HFTP continues development of world’s first global hospitality industry financial comparison database

The Global Hospitality Accounting Common Practices (GHACP) is a valuable tool that provides users a way to compare global hospitality accounting practices from five different countries, plus the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI), 10th and 11th editions. Developed by Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®) and released in Fall 2014, the association continues to build this important resource and is now reaching out for input to expand the database. To further provide the useful data found in the database, HFTP has added item definitions from the GHACP to PineappleSearch.com®, the association's hospitality-specific search site.

The GHACP allows users to learn and compare how full service hotels structure their management accounts, prepare internal financial reporting and target due diligence procedures for foreign investment opportunities. Detailed operating financial reporting practices included are from the United States, Netherlands, United Kingdom, France, Hong Kong and Shanghai, China; as well as from the USALI, 10th and 11th editions and the Uniform System of Reporting for Clubs, 7th edition.

"Our GHACP database is a global effort to provide an accessible online source of resources and guidance for hospitality industry accounting practices," said HFTP CEO, Frank Wolfe, CAE. "This is a powerful and useful tool designed to be used by hospitality accounting and financial professionals at all levels."

The resource was created with the intention that it would be continuously developed to follow for the ever-changing hospitality industry. Access is available to students and educational establishments as well as practitioners. Currently, the GHACP is available for free to HFTP members and for a nominal fee to nonmembers.

"Everyone who is in academics, from professors to students, can all benefit from this product," said Agnes DeFranco Ed.D., CHAE, professor at The University of Houston. "Just by being part of this project, I have learned so much and have shared that new knowledge with my students. This website is such an awesome educational resource for academics in the hospitality industry."

This year, item definitions from the GHACP will now be available on PineappleSearch.com. Currently, there is a selection available and the complete addition of 5,000+ GHACP database documents is in progress through 2017. Also, the GHACP website has been redesigned and integrated into the HFTP website. Tanya Venegas, MBA, MHM, CHIA, executive director at the HFTP Americas Research Center at the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston, wrote a blog post, which can be found on HFTP's official blog HFTP Connect, of interesting items found in the GHACP database.

Stay tuned to HFTP's main webpages: HFTP/HITEC; the world's first hospitality-specific search engine: PineappleSearch® – mobile app available via iTunes App Store and Google Play; HFTP's official blog: HFTP Connect; HFTP's industry-specific, informational news sites: HITEC Bytes (technology), HFTP Club Bytes (club), HFTP Finance Bytes (finance) and HFTP News (association); and HFTP's social media sites: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter (@HFTP), Instagram (HFTP_HITEC), YouTube and Flickr for the latest updates.

For more information, visit the GHACP website or contact University of Houston Professor Agnes DeFranco Ed.D., CHAE at [email protected]. Companies and/or financial professionals who are interested in participating in the global database or sponsoring the project may contact HFTP at [email protected].