The Flash Report is helpful for providing a breakdown of revenue, occupancy, comparisons, and budgets.
Overview
The Flash Report is an interactive Financial Report that provides a detailed breakdown of Actual, Budget, and Last Year revenue and occupancy for a selected date, with side-by-side comparisons for Today, Month-to-Date (MTD), and Financial Year-to-Date.
The Flash Report can only be created for one date at a time.
Important! The Financial Year to Date on the Flash Report is determined by the setup in Accounting Options.
Please Note! RMS is highly configurable. Some Terminology, User Access & Permissions, Images, Labels, and Functions used in these articles may differ from your setup. CLICK HERE to find out more.
Use Cases
- Daily performance snapshot - Each morning, management runs the Flash Report for the previous date to compare Actual revenue and occupancy against Budget and Last Year before the daily briefing.
- Month-end and board reporting - The accounts team uses the Month-to-Date and Financial Year-to-Date columns to report performance against budget for the period.
- Forward pacing - Revenue managers review the Pace Summary and 3 Day Occupancy sections to see how the coming nights are tracking.
Understanding the Flash Report
- The Month-to-Date and Financial Year-to-Date figures are valuable for tracking overall performance trends and identifying revenue patterns.
- The Statistics section displays Operational Revenue and can be cross-referenced with the Property Statistics Analysis found in the Night Audit Report for consistency and deeper insight.
- References to Complimentary revenue refer to Rate Types assigned to a Grouping designated for Complimentary Use.
- The Income section reflects Financial Revenue categorised by General Ledger Account Codes (GL Acc Code), based on their assigned Groupings.
Report Options
The following options are available on the Report Options screen before you build the report.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| For | The date the report is built for. Defaults to today. |
| GL Code Grouping to Exclude from Income Section | Multi-select dropdown that removes one or more GL Code Groupings from the Income section of the report. |
| Exclude Owner Account Charges | For Owner Accounting properties. Removes charges allocated to Owner Accounts from the report totals. |
| Do not Include Exclusive Tax | For Tax Exclusive properties. Excludes taxes assigned to the Tax GL Code Grouping (configured under Accounting Options > Reporting > Tax Grouping) from appearing in the report totals. |
| Show Pace Summary (Operational Revenue) | Appends a Pace Summary block to the bottom of the report, including Reservations, Nights Sold, Average Daily Rate (ADR), Occupancy, and Operational Revenue. |
| Include Inactive Category | Includes Categories that have been set to inactive in the report figures. Off by default. Turning this on adds the Areas in those Categories to Areas Available. Because inactive Categories carry no occupancy, the Occupancy and REVPAR percentages will be lower than the same report run with the option off. |
| Property | For multi-property (Enterprise) databases. Limits the report to the selected properties. |
How to Access
In the side menu of RMS, go to Reports > Night Audit > Flash.
- Select the Date.
(Optional) Select any of the additional Report Options. - Select Build.
Tip! Select the favourite icon to mark this Report as a Favourite Report for quick access via the Favourite Reports Menu.
Report Headers
The body of the report is split into three period blocks. Each block contains three columns, allowing you to compare Actual performance against Budget and the same period last year.
| Period Block | Description | Columns Within Block |
|---|---|---|
| Today | Figures for the selected date. | Actual, Budget, Last Year |
| MTD | Month-to-Date totals up to and including the selected date. | Actual, Budget, Last Year |
| Financial YTD | Financial Year-to-Date totals up to and including the selected date, based on the Financial Year setup in Accounting Options. | Actual, Budget, Last Year |
How MTD and Financial YTD are Calculated
The MTD and Financial YTD figures are accumulated period totals. They are not the daily figure repeated, and they are not an average of the daily figures. RMS adds up the value recorded for every date in the period, from the first day of the period to and including the selected date.
This applies differently to the two kinds of row in the Statistics section.
| Row type | How MTD and Financial YTD are built |
|---|---|
|
Count rows (Areas Available, Area Occupied, Guests Nights, Arrival Areas, No. Of Guest) |
The daily count is added together for every date in the period. Areas Available is therefore a total number of Area nights, not a count of Areas. A property with 20 Areas available on each of the first 15 days of the month shows 20 for Today and 300 for MTD. Only Areas with the Statistics setting enabled, in a Category included in statistics, are counted. |
|
Percentage and average rows (Occupancy, Average Area Income, REVPAR, Revenue per Adult, % of Double Occupancy) |
Recalculated from the accumulated totals for the period, not averaged from the daily percentages. MTD Occupancy is the accumulated Area Occupied divided by the accumulated Areas Available, so a busy day and a quiet day are weighted by their own Area nights rather than counting equally. |
Important! Because Areas Available accumulates day by day, MTD will not equal Areas Available multiplied by the number of days elapsed whenever the number of available Areas changed during the period. Days on which an Area was excluded from availability contribute a smaller count for that day only. An Area is excluded for a date by an Out of Order or Maintenance Reservation covering that date, by the Area or its Category being inactive, or by the Statistics setting on the Area being disabled, or the Area being assigned to a Category that is not included in statistics.
Please Note! Financial YTD accumulates from the start of the financial year set in Accounting Options, which is not necessarily 1 January.
Areas added or changed part-way through a period
An Area counts toward Areas Available for a given date only if, on that date, it was assigned to a Category included in statistics and its own Statistics setting was enabled. RMS keeps the history of which Category each Area belonged to on each date, so it counts each date against how the Area was configured at the time. The date the Area was first created does not determine this.
In practice that means an Area added or made statistics-active part-way through a period contributes nothing for the earlier days of the period and one Area night per day from that date onward.
| Selected date | Areas Available (Today) | Areas Available (MTD) |
|---|---|---|
| 4th of the month | 10 | 40 (10 x 4 days) |
| 5th of the month, after 2 more Areas become statistics-active | 12 | 52 (40 + 12) |
| 6th of the month | 12 | 64 (52 + 12) |
The two new Areas add nothing to the first four days of the month. MTD on the 6th is 64, not 72, because the first four days of the period each contributed 10 Area nights rather than 12.
Please Note! Changing which Category an Area belongs to affects the figures for the dates that change covers, so historical MTD and Financial YTD totals can move if Areas are recategorised retrospectively.
Statistics Section
The Statistics section appears at the top of the report and lists occupancy, area, and guest metrics for the selected date, MTD, and Financial YTD. Each metric is shown across the three column types (Actual, Budget, Last Year) where a budget or prior-year value is available.
The last four rows (Arrival Areas Tomorrow, Departure Areas Tomorrow, Occupancy Tomorrow %, and Occupancy Next 7 Days %) are forward-looking and show a single figure each rather than Today, MTD, and Financial YTD values.
| Row | Description |
|---|---|
| Areas Available | Total Areas available, excluding any with a Maintenance Reservation in the reported date range. |
| Area Occupied | Total occupied Areas, including those with a Complimentary Rate Type. |
| Area Occupied (W/O Complimentary) | Total occupied Areas, excluding Reservations on a Complimentary Rate Type. |
| Area Occupied (W/O House Use) | Total occupied Areas, excluding Reservations on a House Use Rate Type. |
| Area Occupied (W/O Complimentary & House Use) | Total occupied Areas, excluding Reservations on Complimentary or House Use Rate Types. |
| Occupancy | Occupancy percentage, including Complimentary and House Use Reservations. |
| Occupancy (W/O Complimentary) | Occupancy percentage for the date, excluding Complimentary. |
| Occupancy (W/O House Use) | Occupancy percentage for the date, excluding House Use. |
| Occupancy (W/O Complimentary & House Use) | Occupancy percentage for the date, excluding Complimentary and House Use. |
| Average Area Income | Average income per occupied Area, including Complimentary and House Use. |
| Average Area Income (W/O Complimentary) | Average of the total income earned per occupied Area, excluding Complimentary. |
| Average Area Income (W/O House Use) | Average income per occupied Area, excluding House Use. |
| Average Area Income (W/O Complimentary & House Use) | Average income per occupied Area, excluding Complimentary and House Use. |
| REVPAR | Revenue per Available Room: total Area Income divided by Areas Available. |
| House Use | Number of Reservations in 'Arrived' status for the date where the Rate Type is allocated to the House Use Grouping. |
| Complimentary | Number of Reservations in 'Arrived' status for the date where the Rate Type is allocated to the Complimentary Use Grouping. |
| Out of Order | Number of Areas taken out of service by an Out of Order Reservation on the selected date. These Areas are removed from Areas Available for the dates the block covers. Depending on your property's Labels setup this row can appear as Maintenance, which is the same record under a different name. |
| No. Of Guest | Total number of Guests on Reservations in 'Arrived' status for the date. Includes all Additional Guest Types. |
| % of Double Occupancy | Percentage of Reservations in 'Arrived' status for the date where the number of Adults is 2. |
| Arrival Areas | Number of Areas assigned to a Reservation with an Arrive Date matching the selected date. |
| Arrival Persons | Number of Guests on a Reservation with an Arrive Date matching the selected date. |
| Departure Areas | Number of Areas assigned to a Reservation with a Depart Date matching the selected date. |
| Departure Persons | Number of Guests on a Reservation with a Depart Date matching the selected date. |
| Day Use Areas | Number of Areas assigned to a Reservation with an Arrive and Depart Date matching the selected date. |
| Day Use Persons | Number of Guests on a Reservation with an Arrive and Depart Date matching the selected date. |
| No Show Areas | Number of Reservations updated to 'No Show' status with an Arrive Date matching the selected date. |
| Reservations Made Today | Number of new Reservations created on the selected date. |
| Cancellations for Today | Number of Reservations updated to 'Cancelled' status on the selected date. |
| Adult | Number of Adult Guests on a Reservation in 'Arrived' status for the selected date. |
| Child | Number of Child Guests on a Reservation in 'Arrived' status for the selected date. |
| Infant | Number of Infant Guests on a Reservation in 'Arrived' status for the selected date. |
| Guests In House | Total number of Adult, Child and Infant Guests on a Reservation in 'Arrived' status for the selected date. |
| Guests Nights | MTD and Financial YTD accumulative total of Guests in house for the period. Sometimes referred to as 'Bed Nights' and used to review opportunities for additional sales. |
| Guests Nights - Adult | The Guests Nights total restricted to Adult Guests. |
| Guests Nights - Child | The Guests Nights total restricted to Child Guests. |
| Guests Nights - Infant | The Guests Nights total restricted to Infant Guests. |
| VIP Guests | Number of Guests on a Reservation in 'Arrived' status for the selected date that have a VIP Code assigned to their Guest Profile. |
| Complimentary Guests | Number of Guests on a Reservation in 'Arrived' status for the selected date where the Rate Type is in the Complimentary Use Grouping. |
| Walk In Areas | Number of reservations where guests arrived at the property without having made a prior booking. |
| Revenue per Adult | Operational Revenue for all Reservations in 'Arrived' status divided by the number of Adult Guests. |
| Arrival Areas Tomorrow | Number of Areas assigned to a Reservation with an Arrive Date set at tomorrow's date. |
| Departure Areas Tomorrow | Number of Areas assigned to a Reservation with a Depart Date set at tomorrow's date. |
| Occupancy Tomorrow % | Occupancy percentage for tomorrow's date. Shows a single figure only, not Today / MTD / Financial YTD values. |
| Occupancy Next 7 Days % | Occupancy percentage for the following 7 days. The row label also shows the date range covered. Shows a single figure only. |
Income Section
Below the Statistics section, the Income section breaks Financial Revenue down by General Ledger Account Code Grouping. Each Grouping shows its individual GL Acc Code rows followed by a sub-total, and the section ends with a Total Income row covering all Groupings.
| Row | Description |
|---|---|
| Grouping header | The name of a GL Acc Code Grouping (for example, Accommodation, Food & Beverage, Miscellaneous, Shop Sales, Tours). Property-specific based on Accounting Options setup. |
| GL Acc Code rows | Individual revenue lines that belong to the Grouping (for example, Phone Charges, Shop Sales, Park Passes, Shuttle Bus, Wine Cellar). Underlined Actual figures are clickable and open a Charge Transaction List for that GL Code. |
| Total [Grouping] | A sub-total row at the end of each Grouping (for example, Total Food & Beverage, Total Miscellaneous, Total Shop Sales, Total Tours). |
| Total Income | The grand total across all Groupings for Today, MTD, and Financial YTD (Actual, Budget, and Last Year). |
Please Note! The Groupings and rows displayed will depend on your property's GL Acc Code setup.
Pace Summary Section
When Show Pace Summary (Operational Revenue) is selected on the Report Options screen, the report appends a Pace Summary block at the end. This block shows last night's actuals across the property and uses the columns below.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Property | The property name. For multi-property setups, each property displays on its own row. |
| Total Sites Avail | Total Areas available for the prior night, excluding Maintenance. |
| Occ% | Occupancy percentage for the prior night. |
| ADR | Average Daily Rate for the prior night. |
| Accomm | Accommodation revenue for the prior night. |
| F&B | Food and Beverage revenue for the prior night. |
| Other | Revenue from any remaining Groupings (for example, Miscellaneous, Shop Sales, Tours). |
| Total Revenue | Sum of Accomm, F&B, and Other for the prior night. |
| Long Term Reservations | Number of long-term Reservations counted on the prior night. |
3 Day Occupancy Section
The 3 Day Occupancy block appears beneath the Pace Summary and shows a short forward look. It is displayed for each property and presents three forward periods: Today, Today + 1, and Today + 2.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Property | The property name. |
| Occ% | Occupancy percentage for the day. |
| Arrivals | Number of Arrival Reservations for the day. |
| Departures | Number of Departure Reservations for the day. |
Related Reports
- Night Audit Report - the detailed end-of-day report; cross-reference its Property Statistics against the Flash Statistics section.
- EOD Report - end-of-day summary produced during the Night Audit.
- Bill Settlement Report - settlement breakdown for the trading period.
Related Articles
- Night Audit Report
- Operational Revenue
- Financial Revenue
- General Ledger Account Codes
- Accounting Options
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