Book a demo Sign in

Home Features The screens Pricing Help Contact Sign in

The front desk

The folio

One guest, one stay, every charge and payment on it — and what its balance means.

The folio is the stay's account: every charge on one side, every payment on the other, and the balance between them.

What lands on it:

Room and tax, posted nightly by the night audit for each night of the stay.
Charges posted by the desk — laundry, minibar, a paid-out, a damage charge.
Restaurant bills charged to the room from the POS.
Payments, advances, and anything written off.

Reading it:

A positive balance is money the guest owes. Negative is money held beyond what has been charged — usually an advance.
Every line names who posted it and when. Nothing is edited after the fact; a wrong posting is voided with a reason, which leaves both lines visible.
A folio may be split where a company pays part — the guest settles the rest. Set who pays what before departure, not during it.

At check-out the folio must reach zero, or go to the city ledger against a company that has credit. See Checking out.

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