Clock PMS Update (18 Jun 2015)

Self Service

Themes

A new functionality has been added allowing you to use 17 standard themes to customize the appereance of the Self Service Portal.

Background Image.

Set your own background image for the Self Service Portal. In combination with the Themes, you can have your unique style and layout of the Self Service Portal.

• Links to the table booking systems of your restaurants have been added. For each hotel, you can choose the table booking systems of which restaurants to appear. Go to 'Other' - 'Settings' - 'Self Service Portal' and select these restaurants in the Table Bookings section.
• A new setting has been added allowing on-line payments. This way you can enable on-line payments without the self checkout option.

Gift Vouchers

The Gift Voucher Module now has greater functionality. The module has been integrated into the Web Resevation System and Folios.

Until now guests had to use a paper copy of the vouchers issued. Now these vouchers can be used as Gift Certificates, i.e. they have electronic balance and can be used online .

• Unique number. With each voucher bought after 18 Jun 2015, a guest will receive a 20-digit unique number. Through this number the guest can use the voucher partially or in full in the WRS or as a payment method in folios.
• Use of Gift Vouchers in the WRS
  • You can allow your guests to use gift vouchers in the WRS to guarantee their bookings. Just choose which guarantee policies to provide this option and tick their Gift Voucher check box.
  • On the third page of the WRS, where the payment methods are selected, a new Gift Voucher option will appear.
  • The guest enters the 20-digit number of their gift voucher
  • Then the WRS shows the value of the gift voucher and personal greeting from the person having bought the voucher.
  • Now you can use the gift voucher for bookings whose required deposit is equal or less than the gift voucher's value
  • Upon gust's confirmation, the whole value of the gift voucher is transferred to the guest's folio.
• Use of Gift Vouchers in Folios
  • A new Gift Voucher button has been added to the folio screen through which receptionists can accept guests' gift vouchers.
  • The number of the gift voucher is entered, as well as the amount to be transferred to the folio.
  • Depending on the system's settings, the voucher is redeemed partially (the remainder can be used another time) or in full (the remainder is also transferred in favour of the hotel)
• Expiry Days. This new setting determines the number of days within which a voucher is to be used once being bought. With the expiration of this period, the voucher can no longer be used.
• Partial or Full Redemption. Through this newly introduced option you can set whether a voucher amount remainder, if any,can be used another time, or it is to be automatically transferred in favour of the hotel.
• The following changeshave been introduced to the folio organization when gift vouchers are used.
  • Two folios are created: an open folio containing the amount of the gift voucher itself, and a closed one for eventual services such as transportation, packaging and shipment.
  • The first folio and the related payments are at the guest's disposal.
  • Now you don't need to post a charge for the gift voucher amount, but only a payment equal to this gift voucher amount.
• Gift Voucher Search. You can search for gift vouchers by number or contact info. Amount remainders of gift vouchers are also shown in the search results.

Web Reservation System

Non-Compatible Product Management.

Now you have more precise options to manage the rates appearing in the 'See more rates not compatible with your search' section.

• You can hide the whole section through the new setting in the 'Non-Compatible Product Management' section in 'Settings' - 'WRS Settings'
• Choosing certain restrictions, some rates will be unavailable and will not appear in the section. Here are some examples:
  • Selecting 'Max Adults' will hide rates for smaller room types as their Max Adults rate restriction is triggered.
  • Selecting 'Max Stay', the rate packages for shorter stays will be omitted, but will display the packages for longer stay.

Other

• Product Sort Order Settings.You can choose the criteria for arranging products on the second page of the WRS.
  • By Price - Ascending. The products with the lowest prices are at the top. Respectively, the Room Types and Rooms themselves are arranged from the ones with the lowest prices to the ones with the highest prices.
  • By Price - Descending. The products with the highest prices are at the top. Respectively, the Room Types and Rooms themselves are arranged from the ones with the highest prices to the ones with the lowest prices.
  • By Rate's Sort Order Field. Set a value for the sort order field in each rate and arrange products in the most convenient way for you. Room Types/Rooms will also be arranged, using the lowest value in this field of the related rates.
• Now the Calendar takes into consideration the room type and rate filters. This way it is much easier to integrate the Calendar into a website or use it through deep links.
• You can no longer enter negative values in the fields of Stay, Adults + Children using the spinners of these fields.

Folios and Taxes

Customization of Print Templates for Folios and Invoices

It is a new functionality helping you create your own html template for the documents you print. The system supports a few settings for this matter:

• Folio Template. The Template is used for printing open and closed folios (i.e. folios closed through the 'Close' option)
• Templates for Each Document Type. The templates will be used for the closed folios, depending on the closing document selected to be issued, e.g. "Close - Invoice".
• Still you can select to use the system template or a template of your choosing to print a document.

Template Setup:

• Go to 'Settings' and select 'Folio Print Template' in the 'Advanced Settings' section
• Add a new template and enter its name.
• The folio template itself is to have an html format and contain the folio's html code instead of the code of the whole html page – i.e. it should not contain head or body tags.
• Template Language (replacing the fields with values) to be used is Liquid. For more information on its syntax, go here
• CSS framework to be used is the standard one for the system - Bootstrap. For more information, go here
• An example of a folio print template can be found here: Folio Print Templates

Upon finishing the setup of folio templates, you can access them on the folio printing screen by clicking the 'View' button. Here is how you can set these templates to be used by default :

• For open and closed folios - 'Settings'- 'Tax Settings' and choose the folio print template in the section. This will be the default print template used for open and closed folios.
• For any other document type - 'Settings' - 'Document Type/s' - 'Edit' - 'Folio print template'. This will be the Template used for the folios closed through the respective type of document.

Revenue Date Modes

Two more Revenue Date Modes have been added

• Auto Revenue Date. It is based on the present mode and the default one. In this mode, the Revenue Date changes automatically at midnight without any user's intervention. No changes to the past revenue date are possible. Such changes are registered as a correction on the new date.
• Manual Date. A new mode similar to the above one, however, here the Revenue Date does not change automatically. It is to be changed by the user on a daily basis. Also, the user chooses the time for this change (either before or after midnight). Upon entering the new date, it is no longer possible to register a revenue with the past date, and all changes are registered as corrections on the new date.
• Manual Period.A new mode, allowing you greater flexibility in terms of past days, but also letting you lock already reported periods. Here is a practical example of the use of the new mode:
  • A company paying taxes based on its revenue reports is to submit the related documentation by the 15th day of the next month.
  • This company needs the corrections to charges to be reflected as precisely as possible, i.e. they have to refer not to the current date, but to the date of rendering the service, even if it is in the past.
  • In the second case, the system will register the correction as referring to the past date revenue, provided that this date is not already closed (the date must be after the 15th day of the previous month). Thus the information of the services rendered is most accurate and up to the last possible moment – the 15th day of the month.
  • The corrections made after closing the reported period are registered as referring to the present date.

If you wish to change the reporting mode for the revenue date, please contact the Support Team of Clock Software.

In the 'Manual Date' and 'Manual Period' modes, the Revenue Date is changed from the Tax Settings screen. To do so, the user needs to have the Change Revenue Date right.

Other

• Closing folios having payments only. The limitation for closing folios containing payments only and no charges has been removed. As a result, guest checkout operations are made easier.

Room Calendar

The Room Calendar have new options:

• View: Normal, Compact, Wide – select the most suitable view for your hotel or the specific situation.
• A new pop-up when clicking available day cell. The user is prompted with the options for stay duration, making the booking creation process faster.
• Blocking rooms as OOS. In the new pop-up, there is an option to quickly change the status of a room from OK to OOS, and vice versa.

Other Improvements and changes

• Title and Salutation. Now you can choose a title for each guest. The guests can also choose their title in the Web Reservation System.

  

  Depending on the title selected (e.g. 'Mr.'), the related salutation will be used in the letters (e.g. 'Dear Mr.').

  

  Title Setup:

  • Select 'Settings' - 'Title'.
  • Add the titles to be used.

• In order to add and/or translate the related Salutation:

  • 'Settings' - 'Languages and Texts' - 'Title/Translation'
  • Enter the translation of the respective Title and the related Salutation
• Rates – Sort Order. Rates now have a new Sort Order field. Use this field to arrange the rates in the rate editor the way it suits you most. The new arrangement is also used with the 'Set Multiple Days' editor or as an option for arranging the products in the WRS.
• Changes to booking notes are also tracked in the change logs of bookings.

• To the lists of bookings (Arrivals, Departures, In Hotel, Search and Advanced Search), a profile note has been added for each booking. Here you also have the option to quickly change the guarantee status of bookings. 

  

• Through the Advanced Search you can export data in custom formats, developed at your request. Please, contact the Support Team in relation to such requests .
• Advanced Search – the columns selected are stored, and you no longer need to select them with each use of the Advanced Search screen.
• Booking – the re-posting option keeps the manual changes, always when possible. Changing the period of stay for a booking, new charges are posted for the new dates, and the charges for the old dates are removed, but all other charges remain without re-calculation.
• Meal Report is now sorted out by room number instead of booking number.
• New links have been added to the folios appearing in the following reports: - Open Folios Report, Payment Report, Payments in Open Folios Report, Account Receivable Report
• Occupancy Forecast – a new total of available rooms has been added
• In the segmentation reports (Charge Segmentation Report and Bednights Report), a new segment has been added - Arrival Room Type.
• The enabling and disabling of add-ons is now performed by the Clock Software specialists. Please, get in touch with us to enable or disable an add-on.

Fixes

• The problem related to WRS errors, occurring when a service being used in the WRS is deleted, has been solved
• On a booking screen, the commission note included the other note too.
• The folio printing screen did not always open in the correct language.
• WRS – the location map – if any of the locations was linked to multiple apartments, the map did not show all of them when clicking the related marker.
• The bug leading to incorrect price calculation, when a combination of manual prices and an adaptable rate was used, has been fixed.