profitsage software forecasting & budgeting manual

ProfitSage® Software

Forecasting & Budgeting Manual May, 2013

Notice: This manual describes the screens and functionality available on the ProfitSage demonstration website as of the time this manual was last updated. A particular cus-tomer’s screens and functionality may differ from this manual due to customizations made to their ProfitSage system. Copyright

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Forecasting & Budgeting Manual 2

Forecasting & Budgeting Manual

Table of Contents

Budgeting/Forecasting Overview ........................................... 4

Budgeting & Forecasting Concepts ......................................... 5

Flexible Views ................................................................................. 5

Column Views ................................................................................. 5

Drivers (Units, Ratios, Hours, Stats & Rates) ........................... 7

Units .............................................................................................. 9

Ratios .......................................................................................... 10

Hours ........................................................................................... 11

Stat ............................................................................................. 12

Rate ............................................................................................ 13

Amount / Wages ........................................................................... 14

Time-Based Budgeting and Forecasting Views ........................ 16

Day View ...................................................................................... 16

Days View .................................................................................... 17

Day by Day View ........................................................................... 18

Month View ................................................................................... 19

12 Months View ............................................................................. 20

Plan View ..................................................................................... 21

Actions Column ............................................................................. 23

Daily Table vs. Monthly Table in ProfitSage ............................ 25

Budgeting/Forecasting Comparison Views .............................. 25

Actual/Defs (Actual/Definites) ......................................................... 26

Act+Cmts/Defs+Tents.................................................................... 27

Commits/Tents (Commitments / Tentatives) .................................... 28

Actuals Only ................................................................................. 29

Act / FC ( Actuals / Forecast ) ......................................................... 29

Budget ......................................................................................... 30

Last Month ................................................................................... 30

Last Year ...................................................................................... 32

2 Years Ago .................................................................................. 32

Current YTD .................................................................................. 32

Commentary ................................................................................. 33


Comparison View Calculation Columns .................................. 34

Remaining to Be (RTB) ................................................................... 34

Variance ....................................................................................... 36

Spread Options .................................................................. 37

Flat .............................................................................................. 37

LYR Account .................................................................................. 38

LYR Total Rooms ........................................................................... 39

Open / Closed Budget ......................................................... 41

Overbooked Room Nights .................................................... 42

Save your Data ................................................................. 44

Glossary of Terms .............................................................. 44

Other Valuable Reference Materials

Please review the Navigating ProfitSage Manual for details on how to navigate the ProfitSage user in-terface.


Budgeting/Forecasting Overview

Budgeting and Forecasting are mission critical business functions within the hospitality industry. Budget-ing allows the user to create an annual plan for revenues, labor, and expenses for all departments in the hotel. The budget can be done on a day-by-day or monthly basis. The user can use drivers, spread features, and various imports to create a complete annual budget from top line to bottom line. On the other hand, forecasting allows a hotel operator to adjust his/her annual plan for revenues, labor and expenses in reaction to the ever changing business environment, on a day-by-day or monthly basis. Forecasting allows the user to create an annual Forecast containing a combination of actual data and a reforecast of the original budget data. The Budgeting and Forecasting functionality in ProfitSage are very similar. This Manual will focus on Budgeting, but most of the concepts are applicable to Forecasting as well. ProfitSage Budgeting functionality allows for the following;

Creation of an annual budget. (Forecasting allows for the modification of the annual Budget on a regular basis)

Budgeting across all departments in the hotel

Budgeting of revenue, payroll, and expense accounts

Creation of “drivers” to increase accuracy of budgeting, and decrease manual effort

Use of various imports from external systems to assist with budget analysis. To access the forecast/budget screens simply click on FC / Budget module from any site.


Budgeting & Forecasting Concepts

Flexible Views

As depicted in Figure 1 below, there are multiple ways to adjust the view / filter of your budget/fore-cast data, allowing for flexibility in the budgeting process.

Column Views

The title of the columns displayed on the budgeting or forecasting screen change depending on what type of accounts you are viewing at the time. This is to assist the user in budgeting/forecasting reve-nue accounts versus labor accounts or cost/expense accounts.

Field Titles change depending on the Account Type selected

Account Type in current view Fields Titles Displayed

All Dept. Accounts and Revenue Accounts Units Ratio Stat Rate Amt

Labor Accounts Units Ratio Hours Rate Wages

Cost/Expense Accounts Units Ratio Amt

Note: As you use the system, the titles of columns will eventually become second nature. It will become obvious what fields you need to enter in order to achieve the desired budget calcula-tion.

Figure 1: Flexible views in Budgeting/Forecasting


Figure 2: Column Variations


Drivers (Units, Ratios, Hours, Stats & Rates)

Units, Ratios, Stats, and Rates are commonly called “drivers” because they help drive the calculation of budget numbers. The use of drivers provides great flexibility and saves time during the budgeting and forecasting process. Examples of drivers:

The budget number for Guest Supplies expense is dependent on the number of Occupied Rooms. If the number of Occupied Rooms changes, you do not have to manually revise the budget for Guest Supplies. Rather, Guest Supplies expense will be “driven” by the number of oc-cupied rooms. In effect, the Guest Supplies expense will “flex” as the number of occupied rooms changes.

The budget number for Commissions Expense is dependent on Room Revenue. If Room Reve-nue changes, you do not have to manually revise the budget for Commissions. Rather, Commis-sions Expense will be “driven” by, or will “flex” as Room Revenue changes.

You do not have to use drivers in the budgeting/forecasting process. You always have the option of man-ually calculating the budgeted amount and hard coding it into ProfitSage. However, the use of drivers can save significant time during the budgeting and forecasting process since these lines will automatically “flex” as the drivers change.


Figure 3: Examples-Units, Ratios, Stat, and Rate


Units A Unit is a number that drives the Ratio to create a numeric result (Unit x Ratio x Rate = Amt.). Note that if a Unit was created for a G/L account in Customize Accounts under Admin menu, the Unit would then appear in this column. Examples of Units

Total number of occupied rooms for a property, which could be associated with various Ra-tios, such as;

o Guest supplies cost per room o Cleaning supplies cost per room ( in example above ) o Room attendant wages ( in example above ) o Local Service phone revenue per room ( in example above ) o Cost of long distance calls per room

Total Rooms Department labor dollars, which could be associated with various Ratios such as;

o PTO cost per Rooms Department labor dollar o Worker’s Comp cost per Rooms Department labor dollar o FICA cost per Rooms Department labor dollar

Total Rooms Department Revenue, which could be associated with various Ratios such as: o Sales commission costs per Rooms Department Revenue dollar

Figure 4: Units


Ratios A Ratio allows the user to enter an amount in this column if a Unit has been assigned. Using Units and Ratios allow the G/L account to automatically update as the Unit is adjusted. (Example – if Oc-cupied Rooms is set as Unit, the line item’s Stat and/or Amt will flex based on Ratio as occupied rooms is modified). A Ratio can have different meanings, depending on the corresponding Unit and the line item you are budgeting or forecasting. For instance:

We want to budget the cost of Guest Supplies. The Unit is total occupied rooms for the prop-erty. In this scenario, the Ratio will be the Cost per occupied Room for Guest Supplies. Unit = 5,000 rooms x Ratio = $2.00 per occupied room = Guest Supply cost of $10,000.

A slightly more sophisticated use of a Ratio is when calculating the cost of Room Attend-ants. Again, the Unit is the number of occupied rooms for the property. The Ratio is the percentage of an hour that it takes the room attendant to service a room. The Rate is the hourly rate of pay for the attendant. Example: Unit = 5,000 occupied rooms x Ratio = 0.50 (50% of an hour, or 30 minutes) X Rate is hard coded at $10.00/ hour = Room Attendant wages of $25,000. Note. To come up with minutes per occupied room, multiply the Ratio X 60.

Types of Ratios

CPOR – cost per occupied room

% of Revenue

% of Payroll

MPOR – Minutes per occupied Room (In ProfitSage it is a percentage of an hour) For labor accounts, you must budget either Ratio and Rate, or Hours and Rate.

Figure 5a: Ratios


Hours Hours multiplied by Rate will drive the calculation of Wages. Hours will be automatically calculated as a result of multiplying the Unit times the Ratio. Or Hours can be manually typed in if you are not using the Unit and Ratio. Hours are only used with Labor accounts. Please note that for a Full Time Employee (FTE), the Unit is considered to be the equivalent of regu-lar hours worked in each month by one employee. Generally, an FTE is estimated to work for 2,080 hours per year (40 hrs per week x 52 weeks) or an average of 5.7 hours per calendar day (2,080 hrs divided by 365 days). This then translates to 177 hours, 171 hours and 160 hours for a 31day month, 30 day month and 28 day month, respectively. Some Time and Attendance software Calculate hours based on 8 hours per weekday. In this case, just count the number of weekdays in each month and multiply by 8 for the FTE total hours/month. The annual total should still sum to 2080.

Figure 4b: Ratios


Each budget season, FTE hours need to be set up in the Budget input screen under Labor and Ref-erence for the upcoming year.

Stat A Stat is multiplied by a Rate and calculates the budget amount of a line item.In the Rooms Depart-ment, the Stat represents number of rooms. In the Food Department, the Stat represents covers.

Figure 6: Hours

Figure 7: Stats


Rate A Rate in association with Hours or Stats calculates the Amt / Wages of a line item. A Rate may be used with Revenue accounts that utilize Stats such as rooms and food or Labor ac-counts with accompanied Hours. Rates are not used with Cost/Expense accounts.


Amount / Wages Amt and Wages are the dollar amounts budgeted for each line item. All the previous columns (Units, Ratio, Stat, and Rate) contribute to the calculation of the Amt/ Wages. Wages is the title of the Amt for Labor accounts. Drivers are not mandatory in the budgeting/forecasting process. There is the option of manually cal-culating the Amt / Wages and keying it into ProfitSage. However, the use of drivers is HIGHLY rec-ommended as a time saving tool.

Figure 8: Rates


Figure 9: Amt’s and Wages


Time-Based Budgeting and Forecasting Views

Time-Based viewing options (in addition to the Comparison views) provide great insight and flexibility when entering and analyzing your budgets. There are six Time-Based views available as shown below.

Figure 10: Time-Based Views

Day View

Day View is helpful when looking at lines that are set up to forecast/ budget Day by Day, such as room revenue and banquets. This view shows the amounts for the department and account type chosen for just the selected day. When the comparative view is set to last year or last month it will show the closest date with the same day of the week. Lines that are not set to Day by Day will show an even monthly spread amount in the day views and will not be available for modification in these views.

Figure 11: Day View


Days View Days View will show one selected GL line item for each day of the specified month. If the displayed GL line is set as Day by Day in Customize Accounts, modifications are allowed. This is a popular view to forecast and budget Day by Day items.

Figure 12: Days View


Day by Day View

Day by Day View gives the advantage of viewing every account in the selected Dept-Type combina tion such as Room Revenue (All Market Segments) on one screen by day for the entire month. Since the information matrix is so large there are no comparison views (Last Year, Act/Defs, Budget…) available with Day by Day. Also, you can only view one type of data at a time such as Stat, Rate or Amounts. Day by Day and Days View are the most popular way to budget and forecast room revenue. The format of the spreadsheets used to create the budget and forecast plus personal preference should be considered when choosing which view to utilize for this process.

There is a better Day by Day screen that allows you to enter Stats and Rate to calculate revenue all on the same screen. In FC /Budget module there is a Day by Day by Type and a Day by Day menu option under both Forecast – Inputs and Budgets – Inputs as shown in Figure 12. The Day by Day by Type option will bring you to the same screen as Figure 13. The Day by Day menu option will bring you to the screen in Figure 14. This screen is only available for Room Revenues at this time.

Figure 13: Day by Day View


Figure 14: Better Day by Day Screen

Month View

Month View gives you a good overall departmental look at the forecast/ budget. This is a good view to tweak expenses for a month were a better flow through is needed or if one line is overspent and a reduction is needed to offset in other lines. This is also a good view for forecast when you are in the month. The Actual/ Defs comparison view lets you see what has already been posted in ProfitSage. In Figure 15, the Actuals/Defs for both Guest Transportation and Guest Supplies are well above the predicted forecast for the month and the Remaining to Be is negative. This should alert the prop-erty to investigate these two lines and unless there are credits that will be posted to lower the ex-pense, the forecast should be adjusted appropriately.


12 Months View

12 Months view will show selected GL account’s monthly summarized amounts. This allows you to forecast/budget this line for the whole year on one screen. This is the preferred view for budgeting most of the monthly GL lines. Many budget lines are based on last year’s amounts and drivers so Last Year comparative view is very helpful. Actual/Defs is a great comparative view for forecasting once there are several months of actuals in the system. If Cleaning Supplies has been running 5 cents over budget in the first 3 months, the fore-cast may need to be raised for the balance of the forecast.

Figure 15: Month View


If managed correctly, the Commentary section is a good way of memorializing the reasoning that went into the process. This is very helpful when you are trying to remember why you changed some-thing several months down the road and it helps to look at the commentary when preparing next year’s budget.

Figure 16: 12 Months View

Plan View Plan View is only available for clients using the ProfitPlan module. ProfitPlan integrates the Business and Marketing plans along with Executive Summaries and Weekly Commentaries into ProfitSage. Items entered into ProfitPlan will show under Plan View as in Figure 17.


Figure 17: Plan View

Figure 18: Monthly View of Plan Expense.


Actions Column

The Actions column allows you to quickly change to a different Time-Phased Budgeting view. You also have the option of using the drop box on the Menu Bar as shown in the above section.


Figure 19: Actions


Daily Table vs. Monthly Table in ProfitSage It is important to understand the concept of the daily and monthly tables in ProfitSage. These two tables affect the accuracy of different reports in ProfitSage and are directly influenced by the budgeting and fore-casting process.

1. If a revenue account is set up to be budgeted/forecasted on a day by day basis, then changes to the daily table will drive and reconcile to the total in the monthly table. When a hotel runs a PMS or POS import each day, that day’s forecast in the daily data table is over-written with the actual amounts. This is why we often refer to it as an Actual/Forecast. The monthly table is then also updated to match the daily table’s total forecast for the month.

2. If a revenue account is set up to be budgeted/forecasted using a month end total instead of

daily amounts, then the monthly table will drive and reconcile to the daily amounts in the daily table. Daily PMS and POS imports will not affect the month end forecast on an account that is not set up to be forecasted on a day by day basis since the Monthly table drives what the forecast is in the daily table. In this scenario the daily table doesn’t care what the PMS import says. It will wait until someone changes the monthly forecast before adjusting the daily amounts in the forecast.

Budgeting/Forecasting Comparison Views

There are up to 11 Comparison views available. To assist in analyzing data during the budgeting/fore-casting process, ProfitSage offers various Comparison views to be presented on the budgeting and fore-casting screens. The ability to review these comparisons and the resulting variances will help the user an-alyze the logic being used for budgeting/forecasting.

Figure 20: Comparison View Options


Actual/Defs (Actual/Definites)

Note: The “/” (slash character) indicates an “and-or” situation. Either one or both types of data will be displayed. Only Actuals will display in past months. Actuals and Definites will display in current month and only Definites will display in future months. By the title of this option, you will see Actual data coming from the PMS import and Defs data, if you are importing from the sales system.

For rooms and catering accounts, Defs data may be pulled from various sales and revenue subsystems. If the subsystem has the booking flagged appropriately, it will be pulled into ProfitSage as Defs. There may also be Actual amounts imported through the daily income journal for these accounts.

For labor and expense accounts, Actual data will be displayed, there are no Defs being pulled from a subsystem.

Figure 21: Actual/Defs View

Figure 22: Actuals/Defs Drill Down


Act+Cmts/Defs+Tents Actuals + Commitments / Definites + Tentatives

By the title of this option, you could possibly see a combination of these four comparison types.

1. Actuals 2. Commitments 3. Definites 4. Tentatives

Actual data is displayed in any past or current period.

For some clients using a PO system, Commitments may be pulled from the procurement system for any current or future period.

For rooms and catering accounts, Definites data may be pulled from various sales and reve-nue subsystems for any current or future period. If the subsystem has the booking flagged as “commitments” it will be pulled into ProfitSage appropriately.

For group rooms and banquet/catering accounts, Tentative data may be pulled from various sales and revenue subsystems for any current or future period. If the subsystem has the booking flagged as tentative, it will be pulled into ProfitSage appropriately. Examples in-clude group reservations and banquet/catering bookings and events.

For labor and expense accounts, only Actual data will be displayed, there are no Definites or Tentatives being pulled from a subsystem.

Figure 21: Act+Cmt/Defs+Tents View


Commits/Tents (Commitments / Tentatives) This view has the same information as the above view. The difference is that Commits/Tents view has a separate sections for the Tentatives.

Figure 22: Commits / Tents View


Actuals Only This view will only show the Actuals posted for the given month. It will show zeros if used for future periods since there is no actual data available.

Act / FC ( Actuals / Forecast ) Act / FC in the comparison view will show actuals for the months that are set to “Show Actuals” and forecast for the remaining months. This is that same view as Forecast, so when you are in forecast and using this comparative view there will be a zero variance.

Figure 23: Actuals Only

Figure 24: Act/FC View


Budget The Budget Comparison view does not have much value in the Budgeting process, because it cal-culates a zero variance. It is useful in the Forecasting process. After a few months of Actuals are booked, viewing the remainder of the year expense lines compared to budget may offer some fore-casting insight.

Last Month

This comparative view will show data for the same time period of the previous month. The Month view will compare to data for the previous month Act/FC. The Day view, compares data from the same day of the week from the previous month (e.g. Thursday to Thursday), with the clos-est but not the exact date of the month (June 4 to June 4).

Figure 25: Budget View


Figure 26: Last Month View


Last Year Last Year comparison view will show data for the same time period of the previous year. In the Month view you compare to data from the same month of the previous year. In the Day view, you compare to data for the same day of the week of the previous year (e.g. Thursday to Thursday), but not the exact day of the month. Last Year comparison is an excellent view for budgeting the next year as it shows you the current Acts/FC for each line item and many items are budgeted based on previous year’s results.

2 Years Ago Similar to Last Year, but will compare to the data from two years ago.

Current YTD Current YTD Comparative view is only available in the Month and 12 Months views. It does not matter what month you are looking at in the forecast or budget, the Current YTD with show the YTD

Figure 27: Last Year View


Commentary Commentary comparative view will display the Commentary Notes. This option is only available in the Month or 12 Months view. Comments can only be added to open months. Click on the white box in the Commentary section to add, modify or view the full comment. Once month is closed the white box will no longer appear for that month and you will need to reopen the month in order to modify comments.

Figure 28: Current YTD View


Comparison View Calculation Columns

Depending on the comparative view, there are several different calculation columns on the right hand section of the Forecast/ Budget input screen. The Commentary view does not have any calculation columns since there are no amounts to compare.

Remaining to Be (RTB)

Actual/Defs and Act+Cmt/Defs+Tents view both produce a Remaining to Be or RTB column. This column subtracts the amounts in the comparative view from the forecast/budget and calculates the amount needed to be posted in order to equal the forecast/budget amount. This is a great tool to use with the Actuals/Defs view for forecasting when in the month. If the RTB is a negative, that would mean the Actuals/Defs are more than forecasted. Unless there is a credit to be posted, this would alert you to increase that line item.

Also, once Revenue, Payroll or A/P is completely posted, it may be a good idea to match the fore-cast to the Actuals/Defs amount so that the RTB is zero. This will give you a better idea of the bot-tom line before the month is actually final.

Figure 29: Commentary View


You can do this a few ways, but to get the forecast to match exactly to the Actuals/Defs you will need to zero out the Ratio and copy the Actuals/Def amount into the forecast Amt. You can also either copy the Actual/Defs amount into the Forecast Amt without wiping out the Ra-tio or you can enter zero in Remaining to Be. The Ratio will adjust so that the forecast Amt equals the Actual/Defs. When you save using these last two methods there will be some rounding with the Ratios so some of the amounts will be a few dollars off.

Figure 30: Remaining to Be Calculation

Commits/Tent view also gives you the RTB calculations but This view includes columns for both forecast and budget. It has one column calculating the amount of Commits/Tent plus Actual/Defs needed in order to reach forecast and one column calculating the amount needed to reach budget.


Variance All other comparative views show a calculated Variance section which provides valuable infor-mation during the budgeting process. It allows you to analyze the difference between the current forecast or budget and other period amounts. These comparative views include: Actuals Only Budget Act/FC Last Month Last Year 2 Years Ago Current YTD. Variance columns are calculated by taking the forecast or budget and subtracting the comparison amount. A Green Variance amount indicates a favorable variance, while a Red Variance amount indicates an unfavorable variance. ProfitSage takes into account revenues and expenses, and adjusts the color accordingly.

Figure 31: Variance Calculation


Spread Options

Spread can be a timesaver during the budgeting and forecasting process. This feature is only available for those lines that are set up with the Day by Day flag. You will only see the Spread button in the top right corner of the screen on the Days view.

Flat

Monthly numbers can be entered into the forecast or budget for Day by Day lines. This option will automatically use the Flat option spreading the monthly occupied rooms and ADR evenly across each day of the month except the last. The last day of the month includes any occupied room rounding amounts. These numbers can then be modified as needed on the Days screen.

Figure 32: Spread Feature


LYR Account

This option will spread the monthly number based on how the line item performed last year for each day of the month. It other words, it calculates each day’s Stat as a percentage of the monthly Stat for that line item last year. It then multiplies each day’s Stat percentage by the current year monthly Stat for that line item to get the daily Stat numbers. In the example above, Sat., March 2nd 2013 had 26 occupied rooms under Rack out of the total monthly amount of 700 Rack Rooms. 26 divided by 700 = 3.71% of total occupied Rack room was produced on this day. LYR Account will then budget Sat., March 1st 2014 with 3.71% of the total occupied rooms for 2014 Rack Rate segment.

Figure 33: Flat Spread


This option does match up the days of the week when calculating the spread, so if each market seg-ment is spread using LYR Total Rooms, the month’s total daily occupancy will ebb and flow as it did last year between weekdays and weekends as well as the individual market segments.

In the example below, the same monthly occupied rooms and average ADR as Last year’s actuals were budgeted for this year. When the LYR Account option was used to spread the amounts daily, it spread the Stats exactly the same as last year, but using the monthly average ADR for each day. This will produce a zero daily variance for Stats to last year but daily Rates and Amts will vary daily but the monthly totals will also match last year.

LYR Total Rooms This option will spread the monthly number based on total room occupancy last year. There is no consideration given to individual market segments, just the total room occupancy for the corresponding day of the week date form last year.

Figure 34: LYR Account Spread


LYR Total Rooms calculates each day’s percentage of total hotel occupied rooms compared to the total hotel’s monthly occupancy for last year and applies these percentages to the selected market segment’s daily occupancy for current year budget. This option also matches up the days of the week when calculating the spread, so if each market segment is spread using LYR Total Rooms, the month’s total daily occupancy will ebb and flow as it did last year, but the individual market segment fluctuation may vary widely to last year. For example, last year Saturday, March 2nd had 71 total occupied rooms, which correlates to 2.9% of the total monthly occupancy of 2445 rooms. This means that the budgeted rooms for Saturday, March 1st 2014 will equal 2.9% of the total Rack Rate occupancy for March of 700 which equals 20 rooms.

Figure 35: LYR Total Rooms Spread


Open / Closed Budget

Budgets can be open or closed for individual properties. This is controlled in the Site Extras screen under Admin- Sites Extra in the Corporate site. Users must have admin rights in order to access this screen.

Once in this screen, click on the white box next the desired year to toggle between Y (open budget) or N (close budget).

Open budgets can be modified by any user that has access to the Budget screen. If you are in the budget screen and the input cells are white, the budget is open.

Cells with a black background indicate the budget is closed, or the current view does not allow for data entry.

Figure 36: Sites Extra Screen

Figure 37: Open Budget


Overbooked Room Nights In the Days view or the Day view, any day where occupancy exceeds 100% will be highlighted in red. What this means is that you are overbooked on those specific days highlighted in red. To correct this, you may do one of two things:

1. Manually balance your daily bookings (Budget or Forecast) by subtracting room nights from some revenue segments on days that seem overbooked and adding those room nights to revenue segments on other “slower” days. Please note that any corrections should be based on a logical estimation based on your daily booking pace or other projections.

2. Use the Spread feature to smooth out your daily room nights. Please note that you may

need to spread either all your segments or just a few (group bookings are fairly stable/defi-nite and may not need to be spread).

Figure 38: Closed Budget


Figure 39: Days View Overbooking

Figure 40: Day View Overbooking


Save your Data

Please make sure you click “Save” frequently or you may lose your changes.

You must Save before exiting to another screen or logging off ProfitSage.

ProfitSage has a 15 minute “timeout”, and will automatically log you off the system. Any changes since the last Save will be lost

43

Glossary of Terms

Actions column allows user to budget/forecast by day or by month.

Name column is the General Ledger code description

Units column – if a Unit was created for this G/L code in Customize Accounts, the unit would then appear in this column. A Unit is a number that drives the Ratio to create a numeric result

Ratio column allows the user to enter a Ratio amount in this column if a Unit has been assigned

(drivers). Using Units and Ratios allows the G/L code to automatically update as the Unit is ad-justed. (Example – if Rooms Occ. is the Unit, the line item will flex with the Ratio when occupied rooms is updated).

Figure 41: Key Point


Stat column – In the Rooms Department the Stat represents rooms occupied. In the Food De-partment, Stat represents covers.

Rate column – in the Rooms Department the Rate represents ADR. In the Food Department,

Rate represents average check.

Amt (Amount) column equals the Stat multiplied by Rate.

Actuals/Def column are sub-categories of Actual Definite Revenue. This column represents booked tentative, definite, or both types of revenue and is pre-populated by the Sales system im-port and the PMS import.

Remaining To Be (RTB) column allows the user to enter the amount of rooms left to pick up in

each segment and ADR. Revenue will automatically calculate. In addition, the month end amount in the Amt column will also automatically calculate.

Act/FC When this section is showing above the column descriptions, you are looking at fore-

casted data that may be mixed with actual data if you are already into the current month. If you are looking at a future month, you are only looking at a forecast.

Yellow Highlighted words By moving your mouse over certain words or numbers, the words or

information may change to a Yellow color. This means that you can select another option, or drill further into more detail behind the information by clicking on the highlighted section.

<<< Date >>> The arrows on either side of a date allow you to fast forward to the next month or

day or reverse into a previous month or day.

Red Bar = Budget and a Black Bar = Forecast When navigating between forecasting and budgeting modules, the only thing that may look different will be the top bar of the input box. Red for Budget and Black for Forecast.

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