Occupancy - Front Office Accounting

Vouchers

Objective

fundamentals

Point of Sale

Accounts

Ledgers

Folios

oCCUPANCY

Recordkeeping

Monitoring

maintenance

Front Office Accounting

Charge privileges

Maintenance

Allowances

Payments

transactions

Transfers

Charges

Cash advance

Corrections

Folio

A folio is a statement of all transactions (debits and credits) affecting the balance of a single account. When an account is created, it is assigned a folio with a starting balance of zero. Posting: process of recording transactions on a folio. Types of folios:

• Guest folios.
• Master folios.
• Non-guest or semi-permanent folios.
• Employee folios.
• Permanent folios (VISA, Master Card, AMEX).

Accounts

An account is a form on which financial data are accumulated and summarized. The 2 types of accounts that exist are:

• Guest accounts: A guest account is a record of financial transactions that occur between a guest and the hotel. Guest accounts are created when guests guarantee their reservations or when they register at the front desk. During occupancy, the front office is responsible for and records all transactions affecting the balance.
• Non guest accounts: A hotel may extend in-house charge privileges to local businesses or agencies as a way to promote sales. Management may also offer in-house charge privileges to groups (master accounts, posting masters)

Ledgers

A ledger is a summary grouping of accounts. Types:

• Guest Ledger. The guest ledger refers to the set of guest accounts that corresponds to registered hotel guests and guests who have made advance deposits for upcoming hotel stays.
• City Ledger. The city ledger, also called the non-guest ledger, is the collection of non-guest accounts. If a guest account is not settled in full by acceptable payment at check-out, the guest’s folio balance is transferred from the guest ledger in the front office to the city ledger in the back office accounting division for collection.