It’s in the nature of the hotel business that revenue is sometimes unpredictable. In addition, there’s often an opportunity for employees and other parties to commit fraud, leading to leakage of funds belonging to the company.

 

Identifying the causes of inefficient revenue collection and finding long-term solutions is called income auditing or revenue control. This can entail monitoring financial statements, evaluating and reforming administrative processes, instituting other checks and balances, and implementing technology like online payment solutions and point-of-sale systems.

What Does a Revenue Audit Entail?

A formal revenue audit can take several days and consists of methodically evaluating the following aspects of how a hotel conducts business:

• Cash handling procedures.
• Looking into financial recording practices relating to booking, F & B, and other departments.
• Market segmentation and competitor analisis to optimize marketing strategy.
• Determining which technological upgrades can streamline ordinary tasks and increase revenue.
• Critical & forensic evaluation of financial statements.
• Measuring hospitality industry KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and comparing them to industry averages.
• Investigating long-term solutions to all forms of revenue leakage.
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These tasks can (and should) also be performed on a continuous basis. Due to the wide range of areas touched on, a working knowledge of revenue auditing is useful to all types of managers, not only those in the financial field.

What This Course Will Teach You:

Due to the nature of this introductory course, forensic accounting is not covered in detail. We will, however, arm you with the following knowledge:

• Risks involved in the hotel industry revenue cycle and the importance of mitigating these.
• Understanding general bookkeeping and reporting requirements in hotels.
• Common checks and balances to prevent fraud and theft.
• The format of and procedure for generating income audit reports.
• Training employees in new procedures meant to improve revenue control.

Ignoring income auditing in the hospitality industry means leaving money on the table every month. This is obviously unacceptable, but it’s often the case that nobody on the hotel’s management team has the training, time, or motivation to take responsibility for this. Doing so can resolve several unidentified problems and raise your status within the organization.