Payments

A guest payment belongs to a reservation and carries an amount, decision date and reference. Its status distinguishes Pending, Confirmed and Refunded. Finance Officer uses the confirmed payments when checking the stay’s financial position at departure. The payment record is separate from folio and outlet charges, which retain their own draft, posted or voided state.

Keep the reference supplied by the payment source so Finance Officer can investigate a question about a specific amount. A pending entry should remain pending until the responsible payment process confirms it. Checkout does not confirm a payment as a side effect.

• Capture. Link each payment amount and reference to the intended reservation.
• Confirmation. Distinguish pending money from confirmed receipt before reconciliation.
• Reversal. Preserve a refunded outcome rather than treating it as an ordinary confirmed receipt.

Decide which payment source supplies the reference and who is responsible for confirming its result. Make the date convention consistent with the source’s decision time. Define how Finance Officer handles a payment that arrives after a reservation has checked out and how an outstanding account is acknowledged. The team should compare posted charges and confirmed payments for the same reservation, not merely compare totals across a date range.

Agree which staff may see guest financial records. Front Desk Agent can handle the stay and service context, while Finance Officer manages payment records. The Operations Reviewer can inspect the linked evidence within the configured read permissions. Any payment acquisition or settlement connection needs its own configuration and verification.

A guest has a posted folio charge and a posted restaurant charge. A payment arrives with a source reference but remains Pending. Finance Officer keeps that amount out of confirmed reconciliation until the source confirms it. When the decision is recorded as Confirmed, the payment can be compared with the posted charges for the same reservation. If a refund follows, the record shows Refunded rather than continuing to count as confirmed money received.

Rehearse an amount applied to the wrong stay, a duplicate payment reference and a checkout with an outstanding balance. The responsible team should be able to locate the underlying reference and explain why the stay was closed or held.

• Pending payments — Amounts awaiting confirmation for their linked stays.
• Confirmed payments — Recorded receipts ready for reconciliation.

See checkout for the financial handoff and charges for the amounts being compared.