Hospitality ERP Consultant, USA

Property LLCs, management companies and owner reporting

A common US arrangement separates the people who own a hotel from the company that operates it. The owner entity holds the real estate and the loan; the management company employs the staff, runs the property and earns fees under a management agreement. Restaurant groups do something similar when investors back individual concepts. Each structure creates its own reporting obligations.

The ERP has to keep every property's books clean enough for an owner, an asset manager and a lender to rely on them, while the operator still needs a portfolio view. I usually design one company per legal entity, a shared chart of accounts, and dimensions for property, department and outlet. Management fees, incentive fees and payroll reimbursements are then calculated in the system rather than in a side spreadsheet.

Owners and lenders often expect departmental statements in the lodging industry's uniform system format, with rooms, food and beverage and other operated departments shown separately from undistributed expenses. I map your accounts to that structure early, so the monthly owner pack and the loan covenant reporting come straight from the ledger. The detailed format and any covenant definitions are confirmed with your owners and lenders, since agreements differ. For the group-level model behind this, see my page on ERP for hospitality groups.

Occupancy, lodging and sales taxes that change at the county line

US guests rarely pay a single tax. A room night can carry a state sales tax, a state or local hotel occupancy tax, a county or city lodging tax and sometimes a tourism district assessment, each with its own return. A restaurant meal carries sales tax at rates that vary by locality, and alcohol may be taxed differently again. When a group operates in several states, the combinations multiply quickly.

The PMS and POS calculate tax at the moment of sale, which is where it belongs. The ERP's job is to receive those amounts separately, hold each one in its own liability account by jurisdiction, and reconcile collections to what is filed and paid. I build a jurisdiction register for every property and outlet, then make sure the posting design never lumps taxes together in a single line.

Other questions come up during design: how exempt stays for qualifying guests are documented, how long-stay guests are treated, and how event and banquet invoices raised from the ERP pick up the right tax. I keep these as test scenarios and leave the rules themselves to your tax advisor, because they differ by state and change over time. The wider US picture of multi-state sales tax is covered on my US ERP consultant page.

Tips, service charges and seasonal labor

Labor is usually the largest cost line in hospitality, and in the US it arrives with a few wrinkles. Credit card tips captured at the POS are owed to staff, while mandatory service charges on banquets or large parties may be treated as revenue of the business and distributed separately. Tip credits, pooling arrangements and reporting duties differ by state and are handled by payroll specialists, not by the ERP designer.

What I design is the money trail. Tips collected flow from the POS into a clearing account, payroll pays them out, and the clearing account should return to zero each period. Service charges are posted as their own revenue lines with any distribution recorded as labor cost. Banquet event orders raised from sales and catering tools need the same separation, so finance can show owners exactly where gratuities went.

Many US properties also run on seasonal rhythms: summer resorts, ski areas, college towns and convention cities each have their own peaks. Payroll usually stays with a payroll provider, and the ERP receives journals by property, department and job. I define that import and the labor reports that matter, such as payroll cost per occupied room and labor as a share of outlet sales. Seasonal openings and closings are built into the rollout plan so cutover does not land in the busiest week.

Central purchasing and commissary supply across states

US restaurant and hotel groups often buy through broadline foodservice distributors under group pricing, with specialty produce, meat and beverage suppliers alongside. The common problem is that units order directly, invoices arrive at each property, and nobody can say whether contract prices were actually charged. I design the procurement flow so approved items, agreed prices and order guides live centrally while units still place their own orders.

Where a group runs a commissary, central bakery or prep kitchen, it supplies several outlets, sometimes owned by different entities or located in different states. Each transfer needs a price, a receiving step at the outlet and an intercompany entry where entities differ. Whether those internal sales create tax or reporting consequences is a question for your advisor; the system should simply record them cleanly.

Alcohol adds its own rules. Many states restrict how beer, wine and spirits move between licensed premises, and purchasing usually runs through licensed wholesalers. I keep beverage purchasing per licensed location unless counsel confirms otherwise. Food and beverage cost then rolls up from recipes and counts at each outlet, as described on ERP for restaurants, and groups that also produce packaged goods can compare notes with my US food and beverage ERP page.

Choosing a platform and running the project remotely

US hospitality groups often reach me after outgrowing a separate QuickBooks file per property, a spreadsheet consolidation and a bookkeeper who rekeys the night audit. The migration covers opening balances per entity, city ledger and group receivables, fixed asset registers for furniture, fixtures and equipment, open purchase orders and vendor masters with tax forms. I plan this with the data migration scope so the first owner statement on the new system reconciles to the last one on the old.

Zoho, Odoo, ERPNext and Microsoft Dynamics 365 are each tested on the same scripts: a night audit posting, a management fee calculation, a commissary transfer between entities and a month-end owner pack. I also say when a hotel accounting product built around a PMS may serve a small portfolio better than a general ERP. The integration design for every PMS and POS is written before any configuration starts.

The work is remote. I run workshops in the hours that suit your head office, whether on Eastern or Pacific time, and record walkthroughs for general managers and controllers at each property. Hotel-specific design questions are covered on ERP for hotels, and broader US topics sit on the US hub.