Understanding Liability Methodology

The Tourplan accounting system is different to the majority of "off-the-shelf" accounting packages, in that it has been designed specifically for the Tourism Industry. Unlike standard accounting systems which are predominantly transaction date based, the Tourplan accounting system offers the user a choice of transaction based, accrual based, or a mixture of both. This is because the Tourism Industry, in general, prefers to account for revenue in the month that travel takes place, rather than when the sales invoice(s) is raised, which can be quite some time prior to the month of travel.

Voucher production and liability controls are unique to individual company requirements and should be discussed with your local Tourplan Support Office to fully understand each setup component required for recording liability.

Voucher Product and Liability methods are captured from the combined use of configurable settings throughout the system.

A voucher represents an expected liability and control of these liabilities is critical for accurate management and reporting. Tourplan will automatically recognise the liability based on the voucher value within a booking if the status of the booking and individual services depict statuses which include a voucher flag setting.

A further control parameter is configured within the product database for individual services are set to record liability. Its also this location in Tourplan where individual services are set to allow printable vouchers - although the physical printing of vouchers will have no effect on the liability of a service.

What does this all mean?

Statuses

Firstly we need to understand the role Booking Statuses and Service Statuses play. Most Tourplan users will have experienced the advantage of using service statuses and the important operational tool which controls booking workflow in relation to your suppliers. From the moment a service is entered into a booking a liability is created if the booking and service status are both voucher-able.

Service Statuses

The service statuses reflect the status of the individual services where as the booking statuses relate to the entire booking.

A few Examples to highlight the usage of service statuses in Tourplan are as follows:

Control what is a confirmed services (e.g. service status KK - Confirmed) verses a service which is still on request (e.g. service status RQ - Requested).
Control a service sold from allocation (e.g. AK - from Allocation / Confirmed) or partial allocation (e.g. PA - from Partial Allocation).
Identify services on a wait list (e.g. WL - Wait List)
Service statuses can also be used as a parameter for reporting.

Booking Statuses

The booking statuses reflect the status of the entire booking where as the service statuses relate to the individual services.

A few examples to highlight the usage of booking statuses in Tourplan are as follows:

Control what is a confirmed booking (all services confirmed, booking status KK - Confirmed) verses a booking where some services are still on request ( e.g. booking status RQ - Requested).
Identify when the booking has been invoiced (e.g. IN - Invoiced)

Code Setup Settings

Booking Statuses need to first exist in Code Setup before they can be used within a booking. It's the location in Code Setup which identifies if a particular booking status will be flagged to voucher. Service statuses require a similar voucher flag configuration in Code Setup. Once configured to voucher these statuses attribute to a vouchered service liability record within a booking.

Booking Status Example

Service liability will now automatically be recognised for bookings with a booking status which has the voucher box checked, in this example FL,IN,KK statuses. If the voucher box is not checked, no liability will be recognised for any service in the booking regardless of its service status.

Service Status Example

Liability will automatically be recognised for service lines with a service status which has the voucher box checked. If the voucher checkbox is not checked, no liability will be recognised for the service line.

NOTE: The service lines with a non-voucherable service status will still have a voucher number but are not recognised as liabilities until their service status is changed to a voucher-able status.

Product Liability

Each product (service) created in the Tourplan NX database requires the Voucher Details screen to be configured to control if the service is to have a physical printed voucher. There are three options available which will determine how the voucher is viewed:

Print Voucher - This is the default setting, and when selected a voucher will be printed for this service.

No Cost - Indicates that the service is a no cost item for which no voucher is printed. E.g. a service containing itinerary text only.

Record Liability Only - Indicates that the Service Option is a cost item however no voucher is to be printed. E.g. an overhead booking charge.

Previous headings have covered the necessary settings which control voucher liability in Tourplan. Every service is given a unique voucher number when inserted into a booking, this voucher number alone does not enable liability.

For example: our booking has a service inserted, the booking has a quotation status, and the Aspen Court Motel has an Initial Status, and you can see the voucher number 103,343 is held against the service when initially inserted.

When accounts raise an invoice the voucher will not be found and an invoice will not be created.

If accounts manually select the voucher number, the system will generate a warning message 'Voucher has no liability'

If the service and booking statuses within the booking are changed to voucherable statuses, accounts will be able to see the voucher and be able to raise a transaction invoice.

Use the following list to move quickly to "How to" procedures in this guide: