A folio on account, and three weeks of back and forth
An engineer checks out on Friday morning. His company has an account with you, so the folio goes to the company ledger rather than his card. On Monday, the accounts assistant prints the folio, adds the purchase order number that was emailed to reservations two weeks ago (if she can find it), splits out the evening meal because this company only pays for room and breakfast, and emails a PDF to the address on file.
Three weeks later there is no payment. She checks: the company's accounts payable team rejected the invoice because it did not show the cost centre. Nobody told her. A new invoice goes out, the clock restarts, and meanwhile five more stays have gone on the same account.
Multiply that by every company that stays on account, each with its own rules, and the ledger becomes a part-time job.
Why account billing takes so long
PMS products handle the ledger itself reasonably well. They know a folio has moved to a company account. What they do not handle is everything around it: each company's invoicing requirements, the paperwork that arrives separately, and the chasing.
- Purchase order numbers and cost centres arrive by email to reservations, not attached to the booking.
- Some companies pay room and breakfast only; extras must go on the guest's own card at checkout, and sometimes they do not.
- Some want one invoice per stay, some a monthly statement, some want invoices uploaded to a supplier portal.
- Rejected invoices are often reported by email to whoever sent them, or not at all.
- Chasing is done from memory and a spreadsheet of what is outstanding.
The cost to cash flow and to the front desk
Money owed by companies sits unpaid longer than it should, and some of it is written off because the stay is too old to argue about. The accounts team spends hours on rework. At the front desk, checkout gets slower as receptionists try to work out which charges the company pays and which the guest pays, and guests leave annoyed when they are asked for a card they were told they would not need.
There is also the risk of extending credit to an account that is already well behind, because nobody can see the ledger position when the next booking comes in.
How we build account invoicing that follows each company's rules
- Each company on account gets a profile of its billing rules: what it pays for, whether it needs a PO number or cost centre, invoice per stay or monthly, delivery method, payment terms.
- PO numbers and booking references emailed to reservations are captured from the inbox and attached to the right booking, with anything unclear sent to a person.
- At checkout, the folio is split according to the company's rules, so reception knows before the guest leaves what goes on the account and what goes on the guest's card.
- The invoice is built with the fields that company needs and sent by email or prepared for their portal. Your accounting package, such as Xero or QuickBooks, is updated through its API where you use one.
- Unpaid invoices are chased on a schedule you set, with polite reminders and a statement of what is outstanding.
- Reservations sees the account's position when a new booking is made, and bookings on accounts over their limit are flagged.
| Company rule | Without the flow | With the flow |
|---|---|---|
| Room and breakfast only | Found out at checkout, or after | Split shown to reception before checkout |
| PO number on every invoice | Found in the inbox, if at all | Attached to the booking when emailed in |
| Monthly statement | Built from the ledger by hand | Produced from the account's stays |
| Invoice rejected | Discovered when payment is late | Logged, corrected, resent |
A month-end without the pile
At the end of the month, invoices for per-stay companies have already gone out, and the monthly statements are drafted from the account's stays. The accounts assistant checks the handful flagged as unusual and approves the rest. Reminders go out on their own schedule.
Reception stops phoning accounts to ask what a company pays for. Guests are told at checkout exactly what they need to settle. And when the owner asks how much is owed and by whom, the answer is on one screen.
Signs account billing is dragging
- Company invoices are built by hand from PMS folios.
- PO numbers are found by searching the reservations inbox.
- Invoices are rejected for missing details and you find out late.
- Reception is unsure what each company pays for at checkout.
- Chasing is done from a spreadsheet when someone has time.