USALI update drives need for more, better data

The latest webinar from HOSPA, hosted by Workday, underscored the need for hotels to access and analyse more data if they are to meet the requirements of the latest update of the Uniform System of Accounts.

The newly-published 12th Revised Edition, published by HFTP, has a focus on increased reporting transparency, with data required to meet the key requirements.

Focusing on the changes made in the most-recent edition, Neil Gribben, VP, accounting & control, Belmond, drew attention to a few of the additional requirements. These included the need for costs relating to Lounge Operations to be included as a separate schedule and for the enhanced reporting for loyalty programmes, now a significant area of hotel operations for the large, branded players. A line has now been added within the rooms P&L to aggregate the costs for these programmes.

One change which affects all hotels, he noted, was E, W, W, or energy, water and waste, which has been added to address sustainability issues. In this case, the waste is being moved from the property operations and maintenance and division into utilities, with enhanced statistical reporting in relation to consumption of energy sources.

Of the other changes, some were optional - such as the new market channel report - and Gribben cautioned that any uptake might affect the interface with a hotel’s PMS.

The key message of the webinar was that successful implementation of USALI 12 would require what Mark Alexander, EMEA Workday functional director - financials, HCM & planning Kainos described as “a single source of truth …aligning stakeholders and being able to bring in not just finance data into a system, but also people data, as well as operational data”.

Commenting on this, Gareth Hawkins, hospitality lead, Workday, reported that a survey undertaken by the group had seen 60% of respondents comment that their IT departments controlled their software roadmap, and that created “quite a disconnect between finance needs and technological solutions”.

He added: “System updates occur infrequently, and that leaves finance teams working with outdated tools and being unable to address some of those ongoing headwinds that the industry is facing today.

“We're also seeing a significant automation gap …and this has an impact from a finance perspective. Eighty per cent of hotels reported that their period enclosed takes over three days, while 60% are still heavily reliant on Excel for reconciliations. And even more concerning is 70% of indicated that data backup, or perhaps process, takes overnight or even longer.

“And so, there's a real pressing need for better data access, and that could be employee data, operational data, your PMS or loyalty, which can help supporting sort of strategic planning capabilities. Half of our survey professionals employed difficulty in creating ‘what if’ scenarios, while 60% lack easy access to data for decision making, and in industry as dynamic as hotels, this is particularly challenging.”

With USALI the global standard for financial reporting in the hotel sector, taking a close look at your tech stack will be critical.

To watch the webinar in full, please click here.