Supported transactional Models
This document explains how Clock’s accounting export file represents hotel activity under two industry-standard recognition models. It avoids system‑specific terminology and focuses on what data is exported, when revenue is recognized, and how to reconcile it downstream in your accounting or ERP system.
Recognition Models
Earned / Accrual basis (recognize when the service is provided)
- What this means: Revenue is recognized on the dates services are consumed (e.g., each night of a stay, the day of a spa treatment, the moment of a late checkout, etc.).
- When it appears in the export: On the calendar date(s) when the performance obligation is fulfilled. Multi‑day stays are split by night. Corrections are reflected on the date of the change with an offset line—a reversing/adjustment entry that negates the original service‑date amount and rebooks the corrected amount on the appropriate date. Example: if a prior room night posted at €100 is changed to €110 on 15 Oct, the 15 Oct export will include −€100 (offset) and +€110 (correction) for that night; prior‑day totals remain intact.
- What the export includes:
- Revenue lines at service‑date granularity with net revenue, tax rate, tax amount, and tax code where applicable.
- Mapped G/L account and cost center for each revenue line
- Payments, including tenders (card, cash, bank transfer, vouchers, etc.), are listed per payment line with GL‑account mapping.
- Pre‑arrival / advance payments → recorded as Deposits (Deposit Ledger/liability), not revenue.
- On open folio payments → reduce Guest Ledger (unbilled balance).
- On closed invoice payments → reduce Accounts Receivable (A/R).
- Daily deposit change (ΔDeposit) is exported per financial date (respecting the end‑of‑day cutoff). Sign convention: a) + Amount when a deposit/advance is received (cash in → deposit ledger increases). b) − Amount when a deposit is consumed/released/ applied (deposit ledger decrease)
- Typical use: Organizations following strict accrual policies, period closes aligned to stay dates, management accounting, and performance analytics.
Billing / Invoicing basis (recognize when the folio/invoice is closed/issued)
- What this means: Revenue is recognized when a guest/company folio is closed or an invoice is issued—i.e., when the document becomes the legal record of the sale.
- When it appears in the export: On the document`s close/issue date.
- What the export includes (two output styles):
- Journal Entry style — aggregates closed documents for the period into balanced journal lines by accounting category/tax/payment (suited for summary posting).
- Bills & Invoices style — one row set per individual document with debtor data (customer, address, tax ID), line items, taxes, and payments (suited for A/R subledger in the ERP).
- Typical use: Statutory regimes and workflows that center on invoices/folios, A/R owned by the ERP, e‑invoicing, or simplified daily posting.
Integration & Setup Process
General principles
- Adapted to your accounting software: Before go-live, the export will be configured to match the import requirements of your specific accounting/ERP package and version (column order, mandatory fields, delimiters/encoding, tax codes, G/L mapping, document identifiers).
- Grounded in a standard model: Regardless of the target system, the export will always be based on one of the transactional recognition models described above—either earned / accrual (service-date recognition) or billing/invoicing (document-date recognition).
- Output and receipt: The deliverable is a text file (e.g., CSV) that you will receive by email on a daily schedule or generate on request for a specified period. A user at your organization then imports the file into the accounting software through its standard import function.
The usual deployment process
Here is the typical process for configuring and deploying the standard accounting export:
- Preliminary Analysis & Sample File: We begin by requesting an example of the export file format required by your specific accounting or ERP system. Please send us this sample file so we can conduct a preliminary analysis of the structure, mandatory fields, and import requirements.
- File Content QA Session: In most cases, a short online Q&A (questions and answers) session is required, during which we will ask questions about the file structure and content. If you are not entirely confident in the technical requirements, it is highly recommended that you involve a representative from the support team of the financial system into which the file will be imported.
- Development and Configuration: We will develop the necessary export file/s based on the agreed-upon format. Concurrently, you will be configuring your ClockPMS+ system according to the instructions you receive during or immediately after the QA session (Step 2).
- Testing and Activation: Once development is complete, we will activate the export option on your account, allowing you to test the file's import and integration with your accounting software.
- Fine-Tuning and Final Adjustments: Following your testing, we will implement any final adjustments and fine-tuning necessary for the export file/s to ensure a seamless integration and full compliance with your system's requirements.