City Ledger Setup
A variety of default values must be configured before using roomMaster's city ledger. These include account classes, information about the customers' accounts, and accounting information.
City Ledger Setup
The City Ledger Setup screen is located within the City Ledger/Company Master and can be reached by clicking, Back Office > City Ledger/Company Master > City Ledger Setup. The setup screen is broken up into three tabs allowing you to set the City Ledger Aging Defaults, Customer Defaults and Statement Defaults.
Aging Defaults
Aging defaults are the aging buckets that appear on the credit information screen, as well as on each customer's statement. roomMaster defaults to common aging defaults, but they can be changed if needed. If the defaults are changed at any time there are open invoices, the aging buckets are not automatically updated. In this situation, Reage City Ledger must be selected from the City Ledger/Company Master menu screen, or you may complete a Dayend Close.
Aging Buckets
The Aging Buckets section contains four day selection fields as well as four bucket description fields. The fields on the left hand side of the Aging Buckets section default to the standard 30 days for an open balance, 61 days and under for Overdue Bucket one, 91 days and under for Overdue Bucket two and 121 days and under for Overdue Bucket three. Bucket four will consider any invoice older than the number of days set in Overdue Bucket three to be in the fourth bucket. The Bucket description fields are located on the right hand side of the Aging Buckets section. These fields are set by default to describe Bucket one as 31-60 days, Bucket two as 61-90 days, Bucket three as 91-120 days and Bucket four as Over 120 days. These descriptions are used within roomMaster on printed City Ledger Company statements and on the Credit Info tab of a company record from within the Company Master.
Statement Messages
The statement Messages section contains five fields that allow for free form input from you to provide a message that will appear on a company's statement depending on the aging of their current invoices. These fields default to common messages but you may change them if needed.
Customer Defaults
Customer defaults are the initial values for new customer entries in the city ledger. These values are only the defaults — each company master can be customized to their own specifications when they are added to the city ledger.
Terms Discount Information
Use the Discount Days and Net Days Due fields if cash discounts are offered. Discount Days is the number of days allowed for early payment discounts, while Net Days Due is the number of days the customer has to pay the invoice before it is considered past due. For a cash discount of 2% 15 days/Net 30 days, enter 15 in Discount Days and enter 30 in Net Days Due. If cash discounts aren't offered, enter 0 in Discount Days.
If Discount Days and/or Net Days Due are entered, they will appear on the top of the account statement. For example, if Discount Days is 0 and Net Days Due is 30, "Net 30 days" is printed at the top of each statement. No terms will print on the statement if both terms are zero.
Note: Changes to the Discount Days and/or Net Days Due fields on an existing city ledger account will only affect any new invoices created in the future. The change will not impact past invoices.
If a value is entered in the Discount Days field, a value must be entered in the Discount Percent field. Typing 2.00 in Discount Percent will give a 2% if the invoice is paid within the number of days entered in Discount Days. If discounts aren't given, enter 0 in Discount Percent.
Even though a customer has been told of the terms on their account, an allowance of several days may be desired for mailing and posting time. This is a grace period. Different grace periods can be entered for discounts and for the net day due. Enter the number of "extra" days you will allow to accept payment at a discount in Discount Grace Days and the number of "extra" days allowed before the payment is late in Net Grace Days. From the example above, enter the number 5 in the Net Grace Days field if customers payments are not considered late until the 35th day. Also from the above example, a 3 entered in Discount Grace Days would mean the discounted amount would be accepted up to the 18th day after the invoice was sent.
Checking the Combine Invoices Daily option will summarize all the invoices for the company into one invoice per day. This option should only be used when large amount of invoices are anticipated on a daily basis for the company. An example would be if you use City Ledger to track your credit card charges and payments received.
Late Payment Information
If an invoice is not paid after number of Net Days Due has passed, a finance charge can be added. Enter a value in Late Payment %, similar to Discount Percent from above. If finance charges are not charged for late payments, enter 0 in Late Payment %.
Minimum Late Payment is the minimum finance charge for a late payment. For example, if the late payment charge is 5% and the minimum late payment is $5.00, the finance charge on a $10.00 invoice is $5.00 rather than fifty cents.
Late Payment Cycle is the number of days to charge finance charges after the first finance charge is added to the invoice. Enter 30 in Late Payment Cycle to have another finance charge added every 30 days against the open balance after the first finance charge. Entering 0 will post a finance charge only one time for the past due invoices.
The Assess Option determines when you want to asses the finance charges.
Never Assess Finance Charges means you do not charge finance charges for late payments.
Finance Charges on Net+Grace means you charge for late payments starting the first day after the Net Days Due plus the Net Grace Days. If your Net Days is 30, Net Grace Days are 5, the finance charge would be posted on the 36th day after the invoice was sent. Finance charges will continue to be posted until payment is received and posted in roomMaster. How often the finance charges are posted is determined by the number of days set in the Late Payment Cycle (above).
Finance Charges at 1st of Month means roomMaster will post finance charges on the first of the month following the month invoice is due. For example, any invoices created during February would be due by March 31. Finance charges would be posted for any unpaid invoices on April 1, May 1, etc. until the invoice is paid. This option is best if you send out all your statements at the beginning of each month.
Remember again, these are just the default settings that will appear when you create a new City Ledger company master. Each company master can be configured to its own specifications.
Statement Defaults
The Statement Defaults tab provides options that affect what information is contained on a customer's statement and how it will appear when printed.
Statement Options
The Statement Print Order drop down box allows you to select whether customer statements will print in Account number order or Customer order alphabetically.
When printing statements for customers, you may elect to not print certain statements with a low dollar amount based on your property's accounting or corporate policies. The Print Minimum Amount field allows you to enter a specific dollar amount to act as a minimum dollar amount the statement must show to be printed. Any statements with balances below this amount will not print.
The Print Credit Statements checkbox will allow customer statements to print if they have a credit balance on them. Leaving the box unchecked will disable the printing of statements with credit balances.
The Show discount information instead of reference field checkbox controls the appearance of the reference field on the customer statement. The reference field that prints on the statement will display the same contents that appear in the reference field of the associated guest folio. If you would rather this field show the discount amount for that customer account statement, be sure to check the box.
Check Hide Existing Credits from Statements to not have Existing Credits appear on all Account Statements. Use this option to encourage full payment of all invoices due.
Statement Message
The statement message box is a free form field that allows you to enter a message that will appear on all customer statements when printed. You may change this text as often as needed to include seasonal or holiday messages.
Folio Message
When a guest folio prints As City Ledger Invoice, the standard folio message at the bottom of can be overridden to read something else. Instead of saying maybe "Thank you for staying with us", you may want to say "Please Remit Payment". The message will change when the Override when Printed as City Ledger Invoice is checked.
Override Address
You can change the default property Name and Address which prints on City Ledger Statements, Invoices and Credit/Debit Memos. If you check Also use above on Folios when printing as City Ledger Invoice to also change the Name/Address which appears on Guest Folios. If you fill out one of these fields, you must fill ALL of the other fields, even if it is the same as the default information.
Tax ID Overrides
Check the appropriate box if you do not want the Tax ID not to print on Guest Folios, City Ledger Invoices and City Ledger Statements.