Transactions Options

(Accessed through Maintenance / Program Options / Transactions.)

Open a Transaction dialog when... -- This selection allows you to specify the circumstances in which you want the New Transactions dialog to automatically appear.  Your choices here will probably depend on whether you enter charges before a reservation is checked in, and whether you prefer to review charges any time a change is made.  Most of these options are self-explanatory, so they won't be detailed here.

One option of special mention is the ... and automatically go to "Select Rates" option for checking in.  When enabled, this will typically save one additional step when checking in reservations by immediately prompting for the rate selection.  If you don't normally use Select Rates when checking in a reservation (for instance if you add the charges ahead of time), then you may disable this option.

Prompt for details when entering transactions (instead of entering them in the grid) -- This option enables a whole set of transaction-entry dialogs.  The "old" method was to enter transaction details (qty, description, amount, etc.) directly in the transaction grid.  These new entry dialogs are more user-friendly and allow entry of more details.  However they do typically require an extra click or key press. If you just prefer the old way of entering the details in the grid, you can disable these new dialogs.

Include a Pay Method selection list on Transactions dialog -- Enable this to include a drop-down payment method selection on Transactions (this is redundant if the Prompt for Details option above is selected.)

Post-date Deposit Applied transactions to check-in date -- With this option enabled, it will make sure that Deposits are not "applied" to the reservation until check-in date, but post-dating any Deposit Applied transactions.  This has a major affect on when "income" is reported -- see the section on Recommended Transaction and Reporting Procedures for important details.

Also keep off of Shift report until Check-in (blank Shift #) -- As with the above option, this affects Shift Reporting if you use that functionality .

Post-date reservation charges to the check-in date -- This will post-date all Charge transactions (along with Taxes, Discounts, and Credits) to the check-in date.  As with post-dating the Deposit Applied (above), this further affects how income is reported.

Save the transactions done in Quote/Confirmation -- If you have the post-dating options enabled, then you can further streamline operations by saving the transactions in Quote/Confirmation (which are otherwise temporary/discarded after the confirmation is done). This also allows you to enter Deposits, etc. from Quote/Confirmation since they will be saved.

Allow transaction categories to be selected for payments -- Enabling this option allows payments to be assigned to specific categories.  This is useful if you use the Receipts by Category report and need to manually allocate categories to overcome interpolation issues (for instance when payments are made in advance, or if monthly reservations are not paid in full each month).  This adds a category list to the Enter Payment (or Enter Refund) dialog, and also allows editing allocations later.

Warn that transactions should go on the master -- For linked reservations, transactions should almost always be entered on the "linked transaction master" reservation.  When this option is not checked, then they will always be placed there automatically.  If you check this option, you will be able to put transactions on other linked reservations, but it will warn you each time.  Also note that if this option is not checked, then the "handle synchronized reservations separately" options in Monthly Billing and the Meter List reports will not be available.

Save transactions immediately when a payment is entered -- This helps prevent "missing" payments caused by accidentally clicking the Cancel button.

Save transactions immediately when a receipt is printed -- If you're concerned with accidentally clicking Cancel on the Transactions dialog after entering transactions and printing a receipt, select this option.  Printing a receipt will force all pending transactions to be saved, so Cancel will not delete them.

Automatically print a receipt as soon as a payment is entered -- This simply saves a mouse click to speed up operations, presuming that you always want a receipt printed.  As soon as a Payment is entered (not a Deposit), a receipt will be printed (using the default receipt format selected in Printing Options / Receipts).  Note that this also affects Customer transactions and Unbound transactions, not just Reservations.

...only if it's a credit card payment -- Select this along with the option above if you only need a receipt printed for credit card sales.

Receipt format -- This will initially default to the "Reservation Receipt default format" selection chosen in File / Printing Options.  You can select a different type here to be used for auto-printed receipts.  See Receipt Types in the Working with Transactions section for details on the different types.

Use the default in Printing Options (on each WS) -- Select this option if you prefer to use the default receipt format selected under Printing Options / Reservations when auto-printing (this is necessary for example if you need to use different receipt formats on different networked workstations)

Note that only one copy of each receipt will be automatically printed -- the "Copies" setting in the Printing Options is ignored.

You also have the typical options for what transactions to include, either All transactions or just some, like for printing receipts from the Transactions dialog.