What is in a hotel night audit report — and which pages actually matter to an owner
Every property management system prints a bundle of reports when the night audit closes. Owners receive it by email and rarely open it — because it is written for the auditor, not for them. This is what is in it.
What the night audit does
At a fixed time each night — usually between 2 am and 4 am — the PMS "rolls the date": it posts room and tax to every in-house folio, closes the business day, and prints a set of reports summarising what happened. In modern cloud systems this runs automatically; the overnight clerk's job is to check the results, post anything the system could not decide on its own (no-shows, adjustments, late charges), balance the drawer, and settle the card batch.
The report bundle — the "pack" — is the record of that night. It is emailed to whoever the hotel has configured, typically the GM, sometimes the owner.
The sections, and who they are for
| Section | What it shows | Who uses it |
|---|---|---|
| Journal / transaction closeout | Every posting by transaction code: room, tax, phone, market, adjustments, payments | Accountant; owner (totals) |
| Ledger summary | Guest ledger, city (direct-bill) ledger and deposit ledger: opening, charges, payments, closing | Accountant; owner (does it balance) |
| Statistics / manager's report | Rooms sold, occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, month-to-date and year-to-date | Owner, GM |
| Arrivals, departures, in-house | Who came, who left, who is in the building | Front desk, housekeeping |
| No-show and cancellation reports | Reservations that did not arrive or were cancelled, with times and users | Owner — this is where money leaks |
| Adjustments / corrections | Every negative posting: code, amount, folio, clerk, time | Owner — the other place money leaks |
| Rate variance / rate overrides | Rooms charged a rate different from the rate plan, and who changed it | Owner, revenue manager |
| Shift / cashier reconciliation | Cash taken per shift against the drawer count; over/short | GM; owner (the streak) |
| Tax exempt | Folios not charged tax, and the reason | Accountant; owner (liability) |
| Credit card log / batch | Card transactions, refunds, batch total | Accountant |
| Housekeeping / room status | Every room's state: clean, dirty, occupied, out of order | Housekeeping; owner (rooms slept in off the books) |
| Direct bill / AR aging | Companies that owe you, by age | Accountant, owner |
| Rate-code and source rollups | Revenue by rate plan and booking channel | Revenue, commission reconciliation |
The six pages an owner should care about
- Journal total vs ledger charges. They must match to the cent. If they do not, nothing else on the pack is trustworthy that night.
- Adjustments. Every negative posting, especially on folios that have already checked out, and especially without an approval line.
- Cancellations with times. A guaranteed booking cancelled after its arrival date is a no-show that was never charged.
- No-shows. Listed vs charged.
- Rate overrides. Who changed a rate, from what to what, and whether it was below your floor or a contract.
- Shift reconciliation. Not the number on any one night — the pattern. A drawer that is exactly $0.00 over/short for thirty nights is not being counted.
How long it takes to read properly
A 73-page choiceADVANTAGE pack takes an experienced auditor 30–45 minutes to read against the six checks above. For five hotels, that is a morning. No owner does it, and no GM has the time — which is why the pack goes unread and the clerk knows it.
See what your desk did last night
Forward one night's audit pack to packs@watchmydesk.com. We reply with what we would have told you that morning — no account, no card, no call.
Send one night's pack