Most of the accounting integrations that Mews has to offer in our Mews Marketplace are generally built and managed by our tech partner, Omniboost. Their aim is to simply facilitate the connection. They do not manage the setup on either the Mews or the accounting side of things. They merely help to maintain the bridge between the two.
This article aims to shed some light on the process of setup.
STEP 1: Initiating the setup
In order to kick off the process, follow these simple steps
-
Head to the Mews Marketplace and search for your desired integration.
-
Before clicking “Connect” ensure that the accountant or person who’ll be undertaking the accounting setup is the one who adds the Integration via the Mews Marketplace.
-
Once the integration is added, the Omniboost team will be notified and will reach out to the person who initiated the setup.
STEP 2: Accounting Category Setup
Before the Omniboost Team can commence building the Accounting Integration for your property, the Accounting Category setup is required to be completed.
Follow these steps
In order to kick this process off you will be required to fill in your Accounting Categories by heading to (Main Menu > Property > Finance > Accounting Categories). An Accounting Category is a “Bucket” utilized to classify your revenue and payment streams. Think of them as “revenue buckets”:
-
Name: The name of the accounting category that will appear in reports (e.g. Minibar, Accommodation etc.). This will be used internally in Mews and doesn’t appear anywhere else.
-
Code: An internal code that is included as part of the Account report export.
-
External Code: These are not utilized for Omniboost’s accounting systems and are typically used by Point-of-Sale and Event Management software.
-
Cost Centre Code: This is used to identify the departments to which costs should be allocated. An example of this is if you have multiple Accounting Categories that you’d like to be consolidated under one cost centre in your accounting software. This won’t be required if you don’t use cost centre’s in your software.
-
Ledger Accounting Code: This will be a mandatory field as this is what Omniboost’s accounting systems utilize to facilitate the data pull from Mews to your system. Think of this (similarly to the other codes) as a way to map between the 2 systems. If this code is not filled in, then your accounting software will not be able to perform the sync.
-
Posting Account Code: Used for double-entry bookkeeping. This field is specific to accounting exports. Omniboost accounting systems will not require this.
-
Classification: Hardcoded classifications used for some integration partners that require specification of what each accounting category is used for. Omniboost will not require this.
Please note that the above codes should be provided by your accountant or your accounting system. If you’re using the software for the first time, then ideally you can generate your own codes. This entire process should involve your accountant.
STEP 3: Editable History Window
After the above step is complete, it’s important to check that your editable history window is adjusted to reflect how frequently you’d like your data to be sent to your accounting software. The reason this needs to be in line with your accounting software stems from the fact that if the software pulls data from Mews to the system, we don’t want the data to be modified later in Mews.
For example, you’ve got data that needs to be sent for the 1st of August 2023. If your editable history window is set to 2 days then the accounting pull will be delayed by 3 days meaning it will be sent on 4th August 2023. Why? This will ensure that by 4th August any data from the 1st of August 2023 isn’t modifiable.
STEP 4: Receivable Tracking configuration
The next step is to ensure that your Receivable Tracking Option, the functionality that allows you to manage your accounts receivables in Mews, is switched off (Main Menu > Settings > Property > Finance > Accounting Configuration). The integration will manage this automatically by pulling invoices leading to duplicates in both Mews and your accounting system. More info on this here.
STEP 5: Set up accounting flows
Once the above is completed, contact Omniboost. They will want to nominate an accounting flow for you to use: Consumed or Closed. (explained below)
-
Consumed: For the “Consumed” accounting approach, the integration extracts revenue and payment data from Mews based on when it’s consumed in the PMS.
-
Closed (Journal Entries): For the “Closed” approach (Journal entries) the accounting integration captures closed bill revenues (including payments) from the accounting report, creating a corresponding journal entry in your accounting platform. Revenues tied to invoices are transmitted as sales entries to your accounting platform.
-
Closed (Bills & Invoices): Individual bills and invoices are shared with the accounting platform as sales entries, including debtor information. The integration can choose whether to include or exclude payments associated with closed bills.
Overall, the entire process aims to make things as easy as possible. Do make use of the following tricks:
-
Always involve your accountant when undertaking this particular setup. It’s important that they’re as involved as possible in the setup. Mews nor Omniboost are responsible for generating the codes.
-
If you’re an existing property, then the codes already exist and it’s simply a matter of looking through your software and transferring them to Mews. If you’re a new property, involve someone with accounting knowledge to assist.
-
Tax rate codes in the Mews accounting configuration are used similar to ledger account codes and are simply to map your tax codes from Mews to the accounting systems. Think of it as a way for your system to know which code to use to pull VAT/taxes.
-
You can contact Omniboost on the following email: [email protected].
-
Once you’ve completed the setup don’t forget that the team will require access to your system with admin rights. The email address is listed via their help guides or you can request it via the aforementioned email.
Do note that the Omniboost team have a relatively extensive article in their knowledge base.
Lastly, don’t panic! Accounting setups can be viewed as quite daunting but take it from a guy like me that doesn’t enjoy numbers, it’s relatively easy if you follow the outlined steps.