Visitor Tabular Ledger and Billing System of a Hotel

Visitor Tabular Ledger

Visitor tabular ledger (VTL) is the type of ledger which is maintained to keep the up to date record of all charges incurred by the guest during their stay in the hotel. Or it is a large sheet or form which is used for day and night. It is maintained to keep all record of the transaction that is related to the sales of goods and services rendered to the guest. It is also called tab sheet or guest ledger.

In a modern context, visitor tabular ledger is replaced by computers software system. Visitor tabular ledger (VTL )is an individual loose sheet used for recording the daily transaction of the guests. The ledger is maintained by billing office or front office cashier according to the cheque or voucher made by different outlets or departments on the name of the guest who have utilized the services.

Visitor tabular ledger is made for each and every guest who check-in to the hotel and use the hotel facilities. It is closed when a guest checks out from the hotel. After the completion of billing procedure, each day transaction is carried out by night auditor who comes at night and works generally in the midnight to close a total transaction held during the whole day and prepares reports accordingly. The account of a guest is calculated and carried down in a new tabular ledger sheet for next date.

Importance or purposes of visitor tabular ledger are as follows:

• It shows the total sales or outlet on the daily basis.
• It shows the total sales of a hotel on a daily basis.
• It shows all type of facilities and services used by the guest
• It shows cash and credit balance of guest.
• It shows total transaction of a particular guest on a particular day.

There are posting procedures for visitor tabular ledger which must be followed while posting transaction on visitor tabular ledger and they are:

1. Always use capital letters or block letters while writing the name of the guest.
2. The detail information like room number, pax ,plan, rate etc should be written as soon as the guest register in a hotel.
3. Use ink pen or ball pen to enter the details do not use a pencil.
4. Make small but clear figures especially when several items are to be charged to the same room number of the same date.
5. Use dashes where there is no transaction or figures.
6. All transaction should be entered in the respective debit and credit column as per bill sent by outlet.
7. Cash advance or deposit made by the guest is written in the guest account under cash deposit column.
8. If a guest is to be charged for any service write the amount on the debit side of customer account in front of the respective item.
9. If the guest makes payment write in the credit side of cash deposit column or if they do not settle their bill during check out it is written in city ledger. Generally, these types of the guest are company or travel agent or it can also be skipper.
10. If the guest amount is paid by another party, the amount is written under transfer column, which includes debit and credit.
11. Calculate the sub- total from all charges under individual after adding the tax and vat
12. Calculate the grand total after adding or deducting discount or balance brought forward in the daily total.

The visitor tabular ledger provides the following information:

• The type of services used by the guest.
• Sales did by food and beverage and other outlets of a hotel to a particular guest on a particular day.
• The cash and deposit made by the guest on any day and allowances are provided to the guest.
• The total debit balances off in the house or outgoing guest account or bill.
• It provides the detail information about the individual guest account or transaction made with the different outlets or services of the hotel on the daily basis.

The customer bill is normally prepared in duplicate along with visitor tabular ledger. One copy is given to guest on the time of departure and other is retained by the hotel for future reference and records.

Front office accounting

Front office accounting is commonly separated into two types and they are as follows;

• Guest account or ledger

It is also called guest folio. Guest folio is the master bill in which all cash and credit transaction are recorded when the guest uses hotel facilities. The front office cashier concentrates on the recording of the daily sales and charges on the guest folio or guest account. Gliding machines and the tabular ledger are used in the preparation of account and the transaction or recording. The charges must always be up to date as it should be possible to produce a guest bill immediately on request. In a house, a guest has credit privilege. They have the facility of making payment in credit. They do not have to pay the bills of each purchase or each facilities they make or use at the hotel at that particular time. Instead of that, they sight a bill and their room number on it. All the bills would be settled at the time of departure. All such credit are posted to front office cash and recorded to guest account or guest ledger. Guest folio is maintained on a daily basis until the guest checks out. Guest account is made up of every in-house guest who check-in in the hotel. There is also a folio named master folio. This folio is maintained for group guests.

• City ledger

It is the collection of a non-guest folio. If the guest account is not settled at the time of departure then they are transferred to city ledger. It is the recording of all outstanding credits of the guest. For example, if the payment is done through credit card. Other includes if the bill is to be paid by travel agencies or by other companies. And the accounts of skippers are also recorded in this account. Skippers are those guest who uses hotel facilities but do not pay for it or they run away without paying. In simple words, city ledger is an account where all the recordings.

Guest Billing Procedures

Usually, bills are present to the guest at the time of departure but for the long staying guests a daily bill is made which is called guest folio. It is folded and put in an envelope and presented to the guest at the time of departure. Since guest folio is made on the daily basis the previous bill should be transferred to the new contribution file. At departure according to the bill guest makes their payment.

References:

Joshi, Basant Prasad et.al., Fundamentals of Hotel Management-XII, Sukunda Pustak Bhandar,Kathmandu

Bhandari, Saroj Sing et.al., Principle of Hotel Management-XII, Asmita Publication, Kathmandu

Oli, Gopal Singh et.al., Hotel Management Principle and practices-XII, Buddha Prakashan, Kathmandu