Once the Night Audit functionality is enabled on your ThinkReservations account, you will be able to run Night Audit by following these steps:
Navigate to Reports > Night Audit (in the "Accounting" section).
Enter the date range you want to include in the Night Audit.
The date range must start on the date following the last Night Audit. No gaps in the sequence of dates are permitted.
The date range can end any day before the current date.
You may perform a Night Audit for one day, a week, a month, or for any other period that you wish if the period conforms with the requirements in a. and b. above.
Click on Generate to update the reports in Steps 1 through 4.
Step 1: Reservations That Should Be Checked Out. A report of reservations where the guest was scheduled to check out (per check-out date) during the audited date range.
Gives the Night Auditor a chance to verify that the guests departed on their scheduled departure date.
If the Night Auditor finds a problem, stop the audit. Fix the reservation to extend it to the proper check-out date. Reload the Night Audit report.
Risk: If a guest extends their stay and the system is not updated to reflect their extended stay before the Night Audit is finalized, you will not be able to add the extended night to the system.
Example: The date being audited is July 12. Per the system, Guest A is scheduled to check out on July 12. Instead of checking out, Guest A extends their stay to check out on July 13. The front desk person forgets to update the system. After the audit is complete, July 12 will be "frozen" from any additions, changes, or deletions. The night of July 12 cannot be added as a booked night in ThinkReservations.
Step 2: Reservations That Should Be Paid In Full. A report of reservations where the guest was scheduled to check out during the date range that is being audited, AND the reservations have an outstanding balance.
Gives the Night Auditor a chance to review departed reservations with outstanding balances.
The property should have clear procedures for the Night Auditor to follow when an outstanding balance remains on a departed reservation.
The Night Auditor can pause the Night Audit and process payment for any departed reservations with balances due from the guest, provided a form of payment is retained for that purpose.
There may be other instances in which no payment is retained, or the balance may be owed by the property to the guest.
In any case, the Night Audit can proceed without causing a problem. Payment can be processed on any date to satisfy the outstanding balance. Outstanding balances on departed reservations will be included in the Guest Ledger report.
Step 3: Reconcile Payments. A report of payments received for the audited date range, listed by Payment Type.
Gives the Night Auditor the opportunity to review and reconcile payments received for the audited period.
Typical procedures for the Night Auditor may include reconciling credit card payments to the credit card processor's batch report(s), reconciling cash and check payments to the related logs or records of cash and check receipts, and so on.
Red Flag: If the "Transfer" payments total is non-zero, stop the audit and fix the problem. Transfer payments between reservations should always balance to zero for any day or period.
The Night audit process can be paused to fix a problem. Then the Night Audit report can be reloaded.
If a critical issue cannot be resolved, the Night Audit can be paused until the problem is fixed. If it is not critical, the Night Audit can continue, and the payment can be fixed on a date after the audited period.
Step 4: Review The Accounting Summary Report. A link to the Accounting Summary report for the audited date range is provided. The Accounting Summary displays activity by account for the audited period as a balanced journal entry.
Gives the Night Auditor a chance to review the total activity for the audited period by account.
Red Flag: The Night Auditor sees reported as Uncategorized Revenue, Uncategorized Taxes, or Uncategorized Payments. This means that some transactions were recorded under a new Item, Tax Type, or Payment Type, but no account was assigned to the Item, Tax Type, or Payment Type. Uncategorized Payments may also mean that Transfer payments between reservations did not net to zero.
Risk: If the Night Audit is completed without resolving the Uncategorized transactions, those transactions will be reported as Uncategorized in all ThinkReservations Accounting reports and other reports that report activity by account, including the dates the items were Uncategorized.
Stop the Night Audit and resolve the problem before continuing.
Step 5: Finalize The Audit.
The Night Auditor must check a box indicating they have completed the Night Audit and that finalizing the Night Audit will "freeze" the audited dates, preventing any changes to those dates.
Click on Finalize Audit (a single click is all that is needed).
It may take 1 minute per day. A longer audit period will take a little longer. To determine if the Night Audit is finished, navigate to Reports>>Guest Ledger. Change the date to the most recent date audited and click Generate. The report should run successfully if the audit has been completed. If it says there was an error in running the report, the Night Audit has not finished.
If you have any issues or questions when running a Night Audit, please contact ThinkReservations Support at (877) 736 - 4195, Ext 2, or email Support at support@thinkreservations.com.