ERP for hotels and hotel groups: connect each PMS to accounting, stores and cash (Business Central)

Bramvia — Business Central Experts

When each hotel's PMS runs on its own and accounting, purchasing and cash live somewhere else: what a hotel back-office ERP does, with a three-hotel demo.

Short answer: a hotel already has a PMS for reservations, the front desk and guest folios. What is usually missing is the back office. Each night's revenue should reach the books on its own, and the stores should control what the kitchen uses. You also need to know what margin each property makes and how cash will look in the low season. An ERP such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central connects to each hotel's PMS and brings everything together as one group. Try it below with three hotels.

Signs your hotel back office has hit its limit

• Every morning someone retypes the PMS night audit into accounting, by hand or through a spreadsheet.
• Invoices to agencies, tour operators and companies are raised outside the system, and the city ledger lives in a separate file.
• The kitchen orders from the stores by phone or on paper, and food cost is only known at month end.
• With several properties, each hotel's P&L is pieced together from exports of different systems.
• Low-season cash is planned on gut feeling rather than on real bookings and due dates.

PMS and ERP: who does what

The PMS stays: it is still the front-desk tool. The ERP takes what the back office needs and adds what the PMS does not do.

What goes from the PMS to Business Central every night

The PMS night audit produces a summary with several parts. It lists revenue by code (rooms, breakfast, restaurant, bar, spa, parking), taxes and any tourist tax. It also shows how the day was settled: card, cash, OTA virtual card, agencies on account and guests who will pay at check-out. Business Central receives it through an API and checks four things before posting:

• Every PMS code has an account and a department. If the front desk creates a new code, the audit stops and flags it instead of posting revenue to the wrong place.
• Every agency or company exists as a customer, so it can be invoiced and its payment followed up.
• The audit balances: the day's charges equal what was paid plus what is still owed.
• Tourist tax goes to a payable account and is never counted as revenue.

The entry carries two dimensions, hotel and department. Each property's P&L comes straight from them, with no spreadsheets. In the demo, the first hotel's audit brings a new spa code with no account and the second one an agency that is not yet a customer: fix them and post.

Stores, food cost and recipe costing

• Kitchen orders: the kitchen orders from the stores, with quantities worked out from the breakfasts and covers the PMS and the restaurant POS report.
• Consumption at once: when the order is issued, its cost is charged to the hotel's food and beverage department. Food cost is visible every day, not at month end.
• Recipes at the latest price: each dish has a recipe with quantities and the most recent purchase price. When a supplier raises prices, Business Central shows which dishes go over target and what they would need to sell for.
• Replenishment from forecast occupancy: purchase quantities follow the week's bookings. With several hotels, central purchasing can group the orders and negotiate one price.

In the demo, turn on the fish supplier's price rise and watch the day's food cost and the prawn dish's recipe cost change.

Profit by hotel and by department

Hotels report profit by department: rooms, food and beverage, spa and other, plus the costs that are not allocated (admin, sales, maintenance, energy). That is the USALI format. In Business Central it comes from the dimensions, so each hotel gets its P&L without extra work, and so does the group.

The numbers worth watching every day are occupancy, ADR (average rate per room sold), RevPAR (revenue per available room) and GOPPAR (gross operating profit per available room). Add the cost per occupied room and the commission paid on each channel. The demo lets you move one in four Booking and Expedia bookings to your own website and see the yearly saving in commissions.

Cash with seasons

A seasonal property that closes for part of the year still pays rent, insurance, maintenance and permanent staff. It also reopens with payroll and purchases before any receipts arrive. The cash forecast combines future bookings, supplier orders, payroll and tax due dates, so you see months ahead when you will need financing.

In a group, properties offset each other: city hotels and those with a different peak season cover the months when the seasonal one is closed. In the UK version of the demo, the Cornwall hotel on its own would need a credit line in spring; inside the group it does not. For the week-by-week view, see the 13-week cash flow forecast.

Two ways to set it up

Most current PMSs have an API. If yours only exports files, the import can still be automated. For the restaurant and bar, see ERP with POS.

Taxes: United States and United Kingdom

• United States: room revenue usually carries state sales tax plus local occupancy or tourism taxes that vary by state, county and city. Each property gets its own tax setup in Business Central, and the occupancy taxes go to a payable account until they are filed. The demo's US rates are examples.
• United Kingdom: hotel rooms and food and beverage carry 20% VAT. Edinburgh has charged a 5% visitor levy since 24 July 2026, on the room price before VAT and capped at five consecutive nights, with quarterly returns. VAT is charged on the levy as well, so the ERP has to post both correctly. The demo shows it on the Edinburgh hotel.

FAQ

Does Business Central replace the PMS? No. The PMS keeps reservations, the front desk and guest folios, and Business Central runs the back office. The exception is LS Central for hotels, a PMS built on Business Central.

Which PMSs can be connected? Any that can deliver the night audit through an API or a file. Most current PMSs have an API.

Is each hotel a separate company in Business Central? It depends on the legal structure. The usual setup is one company per legal entity and one dimension per hotel, with shared vendors, items and agencies and automatic group consolidation.

Can I see each hotel's food cost every day? Yes. If the kitchen orders from the stores in the system, consumption is charged to that hotel's food and beverage department and compared with the day's sales.

How is a tourist or occupancy tax booked? As a liability, separate from revenue. The PMS collects it from the guest and Business Central holds it until the return is filed.

Does it work for a single hotel? Yes. One hotel still gains the automatic night audit, stores control and the cash forecast; consolidation only matters with several.

Related: ERP with POS and accounts payable automation.

Bramvia · bramvia.net

Bramvia in: Spain · United States · Mexico · United Kingdom · Ireland · Canada · Colombia · Argentina · Chile · Peru · Australia · New Zealand · South Africa · Philippines · Poland · MCP server · Safety stock calculator