The front desk

Money owed and open balances

The list that stops a hotel losing money quietly, and the red dot that counts it.

Money owed at the foot of the Menu, or the panel on the calendar. It lists every folio carrying a balance, and marks the ones that need a person — a balance that has grown past what the hotel is comfortable carrying, a departure today with money outstanding, an in-house guest with no advance and a long stay.

The count is the red dot on the Menu button. It is meant to be zero by the end of a shift, or explained.

Related and worth the same five minutes:

High balance report — in-house guests whose folio has run past the hotel's floor limit. Ask for an interim payment before it becomes a departure-morning argument.
Arrivals at risk on the calendar — today's arrivals with nothing guaranteeing them.
City ledger ageing — the money already billed to companies and not yet paid.

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. 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.