One of the questions we are often asked is "why don't the figures on my reports match?". This article should help clarify what dates are used on various reports, why data may change on a report, and which reports are best for specific job roles.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Understanding dates used on reports
- Interpreting reports for financial reconciliation
- Which report should I use?
Understanding dates used on reports
When you are viewing reports in IBIS, there are multiple dates associated with reservations, point-of-sale transactions and the ledger. The table below explains the various dates we use on different reports and how to interpret them.
| Date | Description | Reports using this date |
|---|---|---|
| Transaction date | The sale date and time of a point of sale (POS) transaction – i.e. the date and time a transaction was paid for and completed. This date only applies to items settled through the point of sale screen. Bookings posted to invoice are not represented in any sales reports. | Sales Point of sale payments Online sales Gift voucher sales Gift voucher redemption Ticket reconciliation |
| Product date | The date/time the reservation product is being delivered. This is also sometimes known as the travel date, activity date, and arrival date depending on the type of product being delivered. This date can change if the bookings are rescheduled. This means that if you run a reservation report for a particular date range, then reschedule some bookings, and then re-run the report for the same date range, the values will change. | Reservation summary Reservation option analysis Reservation liabilityOther reservation reports |
| Sale date | The date/time the booking was originally created. This date doesn’t change, even when payment is taken, or if a booking is upgraded or downgraded at a later date. It gives an indication of how far ahead customers are booking, or what ‘sales’ were made on a particular day by staff or the website. | Reservation summary Reservation option analysis Reservation liabilityOther reservation reports |
| Ledger date/time | The date a transaction is posted to the ledger. This date never changes. | Trial balance Ledger sales analysis Daily sales export |
| Revenue date | For retail (including admission, events, gift vouchers), the ‘revenue’ date is the same as the sale date. For reservation products, the ‘revenue’ date is the same as the product date. As above, the product date for a reservation can change, so the results of this report can move for the same date range if reservations are rescheduled. | Gross revenue report |
Interpreting reports for financial reconciliation
The following reports contain financial information. We recommend that you only use reports based on transaction date or ledger date/time for transferring information into your Accounting system however.
| Report | Description |
|---|---|
| Sales | Retail sales will show on the date/time it was sold through POS. If a reservation product has multiple point-of-sale transactions against it on different dates, it will be represented on each date for the amount transacted on that date. |
| Online sales | This report filters for transactions made through the "online" till on the transaction date. If you are using this report to reconcile to Windcave/Stripe transaction reports, note the following:
|
| Ticket reconciliation | The ticket reconciliation report used by agents is based on POS transactions associated with tickets. If a ticket has multiple POS transactions against it on different dates, it will be represented on each date for the amount transacted on that date. |
| Payments | This report will show all payments for retail or reservations made through POS. |
Reservation liability | This is based on your outstanding reservations at a particular date, i.e. bookings that you have not delivered, or bookings that are still in the future based on the current product date. If bookings are rescheduled, the results of this report can move if re-run for the same date. |
| Gift voucher liability | This report is based on your gift vouchers yet to be redeemed at a particular date. The total of this report should not change if the report is re-run for the same date. However, if you’re grouping by the expiry date, the amounts in each group may change if gift voucher expiry dates are extended. In rare cases, there could be an exception if there has been a delay in posting a backlog of transactions to the ledger, e.g. if many gift vouchers have been written off at the same time, the transactions can take a while to process and could fall into the next day on the ledger. |
| Customer liability | |
| Trial balance | The Trial balance report is our recommended report for financial reconciliation. As it is based on ledger date/time, this report will never change when data is viewed historically. Retail revenue recognition Retail sales (including admission, events, gift vouchers) are processed to the ledger and recognised as revenue a few seconds after a transaction is completed. In rare cases, there could be an exception for the following reasons:
Reservation revenue recognition Revenue from a reservation is recognised as soon as the product date is reached. This applies even if the reservation is not settled. If the reservation is not settled, the balancing line in the ledger goes to unbalanced, rather than either cash or debtors. If a booking that has had revenue recognised is subsequently rescheduled to a forward date, the revenue is reversed out of sales and moved to income in advance. The ledger transaction date time is recorded at the time of rescheduling. In the Trial balance report, you would see the change from revenue to income in advance on that date. If you view the Trial balance for the original date when revenue was initially recognised, it would stay the same. If a booking is edited prior to the revenue being recognised, the amount attributed to income in advance will increase, on the date that the edit is made (i.e. the ledger date). If a booking is edited after revenue is recognised (for example any change to the value of the booking), the amount attributed to revenue will increase/decrease, on the date that edit is made (i.e. the ledger date). So this may be on a different day or month than the original revenue allocation. For daily sales exports, this means that you may have revenue flowing through to your accounts system for bookings that have been delivered on a previous date. Forward reservations Forward reservations do not appear in the Trial balance unless they are settled – either with cash or when posted to invoice. That means if a booking is not settled, you won’t see it reported in the Trial balance. When they are settled, if the date is forward of the product date, they are allocated to Income in advance in the Trial balance. |
| Ledger sales analysis | If you want to do more analysis of the products allocated to various GL codes and the revenue that has been allocated to those, the Ledger sales analysis gives you the ability to pull more information to the P & L section of the trial balance, such as product names and groups. |
| Daily sales export | If you want to reconcile your daily sales export with something, the only report it will match to is the trial balance, because they’re both based on the ledger. |
| Reservation summary | If you want an overview of reservations delivered for a particular period (pax numbers and/or revenue), it’s best to use the reservation summary, bearing in mind there might be minor changes to the figures because of rescheduling and upselling after the product has been delivered. |
| Ticket sales | If you want an overview of ticket sales delivered for a particular period you can use the Ticket sales report bearing in mind there might be minor changes to the figures because of rescheduling and upselling after the product has been delivered. |
| Gross revenue | This report gives you a combined total of retail and reservation sales but the results of this report can move for the same date range if reservations are rescheduled. |
Which report should I use?
This depends on what you’re trying to achieve! It’s pretty straightforward for any kind of retail, as the sale date and ledger date are the same. However, because reservations can be changed at any point, it becomes a bit more complex. Ideally, once you’ve delivered a reservation, it isn’t changed, however, in real life, this is not always the case for various reasons.
If you want an overview of reservations delivered for a particular period (pax numbers and/or revenue), it’s best to use the reservation summary or reservation option analysis reports, bearing in mind there might be minor changes to the figures because of rescheduling and upselling after the product has been delivered. This should be suitable for operations and marketing staff.
If you want to reconcile your daily sales export with something, then the only report it will match to is the trial balance, because they’re both based on the ledger.
If you want to do more analysis of the products allocated to various GL codes and the revenue that has been allocated to those, the Ledger sales analysis gives you the ability to pull more information to the P & L section of the trial balance, such as product names and groups.