TECHNOSOFT INTEGRA HOTEL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The system has been developed through the collective effort of people, who can be considered as professionals in their respective fields of work. One can easily see the result of this effort, in the various modules, which generate a high level of user confidence in the system, as it caters for the everyday hotel situations. The end result is obviously a sense of efficiency that helps to create a pleasant working environment. The main objective of the system is not to simply computerise the work that to-date has been done manually, but rather to provide a complete and timely system of control and information.

The system uses a system of passwords and permissions, which restricts certain users from using certain functions or generate useful information about the hotel operations. The use of function keys makes the searching for reservations, contracts and other information a quick and easy operation.

The Technosoft Integra Hotel System consists of three main modules:

1. The Reservations module
2. The Guest Billing module
3. The Debtors ledger module

These three modules are integrated with each other, giving each user the ability to input, amend and delete reservations, register and update the daily charges and post the departed guests directly to the debtors ledger.

The Hotel System is also integrated with the General Ledger and Bank Book Manager which means that all postings done for the day will be posted to the general ledger and bank book automatically when the end of day operation is performed.

RESERVATIONS MODULE

The hotel system is based on the tour operators’ contracts in the reservations module. With the contracts function the user can:

Create multiple contracts for one tour operator.
Allocate rates, which can be per person or per apartment.
Give unlimited number of different periods per contract.
Allocate different rates for Bed Only, B/B, H/B, and F/B for each period.
Allocate different release periods for each period.
Allocate different percentage discounts for each adult and child for each period.

Allocate different number of room types allocated for each period.
Allocate different supplements chargeable on a daily or one off basis for adult, child or room for each period.

When the contracts are up-to-date the user can:

Create reservations
Amend reservations
Delete reservations

The system keeps complete track and control of the following:

All reservations including dates of stay, type and number of rooms required, number of persons, expected time of arrival and departure, board basis, VIP indicator, nationality, business type, and deposits.
Complete control of accommodation availability, which is updated automatically with every addition, cancellation or amendment of any reservation.
Complete control of each tour operator room allocation which is also updated as above, validating also release periods for each reservation.
Complete control of room assignments, with a very powerful feature of an on-screen reservations chart, which allows the user to manipulate and place reservations in different rooms during their stay.
The system generates the package of each reservation as soon as a reservation is entered. Through this feature which allows the user to change almost any field in the package, provides total control over most of the variables of a reservation such as:

Different board basis on different days during the stay.
Different number of persons in each room during the stay.
Different supplement charges during the whole stay
Complete control of room discount and supplement discount.
A complete picture of the end bill of each room complete with the relevant analysis, updated automatically on screen with each adjustment made to the reservation.

PACKAGES & REGISTRATIONS

From the Packages and registrations module the user can view the guests’ charges per day. The user can also increase or decrease the guest’s stay.
The Board basis, the number of pax, the room discount and the supplements can be added or amended from the packages and registrations.

ROOM ASSIGNMENTS
Before the guest is registered a room must be assigned to the guest and this is done from the room assignments function.

From this function the user can select an arrival date and the user is presented with all the reservations due on that arrival date.

If a particular reservation is selected a list of all the rooms and the dates assigned on each room is presented to the user. All the user has to do is to find a free room for that particular period.

Multiple rooms can be assigned to the same guest on different dates during his stay.

RESERVATIONS REPORTS
The following reports are available from the reservations module:

Allocation take-up chart

Availability chart
Room assignments chart
Room assignments by room
Daily occupancy forecast
List reservations
List reservations by option date
Bed nights list

ALLOCATION TAKE-UP CHART
This report gives a detailed view of the allocated rooms for a particular Tour operator, for a particular contract, between two particular dates, together with the rooms taken to show the number of free rooms remaining for that particular Tour Operator.

AVAILABILITY CHART
Gives a detailed report showing all the room types in the hotel during the period chosen by the user, together with the available rooms for each date of the period chosen.

ROOM ASSIGNMENTS CHART
Prints out all the rooms in the hotel and their respective room assignments and duration to get a picture of the dates and rooms .

DAILY OCCUPANCY FORECAST
From the report the user can clearly see the number of rooms occupied, together with the number of adults and children per day of the period selected by the user. The report also prints out the number of arrivals and departures together with the complimentary rooms per day. This report can be issued in three different ways: - with option date only, without option date or with ALL.

GUEST BILLING MODULE

This module is mostly used by the reception staff, which enables the users to:

Register guests
Post charges to the guests’ bill
Printing of guest bills
Printing of reports

REGISTRATIONS
The registration of guests is a straightforward task, which means less queuing time and less errors from the users. All that is needed by the system is the reservation number. The registration is not complete until the user has inputted the guest passport number, tour operator voucher and first meal of the day.

Registration is not possible if a room is not yet assigned.

POST TRANSACTIONS
The receptionist can post transactions to the board bill or to the guest bill. Postings to the board bill are done when the transactions are to be charged to the tour operator, whilst postings to guest bill will be charged to the guest himself.

Postings to non-resident bills can also be done. Non-residents are guests who are not residing at the hotel, example – a business lunch or prayer group.

From the post transactions function the user can also post cash settlements made to settle the bills.

DEPOSITS ON RESERVATIONS
When a reservation is inputted in the system, the user can input a deposit amount if a deposit was requested. From the deposit on reservations function the user can input the deposit received by a guest on arrival.

DEPARTURES
The departure procedure is very straightforward. All that is needed is the room number that is going to be departed. If the guest has any balance in his guest bill then the system informs the user and the bill has to be settled in order to depart the guest. The system also informs the user of any unprinted guest bills and board bills.

ENTITLEMENTS
The posting of entitlements is another vital function in the hotel system, which keeps track of the entitlements due of the day. The user posts the breakfast, lunch and dinner chits and if any extras where taken, the extras are posted to the guest bill automatically.

Entitlements can also be adjusted, which enables a guest being on half board to switch the dinner entitlement to a lunch entitlement for a particular day.

From the entitlements function a series of reports can be issued to get a clear view of the extras taken and any adjustments made.

THE ENTITLEMENTS & BREAKAGE REPORT
The Entitlements & Breakage report is one of these reports which shows the period given by the user, the room numbers and their respective board basis, together with the entitlements for each room, entitlements taken, any extras and their respective breakage.

BOARD LIST
The Board list is another vital report for the kitchen staff, for this report prints out the guests in house together with their duration at the hotel and their respective entitlements for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This report also gives the total pax due for breakfast, lunch and dinner and so the kitchen staff can prepare the food accordingly.

ROOM STATUS
This functions displays the rooms of the hotel and their respective status. Each room is coloured according to the room status. If the room is vacant and clean it is highlighted in white, Vacant but dirty is highlighted in brown, Occupied but clean is highlighted in green while occupied but dirty is highlighted in red. The room status can be changed by the user by typing the room number.

When the end of day procedure is performed the occupied rooms are changed to occupied-dirty automatically by the system.

ROOM TRANSFERS
Different rooms can be assigned to a particular reservation. In order for the system to charge accordingly the user has to use this function to transfer the guest from one room to another if the guest is assigned multiple rooms during his stay.

TRANSFER TO LEDGER
When a guest is departed his respective board bill is transferred to the transfer to ledger. This is done so that the user – normally an accounts officer, can transfer the board bills to their respective accounts. This is done by selecting the desired invoices to be transferred and transfer them to their accounts.

From the transfer to ledger function the user can also post adjustments to the board bills that are not yet transferred to the debtor’s ledger. The user can also change the debtor of the bill and the debtor of a non-resident bill.

Re-prints of board bills and agent invoices can also be issued from the transfer to ledger.

REPORTS
The reports can be printed to printer, to screen or to a text file to be imported from a text editor.

The reports available from the front office module are meant for the every day routine of the hotel. The main reports are:

Bills
Accounting
Daily Reports
Other reports

BILLS

From the bills report menu the user can print agent invoices, guest bills and board bills.
The agent invoices can be printed by arrival date, particular invoices and group invoices. Guest bills can also be printed by departure date, particular guest bills and guest bills in advance.
Agent invoices by arrival date prints all the agent invoices for a particular arrival date, while particular invoices prints one agent invoice at a time. Group invoices prints a group invoice.
Guest bills by departure date prints all the guest bills that are to depart on a given date. Particular guest bills enables the user to print only one guest bill at a time, whilst guest bills in advance are printed for guests who are paying for both their extras and their board charges.
From the bills menu the user can also print non-residents bills and re-print agent invoices, guest bills, board bills and non-resident bills.

ACCOUNTING

AUDIT REPORT
From the accounting menu the user can print the audit report which gives a detailed report of all the transactions performed during the day or between two given dates.

MONTHLY CASH SETTLEMENTS
The monthly cash settlements is another report that can be printed from the accounting report menu. This report will print all room numbers and their respective guests that paid their bills in cash during the month.

MONTHLY TRANSFER TO LEDGER
The monthly transfer to ledger report will show all the transfers made to the debtor’s ledger during the month.

REVENUE SUMMARY
This option generates a report of all the revenue received during the day. This report can be printed daily or monthly. Included in the revenue summary are the occupancy statistics giving details of the rooms occupied, the relevant percentage and the beds occupied .

PENDING DEPOSITS
Prints out a list of all the guests with their respective requested deposit amounts, paid deposits amounts and the remaining balances due.

DAILY REPORTS

OVERSTAYING GUESTS
The overstaying guests report prints all the reservations that are not yet departed by the user. The user should depart the guests if they already departed or extend their stay from the packages and registrations function if the guest is still in the hotel.

NO SHOWS
Prints a list of no shows on the system. The indicated reservations should be cancelled.

ARRIVAL LIST
The user has to input the date required, the Tour operator code or ALL for all tour operators and the group code or ALL for all groups. This will print a list of the expected guests arriving on that particular date.

DEPARTURE LIST
The Departure list can be printed in two ways. One way in which it could be printed is a departure list giving a list of all expected departures for a particular date or a list of all expected departure with their respective balances due. To generate this report the departure date is needed.

GUEST LIST
The guest list can be sorted either by room or by guest. Prints out a list of all the guests in the hotel giving details of their arrival date, departure date, board basis and number of pax.

OTHER REPORTS
From the other reports menu the user can print the following reports:

Contracts
Forecasts
Accommodation statistics

CONTRACTS
The user can print a list of all the contracts on the system. This will generate a list of all the contracts with their respective dates and discounts.
A contract together with its respective details can also be printed from this function.. The user has to choose a tour operator code and the particular contract.

FINANCIAL REVENUE FORECAST
The financial revenue forecast prints out the selected dates, together with number of rooms occupied and the number of children and adults forecasted to be in the hotel.

This report also prints the actual and forecasted room revenue, breakfast, lunch and dinner revenue. All is needed for this report to be generated are the dates for which the report is to be printed.

DAILY ENTITLEMENTS FORECAST
A list of the forecasted rooms occupied, together with the forecasted number of children and adults in the hotel is printed on this report. It will also print out a forecast of the breakfast, lunch and dinner entitlements together with the forecasted departures and arrivals for each day.

ACCOMMODATION STATISTICS
Statistics showing the number of rooms and beds occupied, together with the number of pax for bed and breakfast, half board and full board can be printed from the accommodation statistics report.

This report can be issued by country, by business type, by agent or by tour operator. The user can also include complimentary guests in the report.

END OF DAY OPERATIONS
A series of procedures have to be done before closing the current day.

These operations are in the form of a list in the end-of-day operations menu.

MAKE BACKUP COPY
The hotel system is complete with a backup and a restore utility that enables the user to keep up-to-date backups on the system and restore the necessary data if any computer malfunctions occur. It is imperative that before you change the date a backup copy is taken.

UPDATE DAILY BOARD CHARGES
With this function the daily board charges of all the rooms are updated and charged to their respective board bills. It is necessary that all the breakfast, lunch and dinner entitlements are processed before updating the board charges.

CLOSE CASH BILL
Every reception in a hotel has a sort of cash bill. All the cash transactions processed during the day are posted in this bill and should be closed before changing the system date or changing shifts.

END-OF-SHIFT REPORTS
The end of shift report lists all the cash settlements received during the day. This should also be printed before closing the day or when changing shifts.

CHANGE DATE
This function will change the system date. If during the change of date there are some errors a report is generated indicating the errors and the appropriate action should be taken.

The front office module has also other two modules, which can be configured according to the user’s needs. These two modules are:

Telephone call logging module.
The restaurant/bar point of sale.

TELEPHONE CALL LOGGING MODULE

The Technosoft call logging module is connected to the hotel’s telephone system so that any outgoing calls can be recorded on the computer and posted to their appropriate bill automatically.

The telephone system keeps track of charges for every prefix number.

This module also prints the transactions to the printer so that no transaction is lost and the clients charged accordingly. The telephone system is protected by a password so that unauthorized staff cannot log out of the program and so shut down the telephone system.

POINT OF SALE
The Technosoft Point of Sale software saves time and money by reducing errors and improving the efficiency of the staff. Waiters and waitresses spend less time totalling guest checks and routing orders and dedicate more time toward serving customers.
The Point of Sale module, like all other Technosoft software is very user friendly. Training time for employees is typically 20 minutes or less. Highlights of the Point of Sale function are described below.
The Technosoft point of sale is well suited for nearly any foodservice business, including: fine dining, hotel bars, cafeterias, and fast food joints. The software runs on IBM PC compatible machines (open architecture) giving the end-user a wide choice of hardware to choose from.
The Technosoft P.O.S. interfaces with touch screens, light pens as well as regular keyboards, and supports a wide variety of industry standard receipt printers.

The Technosoft POS can be tailored to the needs of each business. Currently, the following features are offered, all of which are completely integrated:
The POS system works on a touch screen.
The clients are given a table number accordingly. The POS can handle up to 999 tables.
The program’s "status screen" shows the complete state of the restaurant.
Hostesses can quickly see which tables are occupied and which are available.
Plu Details
The system can also take up to 99 waiters; statistical reports can be issued on the performance of the waiters.
The POS can be configured to print the food items on the kitchen printer, while the drinks will be printed on the bar printer.

The system also handles discounts.
At the end of the day the system prints an X-read and a Z-read.
An audit report can also be issued to get a daily view of the sales performed during the day.
All Z-readings and bills are archived and can be re-printed any time.
A full range of sales statistics reports are available for past sales.
Staff Details
Location Details
Plu categories
Tables
Users Passwords

FIRST TIME SETTING UP
Firstly, the system must be able to distinguish the various sectors in the company is it set up; such as the coffee bar, kitchen or lounge. These are entered through the ‘Location Details’.”File”, “Location Details” is highlighted and an opening screen is displayed. Two figures are used in the ‘location code’ to assign a particular place a code of reference. A description of this location code is entered in the following line. `Selling outlet`, `Production Point` and `Printer Available` are there to give more information to the user in the case that it is required. A simple `Y` for Yes and `N` for No decides these statements. Printer type and port are self-explanatory. Bills are numbered and stored sequentially for reference. Each time a bill is issued, a number is assigned to the bill. X-readings can be produced at any time the user wishes, whereas Z-readings are printed once a day.

PLU DETAILS
Firstly, the location code is entered, pressing F2 will display a list of codes previously entered. Plu’s are the buttons assigned to the various items in stock that are displayed on the point of sales’s touch screen. If a Plu that does not exist is entered, the user is prompted whether he or she would like to create this item.

A short description follows this Plu code. Categories of the Plu’s can be set; such as wheter an item belongs to the ‘Snack’ Category or `Wine` category. All this information is entered so that the Plu details are more flexible and efficient to work with.

TABLE DETAILS
Table details could be entered. For instance, tables could be distinguished as wheter they are used for `Take-Away` orders, or if people seated are still waiting to be served. The user can gather all the information simply by requesting a `Table` enquiry at the touch of a finger.

STAFF DETAILS
The restaurant’s staff are also included in the system for easy reference. Each worker is assigned a code and the system is given information such as contact points and remarks. At the bottom of each screen “Created on: By: “ could be seen. Reference goes to the time and which of the users was responsible for creating or amending the record currently being displayed on screen.

USERS PASSWORDS
This function enables each user to have his or her own password assigned. This password, usually the user’s initials; is supplied before the program is run.