Mews links bill items to profiles, not to reservations. You use the Billing screen to keep track of customer bills by recording the products and services you provide. 

 

Mews automatically applies billing automation to every reservation. This automation creates a separate bill for each reservation group and routes all items directly to the correct bill. You do not need to move items manually unless you want to separate the charges onto different bills. You can use the custom billing automation to move bills automatically in more complex situations, for example, night costs belong to the Online Travel Agency while all other costs belong to the guest. 

 

You can access the Billing screen in the following two ways:

• From the customer profile, open the Billing tab.
• From the Reservations management screen,
  • click on the dollar  icon, or
  • click on the Status tab and then click on the Billing button

In this article, you can learn about:

• Using the billing screen
  • Labels
  • The Unpaid items / Deposits section

Using the Billing screen

The billing screen shows you an overview of all items that a customer or a group orders and consumes. 

Note:

• You group items by month or by reservation within a bill. Use the drop-down menu in the top left corner to change how Mews displays items.
• The billing screen shows each item with the assigned night. If you set a product for later consumption, such as after midnight or on the reservation’s last day, the consumption date on the invoice differs from the assigned date shown in the billing screen.

Labels

On the billing screen, you can see various labels on the bill summary, such as:

• Associated: Mews displays the associated profile for the bill, if any.
• Reservation status:
  • Past: This label next to the accommodation bill item indicates the charge relates to a past reservation. 
  • Future: This label next to the accommodation bill item indicates the charge relates to a future reservation. This indicates Mews posted this revenue for the relevant future dates, and the item is not yet consumed. Note: If a guest arrives on the morning of the 28th of December, Mews shows that the item consumption was on 27th and not the 28th.
  • To check in: Shows that the guest has not yet arrived and the reservation is scheduled to start today or soon. 
  • Checked in: : Confirms that the guest has arrived and the reservation is in progress. 
  • Cancelled: Indicates that the reservation is cancelled. Use this label to identify bills linked to cancelled stays. 
• Arrival: If there is a reservation associated with the bill, Mews displays the arrival date.
• Departure: When a guest is due to checkout, It is an indication that you need to settle the outstanding balance.
• A label with a number: This label displays the number of items listed on a bill. 

Note:

• You can delete the empty bills using   next to the Empty label.
• You can click to compelte the following actions;
  • Rename bill: Rename the bill.
  • Action log: View the list of changes and actions for the bill.
  • Change owner: Change the owner of the bill. 
  • Change associated profile: Change the profile associated with the bill. 
     

The Unpaid items / Deposits section

Mews automatically routes all items and payments to bills using billing automation. If you add an item or payment and do not link it to reservation, Mews places it in the Unpaid items / Deposits section. The system also routes automated payments to Unpaid items / Deposits if it cannot match the payment to a bill.

 

For example, if a payment policy has taken payments for two nights and you split the nights into two separate bills, the system routes the payments to Unpaid items / Deposits as it cannot determine which of the two bills it should route the payment to.

 

This section identifies items which need a manual review as the system cannot determine the correct bill.

 

In this section, you:

• Track items Mews cannot automatically assign to a bill.
• Convert the Unpaid items / Deposits section into a bill by clicking Preview.
• Move items to one or more bills.

Note: Unpaid items cannot be associated with a different profile. To associate a profile with the items or change the owner, move the items to a bill.