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 that 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 (and dependant on local legislation) accounts 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 date of travel.

The Accounts accounting periods are determined by various System Setup INI Settings. Because each transaction has four periods stamped onto them, there is a great amount of flexibility in the accounting system's ability to handle a variety of accounting circumstances. With the exception of the Entered Period, the settings of the other 3 accounting periods is determined in consultation with the user company, depending on what their requirements are.

In general, the periods can be set to be the System Date; the Booking Travel Date; Booking Last Service Date or the Last Date of the Current Accounting Period. There are some minor variations on these settings. Once the desired settings have been determined, they cannot be changed. The settings enable, for example, to post to the Debtors Ledger in the current period, age the debt in the Debtors Ledger based on the Payment Due date and post the revenue to the General Ledger (GL) Revenue Account in the period of travel.

Tourplan automatically makes any accrual journals required and posts to Balance Sheet accounts any revenue or expense which is future dated and then automatically posts it to the correct revenue or expense account when the accounting period within which the booking is travelling is reached.

NOTE: The concept of the system making these journals automatically is quite unique and, once it is understood, the transaction flow is quite simple to comprehend.

The entry of transactions for both Debtors and Creditors has been kept simple and consistent in both applications. All types of transactions can be performed from the one entry screen, and detailed information regarding any agent or supplier is instantly available. The accounting system is “Open Item”, meaning that, at each period end, only items (i.e. transactions) that are not completely balanced off are aged and brought forward into the next period.

Tourplan has the ability to produce profitability figures on a per-booking basis or on a group of bookings.

Invoices to agents for bookings must be issued either from within the booking or via the Bulk Invoicing utility in order to get the booking reference stamped onto the transactions. Invoices can be raised to Agents/Debtors for non-booking related items from within the Debtors application, but bookings related invoices must be raised from within the Booking. Credit Notes against booking invoices already issued can be raised from within the booking as well as from within the Debtors module. Unless the automatic receipting function has been enabled, receipts for cash received can only be issued in the Debtors module.

Within the Creditors application, supplier invoices can be paid or part-paid based on the voucher number that the system has allocated to the service. This provides the facility to match the payment value against the voucher value and the system will record any over or under payment. The Creditors application also allows payment to an alternate supplier; i.e. a supplier other than the one that the voucher was issued for. Non-booking creditors (utility companies, landlord etc.) can also have payments made to them.

All updating to the GL module is “On-Line”; that is, the GL postings are made when the subsidiary ledger transaction is created. If a subsidiary ledger transaction is altered or deleted, the relevant GL postings are similarly updated or deleted. Once a subsidiary ledger period is “closed”, then no further changes can be made to transactions.

The ability to provide booking-by-booking profitability figures is achieved using the Booking Reference, which is attached to all bookings that are entered into the system. The Booking Reference is a combination of three components:

• Booking Branch: a 2-character code that is used as the highest level of analysis breakdown. Commonly set up as a distinction between Administration and Tours. More than one branch can be used to express Tours Revenue and Expenses. Examples used in this User Manual are AD – Administration; OL – Online Sales; US – USA Office; NZ – N.Z. Office.
• Booking Department: a 2-character code used for the second level of analysis breakdown. This is normally a code that represents the type of booking, as well as separating out Administration/Overhead expenses. Examples used in this User Manual are FI – F.I.T.; GP – Groups; IN – Incentives; SH – Shore Excursions, AD – Administration.
• Booking Reference Number: a 6 digit Number.

The booking references will, for example, be US FI 100123, indicating that the booking is (in this example system) a USA Office FIT booking.

Each financial transaction that is created in either Creditors or Debtors for the booking is stamped with the booking reference and this enables the system to produce a report (via the Tour Window and Tour Financial Summary Reports) of profitability by booking. Further analysis exists using Microsoft Excel Report templates, which can summarise the revenue and expenses for (e.g.) all US FIT bookings; or all US bookings or any combination of branch/department. All reporting at this level is performed in the base currency of the system.

Setting-up Branch, Department and bookings Analysis Codes is covered in the .