Common Terms, Words, and Phrases

Some of these are hospitality terms, some are technology terms and some are specific to Execu/Tech applications.  Many of these terms have multiple definitions; only those applicable to hospitality or technology are included. 

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A

B

Back Office - Hotel facilities and employees handling management and accounting not part of direct guest services.

Back of House - Restaurant facilities and employees handling kitchen, management, and accounting not part of direct dining room service.

Balance Forward (Direct Bill) - A customer type in Direct Bill (City Ledger) where payments are applied to the customer balance only, and not to specific invoices.  See also Open Item.

Balance Sheet - A General Ledger report showing account sums, subtotals, and totals for asset accounts, liability accounts, and equity accounts; a statement of accounts in which the debit and credit balances add up as equal; a statement of the financial position of a business.

Bar Code - A series of lines of varying width read by a scanner.  Indicates a specific inventory item and price in a retail sale.

Batch - A record of transactions posted within Inventory Control, Direct Bill, General Ledger, or Payroll.  May be generated automatically or posted manually.  The batch clears when it is updated and subsequent transactions will post to a new batch.

BEO - See Event Order

Blocking Rooms - Setting aside a quantity of rooms by type for a group.

BSA (Billable Services Authorization) - An agreement authorizing billable services to be performed and payment to be made prior to or after completion of those services.

C

Cancellation - Status of a reservation that has been cancelled per guest, OTA, or other notification.

Cash Management - POS option used for waiter banking where the beginning bank is entered and calculated at end of day.

Cashier - in POS a user type with higher permissions than a server but fewer permissions than a supervisor or administrator.  Cashiers may close checks with additional permissions.

Categories-Inventory - See Class/Category.

Categories-POS - Groupings such as "Dessert" and "Books" assigned within POS items for ease of item selection and reporting by category.

Charge Code - An alphanumeric code set up within Execu/Suite for use when posting charges to a folio.  Charge codes include revenue and liability (tax) transactions and post as debits to folios.

Chart of Accounts-Condo - Subledger Debit and credit accounts for condo owner accounting including income, expenses, liabilities, and payments.

Chart of Accounts-General Ledger -  Business General Ledger debit and credit accounts including assets, liabilities, equity, income, and expenses.

Check In - The process of accepting an arriving guest and entering the arrival into the system; the process of opening a master folio.

Check Out - The process of recording a guest's departure into the system; the process of closing a master folio.

Chit - A printout in the kitchen showing POS items to be prepared by the chef and/or kitchen staff

City Ledger - An Accounts Receivable subledger for handling Direct Billing for for customers or entities whose guests not paying prior to or at the time of stay and to be billed subsequent to the stay.

Class/Category (Inventory) - A classification designation such as "Books", "Beef", or "Juice"  applied to inventory items.

Clearing Charge Code - A charge code posted automatically and internally where a debit is posted to one folio and an offsetting credit is posted to another folio, such as when a POS ticket is closed to "room charge" and a credit posts to the POS master folio and a debit posts to the guest's folio.  At night audit, the sum of each clearing code should be zero.

Clearing Folio - A folio used for automatic and internal postings of POS transactions.  The folio balance should always be zero and the folio detail should clear at night audit.  

Closed Check - A POS check that has been paid on the Total screen.

Cloud-Based Services - Online services and applications hosted on internet servers rather than the users' local servers or computers. 

Combined Checks - Two or more POS checks that have been combined into one check, voiding the original checks.

Company - A property and its various outlets or profit centers.  Within Execu/Tech a property may have up to 99 outlets or profit centers

Condo - A hotel property where the rooms/units are owned by individual persons or entities and rented to guests as hotel rooms, cabins, suites, etc.

Connecting Rooms - Two to five rooms that can be reserved and rented separately or as a single unit.  When a room is "connected" to another room, both rooms are taken from inventory and are rented/sold as one unit with one folio.

Control Files - Setup files that include transaction codes and other information related to processing guest stays, sales, and other operations.

Corporate File - A list of companies and entities with specified rates or discounts.

Credit Card - A card issued by a financial company giving the cardholder the option to borrow funds to be used at a point of sale or other transaction.

Credit Limit - The maximum amount allowed to be charged against unpaid credit such as a preauthorization on a credit card, a maximum allowed by a Direct Bill  customer, or a maximum allowed per a property's policy.

CRM (Customer Relations Management) - Technology allowing the collection, assessment, analysis, and use of guest information and demographics in order to build further relationships, market services, etc.

CRS (Central Reservation System) -  Reservation software used to maintain a hotel's room inventory, rates, etc. for distribution to a PMS, GDS or distribution channel through interfaces.  See also HTNG.  See also OTA.  See also PMS.  See also GDS.

Customer Aged Trial Balance - A Report in City Ledger (Direct Bill) showing balance, current balance as of date entered and balance for last three months or previous three dates entered for each customer.

D

Daily Report - A report printed at Night Audit after Reorganize Files has been run.  This report shows daily, MTD, and YTD revenue/expenses, receipts, occupancy, and other statistical data.

Departure - An in-house guest scheduled for check-out; also the date entered into a reservation or check-in for the expected check-out date.

Deposit - A payment toward a future expenditure; a payment in a reservation applied toward a future stay stay.

Direct Bill - See City Ledger

Donated Gift Cards - Gift Cards/Certificates processed through Execu/Gift with a zero balance, for one use only regardless of value.

E

EMV - a global standard for debit and credit payments based on chip card technology.  Sands for Europay, MasterCard, and Visa who originally created the standard.

Encryption - The converting of information or data into a code in such a way that only authorized parties can access it and denies intelligible content to unauthorized parties.

Event Items - The specific components of an event, including food, beverage, media, venue, setup, etc.

Event Order - A document that includes the items, date, cost, and other specifics related to an event.

Export - To format and possibly convert data and place it into a file in such a way that it can be used by another application importing that data.

F

Firewall - A system,an application, or hardware designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a computer or network.

Fiscal Year - A 12-month period used for accounting and tax purposes.  Might or might not be calendar year.

Folio (Hospitality) - A file containing guest and stay or other information and used for posting charges and payments for that guest or entity.  See also:  Guest Folio, Master Folio, and Clearing Folio.

Folio Type - The designation of a folio as Master Folio, Clearing Folio, Deposit Folio or other type, each functioning distinctly to do specific tasks and record accounting transactions.

Food & Beverage - A type of Point of Sale application allowing non-retail functions such as table selection, credit card preauthorization, and tip entry.  Also a credit card merchant account type.

Forecast - In hospitality, the collection, calculation, and reporting of information in order to estimate a future trend, occupancy, or revenue.

Front Desk - In lodging hospitality, the location of  and employees performing guest services such as check-in, check-out, and concierge.

Front of House - In food service hospitality, the location of and employees performing guest services such as welcoming and seating diners, taking orders, and serving food & beverages.

G

Gateway - A portal between two computers or applications allowing them to transmit data.  Payment gateways help protect sensitive data by encrypting the transmitted data.

GDS - A computer network and reservation tool allowing the distribution of a property's rates, availability, etc., to multiple channels or CRS applications and importing of reservations to a PMS, Travel Agency, etc.  See also CRS.  See also PMS.  See also OTA.  See also HTNG.

Graphical Room View - A visual layout of a hotel or property, showing occupied, reserved, vacant, and out of order rooms along with the housekeeping status. 

Group -  The association of multiple guests in order to block rooms, optionally perform one-button check-ins and check-outs, optionally post charges and payments into one folio, etc.

Group Block - Setting aside rooms by type for a Group for a specific date or date range.  See also Soft Block.

Group Code - The code entered in a Group setup and used to unify reservations for that group, print reports, block rooms, etc.

Guest Folio - A folio assigned to a checked in guest.  See also Folio.  See also Master Folio.  See also Folio Type.

Guest History - The folios, folio details, and stay information for prior guests and master folios checked out before Night Audit Reorganize Files, which places checked out guests into Guest History if there is no folio balance.  See also Reservation History.

Guest Ledger - The current sum of all folios.  Also a General Ledger Accounts Receivable account.

Guest Package - A rate plan to include multiple charges (such as room charge, taxes, meals, miscellaneous) for a specified price. 

Guest Profile - Stored information about guests or entities, including name, contact information, preferences, notes, etc.

"Guest Record Busy" - A message displayed when a folio is already open, either on another computer, on the user's computer, or due to a file lock.  See also "Reservation Busy".

Guest Trial Balance - A night audit and management summary or detail report showing current folio balances, credit limits, and other information.

H

History-Guest History  -See Guest History

History-Reservations  -See Reservation History

Host - A computer or server that is accessible over a network or internet depending on protocols and permissions.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) - The protocol or set of standards used to create and code pages and page layouts, elements, and tags within web pages or documents.

HTNG (Hospitality Technology Next Generation) - A global non-profit organization settings standards, specifications, and technology for the purpose of easy interoperability among various systems in hospitality using HTNG standards.  See also OTA.

I

Icon - A small picture or image displayed on and representing a computer shortcut, link, or application.

IIS (Internet Information Services) - A software package designed for Windows Server and used for hosting and managing websites and other content on the web.

Import - To transfer data from another computer or application.  See also Export.

Incidental Charges - Hotel guest charges other than room charge and room taxes, such as food, phone calls, and miscellaneous charges.

Income-See Revenue.

Income Statement-See Profit & Loss Statement.

Interface - The connection or direct communication between two more networks, applications, systems, and/or computers for the purpose of interchange of information.

Inventory - F&B and Retail - A system of recording and tracking saleable and other items, item details, receipts, issues/sales, and quantities,

Inventory - Rooms - A listing of all guest rooms, condominium units, houses, etc., available and not available for rent/sale.

Invoice - In City Ledger (Direct Bill) a transaction posted manually or automatically via a DB payment type posted in a guest folio.  An item to be paid; items listed on an Open Item Statement.

Item Button/ Keyboard Setup - The function in POS Administrator allowing the setup of a POS item entry screen for each workstation; the placement of buttons for items and/or categories on the POS item entry screen.

J

Journal (Accounting) - A daily record of financial transactions such as charges, payments, and adjustments.

K

Keyboard/ Item Button Setup - See Item Button/ Keyboard Setup.

KPI - Key Performance Indicator - Ratios and formulas used to assess the performance and success of business objectives of a hotel or other organization.

L

Ledger (Accounting) - A record of financial transactions for a business.  General Ledger is a master set of accounts and may contain sub-ledgers such as Accounts Payable.

Location - Inventory - The designation of where an inventory item may be received, stocked, issued or transferred.

LOS (Length of Stay) - In a hotel, a number calculated by dividing the number of room nights by the number of stays in a period of time, and used for determining minimum or maximum length of stay per reservation, staffing, and other revenue management strategies.

Luhn Check - In payment processing, a tool to verify a credit card number against the Luhn Algorithm to see if it is a valid credit card number.  This does not verify a credit card's validity; just that the number is a Luhn-generated number.

M

Market Segment - A user defined guest parameter such as Corporate or SMERF to define a demographic for marketing purposes.  See also Source of Business.

Master Folio - A folio created for posting charges and payments when there is no room number for these postings.  Types of master folios include group master folios, cash sale master folios, gift card master folios, and POS clearing master folios.

Meeting Room - A non-lodging room designated as a venue for events such as meetings, receptions, etc.

MENUINI File - An Execu/Suite configuration file containing information related to specific options and functionality within the application.  See also Parameter Record (PMS) and Store Record (POS).

Menu - A visual list of options or commands enabling a computer use to open programs, execute commands, etc.

Menu (POS) - Items available for purchase, at specified times, on specified computers such as in Food and Beverage.  Also, items available at all times such as in retail.

Merchant Services Provider - A company or organization that provides credit card transaction processing for merchants including authorizing, collecting and transferring funds from the issuer's bank to the merchant's bank.

Modifier-POS - A descriptive option or add-on option to a POS item such as size, meat temperature, or pizza toppings.

MSP-See Merchant Services Provider

N

Night Audit - Nightly hotel procedures to verify occupancy, post room and tax charges, post additional transactions, balance transactions, count/close cash, verify credit card payments, print reports, and other end-of-day tasks.

Night Audit Cut-Off - The pre-defined time by which the current business day's night audit procedures must be completed and the time after which the next day's audit may begin, as defined in the Parameter Record.

Non-POS - A POS Time & Attendance user type for employees set up to clock in and clock out but not access any other POS or PMS features.

No-Show - A reservation for a guest who has not arrived by the time Reorganize Files is done on the reservation's arrival date.

Notepad - A generic text editor in Microsoft Windows allowing users to create, edit, and read documents and is a simple tool for editing HTML files.

O

One-Way Interface - The push or transmittal of data from one computer to another.  See also Interface.

Open Check - In POS a check where the user has begun entering items but has not received payment or voided the check.

Open Item (Direct Bill) - An invoice that has not been paid, has been partially paid, or has been overpaid.  Also, a Customer type in Direct Bill where all payments are applied to specific invoices.  See also Invoice.

OTA (Online Travel Agency) - Booking website such as Expedia.com.  

OTA (OpenTravel Alliance) - An organization providing standards for hospitality, travel, distribution, and other companies' technology to communicate electronically "speaking the same language".  See also HTNG.

P

P2PE - See Point to Point Encryption.

Package-See Guest Package

Parameter Record - Settings within the Hotel Control Files setup in the Manager Menu, allowing you to specify certain options or policies for the functionality of your Execu/Suite PMS system.  See also MENUINI file.

Payment Code - An alphanumeric code used to specify a payment type such as Cash, Direct Bill, or MasterCard

Permissions (Folders) - Security settings in computers and networks allowing, limiting, or denying users access to files and folders.

Permissions (Application) - Security settings within an application such as Execu/Tech allowing or denying users access to specific menus such as Front Desk and Manager.

PMS  (Property Management System) - Software application for the purpose or managing lodging, reservations, availability, rates, inventory, and other things related to running a hotel, condo, etc.

Point-to-Point  Encryption (PCI Security Standards) - A combination of secure devices, applications, and processes provided by a third party solution provider (such as a processor, acquirer, or payment gateway) to encrypt data from the point of interaction (such as a card reader) until the data reaches the solution provider's secure decryption environment.

POS (Point of Sale) - Software application such as Execu/Touch used in the sale and payment processing of items in a Food & Beverage or Retail environment.

Post - To enter transaction in a folio or into City Ledger, Accounts Payable, or General Ledger.

Post Room & Tax - The Night Audit menu item allowing you to post room and tax charges (and auto-post items and packages) to all in-house guests with one button.

Preauthorization-See Authorization

Primary Folio - x See also Split Folio.

Profit & Loss Statement - A General Ledger or financial report summarizing income (revenue), costs, and expenses for a specified period time and showing net profit or loss for that period.

Purchase Order - A function of entering Inventory items that have been ordered, and a function of entering receipt of items into inventory.

Q

Quick Audit - A setting allowing the main processes in Night Audit to run under one menu item rather than as separate functions in instances where a "true" audit is not desired but rather a quick method of posting room and tax charges, ending the day and reorganizing files, and printing reports.

R

Recap - A night audit printout summary of adjustments, charges, payments, advance deposits, and ledger balances for the business day.

Recipe File - A function in Inventory Control linking POS items (such as a plated meal) to individual inventory items (such as beef), allowing the relief of inventory for POS items sold.

Refund - Return of payment, to a guest or customer, of funds received.

Remote Access - Access to a computer from an outside or remote location.

Remote Desktop - A Microsoft protocol allowing a user to connect to another computer.

RemoteET - A proprietary Execu/Tech application allowing remote access for support purposes.

Reorganize Files - A Night Audit function that closes the business day, moves zero-balance checked out guests into Guest History, zero-balance no-show and cancelled reservations into Reservation History, clears the day's journal transactions, creates statistics files, returns unused group blocks to inventory, creates certain archives, and resets certain flags.

Report Generator - An Execu/Tech program used to print guest or direct bill reports or create export files based on a specified date range and a variety of parameters

Reservation - A record of a guest expected to arrive on a specific date for a specific room or room type.

"Reservation Busy" - A message displayed when a reservation is already open, either on another computer, on the user's computer, or due to a file lock.  See also "Guest Record Busy"

Reservation History - The reservations and reservation details for cancellations or no-shows that have not been checked by night audit Reorganize Files on the arrival date of the reservation if there is no deposit balance See also Guest History.

Retail - The sale of goods to the public for use or consumption.

Revenue - Sales or Income, from which discounts, expenses, costs, etc., are deducted to arrive at net profit (or loss).

Revenue Department - In Execu/Touch POS a designation assigned to menu items for accounting purposes; for example, a revenue department of Restaurant Food assigned to item Hamburger.

RevPAR - Revenue per available room, calculated by multiplying the ADR by the occupancy rate; dividing the total room revenue by the number of available rooms; or other method.

Room Type - A category, such as King Suite, to which a room is assigned.

Room - A single accommodation that may be a literal room, a suite, a multi-room condo unit, a boat slip, or camp site. 

S

Season - A data or date range within which a specific rate, rate code, stay restrictions, etc., apply.

Secondary Folio - One of two folios, optionally opened for one guest, in which incidental charges post automatically.  see also Split Folio.  See also Incidental Charges.

Security Level - A setting in Execu/Suite, User ID/Security Setup that allows or denies specified tasks within screens, programs, or menus that users are permitted to access. Examples: changing credit limit, voiding a transaction, changing room assignment.

Separate Checks -  A function in POS allowing the F&B server/waiter  quickly to create more than one check for a table before sending orders.  See also Split Checks.

Server (Computer) - A type of computer or device designed to manage resources, process requests, and deliver data to another computer over the internet or a local network.  Types of servers include File Servers, Data (Database) Server, Web Servers, and Print Servers.  

Server (Waitstaff) - In Execu/Touch POS a user type with default permissions to open checks and enter items, and with optional additional permissions such as closing one's own check.  A server has fewer permissions (in order) than a cashier, supervisor, or administrator, but more than a Non-POS user.

Share-with - A reservation attached to and made subsequent to another reservation, allowing two or more guests to reserve the same room but having separate reservations and separate folios at check-in.

Shift4® - A payment processing gateway between Execu/Tech and a credit card merchant services provider.

Shortcut - A desktop or application link providing quick access to an application, program, web page, etc.  A desktop shortcut launches an application such as Execu/Tech PMS.

Slip - In Execu/Suite Marina, a "room" which may be reserved and checked into for a vessel, and rate-calculated by feet rather than number of persons.

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) - An internet standard for electronic mail (email) transmission and communication between mail servers, typically in sending.

Soft Block - Setting aside specific rooms for groups and taking those rooms out of inventory until the group's cut-off date.  See also Group Block.

Source of Business -  As marketing and/or commission/fee information, a record of how a guest heard about a hotel or the channel by which the guest's reservation was delivered or referred.  See also Market Segment.

Split Checks -  A function within Execu/Touch POS where a guest check will be voided and two or more checks created from the items on the original check in order to provide individual checks for diners at one table.  See also Separate Checks.

Split Folio - A function that automatically creates two folios, one primary and one secondary, per guest.  See  primary folio.  See secondary folio.

Split Tendering - Applying more than one payment type (such as Cash and Visa) as a final payment on a POS check or a guest folio.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) - The standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a server and client, such as between a web server and a browser.  An SSL certificate activates the padlock and https protocol for secure connections.

Statement (A/R) - A printed or emailed list of invoices and payments for a specified "as of date" and "last statement" date and delivered to the City Ledger (Direct Bill) Customer.

Statement (Condo) - A printed or emailed report delivered to Condo owners and showing income, management fees or commissions, expenses, payments, and other information for the date range specified.

Statistics - The collection and analyzing of historical information such as occupancy, income, receipts, average daily rate, etc., in hospitality.

Store Record - Settings within POS Administrator in Execu/Suite that configure the property's application functionality and sets certain parameters and policies.   See also MENUINI File.

Supervisor (POS) - A user type with specific default permissions including opening checks, adding items, closing checks, voiding checks, and printing reports.  Higher permissions than Cashier and Server Non-POS employee types and lesser permissions than Administrator.

T

Tab - A POS function to create an open check for a guest so that drinks or other items can be added until the time the check is to be closed by payment.

Tape Chart - A color-coded grid showing room numbers and dates, status, notes, reservation and in-house information,etc.and used for room assignments and inventory management.

Tax Code - A code for a tax or fee that is applied to taxable guest room charges and other taxable charges.

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) - A set of rules, standards, and procedures defining addressing and routing details as well as allowing different computers to communicate, understand each other, and exchange data.  The combined TCP and IP protocol verifies and moves data packets from one computer to another, across a network or internet.

Template - An editable pre-formatted document that may include text, links, images, and tags.  Examples:  Registration form, confirmation letter.

Tendering - Offering money or payment.

Terminal Record - Settings that define how a computer terminal (workstation) should function within an application and which options should be enabled or disabled.

Ticket - A POS check in retail, open for item entry and closed by payment.

Transfer (folio) - To move one or more transactions from one folio to another folio.  Items may be transferred to another room or between primary and secondary split folios.

Transfer (POS check) - To reassign a POS check from one server to another server.

Travel Agent - A person or company providing travel-related services such as making hotel reservations.

Trial Balance - In General Ledger, a report listing all accounts and their balances for the purpose of making sure the sum of debits equals the sum of all credits and looking for any disagreements indicating error.

Two-Way Interface - Communication between two computers or systems allowing data to be sent back and forth, usually in the form of message and acknowledgement and return message.  See also Interface.

U

UPC (Universal Product Code) - A bar code that indicates product, price, classification

Update Advance Deposit Folio - a Night Audit function that clears the Advance Deposit Master Folio of matching debit and credit transactions for reservations checked in that day when the deposit has "moved" from the advance deposit folio into the guest folio, thus keeping the advance deposits folio clean and manageable.

User-Defined Comments - An Execu/Suite manager/setup option where predefined comment popup prompts can be created for Comment 2 and Comment 3 in reservations and check-ins.  

V

Validation - A process in reservation entry where a luhn check is made for a guarantee credit card and a secure token is created to provide a "card on file".  No payment is received and no payment is posted.

Vantiv Integrated Payments - A credit card payment processing solution integrated with Execu/Tech Systems and offering Point to Point Encryption and EMV solutions.  See also Point to Point Encryption and EMV.

Void - A posting function to "undo" a transaction as if it had not happened, although both the debit and credit transactions show internally for audit trail purposes.

W

Waste Adjustment - A function in Inventory Control where adjustments may be posted to offset inventory quantities due to breakage, spillage, etc.

WebRes™ - Execu/Tech's proprietary online reservation booking system.

Wholesaler - A type of Travel Agent, OTA, or other type of distributor that purchases a contracted number of guest rooms at a discount in order to sell those rooms at a profit to themselves.

Work Code - In POS Time and Attendance an indicator of an employee's labor or payroll designation such as Front Desk, Housekeeping, or Cook.

X

Xenial - Hospitable, especially to visiting strangers.

Xenodochy - Hospitality or reception of strangers.

XLS - A file extension for a spreadsheet file format of Microsoft Excel.

XML (Extensivle Markup Language) - A text-based format used to encode, share, and read data in documents and in various data structures; XLM allows export of certain data from one type of application into another.

Y

Yield Management - Variable pricing strategy typically for a date range or specified period of time and based on historical data, current data, and anticipated data in order to maximize profit.

Z

Zero Out - To reduce the amount of a folio, deposit, or account so that its ending balance is zero.

ZIP Code (Zone Improvement Plan) - A USPS numbering system for mail delivery where, generally, the first digit represents a group of US states, the second and third digits represent a region in that group, and the fourth and fifth digits represent a group of delivery addresses within that region.  Often used as demographic search/select parameter.

Zip file - A file containing one or more items compressed into a smaller archive with the name suffix ".zip".