Setting a hotel up

Invoice numbers: where they start and how they count

Hotel details has a box for the next invoice number — type it the way your accountant writes it, 27ACP01, and every bill after counts up. The system's own bill number stays beside it as the internal record. Only an administrator; never rewound over a bill already issued.

Every bill carries two numbers. The system's own — ASARCP-FA000101 — is given when the bill opens, is unique, never changes, and is what the desk and the log call the bill: the internal record. The invoice number is the hotel's — 27ACP05 — and it is what prints as *Invoice No.* on the tax invoice, what goes on a company's statement, what is filed in GSTR-1 and registered for e-invoicing. It is also given when the bill opens, from the series set here.

Do this

Onboarding → the hotel → Hotel details.
In Next invoice number type the first number you want, exactly as it should print — 27ACP01.
Save. The next bill opened at this hotel is invoice 27ACP01, the one after is 27ACP02, and so on: …99, 100, 101.

The digits at the end are the counter; how many you type is how they are padded. Everything before them is fixed. Letters, digits, - and / only, sixteen characters at most — that is the GST rule for an invoice number.

When the year turns

On 1 April type the new year's first number — 28ACP01. The prefix is different, so nothing can collide with last year's, and the numbers are unique within the financial year, as the GST law asks.

What it will not do

Go backwards. If 27ACP14 has been issued, the next can be 27ACP15 or later, never 27ACP10. A bill in a guest's hand keeps its number.
Change the system's number. ASARCP-FA000101 stays on the bill for ever, whatever the invoice number says.
Take the setting from the desk. Only an account administrator may change it, and every change is on the hotel's log with the old number, the new one and the login.

A second window on the same stay (a split bill) is numbered 27ACP14-2 — its own invoice, off the same base. Bills that were opened before the series was set are numbered by the deployer when the series is switched on, in the order they were opened; the box says how many still have none.

More in Setting a hotel up

Opening a hotel: the whole thing in orderSix phases from the GST certificate to the first night audit, and what each one needs. Getting the hotel group signed upWhat Asar does, what the hotel does, and why nobody here chooses your password. After the wizard: making the hotel actually readyThe wizard makes a hotel that exists. This is what makes it one that can trade. Setting the restaurant up, in the order it has to be doneGST groups and stations before dishes, dishes before tables. Backwards means rebuilding the menu. The first real dayOne booking end to end before you rely on it, then the three daily habits. The month after openingFour things to read on a schedule, and the one that changes on its own. Adding a hotel: the five stepsOne wizard, five steps, and the hotel exists. Everything after it is adjustable. Room types and real room numbersThe type sets the price. The numbers are the rooms a guest is actually given. Room categories and room numbersAdding a category, putting rooms in it, moving a room, and taking one out of the inventory. Rates, plans and the cancellation policyA rate per type and date, and the rules that go with selling it. Adding and changing rate plansCreating a plan, what the meal codes mean, pricing one plan off another, and what stops you retiring one. Closing a date, minimum stay and stop sellThe five rules that decide whether a night may be sold, how to set them, and how to lift one. Rates run out — the check that is not about configurationA hotel that was ready in August stops being sellable in February. Load rates further ahead. Seasons — a date range that prices differentlySetting a peak or a lean period once instead of typing a hundred nights. Going live: the readiness checksEleven or so checks per hotel, and what each one means it cannot do yet. The onboarding boardEvery hotel in the group at once, and what each is still missing. One number and the gaps — the derived rate sheetPrice the cheapest room once; every other room type and plan is a gap on top. Type what you want in hand and be shown the rate to push. Lists and reasonsEighteen short lists your staff pick from, and why free text was worse. GST registrations — one per state, and every rule with a dateThe registration is the unit of filing: one GSTIN per state per legal entity, its kind, its dates, its e-invoice threshold; which hotel invoices under it; the HSN/SAC master with dated rates and the condition in words.