A chart of accounts for hotels: the accounts a hotel uses most

A hotel chart of accounts is the numbered list of ledger accounts a hotel posts to. In Türkiye it rests on the uniform chart annexed to the Accounting System Implementation General Communiqué No. 1 (Resmî Gazete 26.12.1992, No. 21447 repeated issue, applied from 1 January 1994). Hotels use the standard accounts and open their own sub-accounts for departments, agencies and taxes.

An accountant joins a hotel, asks for the chart of accounts, and is handed a folder of course printouts with rooms and food and beverage at the top and no account numbers anywhere. The official chart does not work that way, and the gap between the two is where month-end goes wrong. This article gives you the accounts from the uniform chart a hotel actually uses, a plain line on how each is used, and a way to connect them to your property management system's revenue codes.

What is a hotel chart of accounts, and how is it numbered?#

It is the numbered list of accounts a hotel may post to, and it is general, not hotel-specific: the same chart serves a factory and a resort. The chart is the annex "B- Hesap Planı" to the Accounting System Implementation General Communiqué No. 1, published in the Resmî Gazete of 26.12.1992 (No. 21447, repeated issue) and applied from 1 January 1994.

The first digit is the class and the second is the group, so 100 Kasa sits in class 1, group 10, and 360 Ödenecek Vergi ve Fonlar sits in class 3, group 36. Classes 1 to 5 form the balance sheet, class 6 is the income statement, and class 7 holds cost accounts used only when the business runs the 7/A or 7/B option.

The published chart stops well above the level a hotel needs. Everything below that line, the sub-accounts, is the hotel's own design and belongs in a written account plan. Two hotels can both post to 120 Alıcılar and mean different things underneath, which is why the sub-account list, not the three-digit number, is the document that matters.

Once a sub-account exists, keep its meaning stable across periods. A sub-account that changes purpose silently breaks every comparison the hotel wants to make.

Which accounts does a hotel touch every day?#

Four: 100 Kasa for cash, 102 Bankalar for bank and card settlements, 101 Alınan Çekler for cheques, and 120 Alıcılar for what companies and agencies owe.

Open 100 Kasa as one sub-account per cash point, for example reception and the restaurant, so a till count can be checked against a single line. 102 Bankalar takes one sub-account per bank account. Card settlements arrive here, and many hotels add a clearing sub-account per acquirer plus a line for the commission, so the bank statement reconciles in one pass.

101 Alınan Çekler holds cheques received from agencies or corporate clients until they clear; it is a receivable in cheque form, not cash. 120 Alıcılar is the city ledger: balances billed to a company, a travel agency or a corporate account after the guest has left. An in-house guest's running folio is not a receivable yet. It becomes one at checkout, when the balance is transferred to the company or agency account; the full journey from the guest folio to the accountant's ledger is worth reading on its own.

Name sub-accounts by counterparty and currency, for example agency code plus currency, so the aging report reads without a lookup table. Month-end check: the total of the 120 sub-accounts must equal the city ledger aging report. If it does not, a transfer was posted to the wrong counterparty.

Where do booking deposits and advances sit?#

On the liability side, as money the hotel owes a stay: 340 Alınan Sipariş Avansları for advances against a reservation and 326 Alınan Depozito ve Teminatlar for deposits and guarantees held.

The test is simple: has the service been delivered? If not, the money is a liability and the account is 326 or 340, never a revenue account. The chart has mirror accounts for money the hotel pays out: 159 Verilen Sipariş Avansları when it advances against an order, and 126 Verilen Depozito ve Teminatlar when it lodges a guarantee. 380 Gelecek Aylara Ait Gelirler holds amounts received for a period not yet earned, for example a prepaid arrangement that spans more than one month.

When the stay happens, the advance is closed against the revenue account for the department that delivered it, so the ledger shows both the cash and the service. Keep a list of open advances by arrival date. An advance that sits past its arrival date is either an unrecorded stay or a refund waiting to happen.

A deposit kept after a cancellation is the hard case. No public ruling on cancellation fees or retained deposits in accommodation was found, so do not book it to revenue by habit; take the treatment from your adviser in writing.

Which tax accounts does a hotel use?#

191 İndirilecek KDV on purchases, 391 Hesaplanan KDV on sales, 360 Ödenecek Vergi ve Fonlar for taxes and funds payable, and 361 Ödenecek Sosyal Güvenlik Kesintileri for payroll withholdings.

191 and 391 accumulate on opposite sides and are settled through the VAT return; the accounts record the movement, the return decides the payment. 360 is a container: each tax or fund the hotel files gets its own sub-account, so the balance can be read tax by tax rather than as one figure. 361 carries the social security withholdings taken from payroll, kept apart from tax so a payroll check does not disturb a tax check.

The chart names the group, not the treatment. Which sub-account a disputed item belongs in is a judgement about the facts of that item, and it is not settled by the chart. Do not hard-code rates or deadlines into the account plan. Rates change, the account numbers do not. For what sits behind these groups, see our glossary of hotel taxes and levies in Türkiye.

Check: the list of 360 sub-accounts should match, one to one, the list of taxes and funds the hotel actually files. A sub-account with no filing behind it is usually a misposting.

How do revenue accounts map to hotel departments?#

Through sub-accounts. The chart offers 600 Yurtiçi Satışlar, 601 Yurtdışı Satışlar and 602 Diğer Gelirler, and nothing in it says rooms, restaurant or spa.

600 and 601 split sales by domestic and foreign, not by department. How a sale to a non-resident guest is classified is a question for your accountant, not a rule you can read off the chart. 602 Diğer Gelirler takes income outside the main sales lines, for example a service fee or a commission the hotel earns. 610 Satıştan İadeler, 611 Satış İskontoları and 612 Diğer İndirimler are contra accounts: they reduce revenue and must be shown, not netted silently into 600.

The practical move is to mirror the property management system's revenue codes one to one, so the day-end report and the ledger use the same words for the same sale. What moves from the PMS to the accounting system at day end is exactly this list, and the mapping is what makes the two agree. Write the mapping on one page: system revenue code, ledger sub-account, management reporting line. Version it and date it. When a new outlet opens, the mapping page changes before the first sale is posted, not after the first month closes.

Sub-account numbers above are illustrative; the hotel designs its own.

What do the cost and expense accounts look like?#

622 Satılan Hizmet Maliyeti for the direct cost of what was sold, 631 Pazarlama, Satış ve Dağıtım Giderleri for selling and distribution, and 632 Genel Yönetim Giderleri for administration.

622 holds the cost that moves with the sale, for example the food cost behind a restaurant sale or the laundry behind a room night. 631 holds the cost of getting and keeping the business, for example agency commission and marketing spend; confirm the classification of a specific item with your accountant. 632 holds administration: management salaries, accounting, insurance, the costs that do not rise with a single sale. Below the income statement the chart also carries 642 Faiz Gelirleri and 660 Kısa Vadeli Borçlanma Giderleri (-), which is where financing shows up.

Option 7/A records cost by function in groups such as 74 Hizmet Üretim Maliyeti, 76 Pazarlama Satış ve Dağıtım Giderleri and 77 Genel Yönetim Giderleri, then allocates to 622, 631 and 632. Option 7/B records cost by nature in group 79 Gider Çeşitleri, accounts 790 to 799, and does not allocate. The choice is a bookkeeping policy applied consistently, not a hotel-specific rule.

How does the USALI view sit next to the official chart?#

As a second layer built by mapping, not as a second ledger. The statutory books stay on the official chart; the management view is generated from it.

USALI, the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry, is a management reporting standard: revenue and expenses by department, then undistributed operating expenses, then a set of ratios a hotelier can compare. It is not a legal chart and it does not replace one. Nothing about it changes what is filed.

The work is one mapping table from ledger sub-account to USALI line, kept with the revenue mapping so there is a single source of truth. Two ledgers kept by hand tend to drift apart. The monthly check is that the management total reconciles to the statutory total before anyone reads the ratios. What the reader gains is comparability: between months, between outlets, and between properties, which the official chart alone does not give. A simple monthly sheet that an owner will actually read is a reasonable first step before a full management package.

What to do next#

Write the one-page mapping before the next period closes: system revenue code, ledger sub-account, management line, with the person who approves a change named on it. The chart gives you the groups; the mapping is what turns a general chart into a hotel's own account plan, and it is the document that keeps the ledger, the day-end report and the management view telling the same story.