Page 18
Objective
To ensure that all advance deposits received for future events or accommodation are properly accounted for.
Policy
1. Advance deposits received from customers must be carried in the deposit ledger in separate accounts.
2. At month-end, the net total of these customer accounts is reflected in the liability area of the balance sheet.
Procedure:
1. Advance deposits should be posted through the front office system and recorded in the deposit ledger in individual customer accounts.
2. A system generated report must be printed at least monthly and should include the following information:
- Date of the receipt of deposit
- Name of the guest/company
- Date of the event for which the deposit has been paid
- Original amount received and current balance held
3. The Credit Manager in responsible for ensuring that all deposits received are promptly entered into the PMS (including payments made by cash, cheque and credit card).
4. Any past the due date deposits (i.e. deposit received for past events), must be analysed to determine if the deposit needs to be refunded or forfeited by the client. The credit manager must recommend the action to be taken to the Director of finance and the amount either refunded or cleared as other revenue these balances must not remain in the advance deposit ledger but coded to other creditors if they are to be refunded
5. The director of finance must ensure the sub-leger and the general ledger accounts are reconciled before the close of each month end.
Page 19-20
Objective
To ensure the provisions for doubtful debts are made on a timely basis.
Policy
1. Overdue debts must be identified and provided for as the risk of non payment increases. A sufficient provision should be provided to cover all anticipated uncollectible accounts and should not be calculated simply as a percentage of sales.
2. Bad debts should be written off to the profit and loss (Bad debt expenses) when all possible recovery actions have been exhausted and after formal approval is received from the owner’s representative and/or corporate office. The provision account should then be recalculated.
Procedure
1. The provision for doubtful debts must be formally reviewed (during the credit meeting) and adjusted every month.
2. When a doubtful debtor account has been identified, a provision should immediately be made. The provision must be approved by the Director of Finance and the General Manager.
3. At month end any debt older than go days must be provisioned in full, unless the General Manager is certain that payment will be received prior to the next month end. In this case the exception for provisioning must be documented and authorized by the General Manager and kept on file.
4. At year end, the provision should be reviewed in detail to ensure that it includes only those only those debts considered uncollectable.
5. The Director of Finance must request authorization to write-off the bad debt from the General Manger, after examining evidence that all appropriate actions have been taken and the possibility to recover the debt is non-existent.
6. A listing of all bad debts written off must be maintained by the Director of Finance, allowing for a historical review of amounts written off by the hotel. If any payment is received after being written-off from accounts receivable, then they are recorded as a recovery of bad debt (credit to income statement)
Page 21
Objective:
To ensure that all rebates/adjustments initiated by Accounts Receivable are justified and result from incorrect charges.
Policy:
1. All adjustments made by Accounts Receivable (after transfer from guest ledger) must be supported by a voucher authorized by the Credit Manager and other relevant Department Head.
2. The General Manager should formally acknowledge all adjustments and rebates posted by Accounts Receivable on a daily basis by signing the reconciliation between the A/R adjustment vouchers and the end of day system generated report.
3. Accounts Receivable must not issue amended invoices. If an adjustment is necessary a credit/debit note must be issued.
Procedure:
1. An A/R adjustment voucher must be prepared and passed to the Credit Manager with all supporting documents attached, for approval. The signature of the relevant Head of Department should also be requested. The adjustment voucher should be pre-sequenced, dated and with the following information included:
- Guest folio number
- Name of the guest and room number
- Reason for the rebate/adjustment and Amount
- Prepared by Account Receivable Verified by Credit Manager and Authorized by director of Finance
2. The A/R adjustments can then be posted and usually relate to:
- Room rate adjustments: when actual rate charged and contracted rate are different
- Disputed charges: when a guest refuses to pay the charges billed partly or in totality due to default of supporting documents from the hotel, charges to be paid by the guest, etc.
3. All postings by Accounts Receivable must always be done in the guest ledger (as per standard Fidelio procedure). The original guest folio will then be printed out together with the credit/debit note.
4. A summary of all adjustments/rebates posted by Accounts Receivable should e prepared on a daily basis and sent to Income Auditor with the adjustment vouchers and supporting documents for reconciliation with the PMS end of day report. This is then formally supervised by the General Manager on a daily basis.
Page 22
Objective:
To handle all accounts receivable with late or delinquent payment activity in a timely and effective manner to ensure maximum collections and an optimum accounts receivable turnover ratio.
Policy:
1. The credit Manager or A/R staff should be in regular phone contact with the account customers, in particular with those with overdue amounts. All specific collection actions taken and reminder letters should be kept in each debtor’s file or noted on the PMS file where the system allows for such reminders.
2. An aged of accounts receivable report should be run and reviewed by the Credit Manager weekly. At month-end, the Accounts Receivable balance in the General Ledger must agree with the total aged Accounts Receivable from the A/R system.
3. A credit meeting must be organized at least once a month to review all debtors’ accounts with the participation of the credit Manager, General Manager, Financial Controller and all concerned department heads.
Procedure:
1. Accounts Receivable follow-up
1.1 Accounts Receivable should regularly call all debtors in order to maintain good relations and ensure the payment on time of all amounts outstanding as per the credit agreement/contracts.
- After sending a new invoice to ensure the person in charge of the payment has received it
- Before the due date to ensure the payment will be rendered on time. A record of such courtesy call must be maintained to avoid mismanagement, stating the date, name and position of contacted person, the result of the call, etc…….
1.2 As soon as an account becomes overdue the credit Manager must verify each account and in particular:
- Verify that the A/R invoice has been immediately sent out to the customer.
- Check that the payment has not been received and applied to the wrong account or is yet to be recognized.
- Review the customer’s past payment activity to determine if they are chronically late and what their response has been to any other overdue notices to determine payment patterns or trends.
1.3 Upon review of the above, the collection process must start and all actions taken should be dated and recorded with all customer agreements and explanations noted. If payment has not reached the hotel by the expected date, immediate follow-up action must be taken with another collection call or letter.