Inventory and invoices are two critical elements of the hospitality business that, when optimized, can revolutionize workflows and increase efficiency. Management software tools like Fintech and Yellow Dog, a food and beverage inventory system, work harmoniously to create a seamless environment where all inventory and invoices are accounted for and organized. This allows hospitality businesses to pinpoint areas of improvement with their food and beverage inventory, streamline invoice payments and invoice data ingestion, and save time on manual processes.
Let’s go over three ways that the Fintech and Yellow Dog integration serves hospitality businesses and how they can use this integration to be more successful.
1) Automated Payments Keep Businesses Compliant With Regulations
Alcohol invoices differ from their food counterparts in that there are strict regulatory terms regarding payment. For example, there can be cash-on-delivery (COD) invoices requiring payment upon delivery, or there can be term payments, which allow businesses to use credit purchases and pay the invoices on a specific date of each month. These regulations differ by state and by type of alcohol (beer, wine, or spirits).
Fintech supports electronic funds transfer (EFT) payments, which are faster, error-free payments made per the terms of each invoice. With Fintech in place, businesses know that their invoices will be paid on time, every time. This prevents disruptions in deliveries and helps businesses remain compliant with their state alcohol regulations.
2) EDI File Integration for Line-Item Invoice Data
Think of how many invoices a hospitality business receives across its food and beverage inventory. If not managed properly, invoices can pile up, there can be duplicate or missed payments, and businesses may not even realize what they have purchased. Strong invoice management involves inputting line-item data into a back-office or accounting system, which can be a time-consuming process vulnerable to human error. One way to streamline this process is through electronic data interchange (EDI). This keeps inventory systems updated so hospitality businesses can see where their margins are, where they might be bleeding a bit, and where they capitalize on bulk ordering to optimize spending.
Fintech compiles all invoices from each alcohol distributor and processes them into a single EDI file for Yellow Dog to import. This file contains line-item data that is GL-coded to the business’s specific needs, which is immensely helpful given the complex nature of beverage alcohol naming conventions on distributor invoices. Fintech is able to ingest those abbreviations, translate them into understandable descriptions of each item, categorize them, and provide that EDI feel for seamless data transmission.
From there, Yellow Dog has an accurate and error-free measure of a business’s alcohol inventory and can begin working its magic with calculating replenishment needs, analysis reporting, purchase insights, and more.
3) Finding Areas for Inventory Improvement
Fintech also has purchase data insights drawn from its line-item data integration. Businesses can examine cost variance reports that highlight different prices paid for the same product by the same distributor across different locations. This data can be used to make more informed decisions with distributors as to why there was a price change and possibly identify any areas where purchase orders can be altered to better protect margins. There are also reports on top products and split case fees that could be causing margin erosion.
Yellow Dog uses the insights from these reports and couples them with its own inventory analysis to create an informed action plan on how to optimize alcohol spend for maximum profitability. There is a trove of information lying within invoice purchase data, which is why it is so crucial to have the most updated and accurate records in your back-office system. Fintech and Yellow Dog work in tandem to translate this data and find the best path forward to running a more successful operation.
Leverage the Yellow Dog + Fintech Integration to Your Advantage
Running a hospitality business is complicated, but there are plenty of tools available to drive profitability and alleviate some of the burden. Fintech’s alcohol invoice payment and data capabilities, combined with Yellow Dog’s intuitive inventory management solutions, are the perfect fit for hospitality businesses looking to maximize their efficiency.
Learn more about the integration and how it helps hospitality businesses of all sizes with better alcohol management here.
Read more about Yellow Dog on their site.
