Chart of accounts (Kontenrahmen / SKR 04 in Germany)

The chart of accounts is the backbone of any bookkeeping system. In the German hotel sector, SKR 04 (the German standard chart for industrial businesses, used with DATEV software) is the common starting point -- designed for general industry, not specifically for hospitality. Adopting it unchanged gives you accounting that is legally sound and operationally blind.

Hotel-grade controlling needs a chart that separates revenue by department and aligns with the USALI system. Without that, benchmarks are worthless.

What we see in practice: A 55-room property running default SKR 04 cannot separate F&B revenue from rooms revenue in its monthly report. All revenue lands in one bucket. For the owner, that looks like a bookkeeping detail. For a bank or a potential investor, it ends the conversation -- no reliable numbers, no basis for a credit decision. Setting up the chart costs time once. Bad controlling costs visibility forever -- and, in the worst case, access to capital.