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Folio/ master bill: Another name for a guest folio is the guest
ledger. A guest ledger is the collectionof all accounts receivable
for current registered guests in a hotel, resort, and motel. A
guest folio isthe account of the guest who is currently registered.
The guest folio will have the customers name,
address, phone number, and credit card information on file when
they check into a hotel, motel, orresort. It is also considered to
be the master bill.
City Ledger: In hotel accounting, the city ledger is the
collection of accounts belonging to non-registered guests. This is
distinct from the transient ledger (or front-office ledger, or
guest ledger),which is the collection of accounts receivable for
guests who are currently registered.
A city ledger, also called a house ledger, is a hotel's
accounting method for tracking non-guesttransactions. Hotel
accounting is divided into front-office and back-office operations.
The front-office typically deals with registered guests and records
their transactions to the guest ledger.Money that the hotel handles
that is not attributable to a currently registered guest becomes
part ofthe city ledger and is handled by the accounting department
in the back office.
Accounting systems use ledgers to collect related accounts. A
city ledger is a collection of relatedaccounts that tracks money a
hotel brings in that is not part of a transaction associated with
acurrently registered guest. Some hotels use different terminology
for the city ledger, calling it thehouse ledger or the non-guest
ledger. Whatever the ledger may be called, however, the
functiontends to be the same in standard hotel accounting
systems.
City ledgers typically contains at least four accounts. The
first type of account is set up for individualsand businesses that
use the hotel for meetings and events. Money collected from these
types ofcustomers are processed by the hotel's accounting
department, instead of the front desk. Usually,these customers
receive a monthly bill or invoice that details charges associated
with the event,rather than charges from a hotel stay. Weddings,
conferences, seminars and group meetings areexamples of events that
would be tracked by this account in the city ledger.
On this same note, the second type of account handles
transactions for traveling executives. If acompany has an open
account with the hotel that allows any of the company's employees
to staywhile they are in town, the transactions are recorded in the
ledger as a company's house account.The accounting department
typically bills the company monthly for the charges generated.
Another city ledger account typically acts as a credit card
holding account. When a guest uses acredit card to make payment,
the amount is transferred from the guest ledger to the city
ledgerwhile the hotel waits for the credit card company to release
payment. This reflects the fact that theguest is no longer staying
at the hotel, so the open account cannot remain with the front
desk. Oncethe guest leaves, the hotel's accounting department is
responsible for making sure that the creditcard company remits
payment.
Guests who fail to settle their bills when they leave also have
the amounts transferred to an accountin the city ledger. The
accounting department becomes responsible for initiating
collectionproceedings against the person or following up as needed.
This ensures that the hotel departmentthat is most able to manage a
collection process is assigned to the task.
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Petty cash: Petty cash is a small amount of flexible funds in
the form of cash used for expenditureswhere it is not sensible to
make any disbursement by cheque, because of the inconvenience
andcosts of writing, signing and then cashing the cheque.
The most common way of accounting for petty cash expenditures is
to use the imprest system. Theinitial fund would be created by
issuing a cheque for the desired amount. An amount of $100
wouldtypically be sufficient for most small business needs as the
expenses to be covered are for smallamounts. The bookkeeping entry
for this initial fund would be to debit Petty Cash and credit
bankaccount.
As expenditures are made, the custodian of the fund will
reimburse employees and receive a pettycash voucher with a
receipt/invoice attached in return. At any given time the total of
cash on handplus reimbursed vouchers must equal the original
fund.
When the fund gets low, e.g. $20 remaining, the custodian (a
bookkeeper or a member of the
administration staff) requests a top up and submits the vouchers
for reimbursement. Assuming thevouchers add up to $80, an $80 top
up cheque is issued and an $80 debit towards office expenses
isrecorded. Once the cheque is cashed, the custodian again has cash
at the original amount $100.
Point of sale (also called as POS or checkout) is the place
where a retail transaction is completed. Itis the point at which a
guest makes a payment to the hotel in exchange for hotel services.
At thepoint of sale the retailer would calculate the amount owed by
the customer and provide options forthe customer to make payment.
The cashier will also normally issue a receipt for the
transaction.
Postings : the process of transferring entries from a journal of
original entry to a ledger. Posting isneeded in order to have a
complete record of all accounting transactions in the general
ledger,which is the source document used to create financial
statements.
