Taking payments is a crucial part of the job for any staff member. Whether settling a guest's bill via Mews Terminal, capturing a preauthorized payment, or resolving a payment that didn't go through, handling payments accurately and efficiently is essential.

Depending on the payment methods that the property accepts, customers can make payments with:

• Card, via online payment or payment via Mews Terminal,
• Cash, or
• External payment type, for example, a cheque or wire transfer

In Mews Operations, staff members can take and resolve payments at any stage of the customer's visit from the following two tabs in the customer's profile:

• Payments tab
• Billing tab

• Take a payment and settle a bill 
  • Settle a bill with card via Mews Terminal
  • Settle a bill with card via payment gateway
  • Settle a bill with cash or cheque or wire transfer
• Take payment without settling the bill
• Capture a preauthorized payment
• Issue an invoice
• Resolve
  • A payment that didn't go through
  • A wrong bill for which the customer needs a refund
• Automatic payment

Take a payment and settle a bill 

If a bill is ready for settlement, you can take payment specifically for that bill.
 

Settle a bill with card via Mews Terminal

1. Open the customer's profile.
2. Go to the Billing tab. Find the bill you want to settle.
3. Click Process payment.

 

4. Select Terminal.

 

 

5. Review the payment details and make any necessary changes. Mews automatically pre-fills payment details, such as the amount.
6. Click Submit.

Settle a bill with card via payment gateway

1. Open the customer's profile.
2. Go to the Billing tab. Find the bill you want to settle.
3. Click Process payment.

 

4. Select Online payment.

 

5. Review the payment details and make any necessary changes. Mews automatically pre-fills payment details, such as the amount.
6. Click Submit.

Settle a bill with cash or cheque or wire transfer

1. Open the customer's profile.
2. Go to the Billing tab. Find the bill you want to settle.
3. Click next to Process payment.

 

4. Select Add external payment.
5. Select one of the following:
   • Cash payment.
   • External payment.

6. Review the payment details and make any necessary changes. Mews automatically pre-fills payment details, such as the amount. Note:

• • If you select Cash payment, you can,
    • choose your desired cashier from the Cashier drop-down menu.
    • add any additional information to the Notes field.
  • If you select External payment, you can,
    • choose the desired payment method from the Type drop-down menu.
    • store a unique identification code to map with other systems by adding an External identifier.
    • add any additional information to the Notes field.

7. Click Submit.

Take payment without settling the bill

1. Open the customer's profile.
2. Go to the Payments tab. To take the payment:

• With a card already on file:
  1. Under Payments, click Process payment.
  2. Select one of the following:
     • Online payment.
     • Terminal.

1. 1. 3. Review the payment details and make any necessary changes.
      4. Click Submit.

• With cash or external payment:
  1. Under Payments, click next to Process payment.
  2. Select Add external payment
  3. Select one of the following:
     • Cash payment.
     • External payment.
  4. Review the payment details and make any necessary changes.
  5. Click Submit.

3. Mews lists the payment under Unpaid items on the Billing tab.
4. When you're ready to settle the bill, move the payment to an open bill.

Capture a preauthorized payment

If payment is preauthorized, you can "capture" the funds on hold in the customer's bank account as below:

1. Open the customer's profile.
2. Go to the Billing tab. Find the bill with the preauthorized payment.
3. Click Process payment.
4. Mews displays the Process payment side-window. Choose from the following options:
   • To capture the preauthorization with a card via Mews Terminal or payment gateway, click Charge guest. Then click Online Payment or Terminal.
5. If preauthorizations are available, Mews displays the Preauthorization field. Note: Mews pre-fills the Preauthorization field with the preauthorization closest to expiration.
6. Click to select the desired preauthorization from the drop-down menu. Note: The drop-down displays:
   • All preauthorizations, even if multiple preauthorizations are on the same card.
   • Only Chargeable status preauthorizations.
7. Verify the Amount, Currency and add any additional payment information in the fields. Note:
   • You can only enter an amount equal to or below the preauthorization amount.
   • Mews displays the Currency field as read-only.
8. Click Submit.
9. Mews then displays the payment as Charged status in the reservation bill.

Issue an invoice

If you don't want to take payment yet, you can finalize a bill by issuing an invoice to be paid at a later date.

 

Note: To issue an invoice, the customer or company profile must have the Invoicable option enabled. If this option is not enabled, the Issue invoice button is not visible.

 

1. Open the customer's profile.
2. Go to the Billing tab.
3. Next to the bill you want to settle, click Issue invoice.
4. Review the invoice details.
5. Click Issue invoice.

Resolve

A payment that didn't go through

If a payment wasn't successfully processed, Mews lists it as a payment attempt in the system. To see the details of the failed payment:

1. Open the customer's profile.
2. Go to the Payments tab.
3. Under Payment attempts, find the failed payment. If the payment failed because there was something wrong with the card it was made with, the card is disabled.
4. Scroll up to the Payment methods section to see if the system has marked the customer's card with the status Disabled.

A wrong bill for which the customer needs a refund

If you need to refund a customer, you have to correct the mistakes on their bill first.

To refund the customer:

1. Open the customer's profile.
2. Go to the Payments tab.
3. Under Payments, find the charged payment.
4. To refund the payment, click next to the value amount.
5. Choose Refund.
6. Enter the Refundable amount and Reason.
7. Click Refund.

The card refund then appears under Payments.

 

To view the card refund details, including the Acquirer Reference Number (ARN):

1. Under Payments, click the card refund in the Type column.

The Card refund screen displays the following details:

• Customer: The name of the customer.
• Created: The date and time of refund.
• Status: The payment status of the refund.
• Amount: The amount refunded.
• ARN: The Acquirer Reference Number. Share this with your customer to help them trace the refund at their bank.

 

Automatic payments

Automatic payments trigger a message that displays at the very top of the Payments tab, highlighting automatic payments and preauthorizations scheduled for the future.



The message indicates the payments can be reviewed in the 'Scheduled payments & preauthorizations' table. The table gives additional information regarding Reservation number, Rule, Type and Scheduled date and time.