From Paper to Profit: How Hospitality Finance Leaders Unlock Cash Flow with Automation
by The Ottimate Editorial Team
Hospitality finance teams today aren’t just digitizing their workflows — they’re turning their Accounts Payable (AP) operations into a strategic driver of profitability.
In an industry where thin margins, high vendor volume, and decentralized operations are the norm, every inefficiency in invoice processing and payment approval directly impacts cash flow. That’s why leading hotels, resorts, and clubs are turning to Ottimate to automate AP from end to end and see measurable financial gains as a result.
By removing friction in invoice capture, payment scheduling, and approval workflows, hospitality businesses:
- Cut processing costs by reducing manual work and physical check runs
- Optimize payment timing to take advantage of float and early pay discounts
- Prevent overpayments and catch discrepancies before they impact the bottom line
- Improve spend visibility to enable smarter decisions and tighter budget control
- Turn AP into a revenue stream with cashback on virtual card payments
With Ottimate as their AI copilot, hospitality finance leaders gain the agility, insight, and automation they need to protect working capital, streamline operations, and increase profitability at every step of the AP process.
In the stories that follow, you’ll see exactly how companies like Nivea Hospitality, NorthStone Country Club, and IRMG have modernized AP and turned back-office efficiency into bottom-line results.
Nivea Hospitality transforms payment ops to boost flexibility, cut costs, and protect margins
Nivea Hospitality is a leading third-party management and development partner of hotels and resorts. In addition, the company owns the contemporary and sophisticated Wallhouse Hotel brand. Each of Nivea Hospitality’s 12 locations has many vendors to pay for the goods and services that allow staff members to provide an exemplary customer experience.
Once Nivea Hospitality had successfully implemented Ottimate to transform its manual, paper-driven invoice process into an electronic, automated workflow, the company’s finance team looked for other ways to apply AP automation. Previously, they would manually issue each vendor payment check and spend a lot of time signing an entire stack of them. With Ottimate VendorPay, payments by check or any other method are now scheduled in advance and authorized from anywhere, giving Nivea Hospitality’s leadership team greater flexibility.
This shift isn’t just about convenience — it’s a strategic move that reduces late fees, minimizes administrative overhead, and ultimately boosts cash flow by giving finance leaders complete control over how and when payments go out.
“Because I’m the one who processes payments to the vendors, I used to have to be at my desk and write the checks,” said Vanessa Troyer, CFO at Nivea Hospitality. “So, I like that I can be on vacation and still get my check runs out or whatever else I need to do — I can do that from anywhere. That freed me up a lot.”
That kind of flexibility directly translates to profitability. With fewer delays, fewer errors, and automated scheduling, Nivea has turned formerly manual tasks into opportunities for operational savings.
Beyond flexibility, Nivea’s use of Ottimate has reduced the manual workload tied to physical check runs, lowering processing costs, reducing late payment penalties, and contributing to stronger vendor relationships that protect margins.
Some applications are dedicated solely to a single payment type, making it challenging to accommodate suppliers who prefer to be compensated in different ways. Nivea Hospitality used to rely primarily on check payments. While the company still uses these, VendorPay also offers the option to choose virtual cards or electronic bank-to-bank transfers, which make funds available faster.
“The ACH in VendorPay is wonderful,” said Karen Troyer, executive director at Nivea Hospitality. “Instead of sending checks, our vendors can get payment right away. We’ve also utilized it for our staff expense reports. We really enjoy the ACH part of it.”
Improving spend management and giving back time to spend with guests
Thirty minutes from downtown Charlotte, North Carolina, sits the quiet oasis of NorthStone Country Club. Here, members enjoy an 18-hole private golf course, tennis courts, a restaurant and bar, as well as a wide range of family amenities. To provide a calming, luxurious experience and fully stocked facilities for its guests, the administrative departments have to function well behind the scenes.
Processing payments for everything from food and beverages to golf and tennis equipment used to be a time-consuming process. Once NorthStone found Ottimate, the invoice processing part of the equation soon became faster and easier. It was a logical choice to incorporate VendorPay, which enabled invoices that had been rapidly approved to be paid on time or even ahead of schedule.
NorthStone’s staff used to do many manual check runs each month. These involved two employees manually signing each check before it was mailed to a supplier. “Paper is way down,” said Steve Foster, CFO and assistant general manager at NorthStone. “Before, we’d write that manual check, we’d multi-sign it, and then the stub of that check would get stapled to whatever invoices were being paid.” Now, there’s only one check run per week, and it’s done automatically via VendorPay.
Cutting down on check runs and paperwork has also helped NorthStone better manage vendor relationships and payment timing — key levers for maintaining liquidity and improving margins.
Once an invoice was approved and a check cut, NorthStone used to retain paper copies of each. If a staff member wanted to review the details of a specific payment, they’d have to rummage through physical folders to find the right file. Ottimate enables authorized staff to find precise information instantly, delivering greater insight and tighter spend management controls.
“Now, you just open Ottimate, you find whatever you want, whenever you want it, wherever you are,” Foster said. “If you’re on the beach, and somebody says, ‘Hey, did you buy a driver from Titleist on August 3?’ you just go look and see if you got it right. It’s just an incredible time saver to instantly find what you’re looking for, anywhere you are. It becomes a system of record.”
Instant access to historical payment data enables faster audits, reduces disputes, and enhances spend oversight — all of which contribute to stronger financial performance and profitability.
This shift has not only freed up administrative time. Still, it has also made it easier to pay on time or early, opening the door to early payment discounts and improving spend visibility, a critical lever for protecting cash flow.
By automating invoice and payment processing, NorthStone has eliminated bottlenecks, streamlined complex processes, and reduced turnaround times. This has not only enabled employees to be more productive and effective in their roles but also freed up bandwidth to focus on the most critical priority for any hospitality business: serving customers.
“For me, it’s all about efficiency,” Foster said. “I think that the more efficient we can be in things like paying bills, the more time we have to spend with our members, which is where we make our money. It’s all about people, right? We’re in the people business. [Ottimate gives] time back to the department heads, so they can do what I think are important things. Spend time with your employees, spend time with your members, and we’ll all do really well.”
By reclaiming time and eliminating manual work, the club is not only becoming more member-focused — it’s also operating with a leaner, more margin-friendly finance process.
Creating better vendor relationships and managing cash flow
For any hospitality company, establishing and maintaining solid relationships with vendors and managing daily cash flow are essential. And yet, with manual AP processes, staff members can become overwhelmed by paperwork and menial tasks, such as data entry. Let’s examine how some companies are utilizing AP automation to free up more time for managing supplier relationships and overseeing spending.
The International Restaurant Management Group (IRMG) used to struggle to process payments efficiently, requiring hours of work from senior staff members who needed to authorize them. As both a franchisor and franchisee, this quick-service restaurant group must compensate suppliers for goods and services delivered to 140 locations in multiple countries, and so needed a better way to complete one-off and regular payments. The company turned to Ottimate.
“We still do [paper checks] in some cases, but we’re able to reduce the check process itself drastically, save a lot of time, and also [offer] ACH and vCard usage,” said Matt Lau, management consultant for IRMG’s finance and operations department.
And every payment shifted to ACH or virtual card helps IRMG cut mailing costs, reduce delays, and mitigate fraud risk — which directly protects margins across their international footprint.
A member of the accounting team used to sit at their computer, painstakingly matching each line of the payment register with check details. Now that VendorPay performs this function automatically, there’s more time to concentrate on other tasks. By increasing the use of electronic payments through VendorPay, IRMG has reduced the risk of checks being lost in the mail. The company has also been able to renegotiate its net set terms with certain suppliers.
“We used to have net 30 in a lot of places, and now everybody wants payment immediately,” said Lau. “Without Ottimate, it would probably be a nightmare to try to get that payment done.”
Facilitating such rapid remuneration has not only made the payments process more convenient for IRMG’s staff but also improved relationships with vendors. In the past, if one of them had a query about payment, it would have triggered a lengthy search for the correct paperwork. However, with VendorPay in place, there’s greater visibility into details such as the date a check was cut or an ACH transfer was initiated, and this data is just a click away.
“Sometimes vendors will ask, ‘Hey, what happened to our payment?’” Lau said. “Ottimate helped us have all that information right there, and it prevents any hold-up of food deliveries to our restaurants. Our vendors love it.”
These insights allow IRMG to negotiate better terms, ensure timely delivery, and prevent costly hold-ups — all of which translate to real financial gains.
In addition to expediting payments made by check and ACH, VendorPay has enabled IRMG to utilize virtual card (vCard) transactions. The finance department can set parameters, such as the dollar amount, expiration date, and purchase type, providing greater control over employee spending. This method also allows IRMG to take advantage of cashback.
“We’ve probably been using the vCard for about three years now, and we probably make at least a thousand payments a month, between check, ACH, and vCard,” Lau said. “Not doing anything [extra] and getting money back is definitely a plus.”
This cashback model effectively turns the company’s AP process into a revenue stream, allowing IRMG to earn on routine expenses that would otherwise go uncompensated.
Gaining greater control of cash flow and simplifying payment approvals
Many hospitality companies have progressed beyond manually issuing payments. And yet even if they’re using some sort of software, it can still be a clunky and labor-intensive process. This was the case for The Club at Ravenna, a golf and lifestyle club situated in Colorado’s picturesque Waterton Canyon.
“Our bill pay process used to be just paying out of Jonas and printing checks,” said Stephanie Liby, accounting manager. “We’d put a little packet together for our CFO to approve. We’d have the check on the front and the actual physical copy of the vendor invoice behind it. And then she would go through and sign everything, and then we would put them in mail. It was very manual before.”
This manual process also introduced delays and compliance risk. With Ottimate, Ravenna has eliminated those inefficiencies — preserving cash flow and preventing costly errors.
With VendorPay in place, most of these steps are now unnecessary, as payments can be set up and authorized in a single, centralized system. “Now we do all of our bill payments through Ottimate,” Liby said. “It sends out the checks for us.”
This speed has helped avoid late payment fees, reduce paper overhead, and maintain liquidity without sacrificing oversight — directly supporting the club’s bottom line.
Replacing the old payment process with the Ottimate solution means the finance team no longer needs to collate physical documents. It has also simplified the payment approval stage.
“Every week, I just set up payments through a certain date. It’s pretty seamless,” Liby said. “Our CFO isn’t in the office a lot, so it’s great that she can approve those payments from anywhere. I just feel like it’s more efficient for everyone.”
For Ravenna, that efficiency adds up to real ROI: fewer late fees, better control of cash disbursement, and reduced need for manual check oversight.
Gaining spending insights
Utilizing an integrated payments management solution can also provide greater insight into how a company spends its money. Golder Hospitality is a full-service hotel management, development, and consulting group. VendorPay is enabling Kirsten Haley, the company’s AP manager, to more easily determine which vendors to pay and when, rather than having a single set schedule for all of them.
“I do like the fact that we can go in and tell Ottimate when to schedule which payment,” said Shelby Tufenk, controller at Golder. “So Kirsten pretty much just goes in and says, ‘Yes, let’s cut all of these.’ We have a lot more control over our cash flow management with Ottimate.”
By enabling flexible payment windows and precise scheduling, Ottimate helps Golder avoid interest charges, hold cash longer when needed, and take advantage of early pay incentives — a direct boost to financial health.
Unifying invoice and payment processing in the Ottimate platform is also enabling Golder’s location managers to answer queries without needing to reach out to the finance team.
“A huge source of time savings for me is when a GM is looking to see if a specific invoice has been paid,” Haley said. “In the past, they were never able to figure that out on their own. I had to do it. With Ottimate, the GMs know that they can click on the invoice and see that it was paid.”
By equipping local teams with direct access to payment insights, Golder’s finance team reduced the time spent on internal inquiries and improved accountability, both of which contributed to more strategic cash use and more substantial vendor alignment.
Ready to turn AP from a cost center into a profit lever? Download our AP Automation Guide to learn how Ottimate helps hospitality finance teams boost margins, protect cash flow, and earn money on every payment.