Hospitality, Tourism & Entertainment

Key Takeaways

• USALI aligned reporting with KPIs that matter, including RevPAR, GOPPAR, occupancy, ADR, and F&B cost ratios, ready for portfolio benchmarking and lender discussions.
• White-label, offshore accounting and tax operations under IRS, GAAP, cash basis where applicable, and SOC 2 supported processes, built to scale with your firm.
• End-to-end close acceleration with standardized charts, automated reconciliations, and PMS, POS, payroll, and bank integrations that support sub-daily dashboards and 3–5 day closes.
• Tax coverage for hospitality, tourism, and entertainment, including SALT for lodging and F&B, payroll and tips, property tax, cost segregation, and credits and incentives.
• Risk and assurance support, including audit-ready workpapers, revenue recognition controls for rooms, tickets, and F&B, contract compliance, and cybersecurity alignment for payment data.

Your team stays focused on client advisory and growth while Accountably runs the engine room, quietly and consistently.

Who We Serve

• CPA firms and EAs with hotel, resort, restaurant, venue, live entertainment, and tour operator clients.
• Multi-brand hospitality groups that expect USALI comparability and lender-ready reporting.
• Transaction-focused teams that need clean historicals, pro forma support, and diligence-ready files.

Why Accountably

• We operate as your white-label back office with trained offshore teams, documented SOPs, and SOC 2 supported controls.
• We work to IRS compliance, GAAP standards, and cash or accrual methods as engagement terms require.
• We build property-to-portfolio reporting aligned to USALI so you get true apples-to-apples comparisons across brands, flags, and ownership structures. USALI is the industry standard and the 12th Revised Edition is rolling out for adoption by January 1, 2026, which we reflect in our account mapping and reporting updates. 

Service Highlights

• USALI based financials, KPI packs, lender-ready statements, and audit-ready workpapers.
• Outsourced accounting, close management, AP, AR, payroll, bank recs, and fixed assets with standardized month-end checklists.
• PMS, POS, payroll, and bank integrations, plus rules for revenue posting, tips, and service charges.
• SALT for lodging and F&B, occupancy and tourism taxes, Form 8027 support for large food and beverage establishments, and payroll and tip compliance.
• Tax planning, cost segregation coordination, modeling of depreciation methods, and credit and incentive capture with defensible documentation.
• Risk and assurance support, including revenue recognition validation, contract compliance over franchise and management agreements, and cybersecurity coordination around payment data handling.

What You Can Expect

• A practical onboarding plan with data intake, system mapping, reconciliations, and a go-live calendar.
• A single source of truth for financial and tax data, clear variance narratives, and scheduled reviews.
• A team that understands hospitality operations, speaks in KPIs your clients recognize, and builds files that examiners and auditors can follow.

USALI Aligned Reporting, KPIs, and Dashboards

USALI gives you a common language across properties and brands. We map charts and schedules to the rooms, F&B, and other operated departments your clients actually run, then tie KPIs to those lines, so RevPAR, GOPPAR, occupancy, ADR, and F&B cost ratios reconcile to the general ledger and the statements you sign. Where your clients are moving to the 12th Revised Edition, we update classifications and ratios, then note the changes in the monthly pack to preserve comparability year over year. The 12th Revised Edition is available and is being prepared for adoption effective January 1, 2026, with guidance and resources provided by HFTP. (usali.hftp.org)

Sub-daily Visibility, Shorter Closes

• Integrate PMS, POS, payroll, and banking to cut manual posting and speed daily revenue summaries.
• Automate bank-to-ledger reconciliations and material subledger ties to reduce review time.
• Standardize pre-close checklists, variance thresholds, and approval workflows to support a 3–5 day close target on steady-state properties.

Lender and Investor Ready

• Deliver covenant-ready statements with clear bridges from property results to portfolio rollups.
• Maintain workpapers that follow income recognition, accrual policies, and allocations you can stand behind.
• Prepare diligence packs with clean trailing-twelve, seasonality notes, and key operating metrics.

Revenue Recognition and Controls

Rooms, tickets, F&B, and service fees each have different patterns. We validate cutoffs, deposits, comps, and package allocations. For lodging, we align revenue recognition to accrual methods consistent with USALI, then document how deposits, breakage, and service dates are treated. For ticketed events, we record deferred revenue and release upon performance. For F&B, we reconcile POS summaries to the ledger, account for tips and service charges correctly, and separate taxable bases for sales and occupancy taxes by jurisdiction.

Clean recognition is not just compliance, it is the backbone of credible KPIs and lender trust.

Cybersecurity and Payment Data Handling

Hospitality runs on card payments. Your clients need practical steps to protect cardholder data across POS, PMS, and payment gateways. We coordinate with your firm and the client’s IT team to align control descriptions and evidence with PCI DSS v4.x expectations, including network segmentation, access controls, and logging. PCI DSS v4.0.1 was published as a limited revision in 2025 to correct errors, and v4.0 requirements are the active baseline that replaced v3.2.1 after March 2024. We keep that context in our documentation so audit narratives match the current standard. (pcisecuritystandards.org)

SOC 2 Supported Processes

Accountably’s operating model is built around SOC 2 supported processes. That means we design and test controls for security and related criteria that matter for service delivery, such as availability and processing integrity, then we maintain evidence that aligns with your engagement files. While SOC 2 categories are set by the AICPA’s Trust Services Criteria, we keep the focus on what your reviewers and your clients’ auditors need to see, for example access reviews, change control, and monitoring. (us.aicpa.org)

PMS, POS, Payroll, and ERP Integrations

You get practical integration support with the systems your clients already use. Our teams map files and APIs, validate postings, and set reconciliation rules to tie back to the GL. We work with major platforms in hospitality technology. If a system does not have an API, we set up secure file exchanges and scheduled imports with clear controls. The result is reliable data flow without disrupting operations.

Tax Compliance for Hospitality, Tourism, and Entertainment

Tax for this sector spans federal, state, and local rules that change by property type and city line. We help your firm run a consistent program across lodging, F&B, venues, tours, and recreation, then back every filing with workpapers you can hand an examiner.

Lodging and Occupancy Taxes

• Build and maintain jurisdiction-level matrices for occupancy and tourism taxes.
• Separate tax from revenue in GL accounts and reconcile collected versus remitted amounts each period.
• Document exemptions, long-term stays where applicable, and any special district add-ons with source references.

Food and Beverage, Sales Tax, and Tips

• Map menu items for dine-in, takeout, and delivery categories, then apply the right rates and exemptions.
• Tie POS summaries to the ledger, track service charges and tips separately, and reconcile daily.
• Support Form 8027 for large food and beverage establishments, including the 8 percent allocation test and required W-2 reporting of allocated tips. We follow current IRS instructions for Form 8027 and keep copies of filings and worksheets in the engagement folder. (irs.gov)

Tip rules are strict, so records must be clean. Use written tip reports, keep allocation worksheets, and review cash versus card tip rates for reasonableness.

Payroll and Tip Compliance

Under the FLSA, an employer may claim a tip credit only if the employee receives enough tips plus the employer’s cash wage to meet or exceed the federal minimum wage, along with overtime rules. We help clients maintain notices, track tip pools, and run reconciliations so payroll files match wage and hour requirements. (dol.gov)

We also coordinate with your tax team on FICA tip tax, including the employer’s share under IRC 3121(q), and maintain evidence for any credit on employer Social Security and Medicare taxes on certain employee tips. Our workpapers include summaries of reported tips, Section 3121(q) considerations, and correspondence, where applicable. (irs.gov)

Travel and Tourism Taxes

Air, lodging, and tour taxes vary by jurisdiction, so we create clear rules for the taxable base, then reconcile liability accounts monthly. For air travel related fees that touch your clients’ packages, we document what is included in the taxable base and what is a pass-through. The FAA Passenger Facility Charge program allows airports to collect up to $4.50 per flight segment, capped at $18 on a round trip, which we account for correctly in packages where it applies. (faa.gov)

Tax Reporting that Ties to KPIs

Auditors and examiners look for tie-outs. We reconcile RevPAR, GOPPAR, and occupancy back to the ledger and return lines, then keep memos that explain allocation methods, deposit recognition, and loyalty or franchise fee treatment. This keeps tax filings, USALI statements, and KPI dashboards in sync.

Quick Reference Table, F&B Compliance

Planning Levers that Protect Cash Flow

Tax planning can help fund the automation and reporting improvements your clients need. We prioritize defensible moves, document the methods, and track each position through exams and audits.

Cost Segregation and Depreciation

Hotels, restaurants, and venues often have meaningful personal property inside the building envelope. Cost segregation can reclassify a portion of build-outs and renovations into shorter lives, which accelerates deductions. Since the TCJA, bonus depreciation has been phasing down. The current law schedules bonus rates at 60% for 2024, 40% for 2025, 20% for 2026, and 0% thereafter, absent new legislation. We reflect this in models and memos so expectations are clear. 

Credits and Incentives

We help your firm evaluate eligibility for credits and incentives commonly seen in this sector, for example work opportunity tax credit and energy-related incentives where applicable, then collect contemporaneous documentation. For the Employee Retention Credit, the filing window has closed, and the IRS continues audits, disallowances, and criminal investigations, with selected payments proceeding for low-risk claims. Treat old claims with caution, make sure eligibility tests are met, and keep your withdrawal or disclosure files in order. (irs.gov)

If a promoter built your client’s ERC file on weak shutdown narratives, pause, review the support, and consider remedial steps before an examiner does it for you.

Payroll, Tips, and Withholding

We coordinate payroll tax deposits and reconciliations, match POS tips to payroll, and support employer credit claims for certain tip taxes where applicable with clean schedules and W-2 reporting. Our approach reduces back-and-forth with auditors because the tie-outs are already in your file. (irs.gov)

Risk, Assurance, and Controls

Your hospitality clients operate in high-volume, cash-touching environments. We help you document and test the basics that prevent leakage and reduce scrutiny.

• Revenue controls for rooms, tickets, and F&B, including daily reconciliations from source systems to the ledger.
• Contract compliance checks on franchise, management, and concession agreements, with fee and incentive validation.
• Benefit plan audits support and payroll compliance reviews, especially around tips, overtime, and seasonal staffing.

Cybersecurity and Card Data, In Practice

Payment card data needs consistent treatment, from the dining room to the front desk. We align evidence with PCI DSS expectations, including access reviews, log monitoring, and network segmentation. We maintain a register of systems in scope, show how card data is handled, and keep third-party service providers in view. We also point to the current PCI DSS resources so your clients understand what changed and why it matters. (pcisecuritystandards.org)

Documentation that Withstands Questions

Examiners and auditors want three things, a clear policy, a repeatable process, and proof. We build standing memos for revenue recognition, tip handling, tax allocations, and depreciation methods. We keep version control and sign-offs in the binder. When someone asks why a number looks the way it does, your team can answer in one email, not fifteen.

The best defense is a clean file. The second best is a clear narrative that ties every key number back to your ledger and your policy.

Outsourced Operations, Offshore Staffing, and White-Label Delivery

Accountably plugs into your practice as a white-label extension of your team. We supply trained offshore professionals who follow your firm’s playbook and our SOC 2 supported procedures. You decide the scope and the SLAs. We handle daily posting, reconciliations, payroll files, tax support, and the reporting pack, then hand you a clean set for review and sign-off.

Process Automation Roadmap

• Map the full finance workflow, from reservations and ticketing to POS, payroll, and banking.
• Target high-volume tasks first, daily revenue posting, bank recs, POS tie-outs, and tax remittances.
• Standardize data to USALI schedules, then push KPI dashboards, including RevPAR, GOPPAR, and F&B cost ratio, to property and portfolio managers.

Real Estate, Capital Projects, and Diligence

We coordinate with your tax and assurance teams on capital projects and transactions. That includes construction audit support, budget-to-actual tracking, owner’s rep reporting, and cost segregation coordination for placed-in-service assets. For lenders, we produce covenant-ready statements and a tidy diligence folder with trailing-twelve metrics and explanations of seasonality.

FAQs

How does Accountably price hospitality accounting for CPA firms?

We price fixed packages based on property count, transaction volume, compliance scope, reporting cadence, and integration complexity. Add-ons cover special projects, for example cost segregation coordination or multi-entity consolidations. You get a clear monthly fee, SLA targets, and change-order governance.

Do you support POS, PMS, payroll, and ERP systems we already use?

Yes. We map data schemas, validate APIs or file imports, reconcile ledgers, and maintain audit trails. We follow SOC 2 supported controls for access, changes, and monitoring. If the stack has no API, we set secure file exchanges with controls that meet reviewer expectations.

Can you help with Form 8027 and tip compliance for restaurants and venues?

Absolutely. We prepare support for Form 8027, help you review the 8 percent allocation test, and align POS and payroll records. We also help maintain FLSA notices and proper tip pool documentation so payroll files match wage and hour rules. 

What about ERC claims still under review?

The filing window has closed and the IRS is processing selected low-risk claims while continuing disallowances, audits, and investigations. We recommend a documented eligibility review, withdrawal where appropriate, and a clean file for any amounts retained. (irs.gov)

What Happens Next

• Book a discovery call. We review your client mix, tech stack, and deadlines.
• Receive a tailored scope, pricing, and an onboarding calendar with clear milestones.
• Start a 90-day pilot. We stand up the core processes, stabilize the close, and hand you a clean monthly pack.

When your clients run hot, your back office cannot stall. We give you the people, process, and proof to deliver on time, every time.

Compliance Note

This content is for general information. Always review federal, state, and local rules for current rates, thresholds, and deadlines. Where we reference standards, for example USALI, PCI DSS, and SOC 2 criteria, we align documentation to the latest available guidance and note adoption dates in your files. (usali.hftp.org)

Call to Action

Ready to grow your hospitality, tourism, and entertainment practice with a back office you can trust? Request a proposal and start your pilot with Accountably. We will help you deliver USALI aligned reporting, faster closes, and tax compliance that stands up to questions.