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Force Advance Bill
When the RESERVATIONS > CASHIER FLOW AT CHECK IN / DURING STAY application setting is set to Force Advance Bill, you may issue a key or key PIN valid for any number of nights the guest is staying and, optionally, post prepayment prior to check-in.
Upon selecting the Check In option (e.g., from the Reservation Search screen or from the Arrivals screen) the Billing screen opens overlaid with the Advance Bill screen. The Advance Bill screen prompts to specify the number of nights for which the key is to be prepared (and, optionally, for which the guest will prepay).
Note: For a Day Use reservation, any of the Advance Bill screen options may be chosen. (If you select Nights, enter 0.) Regardless of your choice, the Payment screen will display 0 in the Nights field.
Note: When checking in a group via the Group Options menu Check In Group button, the Advance Bill and Payment screens are not displayed. Keys will be issued with a Key Valid Until date equal to the departure date (or the number of days after checkout determined by the IFC > KEY EXPIRY DAYS application setting).
The Advance Bill screen options include:
Note: The CASHIERING > SUPPRESS ADVANCE BILL OPTIONS application setting defines which options are available.
When you have made your choice, select OK (the Close button is not available) to display the Payment screen. (See Prepayment via Routing Instructions, below, if the Lodging transaction code for this reservation is covered by room routing.)
Note: When the RESERVATIONS > CASHIERING FLOW AT CHECKIN/DURING STAY application setting is set to Force Advance Bill, the Print Folio check box is not available on the Payment form and the folio will automatically be generated when the full payment has been applied.
Payment screen fields are standard to the Payment screen except for the following:
Amount. The amount shown in the Amount field is determined by the number of nights selected from the Advance Bill screen. Charges include Lodging (i.e., Room and Tax), plus the following, as applicable:
Deposits are automatically subtracted from the amount. The amount may be edited.
Note: During check-in, when the RESERVATIONS > CASHIERING FLOW AT CHECKIN / DURING STAY application setting is set to Force Advance Bill and the CASHIERING > EXCLUDE RATE FROM AUTH BASED ON ROUTING application parameter is set to Y, if a reservation has room routing or window routing instructions for the Lodging transaction code, the amount shown in the Amount field on the Payment screen will exclude the routed charges. This is regardless of the payment method associated with the reservation.
Nights. The number of nights selected from the Advance Bill screen. View-only.
Key Valid Until. The date until which the room key will be valid, based on the number of nights selected from the Advance Bill screen. View only.
Select Post to post the payment and continue with the check in, or Close to continue the check in without payment. (Advance bill charges will always be posted.) Depending on whether you post full payment or close the payment screen without posting payment, one of the following takes place:
If full payment is posted, the Payment screen closes, the "Checkin Successful" message appears, the Billing screen remains open, and one of the following payment records is automatically generated depending on the RESERVATION > FORCE BILL PRINT TYPE application setting:
If you close the Payment screen without making payment, the Payment screen closes, the "Checkin Successful" message appears, and the Billing screen remains open so that you may perform other actions (such as splitting or routing charges).
With Force Advance Bill, the Billing screen will not close automatically after the check-in process is completed.
Regardless of whether or not payment is made, the key request is automatically sent to the key interface to create the key card or to provide the key PIN code.
Note: The KEY_PIN and KEY_VALID_UNTIL merge codes may be included on the folio in order to print the key lock code assigned to the guest room for this check in.
The key PIN code and Valid Until date are provided to the key interface and are displayed on the Reservation screen (or the Reservation Dashboard screen).
If the Lodging transaction code (Room charge) for the reservation has been routed to another guest's room (see Transaction Routing for details) the Lodging prepayment obligation for the reservation being checked in will be handled by automatically routing the Lodging charges to that room. In this case, once you have selected the number of nights for which prepayment is being made, you are prompted to: "Verify routing instructions for Lodging transaction code." The Payment screen is not displayed unless there are other charges that must be prepaid (i.e., packages, fixed charges, pre-stay charges).
When you are checking in a reservation and performing an advance bill, if charges exist on multiple windows, the payment screen will appear in turn for each of the windows with the balance. If a full payment is made for any of the windows, then an appropriate document is generated such as a folio / payment receipt / pro forma folio.
Note: When the RESERVATIONS > CASHIERING FLOW AT CHECKIN/DURING STAY application setting is Force Advance Bill and Payment, Force Advance Bill, or Force Payment by default the prompt to post additional charges is not displayed. See Popup Blocker for additional details.
After the reservation is checked in, when performing a room move or trying to issue a key via the interface menu, on the Keys screen the key valid date is grayed out and defaults to the valid-until date for the earlier issued key.
When the IFC > DISPLAY KEY SCREEN application parameter is set to Y, then if extending the number of nights on the reservation, the Keys screen will also gray out the valid-until date; even if you select OK, a new key / key PIN code will be issued only for the existing valid-until date. If Display Key Screen is inactive, then a key command is not sent to interface to create a new key. The intention is that the user will not be able to issue a key that is valid for dates that the guest has not been charged for or paid for. To issue a new key that is valid for future dates, an Advance Bill has to be performed.
See Also
