Use Case

When a global hospitality company acquired another global lodging leader, it added to its portfolio not only hotels but also integration complexities.

These challenges included:

  • Similar geographic presence with dissimilar geographic reporting, resulting in manual consolidation.
  • Inconsistent revenue management systems among brands and markets.
  • Lack of resources and technical skills within certain accounting functions.

Additionally, the timing of the integration was not ideal. The integration aligned with the implementation of ASC 606, Revenue Recognition, and the development of a global automated revenue platform – two major efforts in their own right.

CrossCountry Consulting was engaged to help align and integrate revenue accounting consistently across the organization – not just as a one-time partner but as a strategic partner. Inclusive to the task were detailed services related to:

  • Technical accounting.
  • Financial reporting.
  • Operational accounting. 
  • Process optimization.
  • Governance.

Our Approach

CrossCountry assembled a team with deep hospitality industry experience with key financial, technical, operational, project management, and business transformation expertise. Complete with Big 4 public accounting backgrounds, the team was able to accomplish a number of key objectives that met the rigor and requirements of the project scope.

Some of the key victories included:

  • Cross-training with the client’s operational team to understand current processes and challenges to meet baseline requirements and identify gaps between client and acquiree.
  • Providing transitional accounting support to maintain and improve the day-to-day global operations, as well as streamline the month-end close processes and reduce reporting time.
  • Collaborating with accounting and finance groups to diagnose reporting challenges which resulted in the development of dashboards, models, and reporting for senior and executive management and external auditors.
  • Providing project management skills and design and implementation support over a multi-year period for the global automation revenue management tool.
  • Integrating seamlessly with corporate and continent leaders whereby reporting to senior management, supervising and training client associates, and onboarding new client associates and resources.
  • Leveraging technical expertise and industry experience to implement the new revenue accounting standard on a global basis.

Our Impact

With CrossCountry’s advisory leadership, the client was able to successfully implement efficient, operational revenue standards across the organization, including compliance with public company reporting requirements and remediation of internal controls. This included:

  • Consistent and efficient revenue management reporting throughout the organization.
  • Repeatable revenue process used to cross-train and transition among client associates.
  • Successful deployment of automated revenue management tool to pilot group and pre-determined population.
  • Technical documentation of accounting policies and procedures leveraged by associates and external auditors.
  • Global implementation of ASC 606, Revenue Recognition, inclusive of technical accounting, operational processes, and internal controls.