Why Traditional Bookkeeping Is Holding You Back? Meet Mike Patterson, the proprietor of The Sandstone Lodge, a 58-room independent hotel located just outside Flagstaff, Arizona. Mike’s pride and joy was The Sandstone, which was well-known for its quaint mountain charm and excellent guest evaluation.
He had completely renovated the building, trained all the employees, created the lobby himself, and even chose the breakfast menu.
What, though, did he never sign up for?
The Bookkeeping Nightmare.
Mike had no idea that he would be spending his evenings immersed in spreadsheets, trying to figure out income figures or hurrying to submit 1099s on time.
However, each month felt like a race against the clock, and during the busiest ski season, the back office was starting to feel more pressured than the front desk.
Does that sound familiar?
Mike’s tale is not the only one. It’s happening in hotel offices all around the nation. The issue? manual bookkeeping that is outdated. The answer? You must acknowledge that it is an issue first.
Typical Causes of Change
Let’s examine the turning points that caused Mike and numerous other hotel managers to reconsider their strategy.
Lost Hours Due to Manual Entry
Mike would access his PMS each day, extract the daily revenue, and enter the figures into an Excel spreadsheet.
After that, he would manually access maintenance costs, coffee supply, vendor invoices, etc. It amounted to more than ten hours every week.
He claims, “I was babysitting numbers, not running my business.
IRS Stress and Missed 1099 Deadlines
Mike failed to file a 1099 for a snow removal contractor one winter. The stress was greater than the IRS penalty.
Every January was a scavenger hunt due to manual vendor tracking, which his CPA loathed as much as he did.
No Simple Method for Managing Several Properties
Things really started to go south when Mike took over a second motel close to Sedona.
He was managing two spreadsheet sets, two PMS systems, and no obvious means of performance comparison in the absence of a centralized system.
Instead of confusion, he needed financial clarity.
Lack of a Real-Time Cash Flow or Profitability View
Mike was always late with his financial reports. The figures were out of date by the time his accountant gave him his P&L.
His constant focus on the past prevented him from making decisions with confidence, such as hiring, raising prices, or offering promotions.
The Unspoken Expenses of Manual Accounting
Mike has always believed that doing his own bookkeeping saves money. However, this is what it cost him:
Human Mistakes That Totaled
He failed to record three credit card transactions in one month. He input a vendor bill twice in another month.
In addition to being inconvenient, these errors resulted in inaccurate reports and subpar decision-making.
Making Slow, Gut-Based Choices
Mike was relying on intuition in the absence of real-time facts. He was unable to predict declines in sales or identify cost creep in advance.
Missed chances and reactive planning resulted from such lag.
Growing Cleanup & CPA Fees
Because it took more time to clean up sloppy books than to do it from the beginning, Mike’s accountant began charging extra.
More billable hours result from manual processes. It’s as easy as that. Indications That It’s Time to Update
The signals were eventually too obvious to ignore. Mike discovered the old method wasn’t functioning in this way:
1. You continue to track your daily revenue using spreadsheets.
Excel wasn’t designed for dynamic hotel operations, let’s face it. Formulas malfunction. Tabs are missing. A single mistake can result in wildly erroneous P&Ls.
2. There is no integration between your accounting and PMS software.
The daily task for Mike was to export data from his PMS and re-enter it into QuickBooks. That’s double the effort and double the likelihood of making a mistake.
3. Month-End Closings Experience a Fire Drill
It’s a system issue if you feel like you’re studying for an exam you forgot about at the end of each month.
Every month, Mike would spend the first ten days attempting to wrap up the previous one.
“Every month it was like Groundhog Day.”
Turning Point
Mike decided enough was enough after a particularly trying March in which he found a \$2,300 error just days before closing.
At that point, he learned about Nimble Property, a platform designed especially for hoteliers in the United States that handles bookkeeping and accounting for hotels.
Mike was able to use Nimble to: Automatically extract daily revenue from the PMS systems of both properties.
- Keep tabs on spending and produce 1099s without using a spreadsheet.
- View cash flow, GOP, and occupancy profitability dashboards in real time.
- Shut his books. Five times quicker—and without any anxiety.
- Additionally, Mike regained his Sunday afternoons for the first time in years.
From Bookkeeping to CEO
It’s time to quit managing data and start running your company if you’re still using antiquated technologies.
Mike didn’t have to pursue a career in accounting. He required a method that improved the intelligence of accounting.
Indications that you’re prepared to update:
- You fear the end of the month.
- Your books are constantly “almost” finished.
- You always have “almost” finished books.
- You spend more on cleanup than on advice that adds value.
- You continue to believe that “automation” is limited to chains.
Conclusion:
Traditional Hotel Bookkeeping messes up your business with consuming efforts. Working with AI modeled software from Nimble Property makes your workflow transparent, error free and effortless. Join us to write your own success story.
