A wellbeing day for twenty-five from an accounts team
An HR manager books a spa day for her team as a thank you: thermal access, a thirty minute treatment each, lunch and a room for a short talk in the morning. She needs a quote in the company's format, a purchase order number on the invoice and the invoice sent to a shared accounts payable inbox, not to her. The delegate list changes four times. On the day, several staff upgrade their treatment, two buy products in the shop and one orders wine at lunch.
At the end of the day reception cannot work out what goes on the company bill and what each person owes. The invoice goes out with personal items on it. Accounts payable rejects it, and the HR manager has to explain to finance why a bottle of wine was charged to the wellbeing budget.
Company money and personal spend share one tab
Spa systems are built around individual guests paying for themselves. A corporate day is one payer covering part of the spend for many guests, with a document trail the company's finance team insists on.
- Quotes are written in a word processor, so the invoice and the quote drift apart.
- Purchase order numbers are in an email thread rather than on the booking.
- Delegate names are held by the HR contact, and your treatment diary shows placeholders.
- Extras are added to the group booking because that is the only tab open.
- The invoice is created in Xero or your accounts package by retyping from the booking.
The costs of getting the bill wrong
Rejected invoices mean late payment, sometimes by months. Rebilling takes office time. Guests are embarrassed if their personal spend appears on the company account. And the corporate client, who could book every quarter, remembers that the spa made their finance team's life harder.
How we separate the company account from the guest tab
- A corporate booking record holds the company details, purchase order number, invoice address, agreed package and price per head from your rate card.
- The HR contact gets a link to maintain the delegate list and treatment choices up to the deadline you set, so the diary fills with real names.
- Each delegate is checked in on the day against the list. Anything included in the package is charged to the company record.
- Anything outside the package, such as upgrades, retail or drinks, opens a personal tab for that delegate and is paid before they leave. You decide whether the company allows any extras on its account.
- After the day, the company invoice is created in Xero, QuickBooks or Sage through its API, with the purchase order number and a delegate summary attached.
- Invoice status is visible on the corporate record, so a repeat booking can see whether the last one was paid.
| Item | Charged to | When |
|---|---|---|
| Package per delegate | Company | Invoice after the day |
| Room hire for a talk | Company | Invoice after the day |
| Treatment upgrade | Delegate | Paid at checkout |
| Retail and drinks | Delegate | Paid at checkout |
| No-show delegate | Per your terms | Shown on invoice summary |
How corporate days feel from the desk
Reception checks delegates in from a list with real names and treatment times. Personal extras never touch the company account unless you set it up that way. Your finance person stops retyping bookings into invoices, and the HR contact gets an invoice that finance accepts first time. Next time they book, the record has last year's package and delegate count ready to copy.
Your corporate bookings, honestly
- Corporate invoices are sometimes rejected for missing purchase order numbers.
- Delegate lists arrive the day before or on the day.
- Personal spend ends up on the company bill, or the reverse.
- Quotes and invoices are typed separately.
- You cannot easily see which companies rebook and which never returned.