A Shared Credit Card is a single credit card that is used at multiple entities. The way that a shared credit card is setup within Inn-Flow depends primarily on how the enterprise (or Accounting Team) intends to reconcile and settle the monthly expenses associated with the shared card.
Note: The use of shared credit cards imposes operational obligations on the enterprise (corporate team) to distinguish, or split out, each hotels' portion of the statement manually and decide whether the payment is sent to the credit card company or to the enterprise directly, if the enterprise pays the credit card.
An alternative option, with less work for the enterprise, would be to have separate credit cards for each entity so that they can be reconciled at the entity level.
Options for Shared Card Card Setup:
1. Option 1: Use this option when a single credit card is used to make purchases across multiple entities where the statement has to be manually split out to the different entities.
2. Option 2: Use this option when a shared credit card has unique sub-accounts, where each sub-account has their portion separated and reconciled against each account. This is sometimes referred to a "master" account where all sub-account balances roll up to the master total.
3. Option 3: Use this option if single cards are used across multiple locations and will need to be manually split according to the expense.
Option 1 (more work for the enterprise but less work for the hotel): If you have a single credit card that's used across multiple hotels, then the enterprise will be ensuring that each hotel will pay their portion of the shared credit card at the end of the billing cycle. At the entity level, this card will be setup as a Vendor, and not reflected in your Accounts list as a credit card account.
In this scenario, each hotel will pay their portion of the card to the vendor directly as a fraction of the full statement, or reimburse corporate if corporate pays the vendor directly for all entities using the card.
As the card is used, entities will enter each transaction as the card is used. When completing the entry through AP Inbox, the vendor will be the Credit Card Vendor, and the actual place of purchase is the Sub Vendor. Users will populate the Vendor field of the invoice entry with the name of the Credit Card, and the Sub-Vendor field with the name of where the purchase was made.
In the example below, you've used the American Express card (vendor) at Stanford Plumbing (sub vendor).
If you intend to pay your portion of the shared credit card statement at the end of the period via ACH, select Manual ACH as the payment method, or Check if you intend to pay with a check. The payment type, whether ACH or Check, should be consistent as you will typically make a single payment for all credit card transactions at the end of the period - either directly to the credit card company or to reimburse the enterprise, depending on the Enterprise policy.
At the end of the billing cycle, Corporate will calculate each hotel's portion of the credit card statement and validate that all invoices have been submitted for the period.
Within the Payments page for the Entity, the enterprise will review all invoices that are entered to the credit card vendor. Verify that the total $ amount of all invoices for the period matches the total reimbursement amount to Enterprise has allocated to the Entity.
If it does not match, you will need to review what's entered vs what is on the statement to find the missing invoices and advise the entity to submit any missing transaction receipts. The entity will need to enter those into the AP Inbox to be approved and processed until the totals match.
Once the total of the invoices matches this hotel's portion of the statement, then click Pay.
This will trigger the ACH payment to be posted or the Check to be printed by the entity to settle their portion of the shared credit card invoice. Note that if the entity is paying their portion via manual ACH, the entity will process the payment online through your Credit Card Vendor.
In the example below, the hotel used the American Express ten times, with a total spend amount of $2,643.67.
Option 2: This is for single cards that are used at a single location but a part of a larger statement (one master account with sub-accounts), and the enterprise requires each entity to reconcile and settle the payment for their sub-accounts.
Option 2 is applicable in two situations, a completely separate statement per card, or with access to a sub-account on a unique statement that can be pulled and reconciled at an entity level.
This also allows the entity to be directly responsible for reconciling their card but requires that each entity has access to their portion of the statement at the entity level.
When a unique monthly statement is available and applicable to transactions at a single entity, then setup this card under that hotel's Accounts page in Inn-Flow. This allows the account to be uniquely reconciled according to the sub-accounts' statement for the authorized user.
Option 3: If a credit card is used at multiple locations and not split out on a statement, then it should be setup under the enterprise and the invoices should be posted under the enterprise account in the AP Inbox.
The card should be reconciled against their portion of the statement, as this is typically broken out per card. When payment is made on the master account, each hotel should pay their portion to the credit card vendor.
During reconciliation, the Statement Ending Balance should be that card's portion of the statement.
Once the Credit Card Account is setup, refer to here to complete the Credit Card Sync Setup. This will automatically pull in new transactions daily, which can be reconciled against activity already entered into Accounts Payable, or new transactions can be created if an existing entry does not exist.
Invoices paid via Credit Card will have the place of purchase as the Vendor, the entity paying the bill will be the code on the top left, in this example HM101 (the enterprise account).
If you're entering an invoice that's paid by a shared card under the enterprise, but needs to be expensed to a hotel:
The entity where the expense is incurred should be used in the COA breakdown. In this example, you can see hotel ID RIBF will have $2,844.80 expensed on their P&L to Plumbing.
This will create an receivable from the RIBF location to the HM101 enterprise, which can be reimbursed through the Enterprise Reimbursement explained here.
The credit card account will be reconciled to the account's monthly statement similar to bank reconciliation.
Credit Card Sync for Option 2: When a cards are a part of a large statement (one master account with sub-accounts), if each sub-account card is setup as a separate card in Inn-Flow, we recommend each person creates the bank sync for their card. In this example, if 1 person has access to all cards, they should NOT setup the credit card sync. If a General Manager has access to view their card's activity, they should complete the credit card sync, as this will pull in only their activity to match with their credit card.
For credit cards that are setup under the enterprise that are shared across multiple hotels, mostly for Regional Managers or Corporate Employees, this can be setup through the normal credit card sync process.
To setup your credit cards, from the Accounts tab, select the Enterprise entity, in this example HM101. This article explains how to setup a Credit Card Account.
