A city ledger is a hotel’s bookkeeping method for tracking non-guest transactions, handled by the accounting department. It contains accounts for events, company house accounts, credit card payments, and unpaid bills.
A city ledger, also called a house ledger, is a hotel’s bookkeeping method of tracking non-guest transactions. Hotel accounting is divided into front-office and back-office operations. The front desk usually deals with registered guests and records their transactions in the guest book. Money handled by the hotel that is not attributable to a currently registered guest becomes part of the city’s ledger and is handled by the accounting department in the administrative office.
Accounting systems use ledgers to collect related accounts. A city ledger is a collection of related accounts that tracks money brought in by a hotel that is not part of a transaction associated with a currently registered guest. Some hotels use different terminology for this ledger, calling it the house ledger or non-guest ledger. However, whatever the general ledger is called, the function tends to be the same in standard hotel accounting systems.
City ledgers generally contain at least four accounts. The first type of account is set up for individuals and businesses that use the hotel for meetings and events. The money collected from these types of customers is processed by the hotel’s accounting department, rather than the front desk. Typically, these customers receive a monthly bill or bill detailing the charges associated with the event, rather than the charges for a hotel stay. Weddings, conferences, seminars, and group meetings are examples of events that this account would track in the general ledger.
On this same note, the second type of account handles transactions for traveling executives. If a company has an account with the hotel that allows any of the company’s employees to stay while they are in town, the transactions are recorded in the general ledger as the company’s house account. The accounting department generally bills the company on a monthly basis for the charges generated.
Another city ledger account generally acts like a credit card account. When a guest uses a credit card to make the payment, the amount is transferred from the guest book to the city book while the hotel waits for the credit card company to release the payment. This reflects the fact that the guest is no longer staying at the hotel, so the open account cannot remain at the front desk. Once the guest checks out, the hotel’s accounting department is responsible for making sure the credit card company remits the payment.
Guests who do not pay their bills when they leave also have the amounts transferred to an account in the City’s ledger. The accounting department becomes responsible for initiating collection proceedings against the individual or following up as necessary. This ensures that the hotel department that is best able to manage a collection process is assigned to the task.
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