One of the biggest standout messages at HITEC 2025 wasn’t more dashboards, AI for AI’s sake, or smarter guest tech—it was about relief. Relief from daily reporting chaos. From reconciling by hand. From clunky processes and manual data entry that slow everything down.

This desire has been echoing through hoteliers for a while now. Leaner teams, tighter timelines, and higher expectations being major reasons for this shift. And this year, the call was loud and clear: If it can be automated, it should be. 

Hoteliers have spent years perfecting and streamlining the guest experience. And now, it’s time for the back office to get the same treatment because smarter operations start behind the scenes. 

Fixing the Friction: 5 Automations That Make the Difference

Every repetitive task you eliminate is time your team gets back to close faster, respond sooner, and make better decisions with less stress.

That’s why the hotel management companies gaining ground today are the ones replacing outdated manual processes with back office automations designed for how their teams already work. They’re not just throwing more people at the problem or layering on one more tool. They’re simplifying. They’re consolidating. 

We’re not talking about complicated integrations or custom builds. We’re talking about purpose-built, hospitality ERP & accounting software with automations that work behind the scenes, doing the work your team shouldn’t have to.

Here’s what they look like in action:

Daily Report Automations

At minimum, your team should utilize automation to pull PMS data directly into your daily reports. Not only does this save tremendous time, but it also reduces the risk of errors, especially when teams are stuck formatting data instead of using it.

If you want to take it to the next level, HIA automations consolidate data from multiple PMS and POS systems into a single, standardized report that’s automatically delivered each morning and can be scheduled to send to key stakeholders. Daily reports flow directly into your GL and financial workflows, streamlining cashflow forecasting and simplifying month-end close. And because every entry is backed by a built-in audit trail, you gain full visibility without extra effort.

That means:

• Leadership gets a real-time, portfolio-wide view of performance
• GMs and finance teams spend more time leading and less time chasing numbers

It’s not just faster reporting—it’s smarter reporting that puts your team ahead of the day, not behind it.

Management Company Invoicing & Accounts Receivable Automations

The bare minimum today should cut out the manual work of building invoices in one system and attaching files from another.

HIA automations take this a few steps further and turn management company invoicing and AR into a streamlined workflow:

• The Management Fee Calculation Report automatically pulls in the variables to calculate the percent management fee as well as any additional line items for base management fee or others.
• The system automatically creates invoices. The system releases AR invoices automatically on schedule.
• The system automatically creates the AP bill on the property side.
• Set up payments with an integrated payment solution and click-to-pay technology.
• Payments are tracked in real time across your entire portfolio.
• Every invoice, attachment, and status update is audit-ready and accessible.
• Cross-linking across AR, AP, and GL ensures complete visibility and fewer errors.

Accounts Payable Automations

No one wants to be the person chasing down approvals across departments or rekeying the same invoice three times. That’s why your team needs the ability to automate invoice entry, attach documentation once, and route approvals without relying on emails, memory, or sticky notes.

At minimum, your AP process should support centralized entry, scanned documentation, and basic P&L drill-downs to verify coding. But the real gains come when approvals, documentation, and payments all flow through the same embedded system.

With HIA:

• Invoices are auto-entered and coded through tightly embedded integration workflows.
• Approvers can review and sign off anywhere, anytime via the HIA mobile app.
• All actions are timestamped and audit-ready, reducing risk and improving compliance.
• Payments can be automated and scheduled within the same system, speeding up the cycle without losing control.

Instead of chasing down paperwork or waiting on approvals, your team gets a faster, cleaner process—and full visibility from entry to payment.

Bank Reconciliation Automations

When teams are stretched thin, spending hours combing through transactions and manually matching line items doesn’t seem like the most efficient use of their time. So bank recs get pushed down the priority list. 

With automation, reconciliation shifts from a chore to a checkpoint. HIA makes it possible for: 

• Deposits to auto-match to GL entries generated by your daily reports.
• Withdrawals to match automatically with AP payments, payroll, and distributions.
• Recurring transactions to follow pre-set rules, speeding up review
• Exceptions to be flagged.
• Bulk reconciliation to happen in minutes.

Financial Reporting Automations

At minimum, your reports should follow USALI 11th edition standards and be distributed on time. But if your team is still reformatting spreadsheets and scrambling to answer leadership questions, you’re spending hours assembling insights instead of analyzing them.

HIA simplifies financial reporting with real-time, built-in automations:

• A live Excel integration connects reports directly to your accounting system for ultimate flexibility.
• Two-way sync allows updates made in Excel to push back into HIA.
• Recurring reports can be auto-scheduled and sent to key stakeholders.
• Templates stay audit-ready, accurate, and always up to date.

The result? Faster answers, cleaner close cycles, and more time focused on strategy—not spreadsheets.

Why Automating Isn’t Just Efficiency—It’s Strategy

The real cost of manual work isn’t just time. It’s burnout, blind spots, and the missed opportunity to lead with insight. Legacy systems create busywork. Smart systems remove it.

The new standard isn’t more tech—it’s tech that works so well, you barely notice it’s there.

If your team is still buried in spreadsheets and manual approvals, you’re not just behind—you’re missing the chance to operate faster, smarter, and more strategically.

HIA brings automation where it matters most—so your team can focus on what moves the business forward. Want to talk to an expert in hospitality automation? Talk with our experts. 

Elisa Fritsch

Director of Marketing at HIA

Elisa Fritsch, Director of Marketing at Hotel Investor Apps (HIA), contributes 15+ years of sales and marketing experience from a wide range of corporate to start-up environments. At HIA, Elisa focuses on marketing strategy, content, and leveraging her hospitality industry knowledge to drive growth.