Is night audit the same as income audit?

No. Night audit handles the operational end of day and business-date transition. Income audit reviews revenue and supporting evidence, often after that transition. Your PMS may separate these stages or combine parts of them.

Should a night auditor mark every late arrival as a no-show?

No. Check the reservation, arrival arrangements and property policy first. A guest arriving after midnight may still belong to the business date being closed.

What if totals do not reconcile before close?

Identify the affected transactions and escalate through the approved close process. Record any authorized carryover with an owner. Do not invent a balancing adjustment or assume every discrepancy permits the close to continue.

Can this checklist be used with any PMS?

It is a system-neutral control checklist. Customize prerequisites, report names and permissions to your property; it does not replace the PMS operating instructions.

Hotel Night Audit Checklist and SOP

Procedure

You can customize each step, add notes, set required fields, and define data capture requirements.

Record the property and business date being closed

Confirm the PMS business date, not only the clock date. Record the auditor and handover recipient so later reviewers can identify this close.

Review the outgoing shift handover

Read unresolved billing, room-status and guest exceptions. Identify which must be resolved before close and who has authority to approve a carryover.

Confirm arrivals and due-out reservations

Check late-arrival arrangements before applying an approved no-show decision. Resolve due-out stays through the authorized extension or check-out process; do not alter a stay merely to clear a system warning.

Investigate room-status discrepancies

Compare reception and housekeeping status where the property requires it. Ask the responsible team to resolve disputed occupancy or out-of-order information; do not guess that an unverified room is vacant.

Check expected outlet and interface postings

Confirm that relevant outlet batches or interfaces have completed for the date. If a feed is delayed, record the affected period and totals available, and obtain the required close decision instead of posting an unsupported estimate.

Review room charges and billing exceptions

Check rate exceptions, routing, approved packages and unusual postings using the property's review method. Confirm supporting authorization before a correction; retain the original transaction reference.

Complete cashier controls and reconcile differences

Follow the approved count, settlement and reconciliation process. Separate timing differences from unexplained discrepancies and assign each unresolved item. Never change a legitimate transaction solely to force totals to match.

Confirm readiness to run the close

Ready under approved controls

Held pending resolution

Escalated for an authorized decision

Check prerequisites, remaining warnings and authorized exceptions. If a required control is not satisfied, stop and escalate under the property procedure.

Run the authorized end-of-day procedure

Use the property-approved PMS sequence and permissions. Coordinate work that must pause during the close, and monitor completion messages. Do not rerun an uncertain posting step until its outcome has been checked.

Verify the new business date and completion result

Check that the expected date is active and required procedures finished. Review errors, missing reports or duplicate-looking postings before describing the close as complete.

Save the close evidence in the approved location

Retain report identifiers, batch references and the exception record according to the property policy. Use access-controlled storage; a screenshot of a success message alone is not a reconciliation record.

Hand over the result and open exceptions

Record completed, held or escalated status. Include each open item's owner, next action and follow-up time, and ensure the receiving shift and finance know what remains.

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Business Routines Finance Hotel Sops Audit

Introduction

A hotel night audit checks the day's guest transactions and operational exceptions before the business date moves forward. Use this checklist to prepare the close, verify the result and give the next shift a clear record of unresolved work. It is an operational close procedure, not a substitute for the later income audit.

You can also preview a Hotel Night Audit Checklist and SOP Quiz

Details

Close the right business date

A hotel's business date can differ from the calendar date after midnight. Record the date being closed before reviewing transactions, and use reports for that same date. Late arrivals, extended stays and delayed outlet postings need explicit decisions; changing a reservation just to clear a warning can create a guest or billing problem.

Know who can authorize an exception

Adapt this SOP with your property's close prerequisites, cashier controls and escalation contacts. Some systems separate moving the business date from final financial closure. A successful date change does not prove every reconciliation is complete. Record approved carryovers rather than hiding them in a balanced-looking total.

Keep a usable handover

The outgoing auditor should leave the completion status, report references and named owners for exceptions. Finance needs the audit trail; reception needs the guest-facing follow-up. Restrict financial and guest records to the approved systems rather than copying sensitive details into a broadly shared checklist.

Use this checklist

Save a Checklist for tonight's close or a Template for repeated night audits. Customize the sequence to your PMS and property controls before the first run. Download PDF, Excel or Word from the available download options.