A hotel accounting clerk re-checks last night's revenue each morning and keeps vendor bills paid on time. The clerk also bills the wedding blocks, tour groups and companies that pay after checkout. Card settlements and cash drops get matched to the bank, and card disputes get answered with folios and signed registration cards.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
The Accounting Clerk does the hotel's daily accounting work. You'll audit yesterday's revenue, enter and pay vendor invoices, bill and collect direct-bill and group accounts, reconcile card and cash deposits, and answer billing questions from guests and vendors. The Director of Finance reviews and approves; you do the daily work that lets month-end close on time.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Complete the daily income audit: check room rates, taxes, outlet sales, voids and comps against the night audit.
Enter vendor invoices, match them to purchase orders and receiving, and prepare check and ACH runs.
Bill direct-bill guests and groups from the city ledger after checkout, and send statements on schedule.
Call or email past-due accounts and log every contact.
Reconcile credit card settlements and cash deposits with the bank.
Answer credit card disputes with folios, signatures and registration cards before the deadline.
Process approved guest refunds and adjustments.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Pick up the night audit package and front desk drop envelopes, and count drops with a witness.
Post deposits and record cash overages and shortages by employee.
Enter the day's invoices and answer vendor questions.
Keep folios, invoices and backup filed for the month-end close.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Daily income audit completed on time: [your target].
Invoices paid by the due date: [your target].
Past-due city ledger balances: [your target].
Credit card disputes won: [your target].
Bank reconciliations completed on time: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[1+] year of accounting, bookkeeping or accounts payable experience.
Works carefully with numbers and catches errors before they post.
Comfortable in Excel: sorting, filtering, lookups and simple formulas.
Associate degree or coursework in accounting, or equivalent experience.
Keeps card data and payroll information confidential.
6. Preferred Experience
Hotel accounting experience, including income audit or city ledger.
Experience with [your accounting system] and [your property management system].
Familiar with hotel reporting under USALI.
7. Physical Requirements
Sit at a computer for most of the day.
Carry files and deposit bags to the safe or bank.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Weekday day schedule, [8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.].
Back office on property, near the cash room and safe.
Busier at month-end, after large groups check out and at year-end.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new accounting clerk gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
Most bookkeepers see revenue when an invoice goes out. At a hotel, the desk, restaurants, bar and banquets all ring up sales overnight, and the clerk checks every one of them before lunch.
Last night's revenue gets audited this morning
The daily income audit re-checks the night audit. The clerk compares room rates with the rate code or group contract, and checks taxes, restaurant and bar sales, voids and comps. Each correction goes back to the desk or the outlet as a note, so the desk doesn't make the same error tomorrow night.
Groups and direct bills sit on the city ledger
Wedding blocks, corporate accounts and tour operators often leave without paying at the desk. Their charges move to the city ledger, the hotel's accounts receivable. The clerk sends invoices and statements, and calls when payment runs late. After a big conference checks out, one unpaid bill can hold a lot of the month's revenue.
Cash drops get counted with a witness
Desk agents and outlet cashiers drop their cash in sealed envelopes. The clerk opens and counts them with a second person watching, posts the deposit, and records each overage or shortage by employee. The witness protects the clerk as much as the hotel. Repeat shortages go to the front office manager or the outlet manager to look into.
Tax-exempt stays need their paperwork
Room tax exemptions depend on paperwork. In Texas, for example, an exempt guest gives the hotel a completed Form 12-302 at check-in. The hotel also needs backup, such as a federal employee's government ID or a nonprofit's exemption letter from the state Comptroller. The clerk checks that each tax-exempt folio has its backup before month-end. Source: Texas Comptroller: Hotel occupancy tax FAQs.
Card disputes come with a deadline
Guests dispute charges weeks after they leave: a no-show fee, a minibar charge, a stay they say they cancelled. The clerk answers each one with the folio, the signed registration card and the cancellation policy before the processor's deadline. A missing registration card can lose a charge the hotel had every right to make.
How much hotel accounting clerks make
The closest BLS group for hotel accounting clerks is bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks who work for hotels, resorts, and motels earned a median of $20.65 an hour ($42,940 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $50,670 median for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks in all industries. About 14,380 of the 1,373,680 bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks in that survey work for hotels and resorts.
An hourly job. Overtime bunches up at month-end, at year-end and after a big group's billing.
Hotels and resorts
$42,940$42,940 median Middle half $35,860–$50,160 10th–90th $30,160–$62,050
All industries
$50,670$50,670 median Middle half $43,520–$61,470 10th–90th $36,000–$74,550
$20k$30k$40k$50k$60k$70k$80k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Hotels and resorts
$30,160
$35,860
$42,940
$50,160
$62,050
All industries
$36,000
$43,520
$50,670
$61,470
$74,550
BLS groups hotels, resorts and motels as traveler accommodation. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Spots a wrong rate, a doubled charge or a missing tax in a long report
Reconciles a bank account and can explain every open item
Uses Excel lookups, filters and sorting to match settlements to deposits
Calls a late-paying client politely and keeps after it
Can be trusted with the safe, the deposit bag and the payroll register
Teach these on the job
Your property management system reports and what's in the night audit package
Your chart of accounts and USALI departments
City ledger billing, statements and collection steps
Your card processor's dispute portal
Purchasing, receiving and invoice matching rules
The clerk works between the property management system (folios, the city ledger and night audit reports), the hotel's accounting system, the card processor's portal and Excel. Management companies and brands often add their own payables or procurement system on top.
Hotel accounting clerk interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
Big group checkouts and year-end pile work onto the same desk. Read these by month with the director of finance, and note what landed that month.
Daily income audit completed on time
The day each income audit was signed off against the deadline on your close checklist. Note late days and the cause: a missing night audit report, an outlet that didn't close, or a backlog.
Invoices paid by the due date
Check each vendor payment date against the invoice due date in your accounting system. Separate late payments caused by missing approvals or receiving from those the clerk could have prevented.
Past-due city ledger balances
The city ledger aging report each week, grouped by how long each balance has been open. Review the oldest accounts with the director of finance and the sales manager who booked them.
Credit card disputes won
Disputes the hotel won against all disputes answered, from the card processor's portal. Read the losses for the reason: no signature, no registration card, or a response sent too late.
Bank reconciliations completed on time
Reconciliations finished and reviewed by the date on the close calendar, for each bank account. Track open reconciling items and how long each one has been open.
Career path
Night auditorCloses the day at the desk and learns how revenue posts.
Accounting clerkRuns the daily income audit, payables, city ledger and deposits.
Senior accountant or assistant controllerHandles the general ledger, payroll review and the month-end close.
Knowing it is a plus in this blueprint, and a new clerk can pick it up on the job. USALI is the hotel industry's standard for financial and operating reports. It sets which department each revenue and expense belongs to, so owners and brands can compare one hotel with another. The director of finance decides how your hotel applies it. The clerk's part is coding each invoice to the right department, so banquet linen doesn't land in rooms and pool chemicals don't land in the kitchen.
How much does a hotel accounting clerk make?
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks who work for hotels, resorts, and motels earned a median of $20.65 an hour ($42,940 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $35,860 and $50,160 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
How is a hotel accounting clerk different from a night auditor?
The night auditor closes the day at the front desk, often alone, and produces the reports. The accounting clerk works days in the back office and checks that work the next morning, then handles what the desk never touches: vendor bills, group invoices, bank deposits and card disputes. Night audit is good preparation for the job.
What should a hotel do with old guest credit balances and uncashed refund checks?
Don't quietly move them into revenue. Refunds and customer overpayments that sit untouched can become unclaimed property. State law says that property must be turned over to the state after a dormancy period. The clerk should try to reach the guest and keep a record of each try. Old balances go to the director of finance so they're reported on time.
What should an accounting clerk collect from a new vendor?
Get a Form W-9 before the first payment. It gives the hotel the vendor's correct taxpayer ID for any information return the hotel files with the IRS, such as a 1099. Ask for proof of insurance, too, if the vendor works on property. When a vendor emails new bank details, call a number you already have on file to confirm before changing anything.
What does a hotel accounting clerk do at month-end?
The clerk finishes the last income audits, sends city ledger statements, and reconciles each bank and card account. The clerk also lists goods that arrived but haven't been billed yet. That way the director of finance can book those costs in the right month. Keep folios, invoices and backup filed as you go. Month-end is the wrong week to hunt for a signed registration card.
