Stayntouch PMS
Release Notes (v1.30)
Effective: 1 February 2017
PRODUCT ENHANCEMENTS
Hello team,
We are excited to announce the following updates to Stayntouch PMS. Take note of the Direct Bill improvements as well as the additional enhancements below.
Thank you,
The Stayntouch Team
The following improvements have been made to our Direct Bill functionality and apply when (1) making a Direct Bill payment or (2) during checkout (which includes reservations with or without a balance).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Direct Bill Improvements
- Action Manager Report
- Reservation by User Report
- Move a Group
- Arrival, Departure, and In-House Reports
- Interfaces
- Canadian Currency
Direct Bill Improvements
(1) Company / Travel Agent Required
- Direct Bill can ONLY be selected as a payment method if a Travel Agent or Company Card is attached to the reservation.
(2) Make a Payment with the Pay Button
- Users can now select the PAY button (green wallet icon on the Guest Bill page) to initiate a Direct Bill payment.
(3) Amount to Pay Restrictions
- When making a payment, the Amount to Pay value cannot be edited. This amount represents the entire balance for the selected bill. Note that by selecting Direct Bill as the payment type, the bill will be transferred to Accounts Receivables.
(4) Payment Cannot Be Reversed
- A new popup window displays the following message: Paying to Direct Bill will close this Bill and transfer all transactions to A/R. Payment cannot be reversed.
- It's important to point out that once the Direct Bill payment has been processed, the payment cannot be reversed or undone.
(5) Guest Bill View
- Once the Direct Bill payment has been processed, a Direct Bill payment transaction note and the balance amount will show on the expanded view of the guest’s bill. The balance for the bill will be $0.00.
(6) Bill Window Disabled
- After a Direct Bill payment has been processed, that bill window will NO longer be editable.
- A Moved to A/R note displays on the bill window.
- The Add Charge button is disabled.
- Additional payments cannot be made.
- Charges can no longer be moved, transferred, or edited.
- If routing exists for this bill window with charges still pending to be posted, a new bill window will automatically be used for these pending charges.
Action Manager Report
- The ability to view actions assigned to groups has been added to the Action Manager Report.
- Users may choose to sort the report by groups, individual guests, or both types of reservations. By default, the both setting will be selected for this report.
- Additionally, a new filter allows users to view actions based on the department assigned the action.
- The print version of this report will only include the details selected in the report’s configuration settings.
Reservation by User Report
- The following new filters have been added to the Reservation by User Report:
- Options > Include New. This is the option to view newly created reservations and will be selected by default.
- Room Type
- Market Source
- Origin
- Segment
- Guarantee Type(s) > Undefined. This field is used to categorize reservations that have not been assigned a reservation/guarantee “type” during creation (common examples include: credit card guaranteed, deposit received, deposit requested, etc.).
Move a Group
- When a group is moved (change of date) and routing instructions are set for the group, the following popup window appears: Billing Information exists for this group - please review routing dates. Simply select OK to proceed.
- Users may wish to review the group’s bill routing details to verify the date range (Manage Groups > Summary > Billing Information).
Arrival, Departure, and In-House Reports
The following enhancements are now present in the Arrival, Departure, and In-House Guests Reports:
- New: The Company, Travel Agent, and/or Group name displays when attached to a reservation.
- New: There is now a Guest Card notes filter (labeled Incl Guest Notes) in the report parameters. Any Guest Card notes will appear in the report (along with the reservation notes [i.e. Stay Card notes]) when Incl Guest Notes is selected.
- Update: A label was changed from Include Notes to Incl Res. Notes - referring to notes added to the guest’s Stay Card.
- Update: All of the above changes have been applied to the Reports Scheduler, to ensure the same information/data is shown regardless of whether the user is running a report OR viewing a scheduled report.
Interfaces
- Lightspeed: To improve performance, Stayntouch PMS now receives and processes financial transactions from Lightspeed in a batch grouping.
- Lightspeed: Stayntouch PMS now supports linking multiple restaurants to a single hotel via Lightspeed. A user will activate the Lightspeed interface, add the generic Stayntouch partner credentials, and create the two or more restaurants respectively. When setting up the restaurants, the user will now also link the company ID (provided by Lightspeed) to each restaurant. Set up occurs in Settings > Interfaces > Lightspeed POS > Configure Restaurants.
- Cubilis: During initial setup with Cubilis, Stayntouch PMS can run a full sync for ARI data to the CRS. This is also useful in cases where data is out of sync between the PMS and CRS. Locate the sync tool in Settings > Interfaces > Central Revenue System > Cubilis.
Canadian Currency
- Hotels may now be configured for Canadian currency. The currency symbol is $.