Customer Story | Hotel Management
How Golder Hospitality Powers Growth with AP Automation
“One thing I really liked about Ottimate was that it understood hospitality. We’re a unique industry. And so whenever we’re looking at vendors, we need it to be a vendor that understands the space, because we’re an industry that doesn’t shut down.“
Founding
Invoices/month
Tech
CenterPoint Accounting
CIA
Paylocity
Founded in 2000 by seasoned hotel executive, Ken Golder, Golder Hospitality is a full-service hotel management, development, and consulting group. Based out of St. Paul, MN, Golder manages a portfolio of 14 hotel properties throughout the Midwest under well-known brands like Holiday Inn, Fairfield by Marriott, Country Inn & Suites, and more.
Growth is central to Golder Hospitalitiy’s work, and the company prides itself for not only regularly expanding its property portfolio, but also providing professional development opportunities for its staff.
But growth can be a challenge, and when the Golder team assessed its capacity to acquire new properties, they discovered an obstacle in onboarding and operations: the accounts payable (AP) process.
They knew that overcoming their AP challenges would be an important step towards continued growth and helping the team maintain a clear financial process — and keeping staff in control over it.
Paying Too Much for an Inconvenient Product
Golder’s first attempt to overhaul its accounts payable process was an effort to streamline the communication between property-level staff and the back office — both of whom were doing too much paperwork, says Golder Hospitality Controller, Shelby Tufenk.
“We were looking for a way to cut back on the amount of mail going back and forth. We wanted to simplify the whole process so that there wasn’t so much manual scanning and labeling going on.”
But the first AP automation solution they tried created more obstacles for the team.
“We were with a large incumbent solution, and I hated them,” Shelby says. “I felt it was beyond expensive for what it offered.”
Rather than simplifying the complex work of invoice processing, their new solution created more work for the team — and at a high cost. But that wasn’t the only issue they faced.
Because the solution didn’t integrate with Golder’s accounting software, General Managers at each property had to manually enter every invoice in order to code them to Golder’s chart of accounts. And they had to get it exactly right, or else they would be charged for it.
The AP team also tried using the system’s payment function, but the process created new challenges.
“The moment you approved a payment, it went into this queue,” explains Shelby. “And if you did not know the exact batch that the payment went into, it just sat. You then had to go through all these different batches to try to find that payment.”
Reaching out to customer support proved to be another obstacle for Shelby’s team.
“With big solutions like we had, you’re just a number. You’re faceless,” she says. “Supposedly we had a contact person, but that seemed to change quite frequently. Sometimes, I just didn’t know who it was.”
Shelby and the Golder Hospitality team decided it was time to find a new solution that better fit their needs.
A Solution Made for Hospitality
Shelby searched online for AP solutions and came across Ottimate, a product that fully understands how to support the world of hospitality.
One thing I really liked about Ottimate was that it understood hospitality. Hospitality is a unique industry. We’re not just a regular business. And so whenever we’re looking at vendors, we need it to be a vendor that understands the space, that is accessible 24/7 — because we’re an industry that doesn’t shut down.
In addition to Ottimate’s experience with the hospitality industry, Shelby and her team also appreciate the efficiency and ease of use compared to their previous AP solution.
“It’s just far more efficient than our old solution ever was, in my opinion,” shares Golder’s AP Manager, Kirsten Haley, who uses Ottimate every day. “Printing off a check register, I used to go cross-eyed. Ottimate is very friendly. You can organize it by company or by invoice number or however you want.”
With Ottimate, Golder Hospitality also receives concierge-level service they didn’t have with their former AP solution — starting with a custom-built integration with their accounting software, CenterPoint.
“Our accounting software is a little uncommon,” explains Shelby. “But it is really affordable, and it does exactly what we need it to do.”
Ottimate was able to build us a way to connect with our accounting software. I told them what I needed and — Boom! — they did it.
Streamlining with Invoice Automation & VendorPay
Ottimate put Golder’s on the path to more streamlined invoice processing and vendor payments by:
Making the AP Process Easier for GMs
Shelby and her team were able to leverage Ottimate to help General Managers at Golder’s various properties focus less time on AP — and more on running their hotels.
“I love the fact that every property has its own email address. After the invoices are automatically coded, the GM goes in and says, ‘Yep, this all looks good.’ Then Kirsten goes in to give final approval or make any changes. It’s so easy — it’s just one, two, three, done!
“At that point, we can just go into Ottimate and make any change we need. It’s just so user-friendly to go in and reassign an item’s GL code.”
The Shelby, Kirsten, and the AP team aren’t the only ones who appreciate this new process — the GMs also enjoy having less on their plates.
“I’d rather have it this way than having the GMs spend more time on invoices,” says Shelby. “I’ve heard nothing but good things about Ottimate from them.”
Processing Invoices Faster
Shelby is also a fan of how fast individual invoices are processed with Ottimate.
One thing I love about Ottimate is the turnaround time, from scanning to when [the invoice] is available. It’s a lot faster than our old system. A lot faster.
“I like how once you scan something, you can actually see its progress,” adds Kirsten. “Even if it hasn’t fully uploaded, you can click on it, and it tells you what property, what invoice, and the amount and everything before it even comes in. So that’s nice.”
Paying Vendors with Ease through VendorPay
With Ottimate’s VendorPay payment automation, the team can quickly select what gets paid — and when. “I do like the fact that we can go in and tell Ottimate when to schedule which payment,” says Shelby. “So Kirsten pretty much just goes in and says, ‘Yes, let’s cut all of these.’”
According to Shelby, this gives the Golder team greater control over their cash flow.
We have a lot more control over our cash flow management with Ottimate.
Providing GMs the Resources They Need
With a digital filing cabinet automatically storing their AP records directly in the Ottimate platform, the entire Golder Hospitality team can quickly and easily access the information they need, when they need it — no matter if they’re looking for information across properties or between site GMs and back office personnel.
“A huge source of time savings for me is when a GM is looking to see if a specific invoice has been paid,” explains Kirsten.
“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. They can actually hover over the page to see the check number, click on the check number, and get a copy of the check. It’s incredible how much time that user-friendliness alone has saved me.”
Receiving White Glove Support from Ottimate
With Ottimate, Shelby, Kirsten, and the Golder team receive superior support whenever they need help processing invoices, making payments, or navigating the Ottimate system.
“Ottimate’s customer support is way better than what we were on,” Shelby says. “We actually have a contact person who Kirsten reaches out to whenever she has questions — and she gets a response!”
Ottimate’s support team is also instrumental when it comes to onboarding new properties. Because getting additional properties up and running with Ottimate has been such a breeze, Shelby is able to confidently look ahead as Golder continues to expand and add new hotels to their roster.
“When you add a new company on Ottimate, it’s basically just, ‘Here’s the new email address, here’s all the information’ — and boom! You’re good to go. Plus, [Ottimate’s] setup costs are beyond reasonable, which is great for adding new properties.”
A User-Friendly Future with Ottimate
For a busy and growing hotel management company like Golder Hospitality, Ottimate has proven to be an indispensable resource in improving efficiency, communication, and financial organization.
The biggest thing I find with Ottimate is the simplicity of it, the user-friendliness of it.
You don’t need all that behind the scenes stuff and complex setup,” says Shelby. “No. When I need to add a new company, here’s the information, here’s who’s attached to it, the end.”
Kirsten agrees. “It’s definitely made my life a lot easier.”
Ready to transform your AP process? Schedule a demo and learn how Ottimate can help your hospitality management company today!