When something is refused

A refusal records nothing and says what to do. Read it, fix the cause it names, and do the action again.

Hospitality Troubleshooting
3 min read
Updated October 20, 2026

On this page

Read the message
The usual causes
When the message does not help
Worked case: check-out refused

Read the message

When the hotel screens cannot do something, they say why, and nothing is recorded: no payment, no invoice, no half-finished change. The message names what is missing and, where it can, offers a button to the screen that fixes it. Fix that, then do the action again.

All messages and what to do: Messages you may see.

The usual causes

You see	Usually
A payment is refused	Your cashier shift is not open; the payment method has no account; Accounting's receipt numbering or fiscal year does not cover today
Check-out is refused	A charge's product or sales ledger is missing; VAT or service charge terms are not chosen; invoice numbering; no main store; a store is short of an item
The night audit will not close	A cashier shift is still open; a product without a sales ledger
"This needs a manager's approval"	The hotel's rules ask a second person: see Manager approvals and PINs
A folio cannot be changed	It is invoiced: use a late charge or a credit note
A date is closed	The night audit closed that day: post on today's date

Most of these are setup that was never finished: Hotel setup checklist.

When the message does not help

Take a screenshot of the whole screen, with the message and the business date at the top, and note what you were doing (the guest, room or folio). Send it to the person who supports Penahak for your hotel. Nothing was recorded, so you can safely try again once the cause is fixed.

Worked case: check-out refused

Worked example: from the message to the fix

The symptom. The front desk presses Check out for room 204. The screen refuses and says that a product (here "Spa treatment") has no sales ledger and the company has no default sales ledger, and that each product must be opened in **Accounting

Products** and given its sales ledger.

What was recorded. Nothing. The folio is unchanged, no invoice was made and the guest is still in house, so there is nothing to undo.

The cause. A charge on the folio uses a product whose income account was never chosen. This is setup, not a fault: the invoice cannot say where the income goes.

The fix.

The desk tells the accountant, or the administrator, which product the message names.
In Accounting › Products the accountant opens that product, chooses its sales ledger and saves. Lines posted before a product got its ledger take it automatically at check-out.
The desk presses Check out again. It goes through and the invoice is issued.

If the message is not clear, take a screenshot of the whole screen with the business date at the top, and note the guest, room or folio you were working on.