Setting up your numbers for accurate reporting

Introduction

Most questions about Cloudbeds PMS reports after go-live come from settings chosen without knowing how they affect the numbers. Some choices can't be undone, so review them before you go live. This article covers the decisions to make, how to read your reports, and how to correct mistakes without changing closed periods.

If you're new to Cloudbeds reporting, start with Reporting Overview and Navigation.

Table of contents

• Key reporting terms
• Decisions to make before go-live
• Reading your reports
• Correcting transaction mistakes
• Reservations and channels

Key reporting terms

The date used in a report determines which activity it includes. Use these definitions to distinguish stay activity from financial reconciliation and transaction history.

• Stay Date: The night a guest occupies a room. Used for occupancy, average daily rate (ADR), and revenue per available room (RevPAR).
• Service Date: The day a charge belongs to. Manual charges can be dated to a past or future day.
• Business Date: The accounting day, closed by your night audit. Used for financial reconciliation.
• Transaction Date/Time: The exact moment a transaction was recorded. Used for the audit trail.
• Posted or pending: Posted charges and payments are final. Pending charges are expected but not yet posted.
• Void: Reverses a charge using its original service date.
• Adjustment: A new entry that corrects a charge. You choose the service date.

For a full explanation of each date, see Understand Stay Date, Service Date, Business Date, and Transaction Date in Cloudbeds Reports.

Decisions to make before go-live

Review the settings and policies that apply to your property before importing reservations or taking go-live payments.

Taxes

Decide which taxes apply to room rates, products, or both, and whether your prices are inclusive or exclusive of tax. Set up each tax separately for rooms and for products, even at the same rate. Tax names appear on invoices and reports, so make the jurisdiction and revenue type clear.

Assign every tax to every reservation source it applies to. A tax not assigned to a source is never charged on that source's bookings. For instructions, see Set Up and Apply Taxes and Fees.

Tax-exempt guests

Cloudbeds doesn't mark revenue as tax-exempt automatically. To report exempt revenue separately:

• Create one reservation source per exemption type (for example, "Tax-Exempt Government"), with taxes and fees set to none.
• For any item exempt guests buy, create a tax-free version of the item.
• Report exempt revenue by filtering or grouping on the reservation source.

Note the limits: reports don't show exemption status or the reason for it, and a booking doesn't switch to the exempt source when it becomes exempt. Staff must change the source manually and post an offsetting adjustment for taxes already charged.

Accounting features

If you use the Deposits Ledger or the A/R Ledger, turn them on before any reservation import or go-live payment. Contact Cloudbeds Support or billing to request them. Have the ledger you need and your planned import or go-live timing ready. See Manage your Deposits Ledger in Accounting and Manage your Accounts Receivables.

Closed periods

Decide whether reports for closed periods must stay unchanged, for example for owner statements, audits, or month-end close. Your answer determines how your team corrects mistakes.

Reading your reports

Use the date basis that matches what you are reviewing. Pending charges and correction methods can affect whether past totals change.

• Financial reconciliation: Use Business Date. Closed days don't change.
• Occupancy, ADR, and RevPAR: Use Stay Date. These include pending charges and can change for past nights.
• Blank rows: Room revenue appears under a source or room type only if its service date falls within the stay dates. Otherwise it shows as an unassigned, blank row.
• Numbers that move: Pending charges can move until they post. Voids also change historical occupancy and service-date reports.
• Night audit timing: Manual charges posted after midnight but before your night audit count toward the business date that is still open.

Correcting transaction mistakes

Posted transactions can't be edited or deleted. Every correction is a void or an adjustment.

• Void: Creates an offset with the original service date. This changes historical occupancy and service-date reports.
• Adjustment: Choose the service date. Keep Post with current date and time checked to post to today's open business date, which protects closed periods.

• Payments and refunds: Always keep Post with current date and time checked, so they match real money movement and bank reconciliation.
• Future-dated services (for example, a tour booked for an upcoming stay): uncheck Post with current date and time and set the service date. The charge stays pending until then.

Reservations and channels

Check reservation import and channel settings before go-live so you know which details and prices to expect in Cloudbeds PMS.

• Imported reservations arrive as Hotel Collect by default. Guest addresses, phone numbers, and credit cards are not imported.
• If a channel rate includes breakfast or lunch, the matching Cloudbeds rate plan must include the add-on. Otherwise, imported reservations won't show it, and re-importing won't fix it.
• Bookings with unmapped rates default to "Base Rate."

• Channel promotions can change the price a guest sees. Manage them directly with the channel.
• Google Hotel Search may show an error for up to 14 days after setup. It clears automatically.

Related articles

These checks help you prepare your reporting setup and understand changes in your totals. For more detail on invoices, revenue allocation, or accounts receivable, choose the reference that matches your property's needs:

• Invoicing: Everything You Need to Know for background on invoicing.
• Revenue Allocation: Everything You Need to Know for a deeper explanation of revenue allocation.
• Accounts Receivable: Everything You Need to Know for background on accounts receivable, alongside the ledger instructions linked above.