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What a night audit should tell you, not just do
A good night audit closes the day. A great one explains what stopped it.
· Night audit · Front office
For most hotels the night audit is the moment the day is finished: room charges are posted, the numbers are checked and the business date moves on. When it works, nobody notices. When it does not, someone stays late hunting for the reason.
The audit as a checklist
The most useful audits are organised as a checklist by department: room tariff, arrivals, departures, front office, point of sale, housekeeping and the cashier. Each section is either complete, pending or critical, so the person running the audit knows where to look first.
What should stop the day
Some things should never be allowed to slip through: an open restaurant order, a folio that is waiting to be settled, or a number that has been issued twice. A system that stops the audit for these, and says which one, saves far more time than it costs.
The audit and the books
The audit is also where operations meets accounting. When the day closes, the revenue should reach the ledger in one balanced entry, once for each hotel and each business date, or not at all. That is what keeps the ledger and the audited day in agreement.
Questions to ask of any system
- Does it show what is blocking the audit, or only that it has failed?
- Can the business date move at midnight while the previous day is still being finished?
- Does each figure on the report open to the entries behind it?
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