June 2004
June 2004
Revised June 2011
Hotel Guest Relations Manager i
When using H – GRelMan you must be mindful of the following points. v
1 Introduction to the H – GRelMan 1
2 Concepts and Terminologies 3
2.1.4 Actual and Virtual Rooms indications on folios 3
2.1.7 Rooms Blocking-Confirmed Reservations 4
2.1.8 Transactions Transfer between Folios 4
2.1.9 Automatic Charging of Rooms 4
3.2.2 Configuring with operational data 6
3.5 Main Functions of Guest Relations Management 7
4.2 To block a room for a specified period 10
4.3 Generate Reservation Density Chart 10
4.4 Search for Reservations (current and previous) 10
5.2.1 To Modify details of a guest\folio such as changing room 13
5.2.2 Change the room of a guest 13
5.2.4 Changing guest status to Weekend Special or Day Use 14
5.2.5 Print Guest Registration Card 14
5.3 Create a folio without a room – A virtual guest\folio 15
5.3.1 What is a virtual room/folio? 15
5.4 Creating Attachments Folios 15
5.4.1 Creating extra folios for a guest 15
5.4.2 Directly Attach a folio to a controlling folio 16
5.4.3 Break an attached folio from the controlling folio. 16
6 Folio Transactions: Charging Folios 17
6.1 Revenue Groupings And Charge Accounts 17
6.2.2 Debiting a guest with charges 20
6.2.3 Credit a guest with reservation deposit 20
6.2.4 Credit a guest with previous credit 21
6.3 Print/Preview Guest’s folio 21
6.5 Automatic Charging of Rooms 21
6.6 Transferring transactions between folios. 22
7 Corporate Clients Accounts Administration: Accounts Receivables 24
7.2 Corporate Clients Accounts Position 25
7.3 Corporate Clients Accounts Activity 26
7.4 Corporate Clients Accounts Charging 26
8 Producing Operations Reports 28
8.1 To produce Shift Charge Account Totals of a day for a shift 29
8.2 To produce Shift Group Totals of a day for a shift 29
8.3 To produce Revenue Report for the day 29
10 Current Activity Position 31
11.1 Check Out Expectation Flash 32
11.3 Rooms Availability Report 32
11.4 Room Statistics Report 32
11.6 House Cleaning Operations 33
12 Closing Transactions for the Day 34
13 Sales Outlets Operations 35
13.1 Rules for Sales Outlets Transactions 36
13.2 Recording sales transactions of an outlet. 36
13.2.1 Sales Outlets Transactions Reports 37
13.2.2 Canceling sales wrongly charged to a folio. 37
13.3 Recording Bar Sales to be sold in other Sales Outlet – Sales Transfers 38
13.4 Sales Outlets Enquiries and Reports 40
13.5 Sales Transactions History 40
13.6 Auditing Deleted Sales Transactions 40
13.7 Outlets Revenue Reports 41
13.8 Restaurant Advance Payment 41
13.9 Adding a new item to your hotel menu 43
13.9.1 To create a menu class or group 43
13.9.2 To add a food or beverage item to the hotel menu 43
13.9.3 To add a food or beverage item to the menu of an outlet 44
13.10 Changing the prices of menu items 45
14 Restaurants and Outlets Bar Analysis 47
14.1 Menu Items Conversion Mappings with Stock 47
14.2 Bar Analysis Procedure 48
14.3 Opening Stock For Bar Analysis 49
15.1 Daily Revenue Analysis Procedure 51
15.3 Performing Daily Revenue Analysis 53
15.4 Daily Revenue Analysis Incorporating Adjustments 54
15.5 Daily Revenue Analysis for a Date Range. 57
15.6 Sample Daily Revenue Analysis Reports 58
15.6.1 Definition of terms in Daily Revenue Analysis Reports 58
15.7 Ensuring Integrity of Daily Revenue Analysis. 58
16 Kitchen Docket Operations 59
16.1 Registering and Managing Food Orders 59
16.1.1 At the Restaurant and Bar (Sales Outlet) End 59
16.1.3 Delivery of Food Orders and Return Orders Administration 62
When using H – GRelMan you must be mindful of the following points.
- H – GRelMan transactions are date critical. You must set the transaction date for your operation
- Make sure you read the messages you are prompted with and provide judicious responses to them. Respond with a safe choice if you are doubtful and seek advice.
- Make sure that you specify a password for your username to prevent another user operating with your user name.
- Make sure you close transactions for the day when you have completed operations for that day to prevent posting transactions of other days to be passed as transactions for that day. Do this by clicking the “Operational Data Setup” facility on the main interface, then click “Close for the Day” on the resulting interface
- Make sure you backup regularly to protect against loss of data and make recovery after a loss less costly. Do backups regularly via Backup facility on the H-GrelMan program group on the Start menu.
Introduction to the H – GRelMan
“H – GRelMan” is an acronym for Hotel Guests Relations Manager. It is an enterprise application designed to record transactions of guests and generates related reports for the management.
H – GRelMan can be deployed on several database platforms such as Microsoft Access, SQL Server and ORACLE platforms and is designed as a multi-user client server system. H – GRelMan application is essentially in two parts; front-end or client programs, which is the graphical user interface (GUI) that user’s interact with; a back end, the server hosting the database, which is the repository of data which resides on a dedicated server computer.
H – GRelMan client programs, residing on the user’s workstation, access information from the database via graphical user interface applications, making it easy to use since the user interacts with interfaces such as forms, buttons and fields on the forms. Using H – GRelMan is, therefore, just a matter of pointing and clicking buttons, entering information on available fields and selecting options from menus and lists.
H – GRelMan automates the processes of recording guest transactions and preparing reports at the end of each day, thereby improving operational efficiency. It is a cost effective package developed using familiar tools in the computing market, can operate on standard personal computers readily available in the market and as such requires minimal training of operations staff.
The following are the key activities handled effectively by H – GRelMan:
- to record guest bookings, reservations and check-in details, including the mode of settlement of the bill and details of those responsible for paying the bill.
- to record guest check-out details, including the date checked out and whether the guest has settled his/her account.
- to log transactions in form debits/credits, both for guests occupying rooms and for customers that come in to buy services, such as eating drinking in the restaurant and the bar.
- to monitor the daily activities of the various charge accounts and produce totals on each charge account
- to print guest folios, charge account activities and revenue reports on a daily basis
These key features satisfy the functions carried out at the front office of a typical hotel. H – GRelMan, however, provides extra features designed to alleviate and even eliminate some operational problems in hotel management, as well as improve on the efficiency of staff working with information provided at the front office.
- Data integrity and security is provided by a software based security system which would allow users/operators to be granted rights and privileges that determine the operations each user/operator can perform. Access to data is effectively controlled via this process.
- Uniqueness of a service: Each time a guest checks in, a service number is automatically assigned to that guest. All transactions relating to the guest goes to a folio stamped with this number, thus enabling an effective trace on the transactions of the guest.
- Offers the facility to change the room of a guest without loosing track of the transactions of the guest as relating to previous rooms; this is made possible by the service number.
- Instant up-to-date details on guest transactions and balance positions of each folio.
- A history of all transactions is kept in the database. This facilitates timely responses to guest/management enquiries and queries on current and previous services. It provides valuable data to assess business performance such as statistical analysis on, for example, sales and occupancy rates.
- Functions of H – GRelMan can be accessed via buttons on interfaces or via menus on the application menu list.
- H – GRelMan provides the means of recording transactions made on the account of a guest after checkout. This is primarily for customers who have credit arrangements with the hotel, such as corporate customers.
- H – GRelMan is network ready; its database can be located on a computer (server) on a network, while the front end that the user interacts with, is on several workstations.
- H – GrelMan maintains a comprehensive log of all activities to facilitate auditing.
- H – GRelMan offers flexibility as regards responding to changes in policy. For example, it provides the means to define new charge accounts, new revenue types and the number of shifts.
- H – GRelMan can be extended to, for example, provide useful information on usage of each room, and daily and monthly variations in business activity.
- H – GRelMan can be deployed on several platforms such as Microsoft Access, SQL Server and ORACLE. The standard version is deployed on Microsoft SQL-Server Express 2005.
To install and run H-GrelMan, you require a computer with the following applications installed;
- Microsoft Windows 2000/XP Operating System SP2
- Microsoft Access XP (a member of Microsoft Office XP Suite) and
- Microsoft SQL-Server Express 2005.
Compatibility issues are currently being resolved to ensure H-GrelMan runs effectively on Microsoft Windows Vista with Microsoft Access 2007.
Concepts and Terminologies
This section describes key concepts and terminologies that you need to understand in order to use H-GrelMan and appreciate its scope and depth in terms of addressing hotel management operations.
Transaction Date
Transaction Date: This is the date with which postings are stamped and defines the date of operation. Users with Managers/Supervisor privileges can set this date via the Set Transaction Date button on the main interface or the Transactions interface. However, you will not normally have to set the transaction date since it is automatically set to the next day when posting is closed for the day.
H – GRelMan’s transaction date, the date that postings are stamped, is independent of your computer’s system date. The software manages the transaction date and it is automatically set to the next day after closing the postings for the day.
It is imperative that the Night Shift does Close Posting at the end of each day. The time that your operational day ends would have been defined by your management.
Processing Date
Processing Date: The Processing Date is similar to the transaction date, but with a slightly different meaning as regards its usage. It usually takes the value of the transaction date by default. Processing Date is different in that, in cases where enquiries are to be made on guest transactions or on activities of accounts, the user can change the date to filter the information to provide results of the activities for the specified date.
Service Number
The Service Number is a unique number attached to a folio. When you check-in a guest by entering the guest details through H-GrelMan, you are actually creating a folio with unique number, which is the service number.
H – GrelMan introduces the concept of a service number. This service number uniquely identifies the service provided to a guest. It is the means by which H – GRelMan uses to determine guest transactions and balances as regards hotel services.
Actual and Virtual Rooms indications on folios
An actual room has a valid room key and is a valid hotel room; indicates the folio is attached to a room, i.e. an in-house guest.
A virtual room indicates a folio that is not attached to a room. These folios are created in the same way as guest folios; the difference is that you do not specify a room, rather you enter a descriptive name to identify the folio.
Folio Attachments
A folio can be have several attached folios so that a guest can have more than one folio to, for example, distinguish charges to be paid by his\her company and charges that are to be paid by the guest. Attached Folios are special virtual folios that are linked to another folio. It is particularly useful for cases where a guest require separating some charges from the main folio. For example, it is typical for corporate clients to settle their beverages consumption privately from the main folio that will be sent to the company for payment. An attached folio can be created for recording the beverage consumption of the guest.
Rooms Charge Profiles
Room Charge Profiles defines the profiling of clients, particularly your credit customers, by defining specialised charge rates for rooms.
Rooms Blocking-Confirmed Reservations
Rooms Blocking is a reservation activity where you block a room for a specific period.
Transactions Transfer between Folios
Transfer between Folios is the facility to transfer transactions from one folio to another.
Automatic Charging of Rooms
Since every guest has been profiled when checked in, the room charge rates would have been recorded when details of the guest is created in the database. Rooms charging can then be done automatically for each occupied room.
Late Room Charging
Late Room Charging is charging a guest with room rates after automatic charging has been done.
Early Room Charging
Early Room Charging is charging a guest with room rates before automatic charging has been done. This situation is usually necessary if a guest need to check out early; i.e. before room charges are affected on all in-house guests’ folios.
Starting H – GRelMan
Your manager prior to using the software would have created a user account for you. Get your user account name so that you can log on to H-GRelMan.
- Select H-GrelMan on the Start-Program bar, then select the H-GrelMan module’s item you want OR Double-click on the H-GrelMan module’s icon on the desktop. The specific module’s Program Launcher is displayed.
- Click Launch Hotel Guest Relations Manager. You will be prompted for your username and password.
- Enter your user name and password (if you have defined one for your user name)
- If this is the first time you launch H-GrelMan, enter user name as mainuser with no password (leave blank).
- Click OK. The program will start displaying the main interface
- The System Administrator, logged in as mainuser, must create user accounts for all intended users of the software via the menu File -> System Administration -> Users Maintenance.
IMPORTANT NOTE
- H-GrelMan comes preinstalled with a default user called mainuser. This user has the highest privilege and should be secured by the system administrator by assigning a password to it and keeping it secret (Select Change Password from the General menu).
THIS IS A NECESSITY to maintain integrity on your information
- The system administrator must use this default user account “mainuser” to initially gain access to the software and create other users of the software.
- On creating other users, the system administrator should specify a password for mainuser to prevent unauthorised access.
- Note that new users are created without a password (i.e. password is blank). Therefore, each user must specify his\her password, the first time they log on to H-GrelMan. Note that the first time a user logs on to H-GrelMan, his/her password will be blank
The Main Interface
The main interface of H – GrelMan Front Office Module, depicted below, has several buttons indicating key functions. Typically, to use H – GRelMan, users will perform actions by clicking on push buttons, list boxes, text boxes, check buttons and combo boxes.
On the main interface you will notice the following buttons
- Guest Relations Management
- Operational Data Setup
- Change Password
- Housekeeping
- System Administration
System Administration
Housekeeping and System Administration are described in the system administration user guide.
Configuring with operational data
Operational Data Setup is described fully in the Implementation Guide
Changing Your Password.
All users that have access to H-GrelMan can change his\her password. Since your password is secret to you, even the system administrator (users with highest security level, Managers) does not have knowledge of your password. The system administrator(s) can only clear a user’s password if the user forgets it, so clearing it will allow the user log on with the username only (with a blank password) and then he\she can specify a new password. To ensure confidentiality users are advised to change their passwords regularly.
The procedure for changing your password is simple.
- On the main interface of any H-GrelMan module, click Change Password.
- On the resulting interface (Figure 3 below) enter your Old Password in the appropriate field.
Leave the password field blank if
-
- you are specifying one for the first time, or,
- your old password was cleared by the system administrator because you forgot it.
- Enter your new password in the filed labeled “New Password”
- Enter the new password again in the field labeled “Verify”
- Click “Specify Password”.
- You will be prompted if New Password and the Verify do not match exactly. You must re-enter both again to ensure registration of the password for your username.
Note that a password is unique to a username.
- Click Exit when you have finished to remove the interface.
The next time you try to log on to any H-GrelMan module you must specify this new password to gain access.
Important: All your operations will be stamped with your user name you used to log in. So do not allow your password to be public knowledge to prevent abuse.
Help facility
To assist in using H – GRelMan, you can view the operational and system manuals via H-GrelMan group on the Programs menu on Start Menu bar.
Select the document you want to view from the H-GrelMan sub menu This would display the required document (in .pdf format, requiring Acrobat reader). You can navigate/use the document as you normally use any similar document. You have the following manuals
- Stand Alone Installation Guide
- Client Server Installation
- System Administration Guide
- Implementation Guide
- User\Operations Guide
- Customer Feedback Change Request
- Customer Feedback Problem Reporting
You require Acrobat Reader on your computer to view these files.
Main Functions of Guest Relations Management
Click Guest Relations Management on the main interface to launch the operational modules of H-GRelMan depicted below.
You will see the management function depicted as button on the interface.
- Reservations: Manages Reservations.
- Front Desk Operations: Handles Check In of Guests and creation of any type of folio.
- Folio Transactions (Cashiers Operations): Charge folios (guests, and other folios) with financial transactions, including check-out management and rooms charging.
- Revenue Analysis And Reports: generate reports on revenue on a daily basis.
- Current Activity/Position. Provides information on activities for the current day.
- Transactions History. Provides a history of postings performed by operators on a daily basis and facilities to search the database for all information relating to Hotel Operations.
- Rooms Analysis: Provides availability, occupancy and statistical analysis on rooms.
- Special Facilities and Operations: Transfer between folios and creating attachment folios.
- Corporate Clients Profiling: Provides facilities to profile your corporate clients with room rates.
- Corporate Clients Accounts Administration: Manages corporate clients accounts positions.
Reservations
In this section we will learn how to
- Record a reservation
- Block a room for a period
- Generate Reservation density chart
- Search for reservation information
- From the main interface, click Guest Relations Management.
- Click Reservations to display the interface below
To reserve a room
- Click Current Reservation Details
- Click New Reservation and enter the guest details
- Enter the room to be reserved in the text field labeled Room No. Press Enter key on the keyboard to move to the next field to specify. Note that the reservation number that will uniquely identify this reservation is generated automatically.
- Enter the other details required on the Guest Information tab: e.g. Surname, First Name, Middle Name, Nationality, Date To Checked In, Date To Check Out, Gender, Special Requests, Reservation Agent etc. Note that you can press the Esc key on the keyboard to remove entries in each of the fields if they are incorrect. It acts as a quick eraser function prior to saving the entry.
- To Block the room for a specified period, Click Blocked on the Block Status option box.
- Enter the dates to block the room in From and To below this option box
- Click Room Type\Rate Information tab. You will see that the room rates, room type and other information are automatically filled.
- If the guest is to be from one of your corporate clients, select the client from Company\Group combo box. Note that any room rate changes will be reflected with any selection made.
- If the room is to be complimentary for example, select complimentary from Room Type Usage combo box.
- If you know the business category of the customer, select the business category from Business Type combo box. Room rate changes will be reflected automatically.
- If you have information about how the guest will settle the bill, click Bill Settlement Mode tab.
- If the guest’s bill is to be picked up by the company, click Credit Customer.
- You can click Discard button to erase all entries made so far, if an error is to be made
- Click “Save” button on the bottom left hand corner of the form.
- The reservation has now been made and identified with a unique reservation number displayed in the box Reservation No.
- You can navigate through all the current reservations via the navigation buttons at the bottom left hard corner of the form. Or Click Locate and select the reservation of interest from the Select combo box at the top of the form
- To modify existing reservation details, Click Modify and replace any information to be changed
- Click Save to save the changes.
To block a room for a specified period
You may have done this while entering the reservation details. There are however cases where you may need to revisit an existing reservation and block the room to reflect a firm reservation.
- Move to or Locate the reservation of interest
- Click Modify
- Click Block on Block Status option group
- Specify From date and To date.
- Click Save
Generate Reservation Density Chart
- Click reservation Density Chart
- Specify the Month and Year
- Click Preview\Print depending on where you want report to be printed
Search for Reservations (current and previous)
- Click Reservations search
- Enter criteria in the text boxes
- Click Search to display the search results and the number of records found
Check-In Guest
In this chapter you will learn how to
- Check in a guest and create guest and other folios
- Print guest registration card
- Create virtual folios
- Create Attachments Folios and manage them
You will also understand the concept of the service number and a folio as implemented in H-GRelMan.
What is a Folio?
A Folio is a reference to which charges in the hotel a made. Each guest will have at least one folio to which all transactions are recorded. The folio can be considered as an account, like a bank account to which you make debits and credits.
A folio is uniquely identified by a service number. The service number is automatically created and assigned when you create the folio such as when you check-in a guest. The service number can be considered the account number. The service number is unique to the folio and is generated automatically. It identifies the folio even after it has been checked out.
To check in a guest you create a record of the guest’s details in the database. What you actually did was to create a folio with a unique service number. Therefore, guests and folios are used interchangeably. You can have no guest in your hotel but have several folios to charge various transactions you make with customers.
You can create as many folios you want for real or virtual guests depending on your operational needs.
To Check In a Guest
Checking in guests using H – GRelMan is a simple procedure requiring entry of guest information in pre-labeled boxes on the interface. The interface below is where you would specify the details of the guest. Folios not relating to rooms such as folios are also created in the same way.
- From the main interface, click Guest Relations Management.
- Click Front Desk Operations
- Click Check-In A Guest
- If the Check-In is based on an existing reservation, Select the reservation number from the box Reservation No. This will automatically fill in the details of the guest recorded at reservation.
- Enter the room number in the text field labeled Room No. Press Enter key on the keyboard to move to the next field to specify. Note that the service number (that would identify the guests folio on which you will later post transactions) is generated automatically.
- Enter the other details required on the Guest Information Tab: e.g. Surname, First Name, Middle Name, Nationality, Date Checked In, Date To Check Out, Gender, Occupation, No of children, No of Persons, etc. Note that you can press the Esc key on the keyboard to remove entries in each of the fields if they are incorrect. It acts as a quick eraser function prior to saving the entry.
- Click Room Charge Rates\Bill Settlement Information tab. You will see that the room rates, room type and other information are automatically filled.
- If the guest is from one of your corporate clients, select the client from Company\Group combo box. Note that any room rate changes and vat/service charge changes will be reflected
- If the guest’s bill is to be picked up by the company, click Credit Customer. If you do not do this for this category of guests then H – GRelMan will not allow you to check the guest out if he/she has a balance.
- If the room is complimentary, for example, select Complimentary from Room Usage Type combo box.
- If the guest wants to transact in foreign currency other than in Naira, specify the currency by selecting from the Currency combo box. Room rates will be charged in this currency.
- Select the business category from Business Type combo box. Room rate changes will be reflected automatically.
- If a discount is to be further given to the guest, ask you manager to enter the discount rate in Discount% box from his own system since he has the authority.
- Click Immigration information tab and enter immigration details of the guest.
- Any special requests by the guest should be entered via the General Details\Requests tab.
- You can click Discard button to erase all entries made so far, prior to saving
- Click “Save” button on the bottom left hand corner of the form.
- The guest has now been checked into the H – GRelMan database and an empty folio with a unique service number created for that guest.
- Click Print to print the guest’s registration card.
- Ask guest to sign the card and hand it over.
- You can navigate through all the guests (or folios) currently registered via the navigation buttons at the bottom left hard corner of the form. Or Click Locate and select the folio of interest from the Select combo box at the top right hand corner of the form
- Click Requery button to ensure all currently open folios are in view
- Click Refresh to reflect any modifications to the guest information made by other users.
To Modify details of a guest\folio such as changing room
- Move\Locate the folio of interest.
- Click Modify
- Enter new details to replace existing ones in the appropriate boxes.
- Click Save.
- Note that the service number is maintained regardless of any changes
- Also any changes that affect charges to rooms (room type changes, room changes, etc) will be reflected automatically.
Change the room of a guest
In many cases a guest will request change of room if they find it unsatisfactory or a room of their liking becomes available. In this case must change the room number of the guest and log the reasons for change of room in the Room Changes Log tab
- Move to the guest folio of interest or Click Locate and select the room from the top right hand corner of the interface
- Click Modify
- Select the room you want to change to from RoomNo.
- Click Save and then Finish.
- Click Room Changes Log tab, Click Modify on the inset and type in the reason for the room change to notify of any repairs or refurbishments required.
No show rooms
Potential No Show Rooms are flagged on the interface to indicate confirmed reservations that must be checked in today
- Check In these reservations to prepare for charging.
- Click Guest Check-In.
- Select the reservation from the Potential No Show Reservations.
- Click Save, then Click Finish.
This checks in the guest and the room will be charged when automatic rooms’ charging is done.
Changing guest status to Weekend Special or Day Use
- Move\Locate the folio of interest.
- Select the Room Charges Rates\Bill Settlement Information tab.
- Click Modify.
- Select Weekend Special (or Day Use) from Room Usage Type.
- Click Save.
- Note that the service number is maintained regardless of any changes
- Also any changes that affect charges to rooms (room type changes, room changes, etc) will be reflected automatically. Room rates will be charged accordingly.
Print Guest Registration Card
Registration cards can be printed any time for the guest in view by clicking Print or Preview and entering appropriate options
Create a folio without a room – A virtual guest\folio
What is a virtual room/folio?
In the earlier sections we checked in a guest. In actual fact what we did was to create a folio (for the guest) that is attached to a room with the guest’s name and details recorded against the folio.
Folios are central to your hotel operations; it is just that guests in your rooms are assigned folios as well. You can create folios that are not attached to a guest or a room; that is you can create virtual folios attached to virtual rooms, which can have any appropriate name (in place of the room number) to reflect what the folio will be used for.
For example, you can create a folio to keep tab of sales made in restaurants to non-guests i.e. create a folio for walk-in guests OR you can create folios attached to a guest’s folio (since only one folio can be attached to a room at any one time) for other sundry charges.
You create a virtual folio in the same way as you Check-In A Guest. The difference is that
- It cannot be based on a reservation.
- You specify any appropriate name as the room number; not a valid room number.
- H-GrelMan automatically assigns the folio as a virtual folio and gives it its own service number.
Creating Attachments Folios
You can create any number of attachment folios to a folio. This allows a guest to, for example, run several folios for different purposes such as keeping one folio for charges that the company will settle and another folio for charges the guest will settle personally on departure.
Another situation is where a guest may want to keep different folios for different currency transactions. For example, one folio exclusively for room charges in US dollars and the other for charges in Naira.
Creating extra folios for a guest
- Click Front Desk Operations then click Guests\Folio Details.
- Locate the folio you want to create attachments for
- Click the Attached Folios tab.
- Enter the Number of Attachment Folios To Create.
- Click Click To Create Attachments.
- The folios will be created with unique service numbers and displayed on the list.
- Double click on an attached folio on the list to move to it and examine the details automatically created for it.
- You will see the room number is post-fixed with AT and an attachment number.
Directly Attach a folio to a controlling folio
You can also individually attach a folio to another one.
- Move\Locate to folio of interest
- Click Attached Folios tab
- Select folio to attach to from Attach This Folio To combo box
- Click Click To Attach.
Break an attached folio from the controlling folio.
You can break an attached folio from its master folio.
- Move\Locate to folio of interest; one that is attached to another folio
- Click Attached Folios tab; the folio its is attached to is displayed at the bottom of the tab
- Click Break Attachment.
Arrivals for the Day
- Click Front Desk Operations.
- Click Arrivals for the Day.
- This displays the list of guests expected to arrive on the specified date (based on reservations)
- Click Print or Preview to generate report.
Security Reports
- Click Front Desk Operations
- Click Guest List Security Reports
- Click Print\Preview to Print the report
Other information such as Room Nights Analysis and folios list can be obtained in a similar way
Folio Transactions: Charging Folios
In this chapter you will primarily learn the following:
- Revenue Groupings and Charge Account Code
- Charging Guest\Folios with transactions
- Rooms Charging
- Checking Out a Guest
- Displaying and Printing\Previewing folio transactions
- Transferring transactions between folios
Revenue Groupings And Charge Accounts
The codes that you use to charge folios are grouped as Revenue Groupings and Charge Accounts Codes. Each Revenue Group has one or more charge accounts associated with it; thus a hierarchical structrure with the Revenue Group at the top.
Any credit or debit transaction you make on a folio must be charged to an account. The codes would have been setup by your managers and supervisors. Examples of preset groupings and codes that come with the software are displayed in the next section.
For example, if a guest makes a payment the associated folio will be charged using the PAID charge account of the PAYMENTS Revenue group.
Revenue Groupings
The table below shows the Revenue Grouping employed for a typical hotel. The Charge Accounts upper and lower limits define (a) the code range that will be assigned to the charge accounts and (b) the number of charge accounts that can be under the revenue group. This is done as an operational setup before commissioning and their specifications must be done with importance.
Revenue Group Code | Revenue Group Name | Charge Account
Upper Limit |
Charge Account
Lower Limit |
0 | All Accounts | 9999 | 1 |
1 | ROOM | 19 | 1 |
2 | ROOMEX | 29 | 20 |
3 | TAX | 39 | 30 |
4 | LONG DISTANCE | 49 | 40 |
5 | PHONE CALL | 59 | 50 |
6 | LAUNDRY | 69 | 60 |
7 | MISCELLANEOUS | 79 | 70 |
8 | TRANSFER DEBITS | 89 | 80 |
9 | TRANSFER CREDITS | 99 | 90 |
10 | DISCOUNTS | 109 | 100 |
11 | PAYMENTS | 119 | 110 |
12 | REFUNDS | 129 | 120 |
13 | PAYPEMTS OUT | 139 | 130 |
14 | DR CORRECTIONS | 149 | 140 |
15 | CR CORRECTIONS | 159 | 150 |
16 | CREDIT CARD | 169 | 160 |
17 | INACTIVE DEBITS | 179 | 170 |
18 | INACTIVE CREDITS | 189 | 180 |
19 | SERVICE CHARGES | 199 | 190 |
20 | RESTAURANT | 299 | 200 |
30 | BEVERAGES | 399 | 300 |
40 | TRIAL BALANCE CREDIT | 409 | 400 |
50 | TRIAL BALANCE DEBIT | 509 | 500 |
60 | CREDITS AFTER CHECKOUT | 609 | 600 |
70 | DEBITS AFTER CHECKOUT | 709 | 700 |
80 | CHECKOUT TRANSFERS | 809 | 800 |
500 | TERRACE BAR | 5000 | 5049 |
501 | COWRIE REATAURANT | 5050 | 5099 |
Charge Accounts
Account Code | Group | Account Name | Description | Transaction Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | ROOM | Room Charge | DR |
2 | 1 | ROOMEX | Room Charge Excluding VAT | DR |
3 | 1 | ROOMEXS | Room Charge Excluding Service Charge | DR |
4 | 1 | ROOMEXSV | Room Charge Excluding VAT and SVCH | DR |
30 | 3 | VAT | VAT Charges | DR |
31 | 3 | SALES TAX | Sales Tax | DR |
40 | 4 | PHON_LDST | Long Distance Phone Call | DR |
50 | 5 | PHON_LOCAL | Local Phone Call | DR |
61 | 6 | VALET | Valet Service | DR |
70 | 7 | MISC | Miscellaneous | DR |
71 | 7 | RESCHARGES | Restaurant Charges | DR |
80 | 8 | TRDR | Transfer Debit | DR |
81 | 8 | TRDRADR | Transfer Debit of ADR | DR |
85 | 8 | TRDR_FOLIO | Transfer Debits From Folio | CR |
86 | 8 | RCDR_FOLIO | Receive Debits To Folio | DR |
90 | 9 | TRCR | Transfer Credit | CR |
91 | 9 | TRCRADR | Transfer Credit of ADR | CR |
95 | 9 | TRCR_FOLIO | Transfer Credits From Folio | DR |
96 | 9 | RCCR_FOLIO | Receive Credit To Folio | CR |
100 | 10 | DISC | Discount | CR |
101 | 10 | ROOMS DISCOUNT | Discount Given on Room Rates | DR |
110 | 11 | PAID | Cash Payment | CR |
120 | 12 | REFD | Cash Refund | DR |
130 | 13 | POUT | Cash Paid Out | DR |
140 | 14 | DCOR | Debit Correction | CR |
150 | 15 | CCOR | Credit Correction | DR |
160 | 16 | C/C | None | DR |
170 | 17 | INDR | Inactive Debit | DR |
180 | 18 | INCR | Inactive Credit | CR |
190 | 19 | SVCE | Service Charge | DR |
201 | 20 | RES1 | Restaurant 1 | DR |
301 | 30 | BEV1 | Beverage 1 | DR |
400 | 40 | TBCR | Trial Balance Credit | CR |
500 | 50 | TBDR | Trial Balance Credit | DR |
600 | 60 | CRAC | Credits After Checkout | CR |
700 | 70 | DRAC | Debits After Checkout | DR |
800 | 80 | TRCLCR | Transfer City Ledger Credit | DR |
801 | 80 | TRCLDR | Transfer City Ledger Debit | CR |
810 | 100 | ROOMDISC | Room Discount | DR |
900 | 35 | CRMND | Credit Mandatory Deposit | CR |
901 | 35 | DRMND | Debit Mandatory Deposit | DR |
910 | 35 | REFDMND | Refund Mandatory Deposit | DR |
5000 | 500 | TB FOOD | Terrace Bar Food | DR |
5001 | 500 | TB BEVERAGE | Terrace Bar Beverage | DR |
5050 | 501 | COWRIE FOOD | Cowrie Food | DR |
5051 | 501 | COWRIE BEVERAGE | Cowrie Beverage | DR |
Charging Folios
When you check in a guest a folio is opened for that guest. It is on this folio that all charges and payments of the guests are made, or posted (using the accounting parlance). This is done via the button labeled Folio Transactions (Cashiers Operations) on the Guest Relations Management Interface.
- From the main interface, click Guest Relations Management.
- Click Folio Transactions (Cashiers Operations) on the Guest Relations Management Interface to display the interface below.
- Select the room number, in the field labeled Room that you want to charge, press Enter key.
- Select the charge account in the combo box field labeled Charge Code, press Enter. This combo box field contains the list of charge codes is given in the previous section
- Enter the currency of the transaction, in Currency, press Enter key.
- Enter the amount in the field labeled Amount, press Enter key.
- Enter\Select the instrument of transaction (e.g. cash, cheque, draft, etc.) in Instrument, press Enter key.
- Enter a Reference for the transaction (e.g. cheque no, debit note no, invoice no, etc), press Enter key.
- The cursor should now be on the button labeled Post To Folio, which should change colour to red. Press Enter key on the keyboard (or click the enter button). This would post the amount into the specified folio and the posting will be displayed in the list on the interface.
- Repeat this process from step 4 if more transactions need to be entered.
- Repeat process from step 3 if you need to charge another guest\folio.
This procedure is essentially for posting transactions to folios. They will be mostly done with H – GrelMan by the cashiers and front office staff. Thus, most of the functions that will be needed for operations are provided on this interface. For example, there are button labeled:
Check-In Check in guests
Check Out Check Out Guests
Trial Balance Compute balances of all guests
Revenue Totals report Produce revenue totals reports
Transactions History View transactions history of the hotel
Trial balance generates a trial balance for the revenue
Rooms Charging Automatically charges all rooms with room rates
Reverse Rooms Charging Reverses Rooms Charging
Late Room Charging Charging a Guest checked in after Rooms Charging
Early Room Charging Charging a Guest checked in before Rooms Charging
Quick Folio Creation Creates a folio quickly for purpose of payments
Preview Folio Displays folio transactions in a report on the screen
Print Folio Prints folio transactions in the printer
Posting Rules
- All foreign currency transactions are converted to Naira for accounting purposes
- Settle all foreign currency issues before checkout.
Debiting a guest with charges
If you need to debit a guest with Laundry charges, for example;
- Select the Room No.
- Select LAUNDRY from Charge Code.
- Enter the Amount.
- Enter the reference in available.
- Click Post To Folio.
Credit a guest with reservation deposit
We recommend that this be done in two transactions;
- credit the guest folio with a value, using Transfer Debit (TRCR) charge code.
- debit the reservation folio with the value, using Transfer Credit (TRDR) charge code
Credit a guest with previous credit
This can be implemented in a similar way as crediting with reservation deposit
However, in both cases authority must be obtained from the Accounts department, which holds information on the credit positions of your clients
Print/Preview Guest’s folio
- If a guest requests his folio you simply enter his/her room number in the appropriate field, press enter key and wait for the transactions of the guest to appear on the list.
- Click Print Folio button at the bottom of the form, and this would print the folio on the printer.
- Click Preview Folio instead if you want to preview the folio before printing. Then select Print from the Setup and Security menu to print the folio in preview.
To Check Out a guest
- Enter the guest’s room number in the appropriate field, press enter key and wait for the transactions of the guest to appear on the list.
- Click Check Out at the bottom left hand corner of the form. You will be prompted on the position of the guest. The guest’s account could be in credit, in debit or balanced.
- If the guest has a debit balance H – GRelMan will not allow the guest to be checked out unless the guest was checked in as a Credit Customer.
- Also if the folio has attachment folios, you must check out the attached folios before checking out the main folio. You will be prompted accordingly.
- If the guest is not a Credit Customer, i.e. the settlement type is Payment On Departure, the guest must settle his/her account (refund/ask to pay) so that the account is balanced before check out. The accounts of such guests must be balanced or in credit for the folio to be checked out.
Note: Every folio that is checked out with a balance (either credit or debit balance) will have the balance automatically transferred to the City Ledger for that day and to the Creditors Ledger under the corporate clients’ accounts. The creditors ledger provides the accounts department with the credit or debit positions of all corporate clients and as such used as a guide for debt collection, in particular. The module that handles this operation is named Corporate Clients Accounts Administration, which is dealt with in the next chapter.
Automatic Charging of Rooms
Specifying the Room Usage Type when you check-in a guest has more significance to H – GRelMan than just identifying the type of room the guest took. Each Room Type is tagged with a flag, Attracts Charges, which determines the services (rooms) whether the room usage type attracts charges. With this you can automatically charge the rooms by clicking Room Charging. This scheme saves the burden of having to individually charge all rooms with room rates, which will be cumbersome.
Late Room Charging
This button is applicable when a guest is checked in after you have charged all the rooms for the day.
- Select the Room
- Click Click To Charge The Room.
If you need to cancel this charge,
- Select the Room
- Click Reverse Entry check box
- Click Click To Charge The Room.
Early Room Charging
Used when a guest need to be charged before the normal automatic room charging. Note that the guest is expected ckeck out before normal room charging is done.
- Select the Room No.
- Select the Usage Type if you need to charge the guest a different rate from that of the actual room type. For example, select Day Use if half rate is to be charged.
- Enter the Discount rate in %, if a discount is to be given.
- Click Click To Charge The Room.
If you need to cancel this charge,
- Select the Room No.
- Click Reverse Entry check box
- Click Click To Charge The Room.
Transferring transactions between folios.
There are many instances that require transferring the bill of one guest folio to another guest folio. This facility is provided via the Folio Transfers button on the Folio Transaction form or via Special Facilities\Operations on the Guest Relations Management interface.
- Click Folio Transfers from the Folio Transactions interface
- OR Click Special Facilities\Operations->Transfer Transactions Between Folios on the Guest Relations Management interface. This displays the interface below.
- Select the Room, or the Service Number, of the two folios between which you want to transfer information.
- Select the individual transactions to transfer.
- Click the appropriate Transfer Selected Records for the direction of transfer.
- If all transactions in one folio are to be transferred to the other, Click Transfer All button for the direction of transfer.
- Examine the records to confirm the transfers.
- In cases where you only need to transfer balances between the folios, click Transfer Balances for the required direction of transfer.
Corporate Clients Accounts Administration: Accounts Receivables
In this chapter you will become familiar with the back office operation of managing clients’ accounts after related guests have checked out. The key operation the Corporate Clients Accounts Administration module is primarily to manage the debit\credit positions of clients whose guests have incurred the bills.
In H-GRelMan there are basically two (2) types of guests based on the bill settlement plan imposed on the guest folio.;
- Payment On Departure: The guest must settle his\her bill be for departure otherwise the guests folio will not be checked out on the system. Such folios must be balanced or in credit for it to be checked out. Typically such guests are tagged as Individual (Standard).
- Credit Customer: The guest is allowed a credit facility so that he can check out without settling his\her bill, typically because his\her company will be sent the folio for settlement. Typically, such guests are attached to a corporate client registered on your system.
The credits or debits of any guest folio that is checked out with a balance existing on the folio is sent to the city ledger for that day, and the creditors’ ledger. Usually such balances are debits, which must be pursued by accounts receivables. Each corporate client has a statement of account in the creditors’ ledger and the position of the statements must be monitored as payments are being made by the client into the account.
The Corporate Clients Accounts Administration module provides, at a glance, the accounts position of all the corporate clients. It has the following 4 sub functions.
- Corporate Clients Ledger: This displays the transactions showing the debit or credit of each folio checked out.
- Corporate Clients Accounts Position: This shows the overall balance of the account of each corporate client in the creditors ledger.
- Corporate Clients Accounts Activity. This shows the individual folios balances for all guests under the corporate client.
- Corporate Clients Accounts Charging: This provides the facility to post payments made by the clients into their respective accounts.
Creditors Ledger
- Start the G-HrelMan – Front Office Module.
- From the main interface, click Guest Relations Management.
- Click Corporate Clients Accounts Administration.
- Click Corporate Clients Ledger (Creditors Ledger). This displays the interface below showing the credits\debits of all the folios checked out with a balance, including the name of the guest.
Corporate Clients Accounts Position
- Start the G-HrelMan – Front Office Module.
- From the main interface, click Guest Relations Management.
- Click Corporate Clients Accounts Administration.
- Click Corporate Clients Accounts Position. This displays the interface below showing the overall balances of all the corporate clients’ accounts in the creditors ledger.
Corporate Clients Accounts Activity
- Start the G-HrelMan – Front Office Module.
- From the main interface, click Guest Relations Management.
- Click Corporate Clients Accounts Administration.
- Click Corporate Clients Accounts Activity. This displays the interface below showing the statement of account of corporate clients in the creditors ledger.
Corporate Clients Accounts Charging
- Start the G-HrelMan – Front Office Module.
- From the main interface, click Guest Relations Management.
- Click Corporate Clients Accounts Administration.
- Click Corporate Clients Accounts Charging. This displays the interface below showing the statement of account of corporate clients in the creditors’ ledger.
- Select the corporate client.
- Enter the
- Amount to be paid by the client into the account,
- Mode of payment,
- Details of the payment and
- Reference, such as instrument reference
- Click Post. The amount automatically offsets the current balance accordingly
Producing Operations Reports
H-GrelMan has many standard reports and options for printing to ensure you have a wide variety of report organization and presentation. In almost all interfaces\forms you can print\preview reports relating to the subject matter. For example you can print all necessary reports on Reservation operations from the Reservations sub module. All forms where printing can be done have buttons labeled Print and Preview.
However, H-GrelMan brings together, in a single interface, the facility to generate all the necessary reports you need when you have completed your shift or the day’s work. The following list shows the sets of reports that can be generated from here.
- Charge Account Totals
- Charge Group Totals
- Payments
- Overall Daily Revenue
- Rooms Analysis
- Reservations and Reservation Density Reports
- Security Reports
- Outlets Revenue Reports
- General Revenue Reports
The interface below illustrates the point.
This can be launched from either the Guest Relations Management interface or from the Folio Transaction interface. Reports generation is simple and straightforward.
- Click the button indicating the type or group of reports you want to generate and follow the directions as prompted. You have the choice of previewing the report on your monitor prior to printing or to send the report directly to the printer. Previewing is generally recommended to assess the report and to adjust print margins and paper sizes, if necessary, before sending to the printer.
- Any report can be sent directly via the Internet as an e-mail attachment or transferred to different document formats such as Excel, PDF and Snapshot viewer. This is achieved by appropriate selection on the Export Information menu when you preview the report.
- To print selected pages, first preview the report and then press Ctrl + P to display the print interface. Then make appropriate selections.
The following steps demonstrate the process of creating and printing the required reports.
To produce Shift Charge Account Totals of a day for a shift
- Enter the date in the field labeled Processing Date.
- Select the shift in the field labeled Shift.
- Click the button labeled Print Shift Charge Account Totals. The Report will be printed on the printer.
- Alternatively, you can preview the report on the screen before printing by clicking Preview Reading 3. This would display the report on the screen.
- To print the report, select Print from the Setup and Security menu
To produce Shift Group Totals of a day for a shift
- Enter the date in the field labeled Processing Date.
- Select the shift in the field labeled Shift.
- Click the button labeled Shift Group Totals. You will be prompted with a message asking if Trial Balance is up to date.
- Click Yes to compute the Trial Balance before producing the report. The report will be printed on the printer.
- Alternatively, you can preview the report on the screen before printing by clicking Preview Reading 4. This would display the report on the screen.
- To print the report, select Print from the General menu
- To export the report via Internet or to another document format, Select Mail Recipient or Export from the Export Information menu
To produce Revenue Report for the day
- Enter the date in the field labeled Processing Date
- Select the shift in the field labeled Shift.
- Click the button labeled Print Overall Daily Revenue. You will be prompted with a message asking if Trial Balance is up to date.
- Click Yes to Compute the Trial Balance before producing the report
- The Report will be printed on the printer.
- Alternatively, you can preview the report on the screen before printing by clicking Preview Revenue D. This would display the report on the screen.
- To print the report, select Print from the Setup and Security menu
Note that Overall Revenue Report is the responsibility of the final shift of the day, and as such the shift should Close Postings for the day and set the transaction date to the next day before handing over to the next shift.
Enquiries History
While using H-GRelMan for your daily operations you will be generating many folio transactions. All transactions are kept in history. You will, however, constantly be required to make some enquiries about previous and current sales, charge account activities and folio activities, to mention a few. This facility is provided by the General Enquiries module, which serves as the main search engine of H-GRelMan.
From the main interface, click Guest Relations Management, then click Transactions History to launch this interface. You can search the database for information including a history of all transactions to date. The following lists the various types of searches that can be done
- Reservations search
- Guests\Folios search
- Services\Folio History
- Transactions History
- Sales Outlets Guest Checks
- Sales Outlets Receipts
- Sales Outlets Transactions Enquiries
- Sales Log for Today
- Cashiers Payments, And receipts
- Cashiers Payments and Receipts Transactions Enquiries
- Bar Stock Analysis
- Menu List
- Menu Search
Current Activity Position
Current Position groups information such as
- Charge Accounts Transaction
- Charge Account Totals
- Folios Balances
- Charge Groups Totals
for the current date.
- Click the desired button to view the information.
- You can filter information based on available search criteria on the interface.
- You can print\preview the information as required
Rooms Analysis
The Rooms Analysis module handles information dealing with room occupancy and house cleaning.
Check Out Expectation Flash
Lists of all folios/guests indicating check out expectancy
Room Occupancy report
- List of all rooms in hotel and their occupancy status for the specified date
- List of only rooms occupied for a specified date
Rooms Availability Report
Availability Report inclusive of pending reservation blocks
-
- For all Rooms
- For Occupied Rooms Only
Room Statistics Report
Generates Room Statistics Reports
- Click Room Statistics
- To generate the current statistics for the indicated day, click Generate Room Statistics
- The statistics will be displayed on the form
- Click Preview or Print to preview the report on the screen or send directly to the printer.
Room Changes History
Displays and prints history of room changes
House Cleaning Operations
Handles house cleaning operations
Closing Transactions for the Day
This is the facility that allows you to close up the transactions for the specified date.
- From the main interface, click Guest Relations Management.
- Click the button labeled Close for the Day button.
- Select the Point (or Annex).
- Enter the Date.
- Click Close Postings.
- Click Exit.
By doing this, a posting stamped with this date will not be allowed, thus ensuring consistency of financial data kept by H – GRelMan. One could regenerate Revenue reports of a previous date and figures would always be consistent.
You are expected to have generated all reports of activities for the day before Closing.
The Open Postings facility also requires Manager\Supervisor privileges. Re-opening the postings for a day is only expected to be required if Close Postings was mistakenly done. In any case, only the Charging/Closing shift is allowed Close Postings after the have finished producing revenue reports, thus minimising the occurrence of mistakenly Closing Postings for the day by the other shifts.
Important:
It is obligatory that the shift responsible for producing Revenue Report close postings after they complete their work. Failure to do so should attract a penalty or disciplinary procedure since failing to do so opens the possibility of creating inconsistent financial data and potential loss of revenue.
It is also important that Supervisors should routinely check every morning that postings have been closed after reports are produced.
Sales Outlets Operations
Sales Outlets are point of sales in your hotel other than the Front Office. Typically, sales outlets will be your Restaurants and Bars. Operations in sales outlets are managed through a separate module called Sales Outlet Module. Each outlet is typically configured with its own Sales Outlet Module. This facilitates auditing and monitoring of the activities and performance of each sales point.
The key instrument generated in sales outlet’s transactions is the Bill or Guest Check, which represent the customer’s receipt of the items purchased. This is different from the key instrument generated at the front office which is the Folio. However, all items on a bill or guest check must eventually be posted to a folio, either a guest’s folio or a folio representing walk-in customers. Walk-In customers are those that buy items and pay cash.
Note: Bill and Guest Check mean the same.
- Double Click on HGRelMan Sales Outlet on your desktop
- Logon with your user name and password.
- On the main interface Click Sales Outlets Operations
- Then click Sales Transactions. The resulting interface (below) is where you record sales.
This interface is where all your sales transactions will be recorded. Your bartender and waiters will typically perform most of their operations here.
Rules for Sales Outlets Transactions
- A Bill can contain several dockets.
- A Docket can contain several sales transactions.
- A Docket can only be used in one bill.
- A set of transactions under a bill can only be posted to one folio.
- Only naira transactions (local currency) are supported in sales outlets.
- A bill can only be associated with one set of transactions.
- Once a bill is used and its transactions posted to folio, it cannot be used again.
Recording sales transactions of an outlet.
Note: Bill and Guest Check mean the same.
- If a guest\folio is to be charged
- Click Charge In House Guest folio.
- Then select the folio\guest to be charged from Select Guest Folio.
- If the sale is for a walk-in guest or the guest wants to pay cash directly,
- Click Charge As Walk-In Guest
- Enter\Select the Waiter, press Enter key.
- Enter the Table number, press Enter key.
- Enter the docket number in Docket No, press Enter key.
- Enter\Select the Type of docket, press Enter key.
- Enter the menu item in Menu Code, this displays the item name and the unit price; Press Enter key Or alternatively select the menu by name from the combo box below Menu Code that displays the item name, press Enter key.
- Enter the quantity in Quantity, this would automatically compute the Total Amount; press Enter
- If this transaction attracts a charge, enter the rate in Tax%; press Enter
- Enter the no of covers in Covers; press Enter.
Note that Covers must be specified on the first transaction of the bill.
- Enter the Classification to indicate if it is Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner or any other classification.
- Enter the Discount %, if a discount is to be given to the customer for this item.
- The button labeled Enter should now have focus; press Enter key or click the Enter button. The sales log will be displayed on the list below and focus will return to the Docket No.
- Note that the Bill No (Guest Check No) for the transactions is generated automatically.
- If a sale is entered wrongly, double click on the record to remove it. Note that deleted logs are kept in history for auditing.
- Repeat from step 6 if another transaction on the docket is to be recorded.
- Repeat the steps from step 5 to record transactions of a new docket attached to the bill
- You can Print or Preview the bill details at any point.
- On completion click Send To Folio to charge the transactions to the folio selected in step 1 or to the Walk-In Guest folio selected in step 2.
- Remember to change the mode of payment to Cash, for example, if a walk in guest makes cash payment.
- A Receipt for the Transaction will be automatically printed
- Repeat from step 3 if information on a new bill transaction is to be entered.
- Multiple bills can be created for different guests\customers and kept pending prior to sending to folio. You initiate a new bill (or guest check) by clicking the button Initiate New Guest Check, and start entries from step 3. A new bill number (guest check no) is generated for the new bill
- All pending bills not sent to folio (i.e. unposted bills\guest checks) can be accessed from the combo box labeled URGENT Unposted Sales exist. Select from the list and Send To Folio.
- If extra transactions need to be entered in a bill, select the bill from this combo box and start entering transaction from step 5.
- If unposted bills exist, you will always be prompted with a message and the combo box displayed in red with a list of all unposted bills.
- To send an unposted bill to folio.
- Select the unposted bill from the combo box Unposted Sales exist. Select from the list and Send To Folio. This displays all the transactions for the bill.
- Click Send To Folio to charge the appropriate folio.
- If receipt printing fails in step 20, you can print the receipt by selecting the appropriate receipt number from the bottom right of the form.
Sales Outlets Transactions Reports
From the bottom of the interface above, you can print\preview the following directly.
- Sales log
- Bills Totals
- Receipt totals
- Items Totals
- Outlet Totals
for the current date. Click appropriate button and choose whether to preview or print.
Canceling sales wrongly charged to a folio.
If for any reason you posted a set of sales on a guest check (bill) to the wrong folio, you have a simple way to correct this in 2 steps. First cancel the postings and then charge the right folio. To do this, follow the procedure below.
- Click Click To Cancel Posting at the bottom left hand corner of the Restaurants and Bar Transaction interface. This displays the interface below labeled Correction of Guest Check Postings.
- Select the guest check (bill) that you want to cancel from the combo box labeled Guest Check.
- Click Cancel Posting.
- On completion, click Exit to return to the transactions log interface. You should now have the guest check (bill) as one of the un-posted sales in the combo box labeled Unposted Sales exist. Select from the list and Send To Folio.
- Select the appropriate bill from this combo box. This will display the transactions and original folio\guest charged.
- Select\enter the folio that should have been charged from the Select Guest Folio combo box. You will be warned that you are changing the folio to be charged.
- Click Send to folio.
Note that the cancellation of posting is simply applied as reverse entries to the folio and these reverse entries will be reflected in the folio where the wrong posting was made.
Recording Bar Sales to be sold in other Sales Outlet – Sales Transfers
There are situations where bar items such as Coke or Star, are requested for in the restaurant. Since the restaurant does not stock beverages, the items are requested from the bar to be sold in the restaurant. This scenario is referred to as Sales Transfers in H-GrelMan, and a sub-module is dedicated for this activity.
Thus, the sales transfers of a particular outlet indicate items given out from that outlet (bar) for onward sale at another outlet (restaurant) in the hotel. Currently, the Sales Transfers sub-module is designed handle beverages only, and its scope includes beverages obtained by in-house staff or complimentary beverage sales.
You are required to record these sales transfers from your outlet otherwise your stock balances will be incorrect.
- Click Sales Outlets Operations on the main interface
- Click Sales Transactions on the Sales Outlets Operations interface.
- Click Sales Transfers on the top right hand corner of the resulting Restaurant and Bar Transactions interface. This displays the interface below (Restaurant and Bar Sales Transfers) through which you record sales transfers from your outlet.
- For each sale transfer enter the following information and click Enter.
- Waiter
- Receiving Waiter
- Destination Outlet
- Docket No
- Docket Type
- Menu Code Or Menu Item Name
- Quantity
- Sale Type (Normal Sales or Official Charge; Official charge handles complimentary)
- Remarks, to indicate any extra information or directive on the sale.
Notice the similarity in information entered with those for normal Restaurant and Bar Transactions. Also the Destination Outlet can be the same as the source outlet to handle complementary and official charge sales at your outlet.
- Click Enter to record the sale.
- If a sale is entered wrongly, double click on the record to remove it. Note that deleted logs are kept in history for auditing.
- Return to step 4 to record other similar sales.
- Click Sales Transfers Log to display the sales transfers transactions
- Click Deleted Sales Transfers to display the deleted sales transfers transactions
- Click Preview or Print to preview\print the sales transfers for the current day.
Sales Outlets Enquiries and Reports
In this module you can make enquiries on all sales transactions done to date. You can search based on dates, bill number, docket number receipt number, moth and year of transactions.
- On the main interface Click Sales Outlets Operations
- Then Click Sales Outlets Enquiries and Reports.
- Enter the criteria in the Search Criteria tab.
- Click Search to display the results of the search and the number of records found.
- Click Display to display the sales log on a form
- Click Preview or Print to preview\print the report on the search.
Sales Transactions History
In this module you can view and print reports on transactions for any used bill.
- Click Sales Transactions History
- Select the Bill No
- Print\Preview the transactions
Auditing Deleted Sales Transactions
You can view or print the deleted sales transactions based on a bill.
- Click Audit Deleted Transactions
- Select the Bill No
- Print\Preview the transactions
Outlets Revenue Reports
In one interface you can preview or print all relevant reports for the outlet based on your choices.
Click Outlet Revenue Reports. You can print or Preview the following
- Sales Log, which are the transaction history of all sales
- Payments Log, showing history of all payments made at the outlet.
- Guest Check (Bill) Totals
- Outlet Accounts Totals.
Also you have the facility to print\preview reports of all outlets via All Outlets Revenue Reports.
Restaurant Advance Payment
You hotel may also offer outside catering services or host events, which require providing catering services from your restaurants. It is customary that advance booking and payments are made via the restaurant. A facility tailored to handle this situation is the Restaurant Bookings and Advance Payments on the main interface of the sales outlet module. You can receive payments at the outlet and charge the appropriate folio directly. You can also automatically create a folio for the particular transaction if one does not exist.
- Click Restaurant Bookings and Advance Payments to display the interface below.
- If the customer does not have an existing folio, Click First Time Payment (New Customer)
- Enter the folio name and purpose
- Otherwise, Click Use Existing Customer Folio.
- Select the Folio to charge.
- Notice that Restaurant Advance Payment charge code is automatically selected in the Charge Code combo box and CASH payment is assumed in Instrument. You can change these if you want.
- Enter the Amount to be paid
- Enter the instrument reference in Reference (e.g. the cheque number etc)
- Click Post To Folio. You will be alerted that a new folio is created if it is a first time customer.
- A receipt with the unique service number of the folio is generated and printed automatically. The payment is kept in credit and the customer can begin use up the credit by charging services against the payment as wished.
Adding a new item to your hotel menu
Adding a new item to the hotel menu will be a common process that will be performed in your hotel as new items are been introduced into the hotel menu. This process is done through the Operational Data Setup module only, and is the preserve of users with top-level security (Managers /Supervisor); it can also be implemented from the front office module.
There are 4 main steps involved in adding a food or beverage item to your hotel menu. This number of stages is required because H-GRelMan provides the facilities to customize the menu for each outlet, perform food and beverage analysis for each outlet and generate menu rates daily to track variations in prices. The stages are
- Create a menu class\group for the item, if an appropriate class\group does not exist
- Create the food or beverage item, including the price, under the appropriate menu class\group.
- Add the food or beverage item to the desired outlet and classify appropriately.
- Finally, you must add the item to the menu of the day, since menu rates are generated daily to capture variations in menu rates.
To create a menu class or group
- Click Operational Data Setup on the main interface
- Click Menu Classes.
- Click Add.
- Enter the Name for the menu class.
- Click Save.
- Click Finish.
The new menu class would be added to the list.
To add a food or beverage item to the hotel menu
- Click Operational Data Setup on the main interface
- Click Menu List (or Hotel Menu List if using the H-GrelMan main module).
- Select the appropriate Menu Class you want to add the food or beverage item. Existing items under the selected class will be displayed. You can order the list by menu code or menu item name.
- Click Add, to add a new item to the list.
- Enter the following
- Menu Code,
- Menu Item Name,
- Description,
- Price and the
- Stock Name (for beverages only in this version of H-GrelMan).
Note that for beverage items, the Stock Name is required to ensure the item is processed in Bar Analysis.
- Click Save then Finish. The item will now be added to the list.
- Return to step 4 to add another item.
- To modify details of existing items, Click Modify and return to step 5.
- Click Update Menu For the Day, to add the new (or modified) items to the menu of the current date.
- Click Exit if you have finished.
To add a food or beverage item to the menu of an outlet
- Click Operational Data Setup on the main interface
- Click Restaurant And Bar (outlets) Menu.
- Select the appropriate Sales Outlet you want to add the food or beverage item. Existing items under the selected sales outlet will be displayed. You can order the list by menu code or menu item name
- Click Add, to add a new item to the list.
- Select\Enter the Menu Code.
- Select\Enter the Account Code for the menu at the outlet.
This code indicates the Food & Beverage Classification and must be specified to ensure accurate F&B Analysis.
- Click Save then Finish. The item will now be added to the menu list of the outlet.
- Return to step 4 to add another item.
- To modify details of existing items, Click Modify and return to step 5.
- Click Update Menu For the Day, to add the new (or modified) items to the menu of the outlet for the current date.
- To remove a menu from an outlet.
- Select the Sales Outlet
- Select (navigate to) the record of interest.
- Click Remove from Outlet.
- Click Exit if you have finished
Changing the prices of menu items
It is common for prices of menu items to change due, for example, to market forces and government levies and taxes. For example, you may need to change the price of Schweppes Soda (on the Soft Drinks menu class) on your menu from N200 to N250. The steps below should be followed.
- Click Operational Data Setup on the main interface.
- Click Daily Menu Rates. The interface below is displayed.
- Select the appropriate Menu Class; i.e. select Soft Drinks, and the existing items under this class will be displayed as shown.
- Alternatively, you can click Simple Daily Menu List on the interface (displayed in step 2) to display the list of all the items on your menu for the current date without categorizing them according to menu classes\groups.
- You can order the list by menu code or by menu item name for your convenience by clicking either By Menu Item or By Menu Code check box.
- Navigate by scrolling up or down through the list of items to locate Schweppes Soda.
- Click Modify.
- Change the price from 200 to 250.
- Click Save.
- Then click Update Menu. This step is necessary to ensure the new rate is reflected in the menu lists of all your sales outlets.
- The new price of Schweppes Soda will have been reflected on the menu of all your outlets.
This procedure is repeated for other items from steps 3 to 9 to change the prices o other items on the menu. Clicking Update Menu in step 10 will update the new prices of all the items that their prices were changed.
Daily Menu List categorized by menu class
Simple Daily Menu List (not categorized)
Restaurants and Outlets Bar Analysis
The Bar Analysis facility gives the stock position for the entire beverages sold at each outlet (restaurants and bars). It computes the total beverage sales and beverage stock balances (opening and closing balances) on a daily basis for each shift at each of the outlets, based on the sales transactions logged at the outlets.
Each beverage stock item must be primed with an opening balance at the initial stage. Subsequently only what the bar (or outlet) receives on a daily basis need to be logged. The rest is done automatically when you initiate update of bar analysis. The facility is available to record beverage items used for mixtures (e.g. cocktails, etc), damaged items and beverages taken by hotel management (official charge), to ensure accurate analysis of stock balances and daily sales.
Important Note:
Bar Analysis stock information are processed in the units they are sold at the bar. For example, Brandy and other spirits are sold in torts, but issued from the store in bottles. Reconciliation with the actual measurement of storage is facilitated through a module called Menu Items Conversion Mappings with Stock. This defines the factor of conversion of each menu item (as it is dispensed) with the unit of storage of the item (as issued from the store). These mappings are important for accurate analysis of the daily closing and opening balances of stock items. We will first describe the procedure before dealing with Bar Analysis.
Menu Items Conversion Mappings with Stock
The unit of storage of an item in the store can be different from the dispensing unit at the outlets (bar, restaurant). For example, Wine may be sold in glasses; Orange Juice may also be sold in glasses. This creates the problem of reconciling stock positions since items are not necessarily sold in the form or unit that the store issues them to the bar.
For this reason, we create an interface that maps the menu item to the item in the store with a conversion factor that defines the relationship between the dispensing unit and the storage unit. For example, if a Glass of Red Wine is on the menu and we know that 6 glasses make 1 bottle of Red Wine, then the conversion factor will be 6 That is, 6 glasses or Red Wine makes 1 Bottle of Red Wine.
This function is performed by the Menu Items Conversion Mappings with Stock function whose interface is shown below. For each item the conversion facto must be specified.
- A value of 1 means item is sold\dispensed as issued from the stores. E.g. A bottle of Coke is issued in bottles.
- A value greater than 1, say 6, means the item is sold as portions of unit issued from the store. E.g. A glass of Wine, where the wine is issued in bottles. Therefore the specification will read 6 glasses of wine make one bottle of wine.
Bar Analysis Procedure
- On commencement of a shift you must enter the number of items Received Today for each beverage.
- On the close of a shift you must enter the following for each beverage item;
Mixture
Damaged Stock
Official Charge and Adjustment are derived from sales transfers.
- Adjustments indicate normal sales transfers and
- Official Charge is for management consumption and complimentary sales.
- Then compute the Bar Analysis.
- Click Sales Outlets Operations on the main interface of the Sales Outlet Module
- Click Bar Analysis on the Sales Outlet Operations Interface. This displays the interface below.
- Ensure that you select your Outlet at top of the form
- Ensure that you select your Shift at top of the form
- Click Modify.
- For each item on the list, enter the following quantities (note that spirits for example must be in torts) on commencement of your shift
- Received Today
- On completing your shift, enter the following quantities for each beverage item on the list (note that spirits for example must be in torts)
- Mixture
- Damaged Stock
Official Charge and Adjustment are computed
- When you are ready to hand over to the next shift, click Update Bar Analysis at the bottom.
- The process may take a few minutes, and you will be prompted on completion.
- You can Print (or Preview on the screen) the Bar Analysis report by clicking Print (or Preview) at the bottom of the form)
A Consolidated Bar Analysis Report, combining all beverage sales for all outlets and shifts, is generated automatically when operations for the day is closed at the front office. The relevant reports can be printed on request at your convenience.
Opening Stock For Bar Analysis
You would note from the previous section that opening and closing stock are computed in the bar analysis procedure on a daily basis. For accurate stock balances at the outlets, you must have the opening stock balances (from your stock takes) entered in the system when you begin to use the software. This could have been treated in the implementation manual, but we chose to deal with it here since it is usual that regular stock takes are done. The procedure is exclusive to top-level security personnel.
- On the Main interface, click Operational Data Setup
- Click Outlets Bar Opening Stock. This displays the interface below.
- Select the Outlet.
- Select the Shift.
- Click Modify
- Enter the Opening Stock value for each item on the list.
- Click Save.
Note that if you are to commence implementation, you only need to enter opening stock for the first shift for each outlet. Subsequent bar analysis computations will automatically compute closing and opening stock balances on a daily basis.
Daily Revenue Analysis
By now you should have become familiar with the workings of H-GrelMan Front Office and Sales Outlets modules. Essentially all guest transactions, including restaurant and bar sales, would be captured on a daily basis, collated and grouped according to the service or relevant account codes. Room statistics, Food & Beverage statistics, overall charge accounts totals and charge group totals reports are generated automatically every day when you close operations for the day.
This information must be processed and analysed to generate revenue reports that will be provided to management on a daily basis. The reports will provide the following information.
- Revenue from room sales, restaurants and bar and all other services
- Food And Beverage Analysis
- Rooms Revenue Statistics
- Revenue Journal
The Daily Revenue Analysis module of H-GrelMan suite performs these functions, with the Front Office and Sales Outlet modules providing input data..
Daily Revenue Analysis Procedure
You will be analyzing the information for a date for which transactions have been closed. This means the most recent analysis will be for the previous day from when you are processing. The procedure is straightforward and is summarized below.
- Download Transactions Totals generated from Sales Outlets, Front Office and Cashiers.
- Download Room Statistics information
- Download Food And Beverage Statistics information
- Enter (if required) Food And Beverage statistics adjustment
- Update Food and Beverage Statistics to reflect adjustments
- Initiate Revenue Journal sub module
- Enter Revenue Journal Adjustments
- Compute Journal
- Compute Reports
- Print Reports
- Close for the day.
The following key reports are generated
- Revenue Journal
- Food & Beverage Report
- Daily Revenue Report
- Daily Revenue Statistics Report
- Monthly Revenue, done automatically at the end of the month.
The Revenue Journal provides in depth financial analysis to enumerate the revenue profile of your hotel. Each revenue component is enumerated and prepared for posting to your General Ledger.
Revenue Forecasting
A key feature of the Daily Revenue Analysis module is the provision of forecasting so that you can measure the performance of your hotel against your forecast in terms of revenue. The module for
- Room Statistics Forecasts
- Food and Beverage Revenue Forecasts
- Revenue Forecasts (for Revenue Journal)
The forecasts are specified for each month of a year.
- Double Click on the Daily Revenue Analysis icon on your desktop
- Log in as usual with your username and password.
- Click Daily Revenue Flash Operations to begin processing.
- Click Statistics and Adjustments to display the interface below
- Click Room Statistics Forecast.
- Select the Point (except for Food and Beverage forecast), the Month and enter the Year of interest.
- Click Add.
- Select the statistic code from combo box labeled Codes.
- Enter the forecast for the month in Value.
- Click Save.
- Click Exit on completion
- Repeat from step 6 for all statistics codes you want to define the forecast for the month.
- Repeat from step 4 for Food and Beverage Forecasts and Revenue Forecasts.
Performing Daily Revenue Analysis
Daily Revenue Analysis is performed for operations of previous days, whose front office and sales operations have been closed; that is operations completed and the overall revenue and room statistics have been done for that day. You must perform daily revenue analysis strictly on a daily basis to ensure that month-to-date and year-to-date calculations are computed correctly.
- Double Click on the Daily Revenue Analysis icon on your desktop
- Log in as usual with your username and password.
- This displays the interface below.
- Click Daily Revenue Flash Operations to begin processing.
- Click Automatic Revenue Analysis to display the interface below
- Click “Click Here Compute Journal and Revenue Reports”. This will automatically perform all the daily revenue analysis and reports for the specified date using the Overall Revenue Calculations and Room Statistics from the operations of that date. The analysis and reports generated are:
- Revenue Journal
- Food and Beverage Analysis
- Daily Revenue Statistics
- Daily Revenue
- Monthly Revenue and Monthly Statistics on the last day of the month
- Click Print Standard Reports or Preview Standard Reports to print or preview relevant reports.
- Click Close for the Day.
- On the resulting interface (above), click Close Revenue Computations. This moves the date to the next date of operation. On completion, Click Exit to remove the interface from focus.
- Return to step 5.
- If you need to reopen revenue computations for a particular date, specify the date and click Open Revenue Computations.
Daily Revenue Analysis Incorporating Adjustments
Steps 5 to 11, in the previous section, are performed when you do not need to make adjustments to the food and beverage sales, the revenue journal and daily revenue. If you do need to make such adjustments then you follow the following.
- Double Click on the Daily Revenue Analysis icon on your desktop.
- Log in as usual with your username and password.
- Click Daily Revenue Flash Operations to begin processing.
- Click Check for Information to validate that all required information are available.
- Click Download from H-GRelMan. Wait for downloading to complete; you will be prompted when completed.
- Click Statistics and Adjustments. The interface below will be displayed
- Click Room Statistics to display the room statistics for the day being processed
- Click Food and Beverage Statistics; the interface below is displayed indicating the sales amount and covers for all sales outlets categorized as food, beverage, covers and other revenue.
- If any adjustments need to be made to this information click F And B Adjustments.
- Enter the adjustment in the respective location on the form (a replica of the above for easy entry of adjustments).
- Click Exit if you have finished entering adjustments, to return to the interface above.
- Click Update F&B Analysis to reflect the adjustments.
- Click Exit to return to Statistics and Adjustment interface, Click Exit again to return to Daily Revenue Analysis Operations interface.
- Click Revenue Journal, to display the interface below.
- Click Revenue Journal Adjustments if adjustments to any component need to be made.
- Click Check to verify information is available. If the verification is successful continue with analysis Otherwise return to step 6.
- Click Compute Journal to compute the journal components. This process may take a few minutes. You will be prompted when completed.
- The primary indicator verifying the computation is the Variance component of the Revenue Journal. It should be 0.0. If not you must search for the source and either adjust via adjustments or notify reason on the report.
- Click Compute Reports to compute all daily revenue reports. This process may take a few minutes. You will be prompted when completed and you can then proceed to print the reports.
- Click Daily Revenue Flash Reports (or Reports on the preceding interface). This launches the form below
- As mention earlier, the key reports are as follows
- Revenue Journal
- Food & Beverage Report
- Daily Revenue Report
- Daily Revenue Statistics Report
- Monthly Revenue Statistics
Click appropriate Print button to print directly to the printer
Or
Click appropriate Preview button to view the report on the screen before printing. You can send the report to the appropriate personnel via the Internet or your Intranet or even export it as a document format of your choice.
- Exit the interfaces until you are on the Daily Revenue Analysis Operations interface.
- Click Close for the Day.
- On the resulting interface (above), click Close Revenue Computations. This moves the date to the next date of operation. On completion, Click Exit to remove the interface from focus.
- Return to step 5.
- If you need to reopen revenue computations for a particular date, specify the date and click Open Revenue Computations.
Daily Revenue Analysis for a Date Range.
In situations where you require to generate the daily revenue analysis for a date range, you use the Global Daily Revenue Analysis function provided on the Statistics and Adjustments interface.
- Double Click on the Daily Revenue Analysis icon on your desktop
- Log in as usual with your username and password.
- Click Daily Revenue Flash Operations to begin processing.
- Click Statistics and Adjustments.
- Click Global Daily Revenue Analysis on the resulting interface to display the interface below.
- Specify the start date and end date in From Date and To Date text box (a calendar combo is provided for ease of use).
- Click Generate Daily Revenue Analysis for Date Range.
- You will be prompted on completion.
Sample Daily Revenue Analysis Reports
Definition of terms in Daily Revenue Analysis Reports
Abbreviation in Report | Description | Computational Definition |
Avg Bev Per Cover | Average Beverage Revenue Per Cover | Revenue from Beverage / No of Covers |
Avg Food Per Cover | Average Food Revenue Per Cover | Revenue from Food / No of Covers |
Avg F&B Per Cover | Average Food and Beverage Revenue Per Cover | Revenue from Food and Beverage / No of Covers |
Avg Others Per Guest | Average Other Revenue Per Guest | Other Revenue / No of Guests |
Avg Room Rate | Average Room Rate | Revenue from Rooms / No of occupied Rooms |
Covers per Guest | No of Covers Per Guest | No of Covers / No of Guests |
Double Occupancy Ratio | Double Occupancy Ratio | No of Rooms Occupied by more than 1 guest/ No of Rooms Occupied |
% Occupancy | Percentage of Occupancy | No of Rooms Occupied / No of Rooms Available for Sale in Hotel |
RevPar | Rooms revenue per number of rooms in hotel. | Revenue from Rooms / No of Rooms in Hotel. |
Ensuring Integrity of Daily Revenue Analysis.
- Every guest check or bill raised at the sales point must be closed by posting it to folio. Un-posted sales will appear as variances in the analysis, which will need to be reconciled manually.
- Any bill with a food item must have the cover(s) entered on one of the items on the bill or guest check. This will ensure accurate statistics based on food covers are produced.
- Food and Beverage Sales must be posted only from guest checks in the sales outlet module and NOT via the front office module using charge accounts. Posting from the front office module will compromise accurate computations of VAT, service charge and sales\consumption tax, since some items do not attract one or more of these charges.
Kitchen Docket Operations
The Kitchen Docket Module of the HGrelMan suite of programs manages the kitchen docket operations of your hotel. Basically, the operations involve managing the food orders to the kitchen where food will be prepared. This enables food orders to be properly audited.
The process is simple as enumerated as follows:
- Hand written Food Orders placed by guest are written on dockets
- The docket orders are logged into the system through the Sales Outlet module.
- The orders will automatically reflect on a list in the Kitchen Module, alerting the kitchen staff of a new order.
- When the order has been prepared, the kitchen staff will set the order status as ready for collection, thereby alerting the waiters at the restaurant\bar the order is ready.
Registering and Managing Food Orders
At the Restaurant and Bar (Sales Outlet) End
-
- From the Sales Outlet module, Click Food Orders on the Sales Outlet Operation interface, to display the interface below
-
- Register the food order by entering relevant information in the text boxes.
- Enter\Select the Outlet, which is the restaurant or bar from where the order is made, in From Outlet combo box.
- Enter\Select the kitchen to which the order will be sent, in To Kitchen. (Note. We are assuming that the hotel could have one or more kitchens)
- Enter\Select the waiter, in Waiter combo box.
- Enter the table number in Table text box.
- Enter the docket number in Docket No text box.
- Enter\Select the type of docket, in Type combo box.
- Enter\Select the food item from the menu in Menu Code combo box or by menu name from combo box directly below.
- Enter the quantity, in Quantity text box (the default is 1).
- Click Enter. The item will be logged and displayed of the Pending Orders tab.
- Repeat these steps for the other food items on the docket.
- To register another set of orders from a new docket, click New Docket. Then repeat step 2.
- You will be constantly prompted of pending food orders, until all orders have been prepared and the registered orders delivered to the customer.
- Register the food order by entering relevant information in the text boxes.
You are restricted to the following status changes on pending orders at the sales outlet end.
- Cancel an item
- Restore an item
- Cancel a Docket
- Restore a Docket
To Cancel an item on the orders list
- On the Pending Orders tab double-click on the item
- Enter the number indicating the status required; Enter 1. (1-Cancel item, 3-Cancel Docket).
- Click Ok. The item will be moved to the Orders Cancelled tab list.
To Restore a cancelled item to a valid order.
- On the Orders Cancelled tab, double-click the item that you want restored.
- The item will be moved back to the Pending Orders list.
To Cancel a docket on the order list
- On the Pending Orders tab double-click on an item of the docket
- Enter the number indicating the status required; Enter 3. (1-Cancel item, 3-Cancel Docket).
- Click Ok. The item will be moved to the Dockets Cancelled tab list.
To Restore a cancelled docket to a valid order.
- On the Dockets Cancelled tab, double-click any item of the docket that you want restored.
- All the items on the docket will be moved to the Orders Cancelled tab list.
- To restore any of the items to the pending orders, double click on the item on the Orders Cancelled tab list.
At the Kitchen End
The kitchen staff would have launched the Kitchen Docket module, with the main interface displayed below.
- Click Kitchen Dockets Operations on the main interface above.
- Click Kitchen Docket Transactions, to display the interface below. Note the similarity of this interface with the Food Orders interface in Section 16.1.1. The difference is that kitchen staff cannot log in food orders. They can only mark existing pending orders (from the sales outlet) as ready for collection.
- When the food has been prepared in the kitchen, the kitchen staff must mark the order as ready. This alerts the waiters at the restaurant and\or bar the order is ready for pick up.
- To mark an order on the list as ready, Enter\Select kitchen staff in Kitchen Staff name combo box.
- Double-click on the item on the list. This moves the item to the Orders Ready tab list.
- If the kitchen staff mistakenly marks an order as ready, move to the Orders Ready tab and double-click on the item on the list to reverse it back to Pending Orders.
- You can preview or print pending orders by selecting the pending order from Pending Orders combo box (top right of the interface) and click Preview or Print.
Delivery of Food Orders and Return Orders Administration
When food orders are ready for collection from the kitchen, they must be delivered to the guest. The waiters at the sales outlet end must mark the order as delivered to the guest. This is handles at the sales outlet end from the Food Orders interface of the Sales Outlet module. Furthermore, to enhance auditing, the provision for indicating returned items to the kitchen is also provided. This enhances audit trail in that it will show the amount of rework and errors made by the waters and kitchen staff.
The tabs labeled Delivered Items and Returned Items handle these functions.
To Deliver an item on the Orders Ready list
- On the Orders Ready tab double-click on the item
- Enter the number indicating the status required; Enter 1. (1-Item Delivered, 3-Item Returned).
- Click Ok. The item will be moved to the Delivered Items tab list.
To reset a delivered item back to Orders Ready.
- On the Delivered Items tab, double-click the item that you want restored back to Orders Ready.
- Enter the number indicating the status required; Enter 1. (1-Item Reset as NOT Delivered, 3-Item Returned).
- The item will be moved back to the Orders Ready tab list.
To Return an item if the item is ready
- On the Orders Ready tab double-click on the item of interest
- Enter the number indicating the status required; Enter 3. (1-Item Delivered, 3-Item Returned).
- Click Ok. The item will be moved to the Returned Items tab list.
To Return an item if the item has already been delivered
- On the Delivered Items tab double-click on the item of interest
- Enter the number indicating the status required; Enter 2. (1-Item Reset as Not Delivered, 2-Item Returned).
- Click Ok. The item will be moved to the Returned Items tab list.
To restore a returned item back to Delivered Items list.
- On the Returned Items tab, double-click any item of interest.
- The item will be moved back to Delivered Items tab list.
Dockets Log History
A history of all the dockets used for kitchen operations is kept for future enquiries and auditing.
- To access the functionality, click Dockets Log History on the Dockets Operations interface of the Kitchen Operations module (see Section 16.1.2). The Restaurant and Bar Dockets History interface below is displayed.
- From this interface, select a docket number from the Docket No combo box. The list of all the ordered items on the docket is displayed, including the name of the waiter that raised the docket and the kitchen the order is sent.
- You can print or preview reports of the docket in view or the list of dockets for the day or shift in various formats and groupings. To do this, select a docket from the Docket No combo box, then click Preview or Print
The Dockets Log History functionality can also be accessed from the Food Orders functionality in the Sales Outlet Module (and the Kitchen Docket Transactions function in the Kitchen Operations Module).
- From the Sales Outlet module, Click Food Orders on the Sales Outlet Operation interface, to display the interface below (OR Click Kitchen Dockets Transactions in the Kitchen Operations Module)
- Click Dockets History on the bottom left corner of the interface. The Restaurant and Bar Dockets History interface is displayed.
- You can print or preview reports of the docket in view or list of dockets for the day or shift. To do this, select a docket from the Docket No combo box, then click Preview or Print .
- The Kitchen Orders Statistics report is generated by clicking Dockets Log Reports, also at the bottom left hand corner of the interface, and entering appropriate number indicating
Conclusion
This user guide complements other manuals for Hotel Guest Relations Manager Software System. The set includes.
- Hotel Guests Relations Manager Stand Alone Installation Guide
- Hotel Guests Relations Manager Client Server Installation Guide
- Hotel Guests Relations Manager System Administration
- Hotel Guests Relations Manager Implementation Guide
- Hotel Guests Relations Manager User Guide
They are accessible via the Programs bar on startup of your computer where the shortcuts are stored