The accounting of Hotelliveeb.ee worked like most companies’ accounting until this spring. First of all, the person at Hotelliveeb.ee had to check that the invoice was correct, after which it was forwarded to the accountant, who manually entered it into the program and then, if necessary, sent it to the bank. Every month, the accounting department had to process thousands of purchase and sales invoices. Today that paperwork is a thing of the past.
Hotelliveeb.ee, in cooperation with accounting company FMJ and programmers from BitWeb, developed a system that helps accountants to almost completely automate their work – accounting entries arrive automatically in the accounting program.
Veiko Mahlakas and Viljo Naar from the portal Hotelliveeb.ee and accountants Tiina Timmotalo and Kaie Moisa from FMJ OÜ, in cooperation with programmers from BitWeb OÜ, developed a system where nearly 95% of accounting entries come from an external system in an automated form to the accounting program.
“The representatives of Hotelliveeb.ee who approached us wanted the technical side of their accounting to be fully automated. When we asked them what they wanted us to do, their answer was to drink coffee and make sure everything was working,” said Kaie Moisa, CEO of FMJ, about the programme.
The first step was to choose an accounting program that could be linked to other external systems. “We considered different options, and in the end we chose Standard Books. Both sales and purchase invoices had to flow automatically, as well as bank transactions,” says Moisa. “It’s a programme with a relatively wide range of possibilities: in the sales module, you can use orders, delivery notes, prepayment invoices, sales invoices, etc. The system had to be able to process orders, delivery notes, prepayment invoices, sales invoices and so on. We had to find the best option, given the fact that the customer often pays by bank transfer when booking, and this means that there is VAT immediately. In addition, we had to take into account that Hotelliveeb.ee offers products and services with VAT rates of 0%, 9% and 20%,” Moisa described the mapping of the situation.
It was then necessary to search for options in the existing accounting software to match them with the client’s (sales) software to produce the correct accounting entry. “This meant first understanding the essence of the transaction, then providing all the possible options the customer could do with their booking before the booking was finally confirmed. For example, the customer could change the booking, cancel and get an equivalent gift card, or partially cancel, etc. All of these changes imply changes in the VAT calculation, as the money is received immediately. Every change means a new entry on the page and it is important that the booking is complete,” explains Timmotalo.
According to FMJ representatives, the sales side is currently 100% automated. Suppliers, which are mostly hotels, enter the invoices themselves on the Hotelliveeb.ee extranet. From there, the entry is transferred to the accounting software, but to pay the invoices, a payment export file has to be created manually and imported into the bank. “That’s where the accountant puts the coffee cup down and does a bit of work,” Timmotalo says with a smile, adding, “Ideally, we want to see the possibility that when the invoice goes to the accounting programme, a payment order is automatically generated and sent to the bank, and all that’s left is to approve it.” At the moment, the programme is still being improved in cooperation between the parties involved, because, although the accountants say that everything works in general, there are still situations that need to be corrected manually.
“All in all, this is a very exciting challenge for us, which has been accompanied by intense reflection and positive emotions that the solutions we have found have worked. We would like to have more partners like Hotelliveeb.ee,” said Kaie Moisa. “Thanks to this system, the life of accountants will be easier, but also the costs for businesses will be reduced, as accountants will spend fewer hours serving them.”
