From manual consolidation to repeatable reporting

Context

Consider a common situation: a hotel finance team prepares its monthly reporting by pulling figures from several systems into a set of linked spreadsheets built up over years.

Challenge

A process like this usually works, but it tends to depend heavily on one person’s knowledge and on undocumented spreadsheet logic, and to take a large share of the month-end window. It has grown for understandable reasons.

What we look for

In this type of engagement, the first step is to map the existing source-to-report flow, which typically makes the accumulated work visible:

• The same figures reconciled by hand several times over.
• Data re-keyed between exports and workbooks.
• Steps that exist only to correct earlier steps.
• Undocumented workbook logic understood by one person.
• Gaps in both controls and ownership.

What can change

From there, the flow can be simplified, the consolidation rebuilt in Power Query so the repeatable parts refresh the same way each period, the control checks defined, and the process documented so more than one person can run and maintain it.

Process

Documented monthly close

Tool

Power Query consolidation

Controls

Defined reconciliation checks

Ownership

Clear process ownership

Outcome

The resulting process can refresh the same way each period, with fewer manual transformations and fewer duplicate reconciliations. In the resulting model, the logic can be documented, ownership clearly assigned, and the close made less dependent on a single person.

What the hotel keeps

What the hotel would retain after the engagement:

• A working consolidation model.
• Documented logic, mappings and assumptions.
• A named process owner inside the hotel.
• A defined control and reconciliation checklist.
• Maintenance instructions and handover documentation.