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.

Do this

Open balances — every folio still carrying money, oldest first, with what is holding it and what to do.
City ledger — what companies and agents owe, by party, with age.
Arrivals at risk — due to arrive with no advance, no card and no account behind them.
Takings today — what each cashier has taken, by tender.
Write off…, Reopen and the collection actions sit on each row, for a manager.

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

Arrivals, in house, departuresThe day lists under Reports → Front office operations, and what the Rate and Payment mode columns mean. 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. Form C for foreign guestsRecording a passport and visa, raising the form, reading out what the portal asks for, and the register. The folioOne guest, one stay, every charge and payment on it — and what its balance means. Settling the bill at check-outA balance at the door opens one window: collect, discount and waive, adding up to what is owed — then Settle and check out. Sending money backHow a refund is recorded, who may authorise one, and the four things that will stop you. Posting a chargePost a charge on the folio, choose what it is for, and it lands with your name on it. No-shows: marked by the desk, decided by the managerMarking a no-show charges nothing and tells no OTA. Every one goes on a queue where a manager, the revenue manager or an administrator decides twice — retention, and whether the channel is told — with their name on it. Early check-in and late check-out chargesWhat the hotel charges for a guest who arrives before check-in time or leaves after check-out time, who decides, and who can waive it. The guest who paid the OTABalance from the OTA is the stay; balance from the guest is zero. Collect nothing at the desk, and the invoice is still in the guest's name. A payment is trusted first, and verified afterA deposit recorded against a booking is paid from that moment. It also goes to the accountant, who confirms the money arrived or rejects it with a reason — and only then does it come off the bill. A date change inside the cancellation window is a question, and the policy's charge goes on the bill. A booking cancelled by mistake is put backA cancelled or no-show booking is found with Find and put back with one press and a reason. Before the night audit anybody at the desk can; once the audit has closed a night of the stay, the administrator can. The nights the audit passed over go on the bill. 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. The registration card (GRC)Print it from the booking card. It carries the guest details, the stay, and the declaration they sign. Reprinting a registration cardReprints are allowed and counted. The second onwards is stamped COPY. Advances and depositsMoney taken before the charges exist, held against the stay and applied when they do. Correcting an invoice that has already been issuedDo not reopen the bill. Issue a credit note if the value falls, a debit note if it rises. The deadline for reclaiming tax on a credit noteTax may be adjusted until 30 November after the invoice financial year. After that, the money is credited and the tax is not. Voiding a posting, writing off a balanceNothing is deleted. A mistake is reversed with a reason, and both lines stay visible. Giving a discount on the billThe folio's fourth tab: a percentage or an amount off the whole bill, the room, the food, or one line — with the GST reduced to match, a reason, and a name on it. The GST number says who the company isType a guest's GSTIN on the card: the company is looked up, added to the CRM if it is new (pay at checkout, no credit), and the bill is made out to it. Checking out, and the tax invoiceSettle the folio, print the invoice, and the room goes dirty for housekeeping. Dummy rooms, and a guest walked to another hotelA dummy room parks a booking the hotel cannot house. Only an administrator puts one there, it is never stock, and a walk records where the guest went and what it cost. A guest who arrives in the night: here for last night?Arriving after midnight but before the hotel's day starts, on a booking for today — the desk is asked whether the guest is here for last night. Checking a company's GST registration before the invoiceThe panel on the Invoices tab lists the companies on your bills and bookings, and says when each GSTIN was last checked. Search for one that is not there yet. Corrections: putting a booking rightOne screen that finds a booking and lists every correction there is — including the ones that do not apply to it, and why. Each needs a reason and is logged. Splitting a stay across several invoicesRoom, food and spa on one bill or three — the guest decides, and you tick the lines. Waiving a small balance at check-outA guest owes ₹150 and has their bags in hand. The desk may forgive it up to the hotel's limit, with a reason and their name on it — the money is not taken out of the till. A guest who paid for more nights than they stayedAt check-out the bill may hold more than it owes. You are asked: keep it, or send it back — and the guest leaves either way. Proforma invoice — a bill before the stayWhat a company needs to raise a purchase order. Not a tax invoice, and it says so. The day book: opening, closing, expenses and the bankOne row per day of the month, cash opening to closing carried day to day, the bank receipts ticked when the bank shows them, and the till's expenses written where they happened. The OTA refunded a night to the guestA prepaid OTA guest left early and the OTA gave the unused night back. Take it off what the OTA owes — nothing goes back from the desk. Undo a mistake the desk made todayThe administrator takes back the last thing done to a booking — check-out, check-in, cancellation, a charge — as long as the night audit has not closed the day. The administrator corrects any booking — and the log is the priceAn account administrator may correct a booking that is audited, in house, departed or billed: its dates, room, guests, rate or status. Every correction is recorded with login, time, machine and reason. Reopening a settled billA bill closed at zero or in credit is reopened only by an account administrator; then a charge can be voided, money refunded, and the bill closed again — every step with a name on it. Billing a company: the city ledgerA folio routed to a company instead of collected, and the ageing that follows it.