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Case Study
Solotel calls time on legacy accounting with NetSuite OneWorld
At a Glance
- Hotels
- Bars
- Restaurants
- Event spaces
Solotel is a third-generation, Solomon family-led hospitality group based in Sydney. Its portfolio includes pubs such as The Abercrombie, The Courthouse Hotel and The Strand, alongside restaurants Aria, Chiswick and North Bondi Fish, run in partnership with chef Matt Moran. The group focuses on distinctive venues, each with its own character, over sheer scale.
Hospitality group
Sydney, Australia
Multi-venue group
NetSuite OneWorld, implemented by DWR
Key Results
Real time
Consolidated group financials updated as venues traded
Was: a legacy accounting system
Month-end
Close times drastically reduced
Was: a drawn-out monthly close
Role-based
Each user worked from live KPIs, report snapshots, alerts and reminders
Was: no live dashboard view
The Challenge
More venues, less visibility
- Legacy accounting system
- Reconciliation done by hand, venue by venue
- POS, payroll, rostering and functions kept apart
- No group view on demand
Solotel grew one venue at a time, and for years its finance function grew the same way. Every venue's numbers ran through a legacy accounting system that had become slow and unreliable, and the reconciliation behind each report was done by hand, one venue after another.
The group was still growing, and every new venue made current numbers more important to the decision about the next one. Solotel needed a finance platform built for a group, not a collection of venues, so it brought in DWR.
What sat outside the books
4 systems
Point of sale, payroll, rostering and functions all ran separately from Solotel's accounts, so every figure they produced had to be handled again before it reached the ledger.
The Solution
One platform for every venue and the group
DWR started by moving Solotel's accounting off the legacy system and onto NetSuite OneWorld. For the first time, finance could open a single venue and the consolidated group at the same moment, then drill from any report line to the transaction behind it.
NetSuite OneWorld implementation
The next step was closing the gaps between systems. Using NetSuite's open API, DWR connected point of sale, payroll, rostering and functions to the core platform, so venue data flowed straight into the accounts. The same API left the door open for any system Solotel added later.
The Impact
From catching up to looking ahead
The difference showed first at month-end, where close times dropped drastically. Consolidated financials updated in real time, and role-based dashboards put the right KPIs, report snapshots, alerts and reminders in front of each user.
The bigger shift was in how the finance team spent its days. As Tiernan O'Connor, DWR's Director of Customer Success, put it, the biggest change was that the team "could get out of doing manual data entry and reconciliation to doing more productive analysis work to improve the business, rather than trying to catch up the whole time." Reporting, cost control and financial analysis all sharpened across the group's different structures, leaving Solotel with a finance function that could keep pace with its growth.
| FUNCTION | BEFORE | AFTER |
|---|---|---|
| Month-end close | Manual, venue by venue | → Drastically reduced |
| Group view | Slow to put together | → Real time, by venue and group |
| Venue system data | Handled more than once | → Integrated via open API |
| Finance team focus | Data entry and catching up | → Analysis and improvement |
In Their Words
The NetSuite open API has allowed Solotel to integrate POS, payroll, rostering, functions and other key systems, reducing errors and double handling for team members.
Former Strategic & Commercial CFO / Director, Solotel
The business had experienced strong growth over the years and found themselves using an unreliable inefficient legacy system that could not provide the detail required by the group. It was time consuming and inefficient getting a clear understanding of the business financial position on a regular basis.
Former Strategic & Commercial CFO / Director, Solotel
Customer Success Stories
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What could NetSuite do for your business?
What could NetSuite do for your business? Sydney and Melbourne teams who understand Australian compliance and mid-market operations. This consultation covers the NetSuite OneWorld implementation, the same day result above. TaskDrive, the AI layer, is a separate product evaluated at taskdrive.ai.
No obligation. Straight answers.
Results described are specific to this customer and depend on their starting systems, data quality, implementation scope, and ongoing use of the platform. Individual results vary by organisation. TaskDrive is an independent product and company, separate from DWR.
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