What the night audit actually does

It closes the day: posts room and tax, marks no-shows, freezes the figures and moves the date on.

The night audit is the hotel's day close. It is not a report — it changes things.

Do this

1. Today — occupancy, ADR, RevPAR and revenue for the business date so far.
2. Before you close the day — the checklist: arrivals not checked in, due-outs still in house, open folios, Form C, discrepancies, open requests. Counts, with the arrivals opened out beneath.
3. Revenue today — by revenue centre, with tax.
4. Run night audit — when you are ready. Once run for a date the button is replaced by a note saying so; it cannot run twice.

In one run it:

1. Posts room and tax for every occupied room for that night. This is where most of a hotel's revenue is created.
2. Marks no-shows — arrivals that never turned up — against their reason, so the arrival figures are true.
3. Settles the day's figures: occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, revenue by head, the revenue journal.
4. Moves the operating date on by one.

After it runs, that day is closed. Corrections belong to the day you are on, as adjustments, not as quiet edits to a day that has been reported.

Running it once a day, every day is the discipline the whole system rests on. Skip it and the operating date stops, room charges stop posting, and a week later somebody has to unpick seven days of a hotel that has been trading on the wrong date.

Three reports by mail

When the timer closes a day it mails the hotel's contact address three things, one subject each: the night audit report (what was charged, who this audit marked no-show, who is in house), the no-show report — every booking marked no-show *on that business date*, by the desk or by the audit, with what the policy quoted, what was retained and on what basis, who marked it and why, and whether it has since been put back — and the day book for the day, footed: cash opening to closing, the bank register with what the desk has ticked against the bank, then every line and the totals by tender. A day with no no-shows still gets its mail saying so, because "none" is the answer, not silence. A report that cannot render names itself in the audit's outcome and does not stop the other two, or the audit. The desk's own Run audit button mails nothing.

What the audit stopped doing in September 2026

It still marks every arrival that never came — step 2 above is unchanged, and the arrival figures are still true. What it no longer does is take the money or tell the OTA: no retention is charged and no channel is notified by the audit. Each marked no-show goes on the hotel's no-show queue, and a manager, the revenue manager or an administrator decides both. The audit's own report says which are still awaiting a decision. See No-shows: marked by the desk, decided by the manager.