Here’s Why Hospitality Finance Teams Are Moving On
For years, Microsoft Dynamics GP (Great Plains) has been a backbone of hotel and resort finance departments. But Microsoft has officially announced that mainstream support for Great Plains will end on December 31, 2029, and all security updates will stop after April 30, 2031.
That may sound like plenty of time. But for hospitality organizations that depend on Great Plains for accounting, waiting too long to modernize could mean missing out on far more than future software patches. The real cost lies in the efficiency, control, and insights that modern hospitality finance platforms deliver today. This article shows why savvy hotels are moving on from Great Plains.
The Hidden Risk of Staying Too Long
Relying on legacy systems like Great Plains means finance teams are spending valuable time on manual data entry, paper-based approvals, and reconciling disconnected systems. These inefficiencies don’t just slow hospitality finance teams down; they hinder their ability to make data-driven decisions and adapt to an increasingly digital hospitality industry.
Every year that goes by, legacy financial systems fall further behind in automation, integration, and security. When Microsoft sunsets Great Plains, it will be the end of guaranteed updates, compliance support, and modern connectivity.
What You’ll Miss by Waiting
Many hospitality finance leaders are already discovering what life beyond Great Plains looks like, and they aren’t looking back. The longer hospitality finance teams wait to modernize, the more opportunities they’ll miss to streamline workflows, protect margins, and empower their staff to focus on high-value activities that drive profitability and satisfaction. Here’s what’s at stake:
- Touchless invoice automation that eliminates manual entry and accelerates approvals. Automated invoice capture means no more keying data line by line, which reduces human error and accelerates month-end close. It enables invoices to route automatically to the right approvers, with reminders and audit trails built in. Finance leaders gain real-time visibility into invoice status across all properties. Over time, this dramatically reduces approval bottlenecks, late payments, and vendor frustration, while freeing finance teams for more strategic financial analysis.
- Integrated digital payments that replace printed checks and manual uploads with seamless electronic payments. Electronic payments streamline supplier disbursements across virtual card, ACH, and funded check – all managed from one platform. This removes the need for check printing, signing, and postage, cutting administrative costs while mitigating fraud risk. With built-in audit controls and remittance transparency, it strengthens supplier relationships and cash management accuracy. The result is faster reconciliation, stronger vendor trust, and fewer payment exceptions disrupting existing workflows.
- Real-time PMS and POS integrations that consolidate data across properties for instant visibility. Seamless integration with property management systems (PMS), point of sale (POS) solutions, and procurement applications gives finance leaders an accurate, unified view of their financials across the enterprise. They can spot revenue and expense trends instantly without waiting for manual data consolidation. This real-time connectivity supports smarter forecasting and proactive decision-making. It also allows corporate finance leaders to compare performance across properties, identify outliers, and act before small issues become big problems.
- USALI-compliant reporting to ensure accurate and consistent financial performance insights. Automated reporting aligned with the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI) provides consistent data structures across all departments and entities. This ensures financial statements and benchmarks are always accurate and compliant. Built-in templates simplify reporting, reducing the need for custom spreadsheets or manual adjustments. With confidence in the numbers, finance leaders can focus on improving profitability, not verifying data accuracy.
What to Look for in a Modern Hospitality ERP Solution
Upgrading from Great Plains isn’t just about new features. It’s about finding the right technology foundation for the next decade of hospitality finance. As you evaluate your options, prioritize solutions that are designed for hotels and resorts, not generic accounting software retrofitted for hospitality. Here’s what to look for in a hotel enterprise resource planning (ERP) system:
- End-to-end automation from invoice to payment. A modern ERP should streamline the full cycle, from invoice receipt and coding through approval and electronic payment. This eliminates repetitive tasks and minimizes risk exposure at every step. Look for solutions with built-in digital payments so your AP process isn’t fragmented across multiple systems. When automation is integrated into one workflow, your finance team gains time, accuracy, and confidence in every transaction.
- Seamless integration with hospitality systems. Your ERP must “speak the language” of hospitality by connecting directly with your PMS, POS, and purchasing platforms. That connectivity ensures that financial data flows automatically between operational systems and your general ledger. The result is real-time insight into revenue, cost, and performance metrics across the property portfolio. Instead of reconciling disconnected data sources, finance leaders can focus on optimizing spending and profitability.
- Configurable, USALI-compliant financial reporting. Hospitality accounting isn’t one-size-fits-all, and your ERP shouldn’t be either. Choose a platform that offers configurable reports aligned to the USALI 12th Edition and tailored to your unique business structure. The ability to generate departmental profit and loss (P&L) statements, consolidate multi-property data, and drill down into account-level detail ensures total financial transparency. It also simplifies compliance for ownership groups and auditors.
- Scalable, cloud-based architecture. Cloud-based hospitality ERP systems deliver flexibility and resilience that legacy software can’t match. You’ll benefit from automatic updates, robust security protocols, and anywhere access for multi-property teams. This scalability supports both growth and seasonal fluctuations without burdening IT resources. And with centralized data management, you can ensure consistency and accuracy across your entire portfolio.
- Vendor expertise and white-glove support. The right technology partner should understand hospitality finance inside and out. Look for providers with decades of experience serving hotels and resorts, and a track record of supporting complex integrations. A knowledgeable support team can accelerate deployment, reduce training time, and ensure your platform evolves with your needs. With hands-on onboarding and dedicated customer care, you can transition smoothly and start realizing return on investment (ROI) faster.
Why DP Finance Is Built for What’s Next
Unlike generic ERP replacements, Data Plus’ DP Finance is purpose-built for the hospitality industry. It combines automated invoice processing, digital payments, and real-time financial visibility into one powerful, integrated solution. With DP Finance, hotel and resort finance leaders can:
- Automate invoice capture, general ledger coding, and approval workflows. Invoices are automatically read, coded, and routed for approval without manual intervention. This ensures consistency and reduces costly errors that often plague manual systems. The automation improves compliance and audit readiness while accelerating the monthly closing. Over time, the result is a leaner, faster, and more accurate AP process that scales effortlessly.
- Pay suppliers electronically with full control and audit trails. DP Finance supports multiple payment types, including virtual card, ACH, and funded check, all tracked with detailed audit logs. This gives finance leaders visibility into every disbursement and simplifies reconciliation. It reduces the need for bank website uploads or manual check runs. By centralizing control and automating reconciliation, your payment process becomes secure, efficient, and transparent.
- Consolidate multi-property financials instantly. With built-in property-level segmentation, DP Finance allows you to see performance by property, region, or management group in seconds. Multi-entity consolidation happens automatically, saving days of manual work at month-end. This single source of truth provides finance leaders with actionable insights into smarter budgeting and forecasting. It also empowers regional and corporate teams to manage growth with confidence.
- Maintain compliance with the USALI 12th Edition and be ready for what’s next. DP Finance includes preconfigured USALI reporting templates and flexible mapping tools. This ensures that your financial reporting remains compliant and comparable across properties, ownership structures, and accounting periods. As the hospitality industry evolves, DP Finance updates automatically to meet new standards and best practices. That means you’ll always be prepared for audits, ownership reporting, and future compliance shifts.
Redefine Hospitality Accounting
Upgrading from Great Plains is an opportunity to transform your finance operations, to work smarter, faster, and more strategically than ever before. By embracing automation, integration, and industry-specific intelligence, you’ll elevate your finance team from a back-office function to a strategic driver of growth and profitability. Why wait until the final patch drops when you can move your hospitality finance operations into the future today? Set up an introductory call to see how DP Finance can help your organization modernize before Great Plains sunsets.
