Invoice on departure
Within Booking Experts, there are two different methods for billing guests: (1) at confirmation and (2) at departure. In this article, we will take a closer look at the 'Invoicing on departure' method.
Departure billing in a nutshell
Invoicing on departure means that a guest invoice is only created once you check the guest out. Therefore, when confirming the reservation, no guest invoice is sent along with it, but instead the guest receives a booking confirmation with a summary of the order, information surrounding the payment arrangement and the corresponding payment link. By billing guests on departure, it is no longer necessary to credit the old invoice and create a new invoice for every change in the order. Changes can therefore be made at any time through a new booking confirmation. As a result, you often have only one invoice per booking.
Activate invoice on departure
This invoicing method can be set within the 'Administration settings' under the cogwheel. Here you can open the tab 'Finance' and if you scroll down you will see 'Accounting'. Here you can check the box for 'Invoicing on departure'.
For invoicing on departure, you need to move away from the concept of "Dividing revenue by months.
Revenue is booked by default on departure date, so it is not possible to retroactively distribute revenue over months. You have to do this yourself in the accounting package. Only when the realization period is after the invoice date, revenue is distributed over months. When the realization period is before the invoice date, revenue is booked on the invoice date.
Reservations with billing at departure
The way reservations work is different from invoicing at confirmation. For example, an invoice is created only when you have checked out the guest, so there are no credit invoices and credited invoices. There are also some minor differences in the reservation card.
Invoice on the reservation
As mentioned, an invoice is not created immediately upon confirmation of the reservation, but only at the time of check-out. However, it is possible to manually create a guest invoice under the 'Invoice' heading in the reservation card.
When a guest invoice is manually created on the reservation card, this invoice will end up in the same situation as 'Invoicing upon confirmation'. Thus, for each change on the reservation card, you then need to create a new invoice again and credit the old one.
Payments
Since there is no invoice for check-out at departure, payments are not recorded on the invoice, but on the reservation. Once an invoice is created, payments are also recorded on it. The payment arrangement is also linked to the reservation. The payment schedule can be found under 'Payment status' in the reservation card. Using the three dots, you can adjust the payment schedule, redeem a voucher, or view the journal entries of the payments.
Changing a reservation
Changes to reservations are recorded on the booking. If you add an extra, the order will be adjusted from the last booking confirmation sent. For this you will receive a message in the reservation with two options: (1) skip: the order has been modified, but the guest will not receive a new confirmation of this, and (2) send booking confirmation again.
Booking check out
When the guest is checked out, an invoice is automatically created. Do you want to send this to the guest? Then you can do so via the three dots at 'Payment status' or via the invoice itself.
For group reservations, you must have each underlying reservation checked out prior to guest billing.
Accounting billing at departure
Payments from reservations are recorded differently from invoicing upon confirmation. This is because there is no invoice yet, so payments are linked to the reservation. After creating the guest invoice, payments are transferred from booking to invoice.
Journalization of payments
When you start working with invoicing on departure, a new general ledger account is automatically created: 2050 Prepayments. This is because payments are initially journalized as prepayments.
On the general ledger account Prepayments the VAT low rate is applied by default. This is in accordance with the legislation of the tax authorities. Make sure that this ledger account is present in your accounting package.
When the final invoice is created at check-out of the reservation, the revenue is distributed to the appropriate general ledger accounts and the prepayment is reversed.
Open Payments
For invoicing at departure, open payments for reservations are recorded with the booking number. You can filter these reservations from the 'Open Payments' overview by selecting the document type 'Booking'.
What happens to current reservations?
For reservations that already have an invoice, nothing changes. If there are changes, a new invoice will have to be created for them. Changing your administration to invoicing on departure will therefore only have an impact on new reservations: they will no longer be invoiced on confirmation.
Why can no longer the turnover be divided over months?
The rental turnover is journalized on the end date. At this moment it is not possible to divide the turnover retroactively over the months. However, you can do this yourself. How? You use the statistics. Compare the realized turnover per month in the statistics with the turnover per month in the accounting package and make a correction journal entry.
Does invoice departure affect commission agreements?
Yes! If you are working with the settlement method 'on confirmation date', we recommend that you change this. This settlement method works the moment an invoice is present. When billing on departure, this is only when the reservation is checked out. Until that moment, no rental invoice can be created for this reservation.