the background

Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa is located on the sugar-white sands and emerald-green waters of the Gulf Coast in Northwest Florida. Featuring 590 rooms, a luxury spa, and six on-site seasonal dining venues, Hilton Sandestin Beach prides itself on creating
memorable stays for every guest.

The resort’s finance team was looking for ways to become more efficient and expedite vendor payments to keep resort operations running smoothly.

Their accounts payable (AP) team – a team of just two AP managers – was paying 200+ vendors every month and cutting 75-150 checks every week to cover linens, food and beverage, groundskeeping, and more. The check-cutting process was consuming time they
didn’t have to spare.

“It was taking us three to four hours a week just to cut, record, scan and mail the checks,” said Matt Olsen, Hilton Sandestin’s Accounts Payable Manager.

Additionally, the approval process required several touchpoints, adding to the time.

“Payment approvals would pass from the department head to the CFO to the general manager and then finally to AP.” Olsen explained,
“We needed quicker payment and approval processes.”

the Solution

REPAY’s vendor payment integration with Microsoft Dynamics Business Central offered an attractive option for expediting the resort’s vendor payments by replacing paper checks with ACH and virtual cards. And all within a system they were already familiar with.

“Paying our vendors from Dynamics BC allowed us to replace manual uploads with payments in a click,” Olsen remarked.

the result

From contract to go-live, implementation was simple, with REPAY managing every step.

“REPAY contacted every single one of our vendors to enroll them in virtual cards or ACH. If a vendor comes directly to me, REPAY is always available to assist. I know many of the payment specialist team members by name now!” said Olsen.

Getting the resort’s AP payments off of checks helped avoid mail delays and enabled them to make payments more quickly in the event of fast-approaching due dates. REPAY also provided better tracking and options to quickly send remittances or check copies if needed.

Additionally, managing every vendor payment within Business Central gave them the time savings they were seeking.

Olsen explained, “REPAY with Business Central allows me to look at all vendors at once, instead of one by one, to see if they have been paid. I simply hit a button to submit the payments and the CFO approves in mere minutes. We are saving several hours a week by eliminating paper checks.”

When asked to confirm his comment, Olsen stated,
“I don’t have to cut checks anymore!”