the list is complete, then snapshots each hotel's trial balance, stored and hashed so closed figures cannot change. When all twelve months are locked, the year's income and expenses move into retained earnings.

One approval workflow

Everything one person should not do alone goes through the same engine. You set a rule per action, with a threshold, department, signing role and up to three levels:

Manual journals, refunds, write-offs, vendor bills without a PO
Vendor payments and vendor bank changes
Credit overrides, rate overrides and reopening a month
Owner distributions and budgets

Each level must be a different person, requesters cannot approve their own requests, and one rejection ends it. Delegation covers leave, and the signature shows whose authority was used. A report lists which pairs of rights must not sit with one person, and who holds both. Once the rule is set, a closed month reopens only with an approved request.

Finance checks each day

Your night audit ends the day for the front office. Finance then checks before trusting it:

Books equal folios
Every occupied room was charged
Every complimentary stay was approved
No bill stayed open after check-out
A list of that day's voids and refunds

Your controller then gives the day a sign-off. If a mandatory check fails, sign-off waits for an explanation, and unsigned days form the group's to-do list. A person can certify a control account's monthly balance, putting their name to the figure, and a legal hold stops a record being archived or deleted during a live dispute or audit.

Other Hotel Accounting guides

Double-Entry General Ledger Built for HotelsYour night audit posts straight into a double-entry hotel ledger, kept per company, with control accounts checked and no unbalanced journal allowed. Accounts Receivable and City Ledger for HotelsTrack hotel accounts receivable invoice by invoice: allocate receipts, record TDS and short payments, age debts and send reminders automatically. Vendor Payables With Three-Way Bill MatchingKeep one vendor master with PAN, GST, MSME and TDS details, and match each vendor bill to the GRN and purchase order before it becomes payable. TDS Deduction, Challans and 26Q for HotelsTDS for hotels done right: dated section rates, yearly thresholds, lower-deduction certificates, monthly challans and the quarterly Form 26Q. Vendor Payment Runs With NEFT Bank FilesPay vendors in one run, MSME suppliers first, with an NEFT bank file, remittance advice, retention and advances handled, and a single journal. Bank Reconciliation and Cash Position for HotelsRun hotel bank reconciliation line by line from imported statements, manage the till float and petty cash, and see your cash position on one screen. Payment Gateway and OTA Payout ReconciliationReconcile gateway payouts and OTA remittances booking by booking, so card fees, OTA commission and the GST on it are posted, not lost. GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B Filing for HotelsPrepare GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B from your hotel's books in the portal's format, reconcile input credit with GSTR-2B, and file per GSTIN. GST E-Invoicing With IRN and Signed QRRegister hotel B2B e-invoices with the IRP automatically, print the IRN and signed QR, and cancel within 24 hours or issue a credit note. Export to Tally, Zoho Books and QuickBooksExport each day's accounts a single time to Tally, Zoho Books or QuickBooks, tracked as numbered batches, plus a signed webhook for other systems. Food Cost and Cost of Sales From Real ConsumptionSee true hotel food cost: cost of sales comes from what the kitchen consumed, not what was bought, and unused stock counts as an asset. Banquet Accounting, Package Splits and Deferred RevenueRun each event as its own ledger, hold banquet deposits as client money, split package rates for management accounts and defer unearned room revenue. Fixed Asset Register and Depreciation for HotelsKeep a hotel fixed asset register with tags and locations, two depreciation books, disposals, physical verification and capital work in progress. USALI Operating Statement With GOP and GOPPARGet the USALI operating statement owners and lenders expect, with departmental profit, GOP and GOPPAR, cash flow, KPIs and a column per hotel. Hotel Budget, Variance and Rolling ForecastBuild 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. Import Payroll Into Your Hotel BooksImport your monthly payroll by department, post one journal with PF, ESI, PT and TDS, then pay staff and each authority with a challan. Group Consolidation Across Your HotelsConsolidate P&L, balance sheet and trial balance for a hotel, a company or your whole group, plus an owner statement with equity, payouts and FF&E reserve. Foreign Currency Invoices and Month-End RevaluationInvoice overseas agents in foreign currency, keep the rupee value, and revalue open balances at month end with exchange gain or loss posted. Accounting Anomaly Alerts and Fraud ChecksDaily rule-based checks flag duplicate bills, odd journals, cashier voids, price drift, bad GSTINs and uncharged rooms; a person decides every alert. Coming Next in Hotel AccountingThe hotel accounting roadmap: intercompany posting, multi-book and leases, bill OCR, plain-language questions and approvals on one workflow.