By Sumit Manwal, Founder, Hospitality Vacancy
This short note summarises key front office accounting concepts.
For the full explanation, see the detailed post linked below.
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Visitors’ Tabular Ledger (VTL)
Ledger: A ledger is a grouping of accounts. The front office ledger is a collection of front office account folios. The folios used in the front office form part of front office accounts receivable ledger. An account receivable represents money owed to the hotel.
Front office accounting commonly separates accounts receivable into two subsidiary groups: the guest ledger and the city ledger.
Guest Ledger: The guest ledger is the set of guest accounts that correspond to registered hotel guests. Guests who make appropriate credit arrangements at registration may be extended privileges to charge purchases to their individual account folios. Guests may also pay against their outstanding balance at any time during occupancy. Guests’ financial transactions are recorded onto guest ledger accounts to assist in tracking guest account balances. In some hotels, the guest ledger may also be called the transient ledger, front office ledger, or rooms’ ledger, or visitors’ tabular ledger.
Most of the accounts held by the front office cash are the resident guest accounts, which show the financial transactions with guests who have registered and who are currently staying in the hotel.
Some of the resident guests’ accounts may be settled by their company, some may settle some charges while certain stipulated charges alone are settled by their company.
So, the front office cash collects payment for all the bills from guests at the checkout time, those that are to be settled by companies or travel agencies etc. are transferred to City Ledger.
Types of postings
There are two basic types of transactions that are posted to a guest account: debit entries and credit entries.
The most common debit items include
- Room charges
- Restaurant / coffee shop / bar
- Telephone
- Laundry
Use of hotel facilities (viz. health centre, business centre and transportation) Credit entries:
- Prepayments
- Payments for part of the bill during stay
- Payments for final settlement
- Amendments to the bill
The posting resembles that of the guest bill. Only difference is different guest’s accounts are posted column wise on the same sheet. Each day a separate sheet is used to create a VTL, taking the previous day’s closing balances of all existing guests at that time as opening balances.
For guidance purpose entries given in guest bill illustration are posted in the above VTL format.
FAQ
What types of accounts does the front office keep?
Guest accounts and non-guest (city) accounts.
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Related reading on this blog
- Front Office Accounting System: A Complete Guide
- Night Audit in Front Office: Purpose, Process and Reports
- Hotel Front Office Bookkeeping: Basics for Front Office Staff
About the Author
Sumit Manwal is the founder of Hospitality Vacancy (since 2017) and has 20+ years of experience in hospitality. He received the "Excellence in Hospitality Sector of Uttarakhand" award, presented by Shri Dhan Singh Rawat ji (January 2023), and the Dainik Jagran inext Uttarakhand Ratan Samman for Excellence in Hospitality & Education, presented by Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari ji (2023). He helps hotels build reliable teams and professionals grow their careers.
📧 Contact: manwal@hospitalityvacancy.com | 🔗 LinkedIn
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