Clock PMS+ Update (9 Nov 2020)

Modified on: Mon, 26 Sep, 2022 at 9:22 AM

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Commission processing - by agents and revenue groups

We have improved the Commission processing logic, so that both Companies and Agents can be processed. Furthermore, we have added a possibility to determine the revenue groups for each Agent/Company on the basis of which the commission to be calculated.

The old functionality of the commission processing module allowed commissions to be calculated only if there was a Company selected in the booking. To make it possible for the module to also to work with Agents, we have made the following changes:

  • In the booking's Commission section, we have added a new field - Recipient. The possible values of this field are  "Company" and "Agent". This value specifies whether the commission is to be calculated for the Agent or the Company selected in the booking.  
  • With all new bookings, the Agent values are completed by default.
  • With all already created bookings, the value in this field is "Company".
  • If using the old organization of work, under which Agents were selected in the Company field of the booking, you will be able to continue using the module as before, but for each new booking, you will need to change the value completed by default in the Recipient field from "Agent" to "Company".
  • On the very "Commission Processing" screen, there are no changes. The system calculates commissions based on the new field in the booking.

We have additionally changed the way of determining the basis for the commission calculation. Up till now, it was calculated based on the Rooms and Packages revenue groups.

  • Now you can determine which selected revenue groups to be used as a basis for calculating the commission. It refers to each Agent individually. 
  • On the edit screen of each Agent (Company), you can select the revenue groups from the "Commission" section
  • For the existing Agents (Companies) with a completed commission field, the revenue groups are selected as before -  Rooms and Packages. For the newly created Companies, select the checkboxes you would like.

Guest and Company Ledgers - new account receivable figures

This change has been delayed. We have received a number of signals that we should preserve the old logic of the ledgers, so that the traceability for last periods is ensured. The new logic will be released as a new set of reports.

Up till now, there was a difference between the Accounts Receivable Report and the data in the Guest and Company Ledgers. This difference was determined by the different principles under which these two reports used to work, namely:

  • The Accounts Receivable Report works based on closed folios regardless of whether the charges in these folios are for past or future periods, the whole amount is reflected as Accounts Receivable..
  • Guest / Company Ledgers work based on the recognised revenues, i.e. charges for future periods were not included in these ledgers, even if these charges were in closed folios.

This difference between the two reports is very confusing for most of you. This is why we have decided to make the following changes that we hope will bring more clarity to these reports:

  • The future date charges from closed folios are now contained in a new separate "Total future charges" column in the Ledgers.
  • This column is included in the amount of the Accounts Receivable in the Ledgers.
  • Additionally, we have made one more small change to make the two reports comparable: The amount of the overpaid closed folios is now treated as a deposit. In our opinion, this is the more accurate approach compared to the practice up till now for such charges to be treated as negative Accounts Receivable.

After these changes, the data of the two reports can be compared, bringing one more benefit - through the Ledgers, you can now get data of the Accounts Receivable for each past date.

The Trial Balance also reflects these changes and now contains the data of future date charges in closed folios as well as the formulas for the check amounts in the Trial Balance have changed to include these amounts.

Please note that the above changes to the Ledger reports change the way these amounts are treated, including for past dates. This will also change the values and amounts in them. The Trial Balance, in turn, will not change, because its balance is based on the difference between revenue and payments which do not change for past dates.

New templates and modules for Visual Builder

We have added new Visual Builder templates for Event (BEO), Booking Enquiry and folio emails. To use the new templates, open the Visual Builder for the respective email category and select "Templates" from the feature bar. Click open the respective template to preview it. Choose the template through the "Select" button.

Please note that the selected template will overwrite the whole content you have opened to edit in the Visual Builder.

We have also added new Modules. In contrast to templates being examples of whole emails, modules are ready-to-use partials you can add to the template you are editing. For example, such partials are: the Google map of your hotel location, Self Service Portal links, the booking data table, the booking table for multi-booking confirmation, activity and charge tables in BEO, etc.

  • The Modules are divided into categories depending on the email types they are intended for. 
  • Through the preview type button, you can change the preview size and see the larger images. 
  • Add the desired module by dragging and dropping it to a place in the email of your choosing. 
  • After adding the respective module to your email, you can change its colours, fonts and content.

POS - optimisations

We have made the following changes to make the performed operations faster and in a fewer clicks:

  • Default menu group. A new setting on the POS settings screen to let you choose a default menu group. If a default menu group is thus chosen, the posting screen (for a new or existing bill) will open with the selected default menu group instead of showing all menu groups. You can use the new feature to directly open your most used menu group. You can also use a different approach. Create a new menu group and use it to add all of your best-selling articles giving you the quickest access to them.
  • Transfer to a room - If you have allowed transfer to only one hotel, the hotel selection step is automatically skipped.
  • Transfer to a room - New and more convenient room search interface. As the room search interface appeared small and difficult to use on mobile devices, we have redesigned the screen to make it comfortable for use even on mobile devices.  
  • Client View - now the client signature takes one button click less. Now the respective screen opens immediately after filling in the tip amount.
  • Client View - when returning from the screen to the system, you are automatically offered the room transfer option, if there is such one selected. This way we have to further speed up the room transfer process in combination with the Client View.

We would like to remind you what you can achieve if using the Client View in combination with the Room transfer:

  • The Client View is a screen that can be used by your guests to see their paperless bill, add a tip and even sign it
  • This is how you can easily and safely encourage tips even for internal credits.
  • Before choosing the Client View option, select the guest room by checking the guest's name. 
  • Then pass over the tablet to the guest for preview and signature. 
  • At the end, click "Close" and return to the system by entering your password.
  • Confirm the transfer. That's it.

POS - print spooler for background printing and ESC/P support

We have developed a print spooler that can be activated on a Clock IoT Device:

  • The printing from POS can occur in the background, completely eliminating the need to wait for the print screen to close when printing. Up till now you had to wait for the printing operation completion to proceed to the next bill. Now the screen closes immediately and you can continue your work with the next bill, and the printing itself occurs in the background.
  • The print spooler works on a Clock IoT Device, so you need to have such one. You can contact our Sales Department to buy it, if you don't have one. The Clock IoT Device is to be in the same network where your printers are.  You don't need a new Clock IoT Device, if you already have such one in the network of your printers. Contact our Support Centre to activate the print spooler on the respective Clock IoT Device.
  • Support for cheaper printers. We have also developed a new driver  for the print spooler allowing you to print on plain printers supporting the ESC/P (Epson Standard Code for Printers).Printer requirements:
    • To support the ESC/P protocol.
    • To have a TCP network port via which to connect your printers to your network. It is also possible to connect them through WiFi, if the printers have such an interface.
    • The Clock IoT Device needs to be in the same network with the printers.
    • You need to have localised your region, i.e. the printers to have necessary "code tables" for your language.

Please note that the ESC/P driver is still in its beta version. Here is why we recommend you to first test the printer model selected by you before buying it. After gathering enough info, we will also start supporting a list of printers which are tested and proven to work.

To set up an Epson TM-i or ESC/P printer to print via the print spooler: open the printer edit screen and select "IoT device connected to".

Interfaces:

  • LightSpeed POS (L series) - Improved transfer of daily sales.
  • LightSpeed POS (L series) - Now it is possible to transfer a tip, even if the bill value is 0 (100% discount).
  • HESTA Export - fixes.

Fixes:

  • Some texts were not visible as they coincided with the font colour of certain themes - the Self Service Portal Registration Cards as well as the texts in the Google map boxes in the WRS.
  • Per-guest rate copying  - it displaced the order of guest levels.
  • A closed company folio with charges transferred from the POS - the note couldn't be edited, for example.

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