Visitor Tabular Ledger(VTL) and Hints for writing up Visitor Tabular Ledger

Visitor tabular ledger is a ledger which is prepared for all hotel visitors i.e guests who checks -in. It is prepared by front office cashier. It keeps record of all transactions of guest during his/her stay in hotel. All the transactions of guest for a day from different point of sales are recorded in column. It is prepared each night. It is replaced by computarized software.

Importance of visitor Tabular Ledger :-

1. It shows total sales of hotel for a particular day.

2. It shows total sales of of each outlets for a day in hotel. Thus , we will know performance of each outlets

3. It also shows facilities and services used by guest his stay in a hotel.

4. It shows cash and credit balance of guest

5. It also shows balance of guest transferred to city ledger

6. It helps to know spending capacity of guest 

7. It is also easy and economical and showed cash paid by guest and discount offered.

Front office accounting separates receivable accounts in :-

1. Guest ledger :- It contains details of all financial transactions between resident guest and hotel. It is maintain at front office and records all financial transactions of guests. There is separate guest ledger maintained for each guest and updated , monitored time to time . It is reviewed by night auditor. 

2. City ledger :- It is called non - guest register which is maintained by accounting divison. It is collection of non - guest ledger. If guest account is not settled at full in Departure , the balance is transferred from guest ledger to city ledger. e.g the guest paying from credit card , travel agency voucher, skipper account. Outstanding credit are collected in city ledger. It also contain agencies to whom hotel provides credit facilities

Some disadvantages of visitor Tabular Ledger are ;-

1. It is very time consuming in large hotels

2. Big transaction are difficult to handle and chance of wrong posting.

3. Similarly , the record is difficult to store for long time .

Hints For writing up visitor tabular ledger

The following points may be useful for a person writing up Daily visitor Tabular Ledger :-

1. Use Ink and not pencil or ball point pen

2. Use capital letters for writing names of the guest

3. The information regarding Room number, pax , plan , Rate should be written as soon as guest account is opened.

4. The writing should be clear and legible

5. Write in small but clear figure when charging several item on same room number

6. Do not use noughts. Put dashes instead of nought

7. A complete VTL has two sides ,one debit and other credit. 

•  If the guest is to be charged for meals/articles/ sales tax , write amount in debit  side in customer account. e.g if guest is to be charge for laundry , write amount on debit side in laundry column.

• If guest make payment write it in the credit side in cash deposit column

• If allowance is given, write it in credit side in allowance column

• If the guest checks out without settling his bill the amount has to be collected either from his office , write it in credit side

• If other person is willing to pay his bill write amount on credit side in transfer column.

8. Find the total of the credit side

9. Charge guest all tax if it has not been posted during checkout

10. It should be neat, clean and free from errors

11. Check for airthmetical accuracy