We’ve redesigned how Mews tracks financial activity to give you real-time visibility, audit-ready accuracy, and fully automated daily reconciliation - without manual work or night audit stress.

 

To access all ledgers:

In Mews Operations, go to the main menu   > Finance > Ledgers.

 

This article covers:

• What’s new in Ledgers and Trial balance
• The three core Ledgers
• How the Trial balance supports financial accuracy
• How to use the new Ledgers and Trial balance by role
• Configurable business day
• Associated changes

 

What’s new in Ledgers and Trial balance

Mews now posts all financial activity—charges, payments, taxes, and credits—automatically and in real-time into dedicated ledgers. These postings are immutable: they can’t be edited or overwritten. Any correction creates a new entry, maintaining a clean and traceable audit trail.

You also now get access to a daily Trial balance, which summarizes the balances in each ledger and helps you reconcile more confidently - without manual exports or late-night number crunching. The report aligns with your configurable business day. The system posts transactions based on your operational close time, not the clock.

 

The three core Ledgers

1. Deposit ledger

Tracks payments received before a stay or service is consumed (prepayments).

• Example: A guest pays a deposit one week before arrival or before a scheduled spa treatment.
• These funds are considered a liability until the stay or service is delivered.

2. Guest ledger

Tracks all charges and payments for guests who have checked into your property.

• Example: During a stay, room charges, breakfast, and minibar items are recorded in the guest ledger.
• This ledger shows consumed charges and payments to date - giving a live view of what the guest owes at any point during their stay.

3. City ledger

Tracks invoiced balances not yet settled, typically billed to companies, travel agencies, or long-stay guests.

• Example: An invoice issued to a corporate client during or after the stay, depending on the billing setup.
• This ledger represents your property’s accounts receivable. Once you issue an invoice, the system records the balance here, regardless of the checkout status.

Each ledger has its own tab in the Ledgers screen and can be filtered by date, profile, bill owner, and more.

 

How the Trial balance supports financial accuracy

The Trial balance is your daily financial snapshot, giving a full summary of:

• Revenue
• Non - revenue items (e.g. taxes, adjustments)
• Payments
• Balances in each ledger
• Total hotel financial position

Mews automatically generates the report at the end of your configured business day, reflecting all activity as of that time. The data is locked (immutable) based on posting date to ensure audit integrity.

• Where to find it: In Mews Operations, go to the main menu   > Finance > Ledgers > Trial balance.
• Export formats: Excel or PDF.
• Historical views: Use the date picker to access any past business day’s report.

 

How to use the new Ledgers and Trial balance by role

Accountants

• Use the Trial balance for daily, monthly, and year-end reconciliation.
• Access the Ledger activity report for a detailed transaction-level view.
• Export immutable data for audit, tax, and external accounting needs.

Receptionists & Front Desk

• Use the Guest ledger to see what guests owe instantly - no need to check individual bills.
• Check the Deposit ledger to confirm prepayments before check-in or service delivery.
• Reduce billing surprises at checkout and answer guest questions faster.

General Managers

• Monitor daily balances and performance across all ledgers in real time.
• Gain visibility into unpaid invoices or large deposit liabilities.
• Trust that the system handles daily financial closure without manual intervention.

 

Configurable business day

To help you manage financial reporting and reconciliation in your property you can ensure your reports and ledgers accurately reflect real-life activity by defining your business day to include transactions that happen after midnight—such as outlet charges or late check-ins. You complete this setup in your property settings in Mews Operations to avoid mismatches between expected and reported revenue, or when your operations often run late into the night.

Once configured, Mews uses your defined business day closing time to group and calculate charges and revenue across reports and ledgers. This ensures more accurate tracking of operational activity, especially if it continues into the early morning.

Key outcomes: 

• Charges posted after midnight but before your closing time are reported as part of the previous business day 

• Revenue aligns better with actual operations (e.g. late restaurant charges, no-show check-ins) 

• The Manager report and ledgers use the same logic, reducing reconciliation effort 

• You can view the parameters used by the Manager report in the export under the Parameters tab. 

 

Associated changes

As part of this rollout,

• The Accounting report and its export file will now be renamed to Order items report to better reflect its function in the new ledger system.
• Linking payments to reservations will be removed — payments will now be automatically associated with items in the same bill.
• You will still have full access to the original Accounting ledger through the link on the new Ledgers screen.
• If you manually upload data to your accounting system, use the Ledger activity report export for detailed transactions — currently available for manual download, with scheduled exports coming soon.