Corporate accounting has long been viewed as custodian and curator of financial data for Hospitality organizations. However, whether it’s bringing the data together or distributing the financial results broadly, the financial consolidation process has long been an onerous drudgery of information assembly, validation, and reporting. The consolidation process for many Hospitality accounting teams is sometimes measured in months, often measured in weeks, but rarely measured in days.
The pace and complexity of today’s business environment is driving financial executives to shift their financial management solution to a system of intelligence, rather than a system of record, a critical part of which is access to continuous, accurate, consolidated financial reporting.
If consolidated financial statements are the desired and necessary outcome to meet stakeholder and regulatory reporting needs, then working backwards, we can chronicle the consolidation process and discuss the challenges of aggregating the balances and transactional activity from the business units. This will set the stage for discussing an approach for improving not only the financial consolidation process but also augment the analytical and real-time reporting capabilities of the finance function.
