In Mews Operations, the system automatically routes payments to the correct bill when you set up payment policies. If you also set up billing automations, you can minimize the need to manually move the correct bill out of Unpaid items/ Deposits. This helps your front office close bills faster and more accurately. It is important to use both payment policies and billing automations together.

Note:

• To determine the correct bill, Mews looks at the payment policy and the extents it covers. If the items covered by the extent are all in the same bill, Mews routes the payment to that bill. If the items covered by the extent have been split into different bills, Mews routes the payment to Unpaid items/ Deposits for your property to review and allocate correctly.
• In the case of a Virtual Credit Card, Mews always routes VCC payments to the bill that contains the night of the related reservation.

In this article, you can learn about the following steps to route payments automatically:

• Step 1: Set up payment policies
• Step 2: Set up billing automations

Step 1: Set up payment policies

Payment policies allow you to automatically charge a card based on certain triggers, such as arrival or check in times. To ensure Mews automatically routes payments to the correct bill, you need to set up payment policies:

1. In Mews Operations, go to the main menu   > Settings > Policies.
2. In the Payment tab, click + Create policy.
3. Complete the following fields:
   • Name: Enter the name of the payment policy.
   • Payment policy key: Enter a unique code to track the policy across other properties.
   • Amount: Click Percentage and enter the percentage of the total booking value you want to charge. For example, enter 100% for full payments.
   • Timing: Determine when you want the system to process the payment. You first need to select the event that initiates the payment, then you can adjust the timing.
     1. In the drop-down, click to select the event that initiates the payment:
        • Confirmation: Process payment once you or your guest confirm the reservation.
        • Arrival date: Process payment on date of arrival at midnight.
        • Check-in time: Process payment on date of arrival at the official check in time.
        • Departure date: Process payment on date of departure at midnight.
        • Check-out time: Process payment on date of departure at the official check out time.
     2. Enter the time adjustment in days, hours or minutes to modify the event time you chose above.
     3. Click to select when the adjustment should apply:
        • Before: To apply the time adjustment before the event.
        • After: To apply the time adjustment after the event.
   • Method: Click Charge payment card to automatically charge the credit card on file.
   • Mode: Click Automatic to automatically process the payment or preauthorization.
4. Click Create.
5. Repeat steps 1 to 5 for any additional payment policies you want to create.

This sets up a payment policy. You can now set up your billing automations.

Step 2: Set up billing automations

Billing automations enable you to set up rules to automatically create and assign bills to owners. Setting up billing automation helps minimize the number of payments the system stores in Unpaid items/ Deposits. However, if you manually create a second bill, Mews still routes the payment to the correct bill.

To set up billing automations:

1. In Mews Operations, go to the main menu   > Settings > Property > Finance > Billing automations.
2. Click + Create automation.
3. Enter the following details:
   • Name: Enter the name of the automation, for example, ‘NovaCon 2025 F&B billing’. Note: Mews recommends against using generic names such as ‘Rule 1.’
   • Description: Enter a description of the automation.
   • Timing: Click to select:
     • Continuously to trigger the automation every time you or your guest change the reservation. This is active from booking until check out.
     • Monthly to trigger the automation once a month.
   • Bookable services: Click the slider switch for any services you want to include in the automation, then check the boxes to select which items you want to include in the billing automation.
   • Additional services: Click the slider switch for any services you want to include in the automation, then check the boxes to select which items you want to include in the billing automation.
   • Conditions: Click the slider switch for any conditions or rates you want to include in the automation.
   • Target bill: Click to select who is responsible for paying for the items the system moves, such as Guest bill or Company bill.
   • Guest profile: Click to select where the system moves the billing items to, such as Reservation owner or Selected guest profile.
     • Click Create a separate bill for each reservation.
4. Click Create.
5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 for any additional billing automations you want to create.

This sets up a billing automation and minimizes the items and payments the system routes to unpaid items and deposits.