Backdated payments and month locking

You can record a payment for any past date, with a reason and a trail. Once the books are checked, lock the month: nobody can change it, and only the owner can unlock it.

Record a payment for a past date

When you record a payment, confirm a guest's transfer or take money at check-in, the payment date can be any earlier day, as long as that month is not locked.

• Paid today or yesterday: record it as usual. No reason needed.
• Paid earlier (the day before yesterday or before): this is a backdated payment and needs a reason, for example “Guest paid cash last week, forgot to enter it”.
• By default the Owner, Manager, Front desk and Accountant can backdate.
• Every backdated payment leaves a trail: who entered it, the date it was backdated to, the amount and the reason all go into the Audit log.
• Owners get a morning summary: if anything was backdated the day before, a push notification says how many payments. The bell also shows today's count; tap it to see the details.

Lock a month

When the month is checked against the bank and taxes are filed, lock it. From then on nobody can change that month, and the numbers in your reports stay put. This works with or without night audit.

1. Open Finance and tap ⋮ next to the month → Month lock. In the web workstation it is a Month lock button at the top of the Finance page.
2. Tap Lock a month, choose the month and confirm. Only months that have ended can be locked, not the current one or later.
3. Locked months are listed with who locked them and when.

By default the Owner and Accountant can lock months. Locking and unlocking go into the audit log, and all owners are notified.

What a lock blocks

In a locked month, these are refused with a message that the month is locked:

• recording payments, refunds, voiding a payment, confirming a guest's transfer (by payment date);
• adding or deleting expenses (by expense date);
• fund transfers and opening balances (by their date);
• adding or voiding folio charges (by posting date);
• changing the rate, moving dates, cancelling, marking a no-show or reinstating a booking, if any night of it falls in a locked month;
• settling at check-out (by check-out date).

Viewing and exporting reports still work.

Unlock a month

By default only the Owner can unlock.

1. Open Finance → Month lock.
2. Tap Unlock on the locked month and confirm.
3. When the fix is done, lock the month again.

Unlocking is also written to the audit log, and all owners are notified.

Month locks and night audit locks

If you use night audit, it locks the previous business day every night. The two locks differ:

• Night audit lock: one day at a time, locked automatically. The Owner and Manager can unlock a day with Unlock a day on the night audit page.
• Month lock: a whole month, locked by hand. By default only the Owner can unlock it.

Both locks apply, and the stricter one wins:

• If night audit has locked a day, unlock that day on the night audit page first, even if the month is not locked.
• If the month is locked, unlocking a single day on the night audit page is not enough. Ask the owner to unlock the month first.