Front office
What is a night audit?
A night audit is the daily routine that closes one hotel business day and opens the next. It posts the night's room and tax charges to guest folios, reconciles the day's payments and cash, identifies no-shows and errors, and produces the daily reports for management.
What happens during a night audit
The steps are broadly the same in every hotel:
- Mark reservations that did not arrive as no-shows
- Post room and tax charges for every in-house guest
- Reconcile cash, card and UPI payments with the folios
- Close restaurant and bar outlets for the day
- Roll the business date forward and run the daily reports
Manual or automated
Traditionally a night auditor did this by hand in the early hours. A cloud PMS can run it at a set time and leave only the exceptions for staff. Use our night audit checklist, or read the night audit, explained.
In StaySynq
StaySynq runs the night audit at your cut-off time, posts charges, reconciles cash and emails the reports, with an exceptions queue for anything that doesn't balance.
Common questions
What time is the night audit done?
Usually between midnight and 4am, when the fewest transactions are in progress.
Is a night audit needed with a cloud PMS?
Yes. The day still has to be closed so that reports and tax are based on a fixed business date, but the system can do the work.
Related terms
- FolioA folio is the running account of everything a guest is charged and everything they pay during a stay: room nights, restaurant bills, minibar, laundry, taxes, deposits and payments. At check-out the folio is settled and becomes the basis for the invoice.
- No-showA no-show is a guest with a confirmed reservation who neither arrives nor cancels before the hotel's cut-off time. The room goes unsold for that night, so most hotels charge a no-show fee, typically the first night, when the booking was guaranteed by card or deposit.
- City ledgerA city ledger is the hotel's record of money owed by parties who are not currently staying: companies with credit accounts, travel agents, OTAs and guests who left with an unpaid balance. It is the hotel's accounts receivable for stays that were billed rather than paid at check-out.
- RevPARRevPAR, or revenue per available room, is a hotel's room revenue divided by the number of room nights it had available to sell in a period. It combines price and occupancy into one number, which makes it the standard way to compare hotels of different sizes.
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