A deposit for a March wedding lands in November. By January you have committed to four suppliers for it. The cash in the bank in December belongs to none of those months — and both your auditor and your bank manager will want that distinction made properly.
Seasonal businesses that take money in advance are the easiest kind to misread, because the cash position and the trading position point in opposite directions for months at a time.
The distinction between cash received and revenue earned is the entire financial discipline of this sector, and it only exists if advances are recorded as advances from the moment they land.
Four events on a timeline that can span half a year. Each one has to leave a document, or the picture only assembles itself in hindsight.
A deposit is recorded against the customer and the document it relates to when it is taken, so money held against an undelivered service sits in the ledger rather than looking like ordinary takings.
The balance stays visible in receivables until the service is delivered and the final invoice settles it.
Purchase orders to venues, transport and subcontractors are routed for sign-off by value before they commit anything, with posting blocked until the approval completes.
Which matters most in exactly the months when the bank balance is flattering and the temptation to commit is highest.
Quotations go out to be accepted, convert to orders without retyping, and invoice against what was agreed — with 5% VAT and your TRN on the document.
Variations are raised as their own lines rather than absorbed, which is where most of the margin in this sector quietly goes.
Receivables aging with customer statements and payables aging with supplier statements, plus post-dated cheques tracked to clearance on both sides.
In a business paid in stages and billed in stages, those two reports together are the cash-flow forecast.
Post revenue and cost against a cost centre — an outlet, a season, a division — and compare against a budget set before the season starts.
Budget-versus-actual then feeds the dashboard rather than being rebuilt by hand in the quiet month.
Food, beverage, consumables and retail lines sit in multi-warehouse stock with real cost, receipts against orders, and sectioned counts.
A kitchen or a minibar is ordinary inventory; what it is not is a recipe engine, which the questions below deal with plainly.
No card, no setup call. Bring a deposit, the supplier costs against it and the final invoice, and see them as one chain.
Every one of these takes money before it delivers. What changes is how long the gap is and who you owe in the meantime.
Deposits, extended stays and account customers, with the operating costs behind them.
A fast counter, daily cash that reconciles, and purchasing that keeps up.
Event contracts quoted, deposited against and delivered, with supplier costs tied to each.
Customer money held against travel not yet taken, and supplier payments made ahead of it.
Packages sold ahead of the season, with the ground costs committed early.
Long lead times, staged payments and a lot of suppliers per job.
Not a generic retail tool with a currency switch bolted on the side.
Invoices, credit notes and purchases carry VAT as you raise them, with the totals your return needs already summed. See VAT accounting software and what e-invoicing will require.
Money received against an undelivered service is recorded against the customer and the document from the moment it lands, rather than sitting indistinguishable from earned income.
Basic covers a single branch from AED 115 a month. Multi-branch stock and transfers start on Professional at AED 215, which covers three — see pricing.
Purchasing, receivables, payroll, stock and the ledger are one platform. In a sector where the cash cycle runs backwards, having all of it in one place is the only way the picture is ever current.
See the full feature listChart of accounts, journals, AR and AP, post-dated cheques, bank reconciliation and an audit trail — the ledger is here.
Fit-out, kitchen equipment and vehicles with depreciation posting itself — see assets management.
An outlet, a season or a division as its own figure, against a budget you set beforehand.
If the rooms are leased rather than sold nightly, that is property management.
Still unsure? Send us a message — a person replies, usually the same day.
Yes. An advance is recorded against the customer and the document when it is taken, so money held against an undelivered service is in the ledger from that moment rather than looking like ordinary income. The balance stays in receivables until the final invoice settles it.
No. There is no reservation system, no room or seat inventory, no availability calendar and no connection to OTAs or a channel manager. This is the commercial and accounting side — deposits, supplier costs, invoicing and the ledger. Most operators run it alongside whatever reservation system they already use, and it is much better to know that before a demo.
Through cost centres and a shared reference on the documents, yes. What there is not is a job record that accumulates every supplier bill and the customer invoice against it automatically, so per-event margin is a report you structure rather than a screen you open.
Yes. VAT is calculated on every invoice, credit note and purchase as you raise it, in AED, with the totals your return needs already summed and your TRN on the tax invoice.
No. There is no recipe or bill-of-materials feature, so selling a dish does not reduce its ingredients. Stock moves on receipts, issues and adjustments — you receive a delivery, issue to the kitchen, and count what is left.
Yes. Multi-branch stock, users and reporting on one ledger with role-based access, and cost centres to separate outlets in reporting. Multi-branch starts on the Professional plan.
Yes. Corporate and agency customers sit in receivables with payment terms, aging by bucket and monthly statements, with post-dated cheques tracked to clearing.
Yes, with dated exchange rates and a base-currency ledger that still balances — which matters for tour operators paying ground handlers abroad.
You export it — customers, suppliers, transactions and the full ledger — in formats that open in a spreadsheet or go to another system.
Bring a deposit, the supplier costs committed against it and the final invoice, and see the whole cycle in one ledger. Fourteen days free, no card, export any time.