Book a demo Sign in

Home Features The screens Pricing Help Contact Sign in

The front desk

Advances and deposits

Money taken before the charges exist, held against the stay and applied when they do.

An advance is money taken before there is anything to charge it against — a deposit at booking, a prepaid stay, the payment on a hold link.

It sits against the booking, and shows as a negative balance or as an advance held, depending where you look.
Apply the advance moves it onto the folio once charges exist. Until then it is the hotel's liability, not its revenue, and the advance ledger report is what an auditor reads to check that.
If the stay does not happen, the advance is refunded with a reason, or retained where the cancellation policy allows — as a retention charge, which is revenue, with the reason recorded.

Do not re-enter an advance as a payment at check-out. It is already in the hotel's hands; entering it twice shows money that was never collected.

More in The front desk

Checking a guest inRoom, identity, and the folio opens. What stops a check-in and what to do about it. Aadhaar, PAN, passport and Form CWhat identity the law wants, what the system checks, and where Form C is filed. The folioOne guest, one stay, every charge and payment on it — and what its balance means. Posting a chargePost a charge on the folio, choose what it is for, and it lands with your name on it. Taking a paymentTake a payment on the folio: method, amount, reference. It is the reference that saves you later. Splitting a payment across methodsOne settlement, several methods, checked against the folio as one movement. Voiding a posting, writing off a balanceNothing is deleted. A mistake is reversed with a reason, and both lines stay visible. Checking out, and the tax invoiceSettle the folio, print the invoice, and the room goes dirty for housekeeping. Splitting a stay across several invoicesRoom, food and spa on one bill or three — the guest decides, and you tick the lines. Proforma invoice — a bill before the stayWhat a company needs to raise a purchase order. Not a tax invoice, and it says so. Billing a company: the city ledgerA folio routed to a company instead of collected, and the ageing that follows it. Money owed and open balancesThe list that stops a hotel losing money quietly, and the red dot that counts it.