HFTP Blog
January 23, 2018

Exploring the GHACP: A Valuable Resource for Hospitality Finance Professionals

Blog Finance HFTP Membership Research
Written by HFTP Publications

HFTP has developed a unique resource for the hospitality industry — the Global Hospitality Accounting Common Practices (GHACP). The GHACP is an online resource and guide for hospitality industry accounting practices, which includes four major parts: operating schedules, indextionary, HFTP Global Database and industry common practices.

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  • Operating Schedules: Examples of summary and departmental operating schedules by region that can be viewed alone or compared side-by-side to other regions.

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  • Indextionary: Combination of the words index and dictionary. A comprehensive database of items compiled from participating hotels worldwide, which can be compared across regions.

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  • HFTP Global Database: All items in the GHACP are combined into the HFTP Global Database that allows users to conduct a global inquiry and search for individual items.

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  • Common Practices: Access to articles providing financial benchmarks, checklists and other accepted hospitality industry accounting and financial standards.

Examine Operating Schedules...For anyone who works with financial information, it is often a challenge to know where to record specific items — or for users of financial reports to understand what is recorded in each department or account....For example, the 11th edition of the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI) incorporated a new schedule for information and telecommunication (IT) systems. This schedule, along with the entire USALI 11th edition, is available in the GHACP. Simply search for the schedule you need, and then click into the accounts to find out what is included....In the following example, we looked up "contract services" in the IT schedule....
Searching for Items in the HFTP Global Database...Another popular use of the GHACP is the search of items in the HFTP Global Database. Currently, the database includes information from the USALI, 10th and 11th editions; the Uniform System of Financial Reporting for Clubs (USFRC), 7th edition; and data for properties based in Hong Kong; Shanghai, China; the Netherlands; United Kingdom; and France....In total, the database hosts over 30,000 items. In keeping with the IT theme, the following are the top five results for a search on "software."...
...Overall, there are more than 75 items in the database with "software" as part of the item name. Examples include software leases, software support, website software, golf course software, software application upgrades, etc....Accessing the GHACP...https://youtu.be/tyoroeCSMr8...HFTP members have free access to the GHACP, while non-members can purchase a subscription to this valuable resource. To access the GHACP on the HFTP website, you will be asked to enter your HFTP website login and password....
Tanya Venegas, MBA, MHM, CHIA is the executive director at the HFTP Americas Research Center at the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston. Contact Tanya via email at [email protected] or via phone at +1 (713) 743-1839.
accounting education finance GHACP HFTP hospitality knowledge exchange research resource search