The front desk

Taking a payment

Take a payment on the folio: method, amount, reference. It is the reference that saves you later.

Take a payment on the folio. Three things:

Method — cash, card, UPI, bank transfer, and whatever else your hotel keeps. The list is yours to maintain.
Amount — whole rupees. It may be less than the balance; part payments are ordinary.
Reference — the card approval code, the UPI reference, the cheque number. Nobody wants to type it and everybody wants it at month end, when a bank statement has to be matched against a day's takings.

Where it goes: onto the folio immediately, into the day's takings, and onto the tenders report by method. The cashier's own report shows what they personally collected on their shift, which is what a handover is checked against.

To split one settlement across methods — half card, half cash — do not post two payments blindly; use Splitting a payment, which balances them against the folio in one movement.

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. 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.