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Accounting software for the hospitality industry

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Last editedFeb 20232 min read

From managing bookings to issuing room service bills, there’s a lot of everyday admin to juggle as the owner of a hospitality business. Accounting software can help automate some of the most repetitive tasks, keeping your financial statements accurate and invoices paid on time. What should you look for in accounting software for the hospitality industry? We’ll cover the basics below.

Why should you use accounting software as a hospitality business?

Hospitality businesses manage a range of departments and expenses, including food and beverage inventory, room reservations, customer service, and booking systems.

Accounting software ensures all your transactions automatically make it to your financial statements. It automatically pulls information from bank accounts, ledgers, and POS systems into a central database for matching and verification. Accounting software can also help with employee payroll, tracking billable hours and ensuring tax records are in order. At the same time, automated invoicing sends bills out on time to ensure steady streams of revenue.

The best accounting software for the hospitality industry

Here are six of the top choices when it comes to hospitality accounting software. Most of these are comprehensive accounting tools, with functions that benefit those working in hospitality and retail alike.

1. Xero

Xero is a great choice for any hotelier or restaurant owner. Its central accounting dashboard lets you monitor business finances at a glance, with cash flow projections to help you manage your budget more effectively. Transform purchase orders into bills for easier payments, recording and reconciling all payments in real-time. Xero’s payroll accounting tools let you pay your hospitality and restaurant staff while submitting required reports to HMRC. The software automates pay, pension, and tax calculations to save time and money.

2. Sage 50cloud

Sage Accounting is another popular choice for businesses of all stripes, and its cloud-based Sage 50cloud product is particularly useful for those in the hospitality industry. Businesses get paid faster with customisable invoices sent to hotel and restaurant guests. For repeat clients or instalment payment plans, you can set up recurring invoices. There’s also inventory and expense tracking to ensure your restaurant fridge is fully stocked and on budget. Payroll tools aren’t included, but you can add on this feature for a fee.

3. QuickBooks Online

Ideal for small hospitality businesses, QuickBooks Online focuses on time-saving automation. It integrates easily with most POS systems for easy billing. Users can create, send, and track invoices from any device, streamlining the paperwork process so that you can focus on your customer service instead. Financial reporting, tax management, and bank reconciliation are all included.

4. Zoho Books

Zoho Books comes jam-packed with multiple handy features for hospitality business owners. This includes automatic bank feeds, online payments, invoice templates, and a portal for clients to log in and manage bills. It integrates easily with all Zoho software to tackle payroll, inventory, and CRM systems from a central dashboard.

5. FreeAgent

In addition to the hospitality sector, FreeAgent is well suited to retail and ecommerce businesses, integrating with services like Shopify and Goodtill to automate your workflow. Take payments throughout the day and then upload all data and end-of-day reports directly into the accounting software. The software’s payroll feature also automatically generates payslips, while helping manage tax reports.

6. Clear Books

Our final choice when it comes to accounting software for the hospitality industry is Clear Books. This cloud-based solution sends automatic payment reminders and tracking invoices. For businesses with a global client base, multi-currency support helps keep international payments in order.

How to choose accounting software for the hospitality industry

Businesses are spoiled for choice when it comes to accounting software. Here are some must-have features to look for:

Automatic daily reporting
Customised reporting
Automated invoicing and billing
User friendliness
Customer portal
Bank account reconciliation
Three-way matching

Third-party integrations are also useful, particularly when it comes to collecting payment.

GoCardless integrates seamlessly with all the software mentioned above, as well as over 300 partners in total. It's easy to start collecting payments as part of your existing finance system, saving you time and stress. By integrating GoCardless, you can collect both recurring and one-off payments directly from customer bank accounts with reduced costs in comparison to card payments, while maintaining organised accounting records.

We can help

GoCardless is a global payments solution, setting people and businesses free from the frustrations and cost of outdated payment methods. Find out how GoCardless can help you with one-off or recurring payments.