A shared credit card is a single credit card (or a master account with sub-cards) that is used to make purchases across multiple hotel entities. For example, a regional manager might use one American Express card to buy supplies for three different properties. The way you set up this card in Inn-Flow depends on how your enterprise plans to reconcile and settle the monthly expenses.
Note: Shared credit cards require the enterprise (corporate team) to manually split out each hotel's portion of the statement and decide how payment is handled. If possible, using separate credit cards for each entity is simpler because each card can be reconciled at the entity level without manual allocation.
There are three setup options. Read through each to determine which matches your enterprise's process.
Option 1: Card set up as a Vendor (enterprise splits the statement)
Use this when: A single credit card is used across multiple hotels, and the enterprise will calculate each hotel's portion of the monthly statement.
How it works: The credit card is set up as a Vendor at the entity level (not as a credit card Account in your Chart of Accounts). Each hotel enters its transactions through the AP Inbox as they occur, and at the end of the billing cycle, the enterprise tells each hotel how much to pay.
Setup and daily use:
Create the credit card as a Vendor (for example, "American Express") under each entity that uses the card.
When entering a purchase in the AP Inbox, set the Vendor field to the credit card name (e.g., American Express) and the Sub-Vendor field to the actual place of purchase (e.g., Stanford Plumbing).
Set the Payment Method to Manual ACH if you pay via ACH, or Check if you pay by check. Be consistent, because you will typically make a single payment for all transactions at the end of the period.
End-of-cycle settlement:
Corporate calculates each hotel's portion of the credit card statement.
Go to Accounting > Payments for the entity and review all invoices entered against the credit card vendor.
Verify the total dollar amount of all invoices for the period matches the hotel's allocated portion.
If the totals do not match, compare what is entered against the statement to identify missing invoices. The entity will need to submit any missing receipts through the AP Inbox.
Once the totals match, click Pay to post the ACH payment or print the check.
Note: If the entity pays their portion via Manual ACH, the entity processes the payment online through the credit card vendor's portal. The payment entry in Inn-Flow records the transaction for accounting purposes.
Option 2: Card set up as a Credit Card Account (sub-accounts with separate statements)
Use this when: The card has sub-accounts where each hotel gets its own statement (or can access a sub-account view), and each entity is responsible for reconciling their own card activity.
How it works: Each sub-account card is set up as a Credit Card Account under that hotel's Accounts page in Inn-Flow. This lets each entity reconcile their card against their own sub-account statement.
Setup:
Go to Administration > Accounts for the entity.
Add the card as a Credit Card Account. See How do I add a Credit Card Account? for setup steps.
Set up Credit Card Sync so new transactions are pulled in automatically each day.
This option also works when each entity has a completely separate credit card that happens to roll up to a master account for billing. As long as the entity has access to their own statement, they can reconcile independently.
Option 3: Card set up under the Enterprise (no sub-account statements available)
Use this when: A credit card is used at multiple locations and the statement is not broken out by sub-account. The enterprise manages the card centrally.
Setup:
Go to Accounting > Accounts and select the Enterprise entity (for example, HM101).
Add the card as a Credit Card Account under the enterprise. See How do I add a Credit Card Account?
Set up Credit Card Sync to pull in transactions automatically.
Entering invoices for hotel expenses:
When entering an invoice for a purchase made with the enterprise card but expensed to a specific hotel, use the hotel's entity code in the COA breakdown. The Vendor field will be the place of purchase, and the entity paying the bill will be the enterprise code in the top left.
For example, if hotel RIBF incurs a $2,844.80 plumbing expense on the enterprise card (HM101), you would enter the invoice under HM101 and assign the Plumbing COA line to entity RIBF.
This creates a receivable from RIBF to HM101, which can be settled through Reimbursement.
Reconciliation: The credit card account is reconciled against the monthly statement, similar to bank reconciliation. During reconciliation, the Statement Ending Balance should reflect each card's portion of the total statement.
For credit cards set up under the enterprise that are shared across multiple hotels (mostly for Regional Managers or Corporate Employees), credit card sync can be set up through the normal sync process.
How shared card transactions appear in reports
Transactions entered against a shared credit card appear on the P&L of whichever entity is assigned in the COA breakdown. If you use Option 1 (Vendor setup), the expense hits the hotel's P&L when the invoice is entered. If you use Option 3 (Enterprise setup with cross-entity COA coding), the expense hits the assigned hotel's P&L and creates an intercompany receivable on the enterprise Balance Sheet until settled through Reimbursement.