The Uniform System of Accouns for the Lodging Industry

Abstract

This paper examines the role that the Uniform System of Accounts (USAL!) has played in hotel companies' management. Specifically, it examines the role that the USALI plays in hotel-accounting practices and examines how widely accepted and adopted USALI is in today's lodging industry. It also provides a brief history of USALI by emphasizing the key factors that initiated and shaped its development. The USALI is the standard for financial reporting for lodging-industry operators and is widely (although not exclusively) used. Surprisingly, some 12 percent of hospitality accountants may not know anything about the USALI. The chart of accounts has been revised periodically since its inception in the 1920s and has always reflected the collective wisdom of hospitality-industry financial experts. In this study the USALIwas rated as being of more importance to hotel accountants than are either the Internal Revenue Service code or Financial Accounting Standards Board pronouncements. A simple test to discern users' knowledge of three major revisions introduced by the ninth revised edition clearly showed that many of those professionals do not fully understand the USALfs most recent changes. Specifically, changes in the way that an operation's preopening expenses, china and glassware purchases, and banquet-service gratuities are handled represent major changes in the current edition of USALI versus the previous edition. Yet the survey participants' responses recorded by this study show that there's little agreement among those accountants regarding the appropriateness and usefulness of those changes. More education is required if the USALI is to serve its intended purposes.