Basware Solutions for the Hospitality, Food & Beverage Industry

AP automation for hospitality: streamline invoice processing for hotels, restaurants & food service

Hospitality businesses—from hotels and resorts to restaurants and catering companies—face unique AP challenges. Managing invoices from hundreds of suppliers across multiple locations, preventing duplicate payments, avoiding late payment penalties, and maintaining accurate records for employee meal benefits all create significant workload for finance teams. Manual invoice processing puts your business at risk of data entry errors, lost invoices, payment delays, and strained supplier relationships.

With our AP Automation solutions, businesses in the Hospitality and Food sector can eliminate repetitive and time-consuming manual processes, instantly connect with suppliers and other stakeholders, and gain full visibility throughout the invoice lifecycle.

Why Basware?
Achievable KPIs
Customer Success
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The benefits of AP Automation for the Hospitality, Food & Beverage sector

Process and approve invoices from any location, at any time, on any device—perfect for hospitality businesses with multiple properties, remote managers, and distributed teams. Connect invoice stakeholders, approvers, and vendors for faster decision-making—eliminating endless email threads and accelerating invoice resolution from weeks to days.

Capture every invoice with 100% accuracy by connecting all your suppliers with the largest open e-invoicing network .
Gain critical visibility over spend to contain costs and use funds more strategically.
Automatically match invoices to purchase orders, good receipts and contracts to achieve touchless invoice processing.
Ensure global VAT compliance and comply with global invoicing regulations .

Keep up with changing regulations by relying on our local expertise in countless global markets.
Automate non-PO invoices using custom spend plans, AI coding, and better approval workflow.
Integrate seamlessly with your existing ERP or accounting system—whether you use Sage, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, SAP, or other platforms. Implementation takes weeks, not months, and maintains your existing approval workflows and internal controls.
Develop a robust AP strategy with experts who know how to get a greater and faster ROI with an AP-first approach.

What can you achieve with Basware when True Automation happens?

89%

Touchless processing

99.7%

Electronic invoicing

85%

Paid on time

Common AP Challenges in the Hospitality Industry

Finance teams in hotels, restaurants, resorts, and food service businesses face unique accounting challenges:

High Invoice Volume: Restaurants and hotels process thousands of invoices monthly from food distributors, beverage suppliers, linen services, maintenance contractors, and more.
Variable and Fixed Costs: Managing seasonal fluctuations in expenses while maintaining accurate records of both recurring and one-time purchases.
Employee Meal Benefits: Properly accounting for meals provided to staff as fringe benefits, ensuring compliance with tax regulations and payroll requirements.
Multiple Payment Methods: Reconciling revenues and expenses across credit cards, cash, checks, and digital payment platforms.
Supplier Relationship Management: Maintaining positive relationships with critical suppliers through on-time payments, especially for essential goods and services.
Compliance and Audit Requirements: Maintaining detailed records for tax audits, food safety compliance, labor regulations, and financial reporting to stakeholders. Manual AP processes can't keep pace with these demands. AP automation for hospitality eliminates bottlenecks, reduces errors, and gives finance teams complete visibility and control.

AP Automation Delivers More Than Time Savings

While reducing invoice processing time from days to minutes is valuable, AP automation for hospitality delivers strategic advantages:

Strengthen Supplier Relationships: Pay suppliers on time, every time. Reduce errors and disputes. Build trust with your most critical vendors—from food distributors to maintenance contractors.
Improve Cash Flow Management: Gain real-time visibility into upcoming payments. Capture early payment discounts. Make strategic decisions about when and how to pay.
Enable Strategic Finance: Free your accounting team from repetitive data entry so they can focus on financial analysis, cost optimization, budget planning, and supporting business growth.
Support Multi-Property Expansion: Scale your AP operations seamlessly as you add new locations, without adding headcount or complexity.
Ensure Compliance: Maintain complete audit trails, ensure VAT compliance across jurisdictions, and meet regulatory requirements automatically.

basware-customer-teaser-bilderberg-industry-page

Bilderberg Case Study

Bilderberg operates 18 hotels across the Netherlands, each with unique supplier relationships and purchasing needs. With approximately 40,000 annual invoices flowing through property managers and central accounting, manual processing created bottlenecks that impacted operations and supplier relationships.

Each invoice was sent to the hotel that placed the order and was manually entered into SAP. As part of a corporate reorganization, the company decided that to achieve greater efficiency, they needed to automate their invoicing process.

Read how Bilderberg achieved significant cost reductions and efficiency gains with Basware.

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AP Automation for Every Type of Hospitality Business

Basware's AP automation solution scales to meet the needs of hospitality organizations of all sizes:

Hotel Groups & Resorts: Manage invoices across multiple properties, standardize approval workflows, and maintain centralized visibility while empowering property-level decision-making.
Restaurant Chains: Process high volumes of food and beverage invoices, track costs across locations, and ensure consistent supplier payment practices.
Independent Hotels & Restaurants: Eliminate manual data entry, avoid late payment fees, and free up staff to focus on guest satisfaction and operations.
Catering & Food Service Companies: Handle seasonal volume fluctuations, manage diverse supplier bases, and maintain accurate cost tracking for events and contracts.
Hospitality Management Companies: Manage AP operations for multiple client properties on a single platform with complete segregation and reporting.

What does it take to make it all happen?

Intelligent
Automation.

Sophisticated invoice-centric AI, trained on an unrivaled dataset of over 2.2Bn invoices, delivering real ROI.

All Invoices. Everywhere.

One system across the entire invoice lifecycle to consolidate systems, processes and simplify your business.

Full Compliance. Complete Control.

The world’s only end-to-end, dual-sided compliance engine for complete invoice lifecycle management.

FAQs

What other industries do you support with AP Automation?

At Basware, we are proud to deliver an AP Automation solution that's versatile to meet the needs of many industries. We firmly believe that no industry should be left out when it comes to streamlining their accounts payable processes, which is exactly what companies achieve with our solution.

Whether you're operating in the biopharma, construction, consumer goods, education, energy and utilities, financial services, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, oil and gas, real estate, retail and ecommerce, or transportation and logistics industry, rest assured, we've got you covered.

Each of these industries has unique needs and challenges, and our solutions are tailored to meet those specific demands. To see how we serve your industry, visit our industry-specific pages and explore how we can make a difference in your accounts payable operations.

What is AP Automation?

Dive into the world of AP automation, where manual tasks are digitized for enhanced efficiency. Discover its mechanics, benefits, and financial considerations, alongside answers to common queries and strategies for stakeholder engagement. Learn more ->

Why choose AP Automation?

As businesses seek efficiency and cost-effectiveness, the transition from manual to automated accounts payable (AP) processes emerges as a pivotal strategy. Delve into the realm of AP automation, unraveling its multifaceted benefits and constructing a compelling business case for its adoption. Learn more ->

What are the AP Automation challenges?

Discover the landscape of AP automation, from its promising benefits to the hurdles it may present. Explore our guide to uncover insights and strategies for successful implementation and optimization.

What is the AP Automation adoption and implementation process?

Explore the practicalities of adopting and implementing AP automation, from understanding the process flow to developing a comprehensive project plan. Gain insights into key steps and considerations, accompanied by answers to frequently asked questions for a well-informed approach. Learn more ->

What is an Accounts Payable audit?

Check out our comprehensive Accounts Payable Internal Audit Checklist, covering everything you need to know about auditing your AP operations. From fraud detection to compliance assurance, this guide explores the importance of AP audits and internal controls, offering practical insights to streamline operations and enhance efficiency.

How does AP automation help restaurants and hotels manage high invoice volumes?

Hospitality businesses typically receive dozens or hundreds of invoices daily from food suppliers, beverage distributors, service contractors, and other vendors. AP automation captures every invoice automatically—regardless of format—extracts data with AI-powered accuracy, routes for approval based on your rules, and matches to purchase orders and contracts. This eliminates manual data entry and allows your team to process in hours what previously took days.

Can AP automation handle the unique accounting requirements of the hospitality industry?

Yes. Basware's AP automation solution accommodates hospitality-specific needs including: employee meal benefits accounting, segregation of revenues by payment method, management of variable and fixed costs, seasonal expense fluctuations, and multi-property cost allocation. The system is flexible enough to handle your industry's complexity while maintaining compliance with tax and regulatory requirements.

How quickly can a hotel or restaurant implement AP automation?

Basware implementations are designed to be fast and minimize disruption. Most hospitality businesses are processing invoices in weeks, not months. The system integrates with your existing ERP or accounting software and maintains your current approval workflows, so your team can adopt the solution with minimal training.

Will AP automation work across multiple hotel or restaurant locations?

Absolutely. Basware is designed for multi-location hospitality businesses. Property managers can approve invoices for their locations while central accounting maintains visibility and control across all properties. The system scales seamlessly as you add new hotels, restaurants, or properties.