What a folio is
A folio is a running bill. Charges go on it as the stay goes on (room nights, food, laundry, minibar); payments go on it as they are taken. Its balance is what is still owed: positive when the guest owes, in credit when the guest has paid more.
Open Folios to see them all. Each folio has a Statement tab (charges and payments, line by line) and an Accounting tab (its invoice, its credit notes and what reached Accounting).
Kinds of folio
| Kind | Opened | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Guest | At check-in, one per room | The room's own charges and payments |
| Company | From the booking | Charges a company pays (for example room and tax), billed to the company |
| Group | With a group booking | The group's master folio: charges routed from the rooms of the group |
| City ledger | At check-out, when a balance is billed to a company | The company owes it; it is collected later |
| Event | With an event booking | An event's deposits and charges |
| Non-stay | Folios › New non-stay folio | Someone who is not staying (for example a walk-in service) |
What goes on a folio
| Line | How it gets there |
|---|---|
| Room night | The night audit posts each in-house room's night, with its service charge and VAT |
| Charge | Charge on the folio, a housekeeping room charge, a restaurant check charged to the room |
| Discount | Discount on the folio (it follows the line it discounts) |
| Payment or deposit | Take payment, or the booking's deposit moved in at check-in |
| Paid out | Cash given to the guest from the drawer (Paid out), which the guest repays |
| Refund | A refund of a payment, once it is paid out |
Service charge and VAT are worked out by the system from the hotel's policy (Hospitality configuration › Property & policies) and the service's tax setting; nobody types them.
Routing: who pays what
A booking can send some charges to another folio: for example room and tax to the company, extras to the guest. Set it on the booking with Billing routing. The rules apply to charges posted after they are saved; charges already on a folio can be moved with Move lines.
How a folio ends
- At check-out every folio of the stay must end at zero: the guest pays, or the balance is billed to a company (the city ledger). See Check out a guest and issue the invoice.
- Each folio with charges then gets one invoice: one tax invoice for the whole stay, not one per night. Payments are not printed on the invoice: they were already recorded when taken.
- The folio is locked. A charge found later gets its own small invoice (Late charges after check-out); an error on the invoice is corrected with a credit note (Credit notes and reopening an invoice).
Common questions
How many invoices does a stay get?
One for each folio that has charges. A stay with only a guest folio gets one; a stay with a guest folio and a company folio gets two.
A charge is refused: "The guest's folio is closed or already invoiced."
A folio that is invoiced or closed takes no new charges. Charge the item to an open folio, or use a late charge on the invoiced one (Late charges after check-out).
A charge I posted went to the company folio instead of the guest's.
The booking's Billing routing sent it there. Change the routing on the booking for charges still to come; move the lines already posted with Move lines (Move payments and charges between folios).
Where do I see what reached Accounting for a folio?
On the folio's Accounting tab: its invoice, its credit notes and what reached Accounting.