A Property Management System (PMS) — an accommodation management system, not to be confused with an accounting management tool — is a powerful feature for the organization and data export to your accounting management software, including data related to your invoices, payments, commissions, bank charges and more.
Why is it essential to keep an accounting system in one platform?
While large corporations are familiar with the advantages, smaller companies are not necessarily obliged to keep accounts, such as companies under the “Micro” regime, for example. Depending on the size of your business and your annual turnover, you may not be subject to taxes either.
Here are several reasons to consider a PMS:
- Ensure you’re complying within required legislation and taxation.
- To pay the minimum, but the right amount, of taxes due (income tax, corporate tax, tourist tax…).
- Submit applications for government or local community assistance more easily — such as the case with the Business Solidarity Fund in France during COVID.
- Correctly estimate the value of your business in the event of a resale.
- Develop a relationship of trust with your customers, suppliers and partners. As an example, PMS is beneficial when negotiating with a supplier or presenting the revenues you have generated on behalf of an owner.
- Have clear visibility on your revenues to make the best decisions on investment, rate increase, better cost control, change of supplier and more.
How do you better facilitate the accounting management of your hotel, bed and breakfast, vacation rentals, or Airbnb concierge service?
In truth, it’s simply a matter of having the right tools to:
Issue an invoice for each booking.
It’s all about the details! To ensure proper accounting, it’s important to collect the right data — and it all starts with the invoice!
Whether your customers ask for an invoice or not, it is essential to issue an invoice for every booking. This way you keep a detailed record of the products or services for which a customer has paid you.
Set up the correct tax calculation for each item.
The tax calculation methods vary greatly depending on the type of tax: percentage on the net amount, fixed amount per person (adult or child) and percentage on the total amount of the reservation. To obtain correct invoices, you must therefore ensure you can correctly configure each tax on each product or service concerned.
Invest time to configure all your taxes in your billing system.
Track the status of payments and receipts.
Keep track of deposits due, payments still pending, cancellation penalties you have to apply and invalid credit cards.
For online travel agency bookings, invalid cards must be reported within a very short period of time, either after booking or after arrival. It is therefore critical to be alerted as soon as possible and to request a new means of payment from the client.
The close monitoring of your payments can help you increase cash flow so you can carry out all your projects and investments for your accommodations.
Generate and export accounting entries to your accounting software or to an Excel or CSV file.
Having the ability to export an accounting journal on a regular basis will save you (and your accountant!) a lot of time — especially when these journals are automatically balanced with the automatic generation of offsetting entries. Forget about sending your invoices manually; just generate the right accounting export every day, week or month — and presto! That’s it!
Want to learn more about accounting tools for your hotel, guesthouse, vacation rental or a larger structure like an Airbnb concierge?
Check out our help guide and checklist to get a handle on the accounting features you need.
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