THE NIGHT AUDIT I- Functions of the Night Audit: • The major functions of the night audit are to: a) Verify posted entries to guest and non-guest accounts b) Balance all front office accounts c) Resolve room status and rate discrepancies d) Review guest credit transactions against established limits e) Generate operational and managerial reports 1. The Role of the Night Auditor: • Tracks room revenues, occupancy percentages, and other standard hotel operating statistics. • Preapares a daily summary of cash, check, credit card, debit card, gift certificate, and other activities that occured at the front desk. • Summarizes and reports the results of operations to front office management. 2. Establishing an End of Day: Each hotel must decide what time will be considered the end of its accounting (or hotel) day. This time is refered to as the End of the Day which is an arbitrary stopping point for the business day. Theoritically, it is the time when all Points of Sales are closed. If this is not possible, it should be the time when all Points of Sales no longer have frequent activities. 3. Cross-Referencing: Cross-referencing refers to the activities associated with comparing data found from different sources to ensure correctness of the audit. Some examples of cross-referencing are as follows: • Compare online posting and / or vouchers against guest, master, non-guest and employee folios. • Compare Charge Vouchers / Guest Checks against Register Tape or Sales Journal (Z Report). • Compare room rate postings against Housekeeping Room Status Report and Registration Records / Files. 4. Account Integrity: The night auditor shall establish Guest and Non-Guest account integrity by cross-referincing account postings with departmental source documentation. The Audit Process is said to be complete when the total guest, non-guest and departmental accounts are in balance (i.e. Proven correct). An Out of Balance position exists when the charges (debits) and credits posted to guest and non-guest accounts throughout the day do not match the charges (debits) and credits posted to the departmental revenue sources. 5. What to do when Audit is NOT in Balance? If the audit is not in balance, the Night Auditor shall thoroughly review: • Account transactions • Statements • Vouchers • Support documents • Departmental source documentation 6. Guest Credit Monitoring: Hotels establish lines of credit or credit limits for guests and non-guests. Thoses limits depend on several variables as follows: • Credit Card Company Floor Limits • The Hotel’s House Limit • Guest’s Status or Reputation At the close of each business day, the Night Auditor shall: • Identify guest and non-guest accounts that have reached or exceeded assigned credit limits • Prepare a report about High Balance Accounts to be evaluated by management. 7. Audit Posting Formula: Net Outstanding Balance = Previous Balance + Debits - Credits NOB = PB + DR - CR 8. Daily Transcript: The daily transcript is a detailed report of guest accounts that summarizes and updates those guest accounts that had transactional activity on that particular day. Under the fully automated system, system-produced daily transcript is typically detailed by: • Revenue center • Transaction type • Transaction total 9. Supplemental Transcript: The supplemental transcript is a report of non-guest accounts that summarizes and updates those non-guest accounts that had transactional activity on that particular day. 10. How Daily & Supplemental Transcripts are used? The Daily Transcript and the Supplemental Transcript form the basis for a consolidated report [Daily Transaction Report] of front office accounting transactions from which revenue center totals can be checked. In fact, the total of charged purchases reported by the hotel’s restaurant, for example, should equal the total amount of restaurant charge purchases posted to guest and non-guest accounts. 11. Front Office Automation Advantages: The advantages of auditing under fully automated systems are numerous. Some of those advantages are: • Yield quick, accurate, and automatic postings to electronic guest and non-guest account folios. • Perform several audit functions continuously throughout the guest cycle. • Allow Night Auditor to spend much more time auditing transactions and analyzing front office activities and less time performing posting and bookkeeping entries. • Allow automatic comparison of Folio’s Net Outstanding Balance against a pre-determined limit, automatic detection of High Balance Accounts. • Performs numerous mathematical verifications to ensure postings are correct. • Offer rapid access to information. II- The Night Audit Process: The night audit process focuses on two areas: • Discovery and correction of front office accounting errors through the cross-Referencing process. • Creation of accounting and managerial reports (ex. Average Rate, Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR), Occupancy Percentage, usage of package plans and other marketing programs, and the number of group rooms and complimentary rooms occupied). The main steps of the night audit process are: 1. Complete outstanding posting 2. Reconcile room status discrepancies 3. Verify room rates 4. Balance all departmental accounts 5. Verify no-show reservations 6. Post room rates and taxes 7. Prepare reports 8. Prepare cash receipts for deposit 9. Clear or back up the system 10. Distribute reports 1. Complete Outstanding Posting: The Night Auditor must confirm that all transactions have been posted before starting the audit routine. 2. Reconcile Room Status Discrepancies: The Night Auditor must review Front Office (Occupancy) and Housekeeping Room Status Reports to reconcile and finalize the occupancy status of all rooms for a given night. 3. Verify Room Rates: The Night Auditor shall compare Registration Records with system-generated room report. If room’s rack and actual rates do not match, the Night Auditor shall consider the following issues: • If the room is occupied by a member of a group or by a corporate-rate customer, is the discounted rate correct ? • If the room is occupied by a guest with a package rate or on a special discount offered through the hotel’s reservation distribution channels, is the dicounted rate correct ? • If there is only one guest in a room and the actual rate is approximately half the rack rate, is the guest part of a shared reservation ? If he / she is, did the second guest register ? • If the room is complimentary, is there appropriate supporting evidence for the rate (for example, a complimentary room authorization form) ? 4. Balance all Departmental Accounts: It is more efficient for a Night Auditor to balance all departmental accounts first and then look for individual posting errors within an out-of-balance department. In this respect, the Night Auditor shall compare vouchers received at the front desk and other documents with revenue center summaries (Z Reports). This process of balancing all Revenue Center Accounts is called Trial Balance. Night Auditors may prefer to conduct Trial Balance before posting day’s room and tax charges. This way, if the trial balance was correct, and the final balance turned to be wrong, the Night Auditor can deduce that the error is coming from room and tax posting. 5. Verify No-Show Reservations: The Night Auditor is responsible for: • Clearing Reservation Files • Posting Charges to No-Show Accounts (Guaranteed Reservations) While doing so, the Night Auditor shall pay attention to the folowing points: • Duplicate reservations • Misspelling of Guest Name and / or Surname or reversing them • Front Office or system entry errors • Front Office foregetting to cancel properly a reservation 6. Post Room Rates and Taxes: Posting room rates and taxes takes place typically at the end of the day. The advantages of posting room rates and taxes automatically by the fully automated system are: • Room Rates and Taxes posting to appropriate electronic folios can be done in minutes. • Posting is reliable, accurate with no pickup, tax calculation, or posting errors. 7. Prepare Reports: The Night Auditor shall prepare reports that indicate the status of front office activities and operations. Some of the reports prepared by Night Auditor are: • The Final Department Detail and Summary Reports → help prove that all transactions were properly posted and accounted for. • The Daily Operations Report → summarizes the day’s business and provides insights into revenues, receivables, operating statistics, and cash transactions related to front office. • The High Balance Report → identifies guests whose charges are approaching an account credit limit designated by the hotel (the house limit). • Specialty Reports (Ex. Group Sales Report dispatched by each group, showing number of rooms occupied by each group, and revenue generated by each group), (Ex. Report that lists guests who stay frequently and guests who are VIPs). 8. Prepare Cash Receipts for Deposit: The Night Auditor should prepare a Cash Deposit Voucher as part of the Audit Process. If cash Receipts have not yet been deposited in the bank, the Night Auditor should compare the postings of Cash Payments and Paid-outs with Actual Cash on hand. In some hotels, Front Desk Cashiers might be called to deposit cash at the end of their shifts without knowing how much in cash receipts that the system has recorded for them. This process is called Blind Drop. Under this practice, Night Auditors shall compare system totals per cashier with the actual cashier drop document. Had any discrepencies occur, the Night Auditor shall report this to General Cashier, Front Office Manager or Controller. 9. Clear or Back Up the System: At least 2 Guest Lists must be printed for back up and emergency use: one for the Front Desk staff and the other for Switchboard Operator. Moreover, a printed Room Status Report shall be prepared to enable front desk agents to identify vacant and ready rooms, should the front office system become inoperable. In addition to that, a Guest Ledger Report shall be prepared which contains the opening and closing account balances for all registered guests shall be generated. (Page 406). Last but not least, a front Office Activity Report is generated to include expected arrival, stayover and departure in formation for several days. (Page 407). The system-generated front office information shall be copied (backed up) onto magnetic tape, optical tape, or other media. 10. Distribute Reports: Due to the sensitive and confidential nature of front office information, the Night Auditor must promptly deliver appropriate reports to authorized individuals. III- Verifying the Night Audit: • Most of the errors encountered in the night audit process stem from the fact that the hotel is not operating under fully automated system. • The widely occurring errors in the night audit process can have the form of: a) Pickup errors b) Transposition errors c) Missing folios
Posted on: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 13:13:47 +0000
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