A NIGHT AUDITOR
He is a person who works at night at the reception of a hotel. They typically handle both the
duties of the front desk agent and some of the duties of the accounting department. This is
necessitated by the fact that most fiscal days close at or around midnight, and the normal
workday of the employees in the accounting department does not extend to cover this time
of day.
In larger hotels, night auditors may work alongside other night time employees, such as
security officers, telephone attendants, room service attendants, and bellhops. In smaller
hotels and motels, the night auditor may work alone, and may even only be "on-call",
meaning that once he or she completes running the daily reports, the auditor retires to an
area away from the desk while remaining available to attend to unexpected requests from
guests. In the smallest hotels and some bed and breakfast establishments, the front desk
may close entirely overnight. Guests in such facilities are typically given a contact number
for an employee or manager, who may be sleeping on the premises or live nearby, for use in
case of emergency.
ACCOUNTING FUNCTION
The night audit itself is an audit of the guest ledger. The guest ledger (or front office ledger
or transient ledger) is the collection of all accounts receivable for currently registered
guests. It can also be defined as the collection of all guest folios. A folio (billing receipt) is the
account of an individual guest who is currently registered. The guest ledger is distinct from
the city ledger, which is the collection of accounts receivable for non-registered guests (such
as credit card companies). The purpose of the night auditor is, but is not limited to, ensuring
the accuracy of all financial information, and gathering all needed paperwork to complete
the audit. This will include pulling any or all checked-out guests' registration cards, and
making sure all guests are checked-out in the system that should be checked-out.
One task of the night auditor is posting the day's room rate and room tax to each guest folio
at the close of business (which usually occurs from midnight to 2 AM).
Second, the night auditor must ensure the accuracy of the charges to the guest folios,
ensuring that the sum of revenues due to accounts receivable from the various departments
(i.e. Food & Beverage, Rooms, gift shop) found on the department control sheets equals the
sum of the charges made to the guest folios.
The folios for guests who are scheduled to leave the next morning may be printed and
delivered to the guests' rooms.
Most hotels currently use computerized property management systems (PMS) to help
perform the night audit. This has significantly reduced the amount of time required to
perform the audit, as well as the arithmetic skill required of the auditor. An audit for a
1,000-room hotel can be completed in an hour with a PMS.
Another duty of night auditors is to run daily management reports off the PMS. These
include occupancy reports, calculations of average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per
available room (Revpar).
FRONT DESK FUNCTION
In addition to the accounting function, night auditors may also be required to perform the
typical front desk functions during the graveyard shift. These functions include check-in,
check-out, reservations, responding to guest complaints, coordinating housekeeping
requests, and handling any emergencies that may arise.
Night auditors may work alongside a security officer to maintain a level of security during
late-night hours for both night staff and guests. In addition to balancing the guest ledger,
the night auditor is usually responsible for balancing the city ledger and the advance ledger.
The city ledger consists of monies owed to the hotel by credit card companies and direct bill
accounts. The city ledger also contains house accounts, such as management dry cleaning
charges, or local phone call charges which are usually adjusted (written) off at the end of
each month. The advance ledger is aptly named because it is a ledger for guests who have
sent money in advance to either pay for or guarantee their stay. These funds are posted to
the advance ledger when received by the hotel, and then transferred to the guests folio (in
the guest ledger) upon arrival of that guest.
Due to the night time shift, the clientele that the night auditor must deal with may be
different than that of a typical front desk agent. At some properties, night auditors are
known for frequent interactions with prostitutes, who tend to visit hotels at late hours for
rendezvous with guests and the graveyard shift staff.
NIGHT AUDITING
Night audit: the control process whereby the financial activity of guests’ accounts is
maintained and balanced on a daily basis
Night auditor: the person who balances the daily financial transactions of guests who have
used hotel services, acts as a desk clerk for the night shift, and communicates with the
controller
Night Auditing demonstrates the importance of producing an accurate summary of the
financial transactions that occur in a hotel on any given day. The components of the night
Audit includes posting room and tax charges, assembling guest charges and payments,
reconciling departmental financial activities, reconciling the accounts receivable, and
preparing the night audit report.
SOP (Standard Operating Procedure Night Audit)
Arrive early for your shift. Go through the Pre-Shift Meeting check list.
Prepare your Daily Log Report. Read previous reports and initial.
Check Current Status.
Check out expected arrival on screen and print.
Do a bucket check against your computer print out. Follow up any discrepancies.
Check for pre-registration.
Check expected departures. Should be 0 before continuing.
Check the interfaces for the Telephone and Movies to see that they are operational. Do a
printout of charges and put in check-out drawer.
Count your cash. Shortages are the clerk’s responsibility.
Post incoming functions to the board in the lobby. Change the date.
Check for incoming reservations. Allocate to rooms.
Provide guest with all promotional information on check-out.
Any rooms checking in after your audit will be recorded on the new day sheet. The
computer must be adjusted to show NCI as occupied/dirty. Also record the room numbers
and times on the Housekeepers Report.
Prepare a wake call Sheet, a log of changes and a shag sheet for the new day.
Check wake-up calls that have been entered onto the system against the telephone record
sheet. Do a wake-up call audit from the telephone system.
Leave the work area neat and organized.
Do your deposit and put it in the safe. Date for the new day.
Count the petty cash if you have made change during the shift.
Key audit to be done every night.
Complete the Daily Log listing all exceptional occurrences.
