Here are the first steps you need to perform when your property has just been connected, or if you have changed your PMS:
- Rooms
- Rate Plans
- PMS Transaction Codes
- Accounting Categorization
- Closing Period
- Create or update your groups
First, here is how to access the settings page:
1. Rooms
2. Rate Plans
- BAR - Best Available Rate
- PM - Posting Master, it is never counted as an overnight stay. This is when a service needs to be booked into the PMS, or when it is coming from the POS and it cannot be associated with any physical room. In this case, a virtual PM room should be assigned to this transaction.
- COMP - stands for "Complimentary", this is generally the rate plan used for free stays (for external guests).
- House Use - rate plan used for internal purposes
- Day Use - rate plan used when the room is occupied only for several hours during the day and not overnight. Having this rate plan configured correctly helps to avoid the situations when the occupancy rate is too high becasue two stays (at least) are counted for the same day.
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Sharer - rate plan used when several people want to split the expenses. A sharer rate plan marked correctly prevents having one stay being displayed as three separate stays instead and thus preventing too high occupancy rate
3. PMS Transaction Codes
The separation of revenue categories exists to ensure the correct functioning of the widgets, as well as default formats of dashboards and reports.
💡 Please make sure that each code is in the correct category!
4. Accounting Categorization
This section is different depending if you have only your PMS connected to Blent or both PMS and Accounting software.
Depending on how many sources are connected, you will either have:
- Only PMS codes visible in white lines when opening the "Accounting tab",
- Or you will have two blue lines: one is the structure of PMS codes, and the other is the structure of accounting codes from the accounting software. The white lines (above the two blue lines - categories) are the codes not used - or not categorized yet. If you use some of them, please move them inside the structure like in the guide below. Each blue line (category) will have the name of either PMS system that you are using, or the Accounting software.
In the picture below you can see the PMS category - "MEWS", and the Accounting category - "QuickBooks":
a. Setting up the structure for the PMS codes in Accounting tab:
The difference between the PMS transaction code categorization in the "PMS Transaction Codes" tab, and the one in the "Accounting" tab - is that in the "Accounting" tab, you do not have any pre-defined sections. You can create as many categories and subcategories as you want.
However, for consistency's sake, it is highly recommended that the accounting categories "Accommodation", "F&B" and "Other revenue" include the same codes as in the "PMS transaction codes" section. But then, unlike in the PMS tab, inside of those categories you are welcome to split the codes in as many sub-categories as you want. For example, "room sales revenue", "additional charges", "cancellation and no-show" fees, etc.
b. Setting up the structure for the Accounting codes in Accounting tab:
For Accounting system, it is a bit different. The categorisation must follow the accounting plan (and reporting structure) that you are using in your business. Please reach out to your Project Manager to set up the accounting structure in Blent.
Here is the guide on how to use and modify the "Accounting" tab:
5. Closing Period
If your property is closed for one or several periods during the year (seasonal properties or on-off closures), it is crucial to indicate this information.
This will prevent the closure period(s) of your hotel from affecting your average occupancy and other KPIs incorrectly. Here is the detailed article on how to add and modify closing periods and when it needs to be done.