Night Audit SOP

Step 1: Manage Reservations

The first step in the night audit process is to go through every booking voucher for check-in, check-out,
no-show, maintenance block and on-hold reservations (On-hold reservations are the rooms for which the
advance amount is received, but the guests haven’t shown up until the time of audit) for that business
day.

It is mandatory to flag if and when you encounter any discrepancies in the number of room nights,
nightly price, occupancy or room services folios before you move on to the next step.

Step 2: Posting Room Charges and Taxes

Next step is to check if the front office has left instructions with regards to guest overstay, payments
receivables, discounts if any. Once you have all the details, proceed about posting room charges and
taxes to respective folios.

Step 3: Balance Guest Charges and Payments

After the room charges are posted, proceed to post all the pending transactions which were recorded
during the day. (i.e. parking fees, room service or mini-bar charges, laundry, telephone or internet
charges, etc.). This process is called a trial balance.

Make sure to keep a tab on corporate accounts’ payments. (city ledger accounts). In case of
discrepancies in the trial balance and actual, make a note of the difference and leave the note for the
particular department. Ensure you close the cash drawer in the end.

Step 4: Reconcile Room Status

Once all the charges are posted, the next step is to reconcile all the bookings for the day. It allows you to
update the exact room position for the next business day. After reconciliation, you must prepare a
detailed report about room availability, maintenance block, guest arrival and departure. This helps the
housekeeping staff to go about their operations for the day.

Step 5: Generate Reports

The final process for a successful night audit in a hotel is to populate data gathered into relevant report
formats for inter and intradepartmental use. These reports will help you strengthen your strategies
around hotel operations.

Amongst various types of night audit reports, we are listing the key reports that you must check after
every audit.

Night audit reports you need to look into

 Night Audit report: One report which every hotel manager swears by, is the night audit report. It
is a copious report that captures occupied rooms’ count, guest count, total sales, miscellaneous
 expenses and receivables.

This report helps with counts of expected arrivals and departures, day usage rooms, under
maintenance rooms, cancellations and no-shows and complimentary rooms if any. Other details
like the meal plan under which the guests have booked their rooms are also available so that the
F&B department can make necessary arrangements.

 Manager report: As a general manager or the owner, this is the report you must look at. It
contains room charges, payments received, account receivables, petty cash expenses from the
front office, total revenue generated, city ledger’s reports such as – advanced deposit ledger,
guest ledger and room summary. It will guide you to understand target v/s actual revenue.

 Rooms on Books Report: With this report, you can categorise your rooms under occupied
rooms, booked but yet to arrive, available to sell, due check-out, under maintenance etc. This
report is again shared with the housekeeping, front office and the reservations department for
their actions.

 Detail Revenue Report: This report provides you with the exact breakdown of the revenue
generated for every room. It covers details like guest name, room number/type, meal plan, room
rate per night, taxes, business source and net earnings. You can determine ARR for that day on
the basis of this report.

This is how one can perform a successful night audit in a hotel.

Step 1: Check Pending Reservation

The very first step is to check for any pending reservations.

Step 1 of the Night Audit Process in eZee Absolute

A reservation goes into pending status when;

1. The guest did not arrive and no show was not marked.

2. The guest did check-in but the same was not updated in the system.

3. Cancellation not updated in the system.

Once you have known the status of the guest, move your cursor to the downward arrow next to the
deposit amount and choose the relevant option from the menu.

Step 1 of the Night Audit Process in eZee Absolute

Then, click “Next”.

Step 2: Release Reservations

Once you settle pending reservations, the system redirects you to the next page where you take care of
unconfirmed bookings. If the guest does not confirm their arrival within a given timeline, you can release
the reservation to make the room available for other guests.

You can even change the release date upon guest request if feasible for you. Choose the desired option,
then, click “Next”.

Step 2 of the Night Audit Process in eZee Absolute

Step 2.1 of the Night Audit Process in eZee Absolute

Step 3: Room Status

This step determines the status of the room guests as to if they will stayover, have arrived or will
checkout. Once you verify their status, you can proceed to either amend the stay or process their check-
out.

You will be able to check a guest out only after all the folios are settled and balance due is zero. This step
prevents the guest from leaving the hotel without payment. If the balance payment is zero, you will be
able to check the guest out just with a click.

Release the maintenance block if the room is ready for the guests.

Step 3 of the Night Audit Process in eZee Absolute

Step 4: Unsettled folios

When guests order other services like spa, gym, restaurant and want them added to their room bill, the
folios for the same appear here in case they are not settled immediately. Settle these folios as per their
payments situation and then, click “Next”.
Step 4 of the Night Audit Process in eZee Absolute

Step 5: Nightly charge

This step is what determines your Manager report. On this page, you will have the complete list of all the
in-house guests alongside the prices they are paying per night. Now, this is the last step before the
transactions get locked for that particular business day. It also records the additional charges (if any).
After verifying, click on post all, then click “Next”.

Step 5 of the Night Audit Process in eZee Absolute

Step 6: Create a new day

This step creates a brand new business day in the software. The system locks all the previous day
transactions; which then cannot be modified.
Step 6 of the Night Audit Process in eZee Absolute