Clock PMS+ Update (21 Jun 2023)

New Features

Blocks

We have improved block handling overall so that you can more easily work with blocks for long periods and thus solve cases like allotments for Tour Operators or Tour-series.

Allotments and series cover long periods and the old screens were not adapted to serve such cases. So we introduced a new type of block - Period Blocks. Unlike the existing blocks by day, Period Blocks specify multiple periods, and for each, you enter a start and end date, and the number of rooms blocked. This way, you can have multiple periods within a block with different numbers of blocked rooms. This makes it easy to set allotments or tour series for a much longer period of time. 

Additionally, we have added another functionality to the period blocks - you can specify a different Cut-off day setting for each period. This is useful, for example, for Allotments where periods outside the active season have a longer Release Period (Cut off days), compared to periods in the active tourist season where the Release Period is shorter. Using this setting, you can also easily release rooms for only one specific period without changing the number of blocked rooms, simply by setting a large enough release period, for example, 999 days.

We've also added a number of improvements to blocks by day: fast-forwarding to a specific date, bulk filling of values, ability to convert between the two block types.

To open and view the new screen for the blocks, open the screen for an event. In the "Block" section, select the "New" button. On the same screen, opposite each of the blocks, there is also a" New" button that takes you directly to the edit screen for that particular block.

Information about all the features of the new blocks can be found HERE.

Block Pick-up report

We have redesigned the report to make it more user-friendly and more interactive:

• We've added an option to show and hide details so you can now, in a much more compact screen form, view the availability or usage percentage of many more blocks at once.
• We've grouped the data by room type. With the new "Show Occupancy" option, you can for each room type see the percentage occupancy as well as the remaining rooms available. The vacancy data is colored-graded according to occupancy.
• We have also added a larger font option for better readability.

Password Policy

New functionality that allows you to enforce a comprehensive, corporate policy on user passwords. With the new feature, you can set what the minimum password complexity is, how often it should be changed by users, and whether the new password can be like any of the passwords already in use.

You can create different policies for different types of users. For example, you can create a separate policy with lower password requirements for users who use the POS system. Correspondingly, a more complex password policy for users with access to sensitive information.

By default, there is one policy, "default", which is associated with all existing users. Edit it if you wish to apply password rules to all current users.

See how to configure a Password Policy.

Advance invoices based on the amount paid

We've added another functionality to the new folio screen regarding advance payments. The new feature will help you issue an advance invoice if you have already received payment and the invoice value should match the amount paid. The special thing in this situation is that in the document, you have to mention the charges with their taxes to which this amount refers. The new functionality automates the process of creating and issuing the advance invoice. See more details in Advance invoice based on the amount paid.

Improvements

• BookDirect - Included Discount % - New functionality to BookDirect that is aimed at promoting and encouraging sales. Using the new field in each rate, you can specify what the included discount amount is from your standard rates. The field is called "Included Discount %". It is important to know that this field does not concern the calculation of the rate price. That is, if your rate price is 90 EUR and you fill 10% in the new field, the price will not change and will remain 90 EUR. The new field only has to do with displaying the "Old" price, which will be displayed as a "Strikethrough" amount. Customers will see the "old", strikethrough price of 100 EUR, the current price of 90 EUR, and the discount percentage of 10%. The new field can be filled in for each rate through the 'WRS' tab when editing rates in the Rate Plans.

• Change log for the Room type / Rate plan restrictions - we have added a change log for the new restrictions by room type and rate plan. You can use it to find out what all the changes have been to these restrictions for given dates. To access the log, from the edit restrictions screen, select the "eye" button -> "Change Log" option.
• ID Processor - We have made a change regarding the data for the document_type field in the guest profile. We now fill in more detailed information about the scanned document type. Note that the reliability of this recognition as well as the data can vary a lot, depending on the country of issue and the ID variant.
• Online Check-In & ID Processor - we have made a small change so that when scanning a document through the Online Check-In application, the default language of the account is used. This means that if the default language of the account is French, then when scanning a document of a French citizen, the data will be filled in French. For all other citizens, the data will populate in English. This is also the behavior of the ID Processor when used within the PMS. The default language for the account is set from the "Languages and Texts" screen with the "Default" button.
• Improvements to the new folio screen. Two changes regarding screen usage:
  • Changed the ToDo view and added a quick close for each task without having to open it for editing;
  • The process of sending a new email has been simplified, and the list of sent emails itself has been added to the screen.
• We have updated the look and feel of the following screens: Commissions, Hotel Registry, Lost Property, Change and Recover Password screens.
• In very rare situations, for technical reasons, the creation of reservations through the BookDirect may be unsuccessful. In these cases, the customer does not reach the final confirmation screen. However, if the customer has made a successful payment, the system will detect the anomaly and a refund will be initiated automatically. When such a situation occurs, a ToDo is generated with the PSP reference of the corresponding payment. Details of the transaction itself could also be found in the "Credit Card Transactions" report.

Fixes

• Folio printing through the new folio screens - When using the custom templates, the Recipient section did not display all the details.
• Applying Discount through the new folio screens - If there was no Discount charge template set up, it was not possible to apply a discount.

Integrations

• Private Analytics - The booking data (BigQuery table) has been improved by adding room_id and room_name. The value for room_type_id has also been populated correctly. 

Localizations

•  AJPES export - In the sake of usability we enhanced the export process and now you can see why the guests couldn't be exported with a previous export attempt. The error produced by AJPES is stored and available for review. The assigned zst number is stored for the guests which failed to be exported to prevent zst numbering gaps. However, the zst number as well as other information for the guest may be updated before being exported again.