The front desk

Voiding a posting, writing off a balance

Nothing is deleted. A mistake is reversed with a reason, and both lines stay visible.

Two different things, both needing a manager and both needing a reason.

Voiding reverses a posting that should not have been made — wrong folio, wrong amount, wrong head. The original line stays and a reversing line appears beside it. This is on purpose: a bill where charges quietly vanish is a bill nobody can audit, and the voids report is one of the first things a hotel's auditor asks for.

Writing off accepts that a balance will not be collected. It closes the folio without money arriving, with a reason, and it lands on the revenue journal as exactly that — not as a payment.

Both refuse with "a reason is required" if you skip it, and the reasons come from your hotel's own lists. If the reason you want is not offered, an administrator adds it in Lists & reasons — please do not pick the nearest wrong one, because that list is what the reports are grouped by.

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. 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.