Business Value
- Provides a real-time snapshot of all major hotel accounts for reconciliation.
- Helps detect discrepancies between postings, expected balances, and actual closures.
- Ensures compliance and financial control for audits.
Typical Use Cases
- Night audit teams verifying balances and transactions.
- Finance teams preparing for end-of-month closing.
- Managers investigating discrepancies between forecasted and actual balances.
Key Report Sections & Formulas
1. Ledger Accounts Explained
Guest Ledger
- What is it? Represents the balance of all in-house guest folios/accounts (i.e., current guests and their charges).
- How is it affected? Increased by guest charges (room, F&B, extras), decreased by payments, check-outs, or transfers to City Ledger.
City Ledger
- What is it? Shows amounts due from companies, travel agents, or direct bill clients (accounts receivable not yet settled).
- How is it affected? Increased by invoices or transfers from Guest Ledger (on check-out to company), decreased by payments received from companies.
Deposit Ledger
- What is it? Tracks advance deposits from guests or companies for future reservations/stays.
- How is it affected? Increased by prepayments or deposits received, decreased when deposits are applied to folios or refunded.
Control Accounts (Control Sum)
- What is it? Balancing accounts used to ensure all postings, closings, and ledgers reconcile. Any balance here typically indicates a discrepancy needing investigation.
2. Report Columns
Typical columns for each row/account:- Opening Balance: Balance carried forward from the previous day.
- Total Postings: Total of all transactions (charges, credits, transfers) recorded for the day.
- Projected Closing: Expected balance after all postings, before the night audit closes the day.
- Actual Closing Balance: The real balance at the end of the night audit.
- Control Sum: The net difference between actual and projected closing—should be zero in a balanced report.
3. Summary Row Formulas
Total Postings
- Formula: Total charges, credits, and transfers posted during the day for each account/ledger.
Projected Closing
- Formula:
Projected Closing = Opening Balance + Total Postings - Represents the expected account balance before night audit closes the business day.
Actual Closing Balance
- Formula: The closing balance calculated by the system after the night audit is complete.
- Should match Projected Closing if all transactions are posted and there are no discrepancies.
Control Sum
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Formula:
Control Sum = Actual Closing Balance - Projected Closing -
Purpose:
- Should be zero in a balanced report.
- If not zero, signals a posting or reconciliation error needing correction.
How to Read and Reconcile the Report
- Compare Projected vs. Actual Closing for each ledger.
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Investigate Control Sum:
- Zero means the ledger is balanced.
- Non-zero indicates missing postings, late entries, or manual errors.
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Guest Ledger and City Ledger Movement:
- Guest Ledger decreases when guests check out, and balances are moved to City Ledger.
- City Ledger increases with such transfers, decreases when payments are made.
Tips
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Common Causes of Control Sum Variances:
- Unposted charges.
- Checking the report on the same calendar date.
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Daily Review:
- Always review all ledger balances and Control Sums after the night audit.
- Investigate discrepancies immediately for clean financials.