# Invoice processing for hospitality | Glimps > Automate invoice processing for restaurants, hotels, and hospitality groups with Exact Online: multi-location, weekly billing, food/beverage splits, price fluctuations. Source: https://useglimps.com/en/solutions/horeca | Language: en | Updated: 2026-07-06 This Markdown file is the plain-text twin of the page above, generated at build time from the same render. --- In hospitality, complexity is in volume and spread, not in single invoices. Dozens of suppliers, weekly billing cycles, prices that shift weekly, and multiple locations receiving their own deliveries. Glimps centralizes processing without local managers losing control. Invoice in: a laptop, GL 4500 equipment A restaurant manager wants quick approval, not phone calls to finance about a €40 variance. Split beverage and food, post per location, apply correct VAT categories. Cross-location, you instantly see where the food cost ratio is out of line. Benchmark: Ardent Partners (2024) reported $9.40 average cost per invoice, 9.15 days processing time, 32.6% straight-through processing. [Source](https://www.medius.com/media/fvzk13ia/ardent-partners-state-of-epayables-2024-medius-final.pdf) ## How invoice processing looks in hospitality Hospitality finance runs on tempo, scale, and margin. An average restaurant processes 80–200 purchase invoices per month; a 5-location chain quickly hits 500–1,500. Beverage, food, cleaning, gas, delivery costs, often from the same group of suppliers (Sligro, Bidfood, Hanos, Heineken, Bavaria, AB InBev) who deliver and invoice weekly or even daily. A paper or email workflow saturates within weeks. Hospitality margins are thin and vary by category. Beverage margin sits around 65–75% with good purchasing; food margin around 65–70%. On top of that comes the VAT distinction: beverages fall under 21% VAT, food for off-premise use under 9%, sometimes combined with catering rules. A misposted beverage line with food VAT costs margin directly; structural mispostings cost thousands per quarter and create audit risk. Multi-location makes complexity exponential. An 8-location chain has 8 local managers who need to approve their own costs, a central finance keeping the total overview, and a purchaser benchmarking across locations. If every location runs its own mailbox and spreadsheet, you get no central food cost ratio, no comparable supplier benchmarks, and no real-time view on overspending. Glimps solves this with central intake, automatic location and category detection, one-click approval from the email for local managers, and cross-location reporting in finance. Result: chain finance sees real-time food cost and pour cost per location, local managers approve or decline from the email (on their phone too), and onboarding a new location is just adding a new cost object. ## Where this solution fits, and where it doesn't - You operate multiple locations, restaurants, or hotels on one or more Exact Online administrations. - Weekly billing with major suppliers (beverages, meat, bread, wholesale). - Local managers want to approve their own spend, finance wants the overview. - You have a single location with a few invoices per week. - You use a hospitality-specific package that already fully automates. ## From intake to controlled posting Glimps handles the routine so finance can focus on the exceptions, not the data entry. ### 1. Invoice into central inbox Suppliers send to one central email address or upload via portal. ### 2. Determine location and category Glimps identifies the right location via supplier, delivery address, and history. ### 3. Local manager approves The manager gets an email with the invoice and approves or declines in one click, from a phone too. Rather do it in one go? Then a daily or weekly digest arrives instead. ### 4. Post to Exact Online Posted per location with correct VAT category and cost object. ## The real value is in the exceptions High-volume AP automation only pays off when it is clear what can flow through safely, and what must be reviewed by a human. ### Multi-location without chaos Three restaurants, five suppliers, thirty invoices per week. Central inbox plus smart routing keeps it manageable. ### Beverage vs food Different VAT, different ledgers, different cost ratios. The split must be exact. ### Price fluctuations Fresh produce varies weekly. Tolerances must be wide enough for normal variation but tight enough to catch errors. Deep dive ## Multi-location: one administration with cost objects vs multiple administrations The choice between one Exact Online administration with locations as cost objects, or multiple administrations per BV, determines how you set up AP. Many hospitality chains use a holding BV with operational BVs per location. That is fiscally and legally logical, but for accounting it means multiple Exact Online administrations with separate suppliers, VAT returns, and ledgers. For every invoice you must determine which BV (administration) it belongs to. For some suppliers (Sligro with separate location numbers, or Heineken with separate hospitality numbers) that's clear; for others (general suppliers, marketing, IT) it must be configured via delivery addresses, email routes, or history. Other chains (especially smaller ones, or franchises with central bookkeeping) use one Exact Online administration and treat each location as a cost object. Administratively simpler but requires sharp coding: every invoice line must get the correct cost object (location), or the food cost ratio per location won't reconcile. VAT returns happen centrally too, so the split between beverage and food VAT must be exact. Glimps supports both models. For multi-administration, Glimps uses our multi-entity solution with central inbox and automatic per-administration routing, with approval per the right BV's matrix. For one administration with cost objects, every invoice line is automatically classified by delivery address, supplier category, and usage patterns. In both models, the finance manager sees the same dashboard: status, food cost, and pour cost per location. In practice, chains from 5+ locations often choose multi-administration because fiscal and operational autonomy per BV is easier to manage. Under 5 locations, or franchise models with central finance, one administration with cost objects often works fine. The choice is fiscal-legal, not software-driven. Glimps adapts. Deep dive ## VAT in hospitality: 9% food, 21% beverage, and the catering rule The VAT split in hospitality looks simple but is full of exceptions. Catering, take-away, and non-alcoholic beverages with meals have their own rules. The main rule: food for human consumption falls under the reduced VAT rate of 9%. Beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) fall under the general 21% rate in most situations. A cup of coffee in a restaurant: 9%. A bottle of wine at the table: 21%. A bottle of cola separately delivered by the wholesaler: 21%. The exceptions: in **catering** where food and service are delivered together (think corporate lunch on-site), the full amount is invoiced at 9%, including non-alcoholic beverages served with the meal. With **take-away**, 9% applies only to the food itself; packaging, delivery costs, and beverages each follow their own rules. With **canteens and events**, different rules apply around resale versus direct consumption. For purchase invoices this means a supplier like Sligro can send an invoice with 30 product lines where 18 fall under 9% (food for resale), 8 under 21% (beverage, alcohol), 3 under 21% (packaging), and 1 freight line under 21%. Wrong coding is a direct margin leak: for an average restaurant this can reach €5,000–€20,000 per year in unnecessarily paid or non-deductible VAT. Glimps classifies every invoice line semantically based on product description, supplier category, and historical coding. "Coca-Cola 1L" is recognized not as food but as beverage. "Potatoes 25kg" as food. "Branded stickers" as packaging. The correct VAT code follows automatically, with an audit trail back to the reasoning, useful for the tax advisor or accountant. ## How Glimps handles the cases that would otherwise stall Invoice posted to wrong location Delivery address, supplier-location pairing, historical bookings. Route to correct location manager with location suggestion. Beverage line with food VAT Product description, semantic class, supplier category, and historical VAT coding. Auto-correct VAT and flag for finance sample audit. Price jump > 15% vs prior week Prior invoices, market price index (where available), seasonal patterns, contract price. Flag for local manager review before posting. Catering line with separate beverage lines Catering exception in VAT (9% on combined delivery), line classification, and supplier rules. Apply catering rule or split into 9%/21% and flag for review. Marketing bonus from supplier without documentation Supplier contract, prior bonuses, revenue thresholds, and activity description. Route to purchasing for contract linkage. Location manager approves invoice above personal limit Approval matrix per location and amount, manager authorization, prior overrides. Escalate to central finance or regional manager for co-approval. ## How Glimps fits in your software stack Glimps works natively with Exact Online including the cost object and project modules hospitality uses for multi-location accounting. For chains with multiple BVs, Glimps supports multi-administration via the same inbox, with automatic routing to the right BV based on delivery address or supplier number. Many hospitality POS systems feed revenue data to Exact Online via their standard integrations. Glimps works against the same administration and feeds the purchasing side: supplier invoices coded by cost object (location) and VAT category (beverage/food). With both sides reconciled in Exact Online, food cost and pour cost reporting is structurally available. Many large Dutch hospitality suppliers deliver invoices as PDF (from their own supplier portal or by email). Glimps processes those PDFs directly with semantic extraction. No per-supplier template is needed, so a supplier changing their invoice format does not disrupt processing. ## What it delivers for hospitality Restaurant chain with 6 locations, ~750 invoices/month, multi-administration, 1 central controller and 6 local managers. Manual time per invoice (incl. location + VAT coding)5–7 minutesTime per invoice with Glimps30 sec for exceptionsMonthly time saved~70 hours central + ~20 hours per locationPrevented VAT errors (avg)€5,000–€20,000/yearImproved food cost visibility (insight value)1–3% margin improvementGlimps Professional (multi-entity included)€149/mo = €1,788/yrNet annual savings, year 1€35,000–€80,000 Payback Payback typically within 4–8 weeks. For chains with 5+ locations, cross-location insight (food cost, pour cost, supplier benchmarks) often delivers more value than time savings alone. That's the difference between reacting and steering. ## Exact Online setup checklist The prerequisites to get this solution into production. - Locations set up as cost objects in Exact Online. - VAT categories for beverage and food correctly mapped. - Approval matrix per location and amount documented. - Central inbox or portal for suppliers set up. ## What Glimps automates for you The concrete parts of the process Glimps takes off your hands. - Location recognition by delivery address and supplier. - Beverage/food split with correct VAT. - Approve from the email in one click, on a phone too. - Cross-location cost reporting. ## Frequently asked questions Specific questions about this solution for hospitality. Want to see it yourself?Open the demo Does Glimps work with multiple Exact Online administrations for our locations? Yes. Glimps supports both multi-administration (a separate BV per location) and a single administration with locations as cost objects. The choice is typically fiscal-legal. Glimps adapts to your structure. See also our multi-entity solution. Can managers approve on the go, for example on their phone? Yes, by email. The approver gets an email with the invoice and approves or declines in one click, straight from that email. The link works on a phone too, so between two services is fine. There is no separate app and no push notifications. Anyone who prefers to do it in one go picks a daily or weekly digest with every invoice waiting for them. How do you handle weekly supplier billing? Weekly invoices are fast-tracked: usually posted within 24 hours of receipt once they arrive in Glimps. For aggregate invoices spanning multiple delivery days, the booking stays as one invoice per supplier; per-day analysis requires additional setup in Exact Online. Does Glimps work with Sligro, Bidfood, Hanos, and Heineken? Yes, all major Dutch hospitality suppliers are supported. Their formats differ, but Glimps uses semantic extraction without templates: every format works immediately, even on format changes. How does Glimps handle the catering VAT exception? Glimps detects catering situations (joint delivery of food + service) and applies the exception where fiscally correct. When uncertain, Glimps routes to finance with specific lines and reasoning. That is useful for later tax audits. Can we configure approval rules per supplier? Yes. A beverage supplier with €5,000 invoices can get different routing than a cleaning supplier with €200 invoices. Glimps adjusts the matrix on supplier, amount, location, or category. How long does implementation take for a hospitality chain? Technical Exact Online integration takes minutes. Configuring supplier categories, location routing, and approval matrix typically takes 4–8 hours for a chain with 5+ locations, depending on complexity. What does Glimps cost for a hospitality chain? Glimps Professional (€149/mo) suits most chains up to 500 invoices/month. Multi-entity support is included for an unlimited number of entities. Larger groups with 1,000+ invoices choose Business (€399/mo). Glimps works on the purchasing side. Your POS feeds revenue data to Exact Online via your POS provider's standard integration. Glimps feeds purchasing data into the same administration. Together they form the basis for food cost and pour cost reporting in Exact Online. ## Terms you'll encounter daily in hospitality Food cost ratioFood purchasing cost as a percentage of food revenue. Standard hospitality KPI; target usually 28–35% depending on segment.Pour costBeverage purchasing cost as a percentage of beverage revenue. Target usually 18–25% depending on hospitality type.9% VAT (reduced rate)VAT rate for food for human consumption and certain catering situations. All beverages (including non-alcoholic) fall under 21%, except in explicit catering rules.21% VAT (general rate)Standard VAT rate for most goods and services in the Netherlands, including beverages and alcohol in hospitality.Multi-location / multi-siteHospitality organization with 2 or more physical locations. Requires central purchasing with location-specific approval and cost-object accounting.Central kitchenCentral production kitchen preparing for multiple locations. Generates its own purchasing streams and internal cost allocations.SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)Unique product code in inventory administration. In hospitality, SKU count typically ranges 500–3,000 per location.Purchasing groupCooperative of hospitality businesses purchasing jointly to capture volume and annual rebates. E.g. Sligro Inkoopvoordeel, Bidfood Foodservice, or regional purchasing organizations.Catering ruleVAT exception where food and service together fall under 9%, contrary to separate sales of beverages (21%) and food (9%).Take-awaySales for off-premise consumption. VAT rates differ per element (food 9%, beverage 21%, packaging 21%, delivery 21%). Requires separate line classification.Read next ## Related solutions ### Multi-entity invoice processing Central control for multiple Exact Online administrations. ### High-volume invoice processing For teams where manual AP capacity no longer scales. ### Food & beverage Perishable goods, lot/batch tracking, import invoices, and complex supplier terms.