SOP - Front Office – Bill to company or Direct billing

SOP Number: FO – 30

Department: Front Office – Cashier

Date Issued: 15 – JUNE -2014

Time to Train: 30 Minutes

To establish procedures for the approval of Bill to company or direct Billing privileges for a company or travel agent. And also to outline procedures for handling Direct Bill accounts.

1. If a company wishes to obtain direct billing or credit facility privileges with the hotel, then the hotel sales team must first submit a letter of Authorization for “Bill to company" to the hotel credit manager or to the financial controller of the hotel along with the signed CVGR letter.

2. The "Letter of Authorisation for Bill to company or Direct Billing" must contain the following:

• The letter must be on company or travel agent letterhead.

• The letter must include the names of all individuals authorised to sign.

• The name of the individual who will receive and approve the statement.

• The types of charges for which the company had agreed (i.e., accommodation charges (room + tax + service charge), sign for all charges, etc.)

• The correct billing address of the company / travel agent.

• The contact details email / phone / fax number of the company.

3. Copy of these letters are kept on file for future reference. One copy is sent to Reservations and one copy is sent to the Front Desk.

4. Accounting department then assign an AR (Accounts receivable) ID on to the company or travel agent profile to enable Bill to AR or Credit settlement on the PMS.

5. Direct Bill authorisations may be kept on file for companies that make large numbers of reservations. The credit manager then sends the statement of account to the company on a timely basis for clearance.

6. If a company becomes delinquent in payments, it is the responsibility of the Accounting Office to notify Reservations and the Front Desk that Direct Billing privileges are black listing such for company. 

7. All credit facilities are to be suspended until full payment is received from the company. At that time the Controller must make the decision as to whether to re-instate Direct Bill privileges for the company.

RESERVATIONS / FRONT OFFICE:

1. After a company and/or account has been cleared by Accounting for Direct Billing, the Reservations staff can then use their copy of the approved Direct Bill Request Letter as authorisation to stamp "Bill Direct" on all future reservations for that company.

2. Only accounts pre-authorized by accounting department may be granted for Direct Bill. If a guest requests Direct Billing to his/her company, and there is no authorisation on file, he/she should be referred to the Credit Manager or Controller.

3. The Front Desk department is not authorised to approve any Direct Bill arrangements.

4. At checkout, Direct Billing Accounts must be verified and signed by the guest to acknowledge verification. This will help to prevent most billing disputes after checkout.

5. All supporting correspondence to be attached to the final invoice and send to the accounts team.

6. The correct Company or Travel agent profile with a valid AR –ID  to be only used while doing a bill to AR settlement.

Training Summary questions:

Q1. Who is responsible for authorising direct billing for a company?

Q2. What all details to be present on a bill to AR authorisation letter?

Q3. What is an AR account ID?

Q4. Does front office staff authorised to approve any direct billing request?

Q5. Why it is important to collect the guest signature on bills and correspondence at the time of check-out?