This article describes the Bonds Held Report, which lists the refundable charges a property is holding against reservations as at a selected date.

Overview

The Bonds Held Report shows every Refundable Charge a property is holding against a reservation (also called a booking) as at a selected date, along with the guest, the Reservation Account the charge is posted to, and the amount held. A Grand Total gives the combined value of all bonds held.

Run this report when you need to know how much a property is holding in bonds at a point in time, either to reconcile the total at month end or to check what is still held against a reservation before a guest departs.

A refundable charge is a type of Sundry Charge used to hold a bond or deposit that is intended to be returned to the guest, such as a key deposit, rental bond, equipment hire deposit or damage hold amount. The report is normally run by the accounts team at month end, or by reception checking which reservations still have a bond held against them.

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

• Month end reconciliation - the accounts team runs the report on the last day of the month to reconcile the total bonds held against the liability account in the general ledger.
• Before a departure - reception checks whether a bond is still held against a reservation so it can be refunded or applied to the account before the guest departs.
• Reviewing bonds by type - a manager groups the report by Refundable Charge to see how much is held for each type of bond, for example key deposits compared with rental bonds.

How to Access

In the side menu of RMS, go to Reports > Accounting > Bonds Held.

Report Options

The report options below control which bonds are included, the order of the rows and the grouping. Every option for this report appears on the Report Options panel, so there is no More Options panel to expand.

Tip! Report build screens default to a common use configuration, and selections can be made as required.

Column Headers

The columns below appear on the report output. Where a value depends on the refundable charge lifecycle or on the As of Date, the Source / Calculation column points to the relevant concept under Data Sources & Calculations.

Data Sources & Calculations

The following concepts each govern more than one column on the report.

What counts as a bond held

A bond appears on this report while its refundable charge is still being held on the reservation account. A refundable charge is created from a Sundry that has the Refundable option ticked, and it is posted to a reservation account either manually or automatically through a refundable charge on a rate type, a Rate Table Bond, or a category bond.

The Refundable Charge column shows the status of the charge followed by its amount and description, for example Paid: 100.00 Security Deposit. A refundable charge shows as Pending when it is first posted on an account, and updates to Paid once a receipt has been allocated to it. The refundable charge appears on the Bonds Held report only after a payment (partial or full) is allocated.. Once the charge has been refunded to the guest or applied to the account, it is no longer being held and no longer appears on the report.

As of Date and the Date column

The As of Date sets the point in time the report is run for. A refundable charge is included when the value in its Date column is on or before the As of Date, so moving the As of Date earlier removes the bonds that were not yet held at that point, and both the row count and the Grand Total fall.

Because the report is a point-in-time view rather than a date range, a bond that has since been refunded still appears when the As of Date is set back to a date on which the bond was being held. This is what makes the report suitable for reconciling a prior month end.

Grouping and totals

Setting Group By to Refundable Charge groups the rows on the whole value shown in the Refundable Charge column, which includes the amount as well as the description. Two bonds of the same type held for different amounts therefore appear as two separate groups, for example Paid: 1,250.00 Bond and Paid: 1,500.00 Bond. Each group is followed by a subtotal row, and the Grand Total remains at the foot of the report.

Ticking Group By Property adds a heading row showing the property name above that property's rows, and a subtotal row for that property. The Grand Total across all properties still appears at the foot of the report.

Please Note! Group By Refundable Charge groups on the full value in the Refundable Charge column, including the amount. Bonds of the same type held for different amounts appear as separate groups rather than being combined.

Tip! A bond being held leaves a balance on the reservation account, which can prevent a departure being completed. See Check out a reservation with an outstanding balance for how to refund or apply a bond before a guest departs.

Related Reports

• In House Guest Balance report - shows the account balance of in house guests, including a Bond column.
• Debtors Ledger report - shows outstanding balances by debtor, often reviewed alongside bonds held.
• Sundry Usage Report - shows how often each sundry charge has been used, including refundable charges.
• Cash Allocation Report - shows how receipts have been allocated to charges.

Related Articles

• Refundable Charge
• Paid Refundable Charge
• Set up a refundable charge on a rate type
• Rate Table Bond
• Set up a category bond