Reservation Folio - Everything you need to know

Juss Reyes

Updated January 31, 2025 16:16

Add or refund payments, add or adjust charges, and more in the Reservation Folio. This article offers a general overview of the actions that can be performed in this section, for a efficient reservation management in your daily operations.

Access and overview

The Reservation Folio in Cloudbeds PMS stores the financial details of your guests' reservations, including information about room rates, pending or posted transactions, and any additional items that have already been added. It also includes several options to manage your guests' financial information, add payments, adjust charges, or apply refunds.

To access the reservation folio:

Look for the corresponding reservation. You can use the search bar in the Top menu of your Cloudbeds account
Click on the Folio tab

Learn more about all the Reservation Details tabs.

Reservation Folio filters

In the Reservation Folio tab, the filters allow you to refine your search and easily review guest transactions, making it faster to find the necessary information. By using these filters, you can save time and effort in navigating through the Reservation Folio:

Guest name, room #: Add the corresponding guest name or room number. This filter is particularly useful when there is more than 1 guest in the reservation
Dates and time: Filter the transactions by date and specific time
Reservation ID: When there is more than 1 room in the reservation, the system shows different reservation IDs (separated by a hyphen). Use this filter to select the preferred reservation ID (for example, 9989192205687 and 9989192205687-2)
Description: Filter by debits (charges) and credits (payments)
Group: By user, date, room, and other filter criteria
Sub-group: Streamline your search by adding the sub-group filter
Transactions: Filter by pending or posted transactions

Remember to click on Apply once your filters are correctly selected.

Transfer to Accounts Receivable option

If you have the Accounts Receivable (AR) feature enabled, you’ll see the Transfer to Accounts Receivable button when a folio has an outstanding balance (e.g., after a guest checks out). For more information, go to: How to work with accounts receivable.

How to get started with the Folio

Reservation Folio article	Description
Add reservation payments as a record	This guide explains how to add (post) reservation payments as a record in the Reservation Folio (without using Payment Gateway processing).
Refund reservation payments	Refund a guest's payment in the Reservation Folio (without using Payment Gateway processing).
Add or adjust reservation charges	Add or adjust reservation charges, such as items, taxes or fees, and room revenue.
How to void transactions	This article explains how to void (cancel) transactions from the guest's Reservation Folio.
Add and use Room Revenue in the Reservation Folio	Use this option to add, use, and manage Room Revenue within a reservation.
Manage Split Folio in reservation	Learn how to use the Split Folio feature, add folios, move transactions, and more.

Frequently asked questions

How can I post a day-use service on Reservation Folio?

Create a House Account named Day Use. This account will be available for you to use on future reservations. Learn how here: Create and edit House Accounts
Post the day-use on the Reservation Folio as a Room Revenue. Learn how: Add or reservation charges
Create a room block on the Calendar and allow guest to go to their room. Learn How to block room availability

Don't forget to delete this room block right after this guest has checked out so you will make this room and date available again.

If you don't want to block your rooms but keep them available on channels, keep in mind that internal management will be necessary to avoid overbookings (in case you receive a last-minute booking and the day-use guest is still active). Learn more about overbookings here.

Why is the guest name in the folio changed, and why does a random name appear on the folio?

Reason: Autofill function

The autofill function is useful when you have a repetitive guest, so when adding a new reservation, you can just start typing the name or email, and the system will suggest to autofill the guest's details. However, if the wrong guest profile is selected by mistake, it can cause issues.

Example:

Let's suppose that you are adding a new reservation for a guest called John Doe.
When you start typing the guest's name (John), the system will suggest all the existing guest profiles named "John" that previously stayed at your property.
If John Doe (the new guest) has never stayed at your property before, you shouldn't select any of the system's suggestions because the system will fill in the information of the selected guest profile. Even if you accidentally select the name from the suggested ones, the system will suggest that you create a new customer in case the selected guest information is not correct.
In this case, click on the +New Customer given option and fill out the correct information about your new guest.

What should I do if I created the reservation using the wrong guest profile?

If you have selected a suggested guest profile and saved/created a reservation with the incorrect name, the reservation becomes connected with the guest profile you selected.

Since the guest profile is connected to all previous and new reservations created with the same guest profile, when you edit the name (or any other info, such as email) for the newly created reservation, the system will also change it for past reservations associated with the guest profile.

Currently, it is not possible to disconnect the guest profile from the reservations. To avoid changing guest information from past reservations, we recommend you to delete the newly created reservation and add it again, without using the autofill function. Here is an article with the details on how to delete a reservation.

Also, if you noticed that the name on the invoice is different from the guest's name, you can refer to this article for help.

How can I fix the posted room rates?

We can suggest two options to fix posted room rates:

Applying a discount: Follow the steps to add or adjust reservation charges
Add an extra charge: Follow the steps to add and use room revenue

What is the difference between the Transaction date and the Service date in the Folio?

Typically, the service date usually is the same as the transaction date. However, if changes to past transactions are necessary:

The service date will represent the date the transaction is intended to apply to (e.g., a past date).
The transaction date will always show when the record was actually updated in the system.
This approach ensures safe, immutable, and auditable records for accounting while corrections to past transactions can be made without compromising the integrity of the accounting records.

Comparison Table

Aspect	Transaction Date	Service Date
Definition	Current or future datetime	Stable date in property time
Modification	❌ Cannot be modified	✅ Can be modified (with proper permission)
Time Restrictions	Current or future only	Can be in the past
Primary Use	Accounting purposes	Financial reporting purposes

This is how it looks in the folio:

Only users with permission to modify past-date transactions can do so. They are allowed to change the service date to back-date a transaction; however, the actual transaction date will be recorded at the time the transaction occurs.

You must go to Roles to change the user permissions. Learn more here: Roles and Permissions.

Transaction Date and Service Date in usage examples

A reservation with a check-in date for the future November 30th was imported today (November 14th)

- The transaction date will be November 14th (imported today);
- The service date will be November 30th.

The room rate is updated today (November 14th) for this future check-in:

- The transaction date will be November 14th - the day the action changing the rate was recorded.
- The service date will be November 30th - the day that the room rate will be applied as a service.