Clock PMS+ Update (4 Mar 2020)

A new option for the revenue recognition model - 'Future charges closed as revenue'

Let's start with the problem:

• For example, you have a folio containing a charge with tomorrow's date.
• The charge with tomorrow's date is not included in the revenue for today. It will be included tomorrow.
• You close the folio.
• The closed folio is reflected in the Accounts Receivable Report with its full value.
• In this case, there is a discrepancy between the Guest Ledger and the Accounts Receivable Report.
• For the Guest Ledger, this charge hasn't yet occurred and it does not show anything about this folio, while it appears in the Accounts Receivable Report.

With this in mind, we have created a new setting on the Tax Settings screen - 'Future charges closed as revenue’. If enabled, this setting leads to the following result:

• Upon closing the folio, the system finds all charges for future dates in this folio and changes their revenue date to today's one.
• This way these charges can be included in today's revenues, i.e. in the Ledgers.
• The data in the Ledgers and their Accounts Receivable column will coincide with the Accounts Receivable Report.
  
  

Please pay attention to the following specifics:

• If enabled, this setting will not change the old data. It will affect all folios closed after its enabling.
• The change to the revenue date of the charge does not affect its service date. The service date of charges is kept the same to avoid any distortions in the operations report.

Package presentation of charges in Folio and Event custom print forms.

• Folios – We have added two new folio charge printouts - Packaged by Dates/Qty and Packaged by Qty. The printouts are designed to solve cases related to the sale of package services. The printouts are compact, as we have removed the grouping by Source (booking, meeting room booking, etc.) and tax. Please pay attention to the method of info representation, as there are many peculiarities and in certain cases this info representation method is not suitable for customers. The main peculiarities are:
  • Lines are grouped by date, quantity, print text, as in the more compact printout, data is only grouped  by quantity and print text. This way charges having the same quantity are part of one group. Their values are accumulated, but the same does not apply to their quantities. Based on the values accumulated, their unit price is calculated.
  • Lines are not grouped by the tax rates. The tax rates are not visualised at all in the lines. Only net  and gross values are present.
  • Lines are not grouped by source.
  • For the grouped lines, a unit price is "calculated" not corresponding the one in the charges. For more info, see the example below.
• Events – the same summary of charges (Packaged by Dates / Qty ) can also be used in Event custom templates. To this end, we have added a sample table. To use the new info presentation method, create a new template and use the the sample 'Charges table (packaged by date, qty and print text)' to be found on the 'Event Document Template' edit screen.

Here is an example of the new grouping:

Charges: 

'Packaged by Dates/Qty' will result to:

Example 2

Charges:

'Packaged by Qty' will result to:

• We would like to once again draw your attention to the fact the new quantities are not summed up, but are used for charge grouping purposes, i.e. charges of the same quantities are reflected together on one line, and the unit price is calculated for each grouped line as a sum of the amount divided by the quantity.

Other improvements

• Email auto send upon folio closure. We have added a new 'Auto send folio email template with folio closure' setting on following screen: Settings - Folio Email Template. The template selected on this screen will automatically be sent to customers upon each folio closure, if the payer of the folio has an email address in Clock PMS+.
• Housekeeping Tasks. Upon the addition of the new algorithm for automated task distribution among housekeepers we got feedback from customers that the old algorithm had been better suited for their needs. Here is why we have restored it in addition to the new one. Here are more details about it:
  • On the screen for automated task distribution among housekeepers, you can choose the Algorithm to be used: Optimal or Stable Order.
  •  Optimal: This is the new algorithm letting you take advantage of the equal distribution of tasks among housekeepers, however, sometimes they may receive tasks in different housekeeping sectors.
  • Stable Order: This is the old algorithm prioritizing the order of housekeeping sectors, however, sometimes housekeepers are not equally assigned tasks.
  • Test both methods of distribution and select the more suitable for you.
  • You can choose which of the methods to be the default one: Settings - Default Housekeeping Credits - Housekeeping task assignment algorithm field.
  • Event Documents. Now you can create Event documents using the standard Function Sheet printout. This way, even without creating a custom template, you will be able to quickly send an Event document to your customer using the Function Sheet printout. If you wish to create your own custom printout based on the Function Sheet. For your convenience, there is a "Sample Function Sheet" sample template on the Event Document Templates edit screen.
  • Event – We have added new standard printouts related to the Event. Now you can use the following standard printouts: 'Function Sheet', 'BEO' and 'Info Invoice' directly from the Preview button on the Event screen. Please note that this option applies only to standard printouts. To use custom printouts, it is necessary to create respective an Event Document through the respective custom printout.
  • Housekeeping Tasks – new Arrival Time column.
  • Room Calendar – the 'Group by Room Type' view is now taken into consideration when room type sorting is performed.
  • The change to the value in the City Tax mode field on the Booking screen is now controlled through the user right: 'Booking: Set manual price', similarly to the manual price.
  • Channel Managers – the received info of booking modification/cancellation is no longer processed when it refers to checked-in bookings. In case of such a situation, a To-Do is created. Prior to this change, cancellations related to checked-in bookings were accepted leading to serious discomfort and confusion in the hotel.
  • CRS – When CRS used on a mobile device, the Search form took too much space at the top of the result page. We have changed the view, so that the Search form is not shown for mobile devices. This way the page is more compact and the search results are better visible. If guests wish to change the search parameters, they can use the Back button.
  • New translation entries - CRS, SSP, POS WBE
  • We have optimised the work of several reports: Open Folios Report, Payments Report, Tax Report, Closed Folios Report.

Integrations

• New Door Lock Interface - Messerschmitt
• Swedish fiscalization - voided folios are now visible in X and Z reports
• Swedish fiscalization - Negative tax amount generated error 500.

Fixes

• Passport images – images used to disappear on booking checkout.
• Self Service Portal – the charged extra services from the Self Service Portal in the booking had the following issue: When the booking period changed, the charged services kept their old dates instead of following the new booking period set.
• POS - Inventory Items Report generated an error when a CSV export was attempted
• Self Service Portal - Adyen Payment made via 3D secure, but with incorrect credit card data, used redirected to the login screen, instead of showing the error.
• Datecs – a bug fixed causing the text to be printed not being formatted as per the 'columns'