What is the BWA in the hotel industry?

The abbreviation BWA means business evaluation that presents the current financial situation of a hotel. The BWA is based on important key figures of a hotel to provide an overview of accounting.
Accounting requirements are required to prepare the BWA, but this applies to most hotels. Both the tax advisor and the auditor can carry out the evaluation. This is where the software comes DATEV for use. Compared to an annual report, the BWA has no comments and gives a very current financial situation again. This is because it is not drawn up at the end of a year like the balance sheet or the annual financial statements, but can monthly or once a quarter appear. At happyhotel, the hotelier's BWA serves as the data basis for budgeting.

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What does the business evaluation say?

In the BWA, everyone is Arrivals and departures, as well Sales revenue records, which has an impact on the Profit and loss statement Have at the end of the year. More specifically, it includes the following items:
Sales revenue, gross profit, individual types of costs (such as personnel costs, material costs), interest expenses/interest income, taxes and the preliminary result.
All in all, this means that the business evaluation also uses the latest data for hoteliers and presents it clearly. This makes it helpful to get a quick overview of costs and revenues. This is of course particularly helpful for the hotel and the hotelier themselves, as well as for banks, for example.
The business evaluation therefore does not include any final postings or invoice accruals, which is why it is only called a “soft monthly statement”.

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Who creates the BWA for the hotelier?

Originally, the BWA was based on DATEV software. As early as 1966, they distributed the first version for creating BWAs. Not much has changed since then, because just as back then, the system should be used to create reports and thus be able to assess the financial position of companies. However, since not just every hotelier may have access to DATEV, the responsible tax advisor, lawyer or auditor is responsible for creating it. They organize the complete accounting for hotels via DATEV. The hotel thus receives the BWA at an agreed rate. This BWA can then be transferred to hotel software Happyhotel will be transferred.

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What can be seen in the BWA?

From a BWA, the most important KPIs Draw and evaluate (Key Performance Indicator). Sales figures and cost types such as goods costs, personnel costs and operating costs should be constantly monitored. The business evaluation can even be an early warning system in the event of poor financial development. It is also useful for monitoring the success of whether the planned figures have been achieved.
It can also be groundbreaking for budgeting for upcoming periods. For example, to plan the timing of major investments. It also serves as the basis for an optimal strategy for price optimization and the following Room price calculation.

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Why should every hotelier read their BWA carefully?

Every hotelier loves it when they see that their house is fully booked down to the last room. But for this, most people also have to work a lot and hard. The job of a thoroughbred hotelier is stressful and demands a lot. In addition to all his operational activities, why should he now analyse the BWA down to the last detail at the end of the month?
Every hotelier probably takes a quick look at their BWA and analyses it to get an overview of turnover, costs and surplus. The rest is often ignored and the BWA ends up neatly filed in the tax topics folder.
But that is exactly what should not happen! In the best case scenario, a BWA should be completely dismantled. This is because the information provided by a business evaluation is important data that will lead to the future management of the hotel. You are a important control instrument for testing the economic efficiency of the company, both internally and externally. Because in discussions with banks and credit institutions, it may happen that they require a BWA to check creditworthiness. Suppliers can also ask for a BWA for larger investments.

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Which design should be considered at the BWA?

Business evaluations are subject to certain standards because they must be clearly understandable. It is therefore important to consider the following:

• Design that is neutral in legal form
• Compatibility with an industry comparison
• Neutral illustration of the order of magnitude
• Time series, comparisons of previous years and graphical illustrations are important
• high expressiveness and not too free design
• clear and easy to understand
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Which chart of accounts should a hotelier use?

In industry and trade, the SKR 03 and the SKR 04 enforced. For the hotel and catering industry, Dehoga, in cooperation with DATEV, has the SKR 70 developed to meet the specific needs of the hotel industry. A major difference from other charts of accounts is that a distinction is made between operational and plant-related costs. Operational costs can be directly influenced during ongoing business operations. These include, for example, personnel costs, energy costs, taxes, insurance, contributions, operating costs, administrative costs. Investment-related costs are now very difficult to influence and depend largely on external factors. This includes rent, leasing, maintenance, depreciation and interest on short and long-term liabilities.
Another option is USALI Chart of accounts that comes from the USA. It is different from SKR 70 because the chart of accounts uses cost centers and not cost elements.

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