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.
SUMIT MANWAL