The Guest Account Balance report lists every Guest Account carrying a balance as at a chosen date, and shows the reservation each balance came from where one applies.

Overview

The Guest Account Balance report shows the balance held on each Guest Account as at the selected As of Date. A Guest Account is a stored-credit ledger attached to a guest profile rather than to a reservation, so it can hold money before a reservation exists and keep holding it after a reservation has departed. Balances reach a Guest Account through a Balance Transfer, a receipt taken directly against the guest, or the Transfer Credit on Departure option in Accounting Options.

Accounting and front office teams run the report to see what is sitting on guest ledgers at a point in time: which guests are holding credit that has not yet been applied to a stay, and which guests owe money that is no longer attached to an active reservation. Because the report accepts any As of Date, it can also be used to restate a past position for reconciliation.

Each row on the report is one balance element on a Guest Account, so a single account can produce several rows. Rows print in two shapes. Where the balance was transferred in from a reservation account, the reservation columns are filled in. Where the balance is held directly against the guest, those columns are blank and only the Date, Acc No, Guest Name and Balance carry values.

Before you begin, at least one Guest Account needs to be carrying a balance on the date being reported. The report only lists accounts with a balance, so a property that settles every guest ledger to zero will see an empty report.

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

• Find unapplied guest credit - the accounts team runs the report to list guests holding a credit balance so it can be applied to an upcoming reservation or refunded rather than sitting unused.
• Chase money owed outside a live reservation - front office runs the report to find guests carrying an amount owing after their reservation has departed, where the balance no longer shows on any in-house report.
• Reconcile a past date - at period end, the accounts team sets the As of Date to the last day of the period to restate the guest ledger position on that date and tie it back to the Debtors Ledger report.

How to Access

In the side menu of RMS, go to Reports > Management > Guests > Guest Account Balance.

Report Options

The options below control the date the balances are reported as at, the properties included, and the order of the output. This report has no More Options panel, so every option is shown on the Report Options screen.

Column Headers

The columns below appear on the report output. The reservation columns are only populated where the balance was transferred to the Guest Account from a reservation account, as explained under Data Sources & Calculations.

Data Sources & Calculations

Transferred balances and directly held balances

The seven reservation columns - Res No, Area, Res Company, Res Travel Agent, Arrive, Depart and Pax - are only populated when the balance was transferred to the Guest Account from a reservation account. They carry the details of the reservation the money came from, which is what lets you trace a guest credit back to the stay that produced it.

Where a balance was put on the Guest Account directly, there is no reservation to report against, so those columns are blank. A Guest Account has no arrival date and no Area of its own. Balances of this kind arise when a receipt is taken against the guest ahead of any booking, or when a credit is left on the guest ledger after the originating reservation has been settled and closed.

Both shapes can appear under the same account number. Sorting by Account Number groups every row for an account together so the directly held balance and the transferred balances can be read as one position.

How the Balance is calculated

Each Balance figure is the total debits on that element less the total credits, counting only transactions dated on or before the As of Date. Transactions that were voided as at the report date are excluded, which means a reversed charge stops affecting the balance from the date it was voided rather than being removed from history altogether.

Because credits are subtracted, the sign tells you the direction of the balance. A negative figure is money the property is holding for the guest. A positive figure is money the guest owes. The Total at the end of the report nets the two off, so a negative Total means the guest ledger is in credit overall.

The report follows the same allocation logic as the Debtors Ledger report, so the two should agree for the same As of Date. Where an account is out of balance, the Debtors Ledger reports the balance in its 30 day column while this report reports the actual amount, so the two can differ on that account.

Which Guest Accounts are included

Only Guest Accounts with a balance as at the As of Date are listed. An account whose balance is zero on that date is left off the report entirely, even if it carried a balance earlier. Changing the As of Date therefore changes which accounts appear as well as the figures against them.

Please Note! Setting the As of Date to a past date restates the position on that date. An account that has since been settled will still be listed if it held a balance then, so the report will not match the guest's account screen today.

Related Reports

• Debtors Ledger report - lists every account type with an outstanding balance as at a date, split into debit and credit and aged into Current, 30, 60 and 90 day buckets.
• In House Guest Balance report - lists reservations currently in an Arrived status that have a balance on the reservation account.
• Guest Credits Expiry Report - lists guest credits with their expiry dates so credit can be used before it lapses.

Related Articles

• Balance Transfer
• Transfer credit from a guest account to a reservation
• Accounting Options - Account Defaults Tab
• Guest Accounts in Credit