The Basics

This page gives an overview of the RoomBoss Trust Accounting module basic operations.

Setup

Trust setup is completed in conjunction with RoomBoss. We will setup the chart of accounts, model the contracts you have with your owners within the system, and setup housekeeping charges (if required).

Completing Accounting for a Trust Period (Calendar Month)

A Trust period is a monthly accounting period. These are opened, account entries are created for this period, then the period is closed and can not be reopened.

Account Entries for a period are created by:

1. Transferring payments made by Guests or Agents with a payment date in the period into Trust.

2. Transferring bookings where the final accommodation element checks out in the period into Trust.

3. Adding account entries such as bills or owner withdrawals / deposits to the Trust period.

Steps for completing accounting for a period

1. Open Trust Period For The Month

Navigate to Trust → Setup → Periods

1. Transfer Payments

This is done via the Transfer Payments page.

All finalised and unfinalised payments for the period should be transferred into Trust. This will move all money received for bookings into the Trust system.

Transferring Payments to Trust ensures that you have received the money that will be credited to the owners when you transfer bookings to Trust. For this reason, it is not possible to transfer a booking into Trust unless all the payments on the package have been transferred to Trust.

1. Finalise Packages

This is done via the Finalise Packages page and choosing period of interest.

All packages must be finalised before they are posted into Trust. This locks the packages and ensures that the bookings and the Trust accounting cannot deviate after the accounting has been done.

In order to finalise a package:

• Guests must have checked out

• Bookings must be fully paid

• All payments on the package must be posted to Trust

• Accommodation bookings in the package must be allocated to a room

1. Housekeeping

If you are generating housekeeping charges for owners based on the RoomBoss housekeeping module, housekeeping tasks must be generated prior to posting bookings to Trust. See more on the RoomBoss Housekeeping module here.

1. Transfer Bookings

This is done via the Transfer Accommodation page.

When transferring bookings to Trust, you should choose the correct action, and, if more than one contract exists for the ownership, you can choose the contract to use. Accommodation bookings can be transferred to Trust with recognition date Today (day of transfer), Day of Check-out, or the Last Day of the Check-out Month.

The recognition date is the day that the account entries will be dated (the day the accommodation revenue becomes the owner’s).

1. Once Steps 2-5 Are Completed

There should be nothing present for this period on the Transfer Payments page.

Only bookings you wish to carry over to a future month should be present on the Transfer Payments page.

If items are present on this page that you wish to process in the current month, repeat step 2 and/or 5.

The only items present for this period on the Finalise Packages page should be any bookings that check out during this period, but will not be processed until a future period.

1. Add Account Entries for the Period

Entries such as owner withdrawals/deposits and electricity, gas, etc. bills.

You make entries directly to the accounting ledgers manually, or in bulk with an Excel upload via the Add Journal Entries page.

You can see more on the Excel upload here.

As this is a dual entry system, all entries have to be from 1 (or more) account/ledger to another and balance must be zero.

1. Void Entries

Journal entries, bills, and payments can be Voided if Trust period is still open via the Void Entries page.

1. Close Period

To do this, navigate to Trust → Setup → Periods.

Once a period is closed, owner reports links for owners with single properties will show on the Owner Statements page.

For owners with multiple properties, there is a link to a report for all properties under the Owners tab on the Trust → Setup page.

Owner reports can be customised with your branding. If you are interested, please contact us.