Charging a meal to a guest's room

Hospitality · checked 2026-11-08

This guide is for the person who keeps the accounts at a hotel. It sets up a Room Charge tile on the till of the hotel's restaurant or bar. A guest signs the bill, the server takes it on the tile, and the charge waits on its own account until you pass it to the hotel's books.

The tile needs no app. A hotel with no link to its hotel system reads the day's list and types each charge into the hotel system by hand. To check the room at Checkout and send the charge to the guest's bill by itself, add the Room charge app as well.

Do the steps in Desk, as a user who may change the chart of accounts, payment methods and till profiles.

Making the account

Each room charge first waits on an account of its own. After each day's close, you can see there what the hotel still owes the restaurant.

1. Open Chart of Accounts, choose your company, and open the group Current Assets.
2. Add an account named Room charges clearing. Leave Account Type blank, so that it is not a receivable, payable, bank or cash account.

Making the Room Charge tile

1. Search Desk for Mode of Payment and make a new one named Room Charge.
2. Set Type to Custom.
3. Under Accounts, add your company. In Default Account, type the account's full name with your company's short code, such as Room charges clearing - ABC, and press Tab. The list shows only bank and cash accounts, so this one is not offered.
4. Keep every setting below off or blank, so the tile books exactly the amount of the bill.

Putting the tile on the till

1. Search Desk for POS Profile and open the register of the restaurant or bar.
2. Under Payment Methods, add a row for Room Charge and tick Allow In Returns. The till shows the tile because of this row, and the tick lets a return go back to the room.
3. In Receipt Footer, type the line the guest signs, such as Room ____ Name ____ Signature ____. It prints on the till's standard receipt, on every sale and return at this register, so use a register of its own if the outlet also sells to people who are not staying.
4. Save the profile.

A dish can be returned only if its item has Returnable ticked. Return Days is optional: a number limits the return to that many days after the sale, and blank means no limit. Tick Returnable on your dishes if you want to correct a charge at the till.

The guest's tax invoice

Decide this once for each country you work in. Either the till's own receipt or the hotel's bill can be the guest's tax invoice. If you use the hotel's bill, ask the hotel for a charge code that does not count as revenue there, so that one bill's revenue sits in one place.

Taking a room charge

1. On the check, the server presses Checkout.
2. The server taps Room Charge and types the room and the guest's name in the Transaction number box, such as 412 Smith.
3. The server presses Take.

Type a smaller amount on the tile to put part of a bill on the room. The till then lets the guest pay the rest by card. A sale charges one room: when a table splits across rooms, ring each room as its own sale.

The tile needs a connection. When the till is offline, take cash or a card on the bank's own machine, or write the room on a paper slip for the front desk.

The day's list

Save one report to read each day's charges.

1. Search Desk for POS Invoice and switch the list to Report view.
2. From the Menu, choose Pick Columns. Under Sales Invoice Payment, tick Mode of Payment, Amount and Remarks.
3. Add three filters:
   • Mode of Payment equals Room Charge.
   • Date, with the condition Timespan, and the value Today.
   • Document Status equals Submitted.
4. From the Menu, choose Show Totals, then Save As, and name it Day list of room charges.

Check the report's total against the Room Charge line on the day's close.

Clearing the account each day

After the day's close, make one entry for what has reached the guests' bills. With no app, that is the charges you typed into the hotel system. With the Room charge app, it is the charges marked Posted.

With the app, filter its report by Posted on and Status Posted, so a charge that waited overnight is in the next entry.

After this entry, Room charges clearing shows only the charges that have not reached a guest's bill yet. A charge the hotel refuses stays on the account until you settle it another way: a card on file, another room, or your own bad-debt account. Debit that account and credit Room charges clearing.

Two refused rows need no entry. A sale canceled in Desk took itself off the account, unless it was already in a day's clearing entry: then reverse that part. A refused sale and its return cancel out on the account.

Correcting a charge

Open the sale in the till's Returns and refund it to Room Charge. Then make the sale again with the right room. With no app, also take the charge off the guest's bill in your hotel system. With the Room charge app, the return takes it off by itself.

With the Room charge app, an exchange of a room-charged sale is refused. Return it and make the sale again.

Linking your hotel system

The Room charge app, in the App library, works with this same tile. It can connect to Mews. A partner, or your own developers, can connect it to OPERA Cloud, Cloudbeds or another hotel system.

Setting up the app

After you install the app:

1. Search Desk for IVENDNEXT RMC Settings and add one row for each store that charges to rooms.
2. Choose your Hotel system. In Connection, type the details your hotel system gives you, one per line, as name=value. For Mews, these are client_token, access_token and service_id.
3. For Charge code, use a code from your hotel system that does not count as revenue there. For Tip code, use the hotel's tip code. Leave Mode of payment as Room Charge.
4. Give your night auditor the role IVENDNEXT RMC Auditor. Without this role the auditor cannot open the list.

What the server does

1. The server opens Sale details and types the room in Room and the surname in Guest, and any tip in Tip. The app fills Folio: leave it empty.
2. The server presses Checkout. If the room and name fit a guest, the server taps Room Charge and presses Take.
3. If they do not fit, the tile is dimmed and the till shows the reason. Ask the guest again, or take a card.

If the hotel system does not answer, the till asks the server whether to charge the room anyway. The sale goes on, and the charge is sent when the hotel system answers.

The sale is recorded on the till first. The charge reaches the guest's bill within about a minute, or two when your site is busy.

A tip goes to the guest's bill on your tip code. iVendNext books nothing for it, so the tips report does not show it.

What the night auditor does

Search Desk for Room charges and open the workspace IVENDNEXT RMC Room charges. Its dashboard shows the counts: everything posted, and what is waiting or refused now.

Waiting charges are sent again every minute, so the auditor does nothing for them.

For each refused charge, the auditor opens it and reads what the hotel system said. Before settling it another way, check the guest's bill in the hotel system, because a charge marked never answered may already be on it. Then settle it as described in Clearing the account each day, tick Done, and write in Note how it was settled.

What leaves your iVendNext

The app sends your hotel system the room, the guest's surname, the amount of each charge, the receipt number and any tip. It keeps nothing itself: every record stays in your iVendNext.

The app is free to install. It runs every minute, which needs a hosting plan, and CitiXsys carries that plan's charge for the listed app. A partner who hosts a copy carries the charge for the copy.

Hiding the room details where they are not needed

The Room charge app adds four details to the till's Sale details sheet: Room, Guest, Folio and Tip. To keep them off the till of an outlet that is not part of the hotel:

1. In Desk, search for POS Studio and open the theme that outlet's till uses.
2. Open the Fields tab and add a row for each detail. Choose Sale details for Screen, the detail's name for Field, and hide for Action.
3. Press Save as a new theme. On that outlet's POS Profile, choose the new theme in Theme (Till, Tablet and Phone). A theme you made yourself saves in place.

A till follows a theme change at its next sign-in or reload.