| DATE SOLD vs. DATE PAID
Guest Tracker understands the need to simplify, and at the same time tighten up the whole deposits, charges, payments, and revenue side of the software. Currently, the following assumptions are made regarding financial information:
The DATE SOLD is the date charges are posted to guest's invoices. If you view someone's charges, the date displayed is the date the item was "sold" to them. Many people treat these items as "borrowed" until paid for.
When you post a payment in Guest Tracker, AND if the balance is then reduced to 0.00, another date field, the DATE PAID is updated for each line item in the invoice with the date of the payment, or the date it was "paid."
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Guest Tracker is very particular that the final transaction must be a payment AND that the balance due becomes zero in order for the Date Paid to be updated properly.
If you are operating with this Cash Basis accounting viewpoint, then the Date Paid concept in Guest Tracker is very important. The bad news is that the Date Paid features have certainly had some problems in previous releases, and there is not yet a perfect solution. (It is suggested that you always stay up-to-date and download the latest updates from the Support area.) The good news is, there is a very easy way for you to assess what the date paid is for all of your financial transactions for any given time period.
From the Revenue Section, choose the option button for Revenue/Taxes, then a date range, and finally the option drop-down by Account. This will display all charge activity based on the date each item was SOLD sorted by Revenue Account as in the following graphic.
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You can click on a Revenue Account of interest, then click on the Edit command button to expand that account to display every individual transaction which contributed to that total. One of the columns displayed is the Date Paid. A common problem will be that the Date Paid will not be updated due to the balance not becoming zero after posting a payment.
If you have determined that some charges that don't show a Date Paid have actually been paid for, all you need to do is type in the appropriate dates that each item was paid for in the Date Paid column, then, the revenue option by Date Paid should reflect a more accurate Cash Basis accounting view of your business. You could also view the charges for the people who's invoices have not been marked as paid, delete the final payment, then add the final payment again, using the appropriate date that the actual payment was made. This process will then update the Date Paid for all of the charges on the bill.
TAKING MONEY TO THE BANK
Deposits & Payments
Guest Tracker also offers 2 reports that can be used for taking money to the bank. The Payment Summary produces a list of all payments received for any given time period. Since most people don't recognize deposits as income until the person actually checks in, we track deposit separately. You can also use the Deposit Summary to produce a report that lists all of the deposits received for any given date range. Deposits received + Payments received should coincide with your bank deposits.
Since the date that a deposit is received is usually many months prior to the month that the guest actually stays with you, we provide 2 other deposit reports that may be useful.
Deposits-Used displays the list of deposits that were used in conjunction with the final payments for the reservations within any specified date range. The deposit used date appears in the Date Paid column of a guest's invoice as shown in the following graphic. If this date is not correct, you can change it by simply typing the appropriate date.
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Deposits-Unused displays the list of all deposits that are being held for future reservations and have not been used yet.
For a check and balance, you can use the following formula to look for posting errors:
Total Revenue/Tax = Payments + Deposits Used
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