Managing accounts payable manually eats up valuable time and resources for UK hospitality businesses. Each week spent on tedious tasks means less focus on boosting your bottom line. Late payments can strain supplier ties, while data entry drags on for hours. Automating this process can help restaurants, pubs, and boutique hotels run smoothly and earn more.
Hospitality comes with specific financial pressures. You need quick access to food costs, supplier price updates, and profit margins to stay ahead. This guide shows how Jelly simplifies accounts payable automation, turning back-office work into a tool for growth.
By the end, you’ll know how to save 10-20 hours a week on admin tasks, get clear insights into kitchen finances, and pay suppliers on time for stronger relationships.
Let’s make accounts payable work for your profit. Book a chat to see how Jelly can streamline your accounts payable.
Why Automate Accounts Payable in UK Hospitality?
Manual Processes Cost You More Than You Think
Handling accounts payable by hand is a drain on UK hospitality businesses. Finance teams spend hours on repetitive data entry and payment reconciliation, leaving less time for growth-focused work. These labour costs add up fast.
Errors from manual work can also hurt. Missed or wrong payments upset suppliers, risking supply delays during busy periods. Without real-time data, you’re stuck reacting to price changes or shrinking margins after it’s too late.
Unique Hospitality Challenges Make Automation Essential
Hospitality businesses juggle multiple suppliers, inconsistent delivery schedules, and complex inventory demands. For multi-site setups, keeping payment terms and purchasing consistent without a central system is tough. Automation solves this by uniting data in one accessible place.
Clear Benefits of Switching to Automation
Automating accounts payable cuts down on manual data entry, saving time and reducing admin costs. Your team can shift focus to planning and strategy instead of paperwork. Accuracy improves too, with real-time data helping you adjust to cost shifts quickly to protect profits.
What Success Looks Like After Automation
With the right automation tool, results show up fast. Within a month, your team could save 10-20 hours a week on data entry. Supplier payments become more accurate, cutting disputes. Real-time views of food costs and margins help you make smarter decisions for better profitability.
A Simple Guide to Automating Accounts Payable with Jelly
Jelly is built for restaurants, pubs, and boutique hotels, offering powerful automation without complicated setups. Unlike tools that take months to implement, Jelly starts delivering value in just a week. Here’s how to get started.
Step 1: Set Up Your Jelly Account Quickly
Sign up for Jelly and customise your location settings. During onboarding, create a dedicated invoice email address and set team permissions. Within 24 hours, you’ll have a dashboard showing invoice data, spending trends, and financial reports, providing instant value.
Jelly stands out with its fast setup, designed for busy hospitality owners who need results without delay. Sync your chart of accounts with existing systems to cut reconciliation time.
Step 2: Digitise Every Invoice Effortlessly
Forward invoice emails or upload photos to your Jelly address. Train your team on these quick methods for all supplier invoices. Jelly automatically digitises details like quantity, SKU, price, and VAT, saving hours and ensuring accurate records.
Start with high-volume suppliers for the biggest impact. Make sure photos are clear for the best scanning results.
Step 3: Link Jelly to Your Systems
Connect Jelly to accounting tools like Xero and POS systems such as Square or ePOSnow. This creates a single view of your business, linking sales and cost data. Manual reconciliation drops by up to 90%, speeding up financial tasks.
Setup takes under 30 minutes and unlocks detailed reporting, making bookkeeping easier with organised data.
Step 4: Use Real-Time Data to Spend Smarter
Check Jelly’s Insights Dashboard for spending summaries, Flash Reports for profit margins, and Price Alerts for cost updates. Reviewing these daily helps you stay on top of trends. Move from reacting to planning ahead, protecting 2-3% of gross margin.
Price Alerts highlight supplier cost changes with specifics for better negotiations. Flash Reports give daily financial updates, replacing long weekly meetings.
Step 5: Fine-Tune Menus and Inventory with Automated Costs
Use Jelly’s Kitchen tools like Cookbook and Live Dish Costing. Build recipes using ingredients from scanned invoices. Tasks that took nearly 30 minutes in spreadsheets now take just 3 in Jelly. Ingredient costs update automatically for accurate dish margins.
Live Dish Costing shows real-time profit margins, flagging drops in red and gains in green for fast action. Many Jelly users see gross margins rise by 2 percentage points in three months, cutting food costs by 3%.
How Jelly Compares to Other Options for UK Hospitality
Manual Methods Fall Short with Hidden Costs
Using spreadsheets for accounts payable takes up too much time in hospitality. Errors lead to rework and disputes, risking service delays. Without real-time data, there’s no way to act quickly, and every task depends on slow manual input.
Complex Tools Can Overcomplicate Things
Some hospitality software offers broad features but often comes with steep learning curves or long setups. Jelly keeps things straightforward, focusing on what UK hospitality operators need most for quick, practical results.
Jelly Delivers Simple, Fast Value
Jelly prioritises ease and speed for UK hospitality. Onboarding wraps up in days, with benefits like price alerts and spending insights visible in the first week. Its user-friendly design works for all team members, no matter their tech skills.
Financial updates happen instantly. Price shifts trigger alerts, dish margins adjust automatically, and reports stay current, helping you make decisions to safeguard profits.
Comparison of Options
| Feature / Solution | Manual Spreadsheets | Jelly |
|---|---|---|
| Onboarding Time | Constant effort needed | Days, value in first week |
| Ease of Use | Complex and slow | Simple, clear interface |
| Real-Time Insights | Not available | Instant, always updated |
| Data Entry Efficiency | Fully manual | Automated scanning, little input |
| Time Saved per Month | None | 10-20 hours from start |
| Time to Value | Never reached | Immediate useful data |
| Cost Structure | Hidden costs in labour | £129/month per location |
| Technical Support Needed | Internal fixes only | Minimal, easy to use |
Tracking Success with Key Metrics After Automation
Automating accounts payable should bring clear improvements to your hospitality business. Measuring specific outcomes helps confirm the value of your investment.
Time and Workflow Gains
Time savings are a major win. Track weekly hours on invoice processing and reconciliation. With Jelly, expect to save 10-20 hours a week. Set a starting point before automating and check progress each month.
Processing speed also gets better. Automation shortens the time from invoice to payment approval, strengthening supplier ties and possibly earning early payment discounts.
Improved Accuracy and Financial Oversight
Keep an eye on error rates in invoice handling and payment issues. Using Jelly, data entry mistakes and disputed invoices often drop sharply in the first few months. Real-time visibility into expenses and payments also boosts cash flow planning.
Broader Business Benefits
Protecting gross margins is a key long-term gain. Monitor food cost percentages monthly and how quickly you respond to supplier price hikes. Jelly users often save 2-3% of gross margin each year by acting faster.
Accurate, on-time payments build supplier trust, which can lead to better terms or priority during shortages.
Overcoming Common Setup Hurdles
Easing Staff Into New Processes
Kitchen teams might push back on changing how they handle invoices. Show them how Jelly cuts down admin work. Compare snapping a photo to manual entry, and explain how real-time cost data helps their decisions. Start with keen staff as advocates to win over the rest.
Getting Suppliers on Board
Some suppliers may resist changing invoicing habits. Clarify that email submissions speed up payments with better accuracy. For those using paper, offer tips on taking clear invoice photos for scanning.
Handling Historical Data Needs
Jelly captures new data right away, but you might want past trends. Prioritise key suppliers and ingredients, adding important historical price points first to create a baseline, then expand over time.
Common Questions About Accounts Payable Automation
How Much Time Can Jelly Save My Team?
Most hospitality businesses spend 10-20 hours a week on manual invoice tasks. Jelly cuts up to 90% of data entry with automated scanning, speeding up payments and freeing staff for other priorities.
How Does Jelly Help Increase Profit Margins?
Jelly improves profit margins with tools like Price Alerts, flagging supplier cost changes for quick action, and Live Dish Costing, keeping menu prices aligned with current costs. Users often gain a 2 percentage point margin boost in three months while reducing food costs by 3%.
Is Jelly Simple for Non-Tech Staff to Use?
Jelly fits busy kitchens with little tech know-how. Its clear design and basic tasks, like forwarding emails or snapping photos, need minimal training. Onboarding brings value within a week, easing staff workloads.
How Does Automation Build Better Supplier Ties?
Jelly ensures payments are on time and correct, earning supplier trust. Price Alerts equip you with data for fair negotiations, keeping discussions positive and potentially securing better deals.
Can Jelly Support Growth Across Multiple Sites?
Jelly works for multi-site businesses at £129/month per location. Each site gets its own email and dashboard, with central control. Automation keeps admin tasks from growing as you add locations, standardising supplier processes.
Wrap-Up: Boost Your Hospitality Profits with Automated Accounts Payable
Manual accounts payable holds back UK hospitality businesses from maximising profits. Every moment spent on outdated tasks is a missed chance to grow. This guide has outlined how Jelly turns accounts payable into a strength, saving time and providing clear financial insights.
Results with Jelly come fast. Expect time savings and price alerts in the first week, full spending and margin data within a month, and noticeable efficiency and margin gains in a quarter.
For expanding restaurants, pubs, and boutique hotels, automating accounts payable is vital to staying competitive. Acting now builds an edge in profitability and growth potential.