Overview
What the night audit does each night, who can run it, and which page to use for each night audit task.
The night audit closes the business day. It charges the night's rooms and add-ons, deals with guests who did not arrive or leave, takes the day's figures and opens the next business date. Until it runs, Estatell keeps posting to the old date. See Business date.
You run it from the Run Night Audit sheet, in the Operations group of the staff sidebar. It can also run by itself. See Scheduled audit.
What the audit does
The sheet lists 7 steps. They run in this order, and each one finishes before the next starts.
| Step | What it does |
|---|---|
| Resolve missed arrivals | Follows your Missed arrival setting: marks guests who did not arrive as no-show, or keeps them as late arrivals. |
| Resolve overdue departures | Follows your Overdue departure setting: extends a guest who leaves today by one night, or leaves the stay as an issue. A day use is never extended. |
| Post room charges | Charges the night to every guest who is checked in. |
| Post scheduled add-ons | Charges the add-ons due on the business date. |
| Update room statuses | Marks every occupied room as dirty. |
| Snapshot statistics | Saves the day's occupancy and revenue for the reports. |
| Close the date and open the next | Closes the business date and opens the next day. |
The settings for missed arrivals and overdue departures are on Operations.
A problem with one guest never stops the audit. That guest's row becomes an issue, and the audit goes on. Issues show on the next sheet under Left from an earlier audit. See Earlier audit issues.
If a step itself fails, the audit stops there. Finished steps are kept, and Resume audit starts again from the failed step. Running the audit twice never charges twice.
Manual or automatic
| Way | Who starts it | Can it force? |
|---|---|---|
| Manual | A user selects Run audit on the sheet, after the business day has ended. | Yes, with Force close… and a reason. |
| Automatic | Estatell, after the night audit time, when Run night audit automatically is on. | No. A blocker stops it until someone fixes it. |
Who can do what
| Task | Permission | Owner | Manager | Front desk | Finance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open the sheet and run the audit | Run the night audit | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Run the audit with a blocker open | Force close the night audit | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Get the morning report | Receive the night audit report | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Fix a row from the sheet | Manage reservations, and Run the night audit | Yes | Yes | No | No |
These are the default roles. An owner can change them under Settings → Team. See Roles and permissions.
Which page do I need?
| I want to … | Page |
|---|---|
| Understand why the date in the sidebar is not today | Business date |
| Know what the sheet lists before a run, and fix a row | Readiness checks |
| Retry a charge an earlier audit could not post, or dismiss an issue | Earlier audit issues |
| Run the audit, or resume one that stopped | Run the night audit |
| Run the audit while a blocker is still open | Force close |
| Know when the audit runs by itself | Scheduled audit |
| Read the message after the audit | Morning report |
| Change the audit time or what happens to missed arrivals | Operations |
Special cases
| Situation | What happens | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The audit was missed for two nights | The business date is 2 days behind. Each run closes one date. | Run the audit once for each date. See Business date. |
| A date closed with a wrong charge | A closed date never changes, and there is no undo. | Correct the charge on the current date. See Post charges. |
| The property is not live yet | There is no business date, so there is nothing to audit. | Go live first. See Go live. |