Hotel Procedures - Individual Guest Folios

Reservations

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• Guarantee Code: DB.
• Account no.: This is the Direct Bill account code for this customer. If you don’t know the account code, type L in this field to look up the customer by name.
• Split Folio: If the guest is to pay their own incidental charges, answer Y.

Front Desk - Check in

• Type payment: DB.
• Credit limit: This is up to you. This can be established per guest, or you can establish a policy through the DB payment code setup in the Manager Hotel Control Files setup menu.
• Account no.: This is the Direct Bill account code for this customer. If you don’t know the account code, type L in this field to look up the customer by name.
• Split Folio: If the guest is to pay their own incidental charges, answer Y to create a secondary folio. Enter the appropriate payment code and credit limit for the secondary folio. 

Front Desk - Check Out

1. Go to Check Out and enter the room number to be checked out.


2. You’ll be taken automatically to the Post Charges/Payments screen. The code should be DB. (This will be the default if DB was the code entered at reservation and check-in.) Press <Enter>.


3. If this was a Split Folio, you will see the balance of both folios on the right side of the Post Charges/Payments screen. A popup will allow you to select the primary or secondary folio to post the payment to.
   
   


4. Reference will be the customer code.


5. Press <Enter> through the comment field.


6. The Amount will be the folio balance to be charged to the Direct Bill customer (displayed in the Reference field.) This amount will automatically populate. Simply press <Enter> to continue. 
   
   
   
   If you wish to enter a different amount, you may do so. You’ll need to apply a charge or payment code to the remaining balance if the full balance is not charged to the DB customer.
   If the guest has a secondary folio, you will need to zero this folio as well with the appropriate payment code.

Night Audit

• The DB transactions posted to folios are held in a temporary file until Night Audit.

• After Night Audit Reorganize, there is a step called Create Gen Ledger/ Direct Bill Postings. Your menu item may be slightly different (ex: Create G/L, City Ledger Postings) depending on your settings, but it does the same thing.

• When this is done, transactions will be generated in City Ledger for the DB postings done that day.

• Each DB posted for each customer in front desk will post a T charge in the appropriate customer’s account. This happens behind the scenes. Nothing will print.

• Note: Do this step only once per day.

See sample Night Audit menu below: 

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The Night Audit procedures should be done in order, and only at the end of the business day.

• After the Night Audit posting described above, the DB payments to folios have become invoices in Direct Bill.

• Each DB posting will create an invoice in the customer's account.

Below is a sample Direct Bill Transaction batch created during Night Audit:

The folio number displays in the REFERENCE column.

• Should you need to view or print the folio, you may look it up.
• If the guest was checked out or a master folio closed, the folio will be in Guest History.
• Otherwise, you may go to Display Folio to view in-house folios.  

Below is the Customer Detail for the customer SAND, showing the two transactions.

The invoices will be listed on the Customer Open Item Statement. 

Group Setup

• Go to Reservations Menu > Reservations Operations > Enter/ Change Group.
• Check Apply master folio to reservation if you want the group’s guests’ room and tax charges to be paid by the group/company’s account.
• Check Create master folio automatically.
• Fill in the group information as usual.
• Enter DB for Type payment.
• Enter the DB customer code for Account #.
  

Reservations

• When prompted, enter the Group Code for each reservation.
• The Guarantee Code should be DB.
• The Account no. will be the Direct Bill account code for this customer. If you don’t know the account code, type L to look up the customer by name.
• If the guest is to pay his/her own incidental charges, answer Y to Split Folio. Enter the appropriate payment code and credit limit for the secondary folio.

Front Desk - Check in

• Type payment should be DB.
• The credit limit is up to you. This can be established per guest, or you can establish a policy through the DB payment code setup in the Manager Hotel Control Files setup menu.
• Account no. will be the Direct Bill account code for this customer. If you don’t know the account code, type L to look up the customer by name.
• If the guest is to pay his/her own incidental charges, answer Y to Split Folio. Enter the appropriate payment code and credit limit for the secondary folio. 

Front Desk - Check out

• Go to Check Out and enter the room number to be checked out.
• If the guest has a secondary folio with a balance, you’ll be taken automatically to the Post charges/payments screen. The code should be the payment code for the secondary (incidental) folio.
• Process the check-out as usual.

Close the Master Folio

• Once the guests have checked out and all appropriate charges have been posted to the master folio, close the master folio.
• Go to Check Out > Close Master Folio and enter the folio number.
• The payment code will be DB. 

Night Audit

• It’s a good idea for the night auditor to keep an eye on group master folios to make sure charges are being posted according to your wishes.
• One of the steps after Night Audit Reorganize is Create Gen Ledger/ Direct Bill Postings. When this is done, transactions will be generated in City Ledger for the DB postings done that day.
• Each DB posted for each customer in front desk will post a T charge in the appropriate customer’s account. This happens behind the scenes. Nothing will print.
• NOTE: Do this step only once per day.

Hotel Procedures - Adjustments

Adjustments and corrections should be done within a folio at Front Desk rather than within the Direct Bill customer account. This way, everything will stay in balance.

If the guest has already checked out:

• You can open a master folio for the correction.
• Make the correction, and then make the appropriate DB payment to zero out the folio.
• Then when the Night Auditor runs Create Gen Ledger / Direct Bill Postings, the appropriate transaction will post to the customer’s account.

DB is a payment type to a folio at the Front Desk (Guest Ledger). However, the transaction is a charge to the customer’s account in Direct Bill (City Ledger).

The charges are transferred from Guest Ledger to City Ledger and are still due.