What a hotel night audit is, and how to run one

The night audit is the end-of-day review of a hotel's business. Once a day, somebody checks that every guest is in the right state, every charge is on the right bill, and the money received agrees with what the records say. Then the day is closed and the next one begins.

It is called a night audit because large hotels do it overnight, when the desk is quiet. A small hotel can do the same work at closing time or first thing the next morning. The hour matters less than doing it every day.

What the night audit is for

It answers three questions about one day:

Stays. Did everyone who was due arrive, and did everyone who was due leave?
Charges. Is every room night, meal and extra on a bill, with the right tax?
Money. Do the cash in the till, the card terminal's total and the bank agree with the payments recorded?

A mistake found the same night takes minutes to fix. The same mistake found at month-end takes an afternoon, and the guest has long gone.

The business date

A hotel's day does not end at midnight. A guest who checks in at one in the morning belongs to the previous night, and a bar that closes at two is still trading on yesterday's date. The business date is the day the hotel considers itself to be in. It moves forward when the night audit closes the day, not when the clock strikes twelve.

Agree one rule and keep to it: which date a late arrival belongs to, and which date a charge after midnight is posted on.

How to run a night audit, step by step

Arrivals not checked in. For each one, decide: still on the way, or a no-show. Apply your no-show terms and release the room if the guest is not coming.
Departures still in house. Either the guest has left and nobody checked them out, or they are staying on and the booking needs extending. Both need an action tonight.
Charges from the outlets. Check that restaurant, bar and activity charges made to rooms have reached the right bills. Post anything still on paper.
Room charges. Make sure tonight's room night is on every in-house bill at the agreed rate. Look at any rate that was changed by hand.
Bills of departed guests. Every guest who left today should have a bill that balances to zero, or a balance moved to a company account. Chase any that do not.
Payments by method. Total the day's payments for cash, card terminal, online card and bank transfer separately. Compare each total with its source.
The till. Count the cash and compare it with what the records expect.
Refunds, voids and corrections. Read each one. Every entry should carry a reason and the name of the person who approved it.
Tomorrow. Look at tomorrow's arrivals: any without a room, any room out of order, any special request not yet arranged.
Close the day. Record who closed it, when, and anything left open on purpose. Keep the day's reports.

What each check tells you

Check	If it is not clear	Action
Arrivals not checked in	A room is held for somebody who may not come	Contact the guest, or record the no-show
Departures not checked out	The room looks occupied and cannot be sold or cleaned	Check out, or extend the stay
Departed guests with a balance	Money is owed and the guest has gone	Charge the card the guest authorised at check-in, invoice the company, or write to the guest
Payments waiting for review	A payment was reported but not confirmed	Confirm it against the bank or the payment provider
Refunds waiting for review	A guest is expecting money back	Approve or refuse, with a reason
Tomorrow's arrivals without a room	The desk will be assigning rooms at the door	Assign tonight

Work from the top. The first two rows stand in the way of a clean close. The rest are warnings, and a warning left three nights in a row becomes a problem.

Reconcile the till

The cash check is simple arithmetic, done the same way every night:

the opening float
plus cash received from guests
less cash returned to guests
plus cash put into the till, such as a float top-up
less cash taken out, such as a bank drop or a petty-cash payment
equals the cash you expect to find

Count the till and compare. Write down the difference, even when it is small, with the name of the person who counted. A difference explained on the night is a note. One discovered a week later is an investigation.

Do the same for cards: the terminal's end-of-day total should match the card payments recorded on bills. If you take more than one currency, keep each apart and never add them together.

Closing a day and sealing a day are different things

Some systems treat closing the day as one step. Others separate it into two. Find out which yours does.

A review close

A review close records that somebody looked at the day, what was still open and who signed it off. Nothing is frozen. Stays and bills can still be corrected.

A financial close

A financial close seals the day's money. After it, nothing can be posted to that date, changed on it or removed from it. A mistake found later is corrected with a new entry on an open date, carrying a reason and a name. The sealed report stays as it was.

Which one you need

Your accountant needs the second kind. If your system offers the first kind alone, agree a rule with your team: once a day has been reported, corrections go on today's date, never back into the old one.

Reports to keep from each night

Rooms sold, rooms available, occupancy (rooms sold divided by rooms available) and room revenue
Arrivals, departures, no-shows and cancellations
Payments received, by method
Refunds paid
Open guest balances
Amounts owed by company and agency accounts
The till count and any difference

File them by date. Together they are the record your accountant and, if it comes to it, a tax inspector will ask for. If you change systems, export them before you lose access. The PMS migration checklist covers this.

If you have no night auditor

Many independent hotels do not. Give the job to whoever closes the desk, or to the first person in the next morning, and keep it to a fixed list. Three things matter: the same checks happen every day, the person doing them has the authority to record a no-show or chase a balance, and a second person reads the result at least once a week.

Hemmz, the platform we build, includes a night audit and a financial close that seals a day so it cannot be edited afterwards, as part of property management. Both are available to founding properties and are not yet offered as a self-service product.

How Hemmz does it

In Hemmz the business date follows the property's own calendar date. The night audit is the review: it lists the arrivals not checked in, the departures still in house, the bills not settled and the payments to check. The financial close is the separate step that seals a day's money records once the date is over at the property, and a correction after that is a new entry with a name and a time, never an edit.