Not all 'vouchers' in Tourplan that have been utilised and which are accountable will be closed during supplier invoice processing. This can be for a number of reasons, some of which are:

• No invoice is ever received from the supplier (aka ‘breakage’).
• The service is cancelled after vouchers have been issued, and the service line remains in the booking with a service status that allows a voucher to be issued.
• The invoiced value was less than the voucher value and the voucher was not closed pending a possible additional invoice being received from the supplier for the balance.
• The service may be in an FIT booking as part of a Book On package where the costs of the service are bundled into the Package, not applied to individual services.

It is not necessary for a document to have been printed for a ‘voucher’ to exist. Provided the Booking and the Service Line have statuses that allow vouchers, then the service is deemed to have been "Vouchered".

It is necessary to have some understanding of the effect not closing vouchers can have on the accounting figures in the system. The Tour Operators profit on a tour is the difference between the money received for the tour (debtor’s invoices and receipts) and the money paid out for the tour (creditor’s invoices and payments). In this industry, the payments to suppliers are, in general terms, historical—i.e., invoices are received from the suppliers after the service has been supplied and in some cases this can be quite some time after the event. If an example is used (ignoring taxes) where the income from the booking is 1000.00 and the expected costs (service lines vouchered amount) is 800.00. This would be expected to produce a profit of 200.00.

Some or all of the booking income of 1000.00 may have been received some months before the tour travelled, so there could be 1000.00 in revenue in the accounts, but no costs, since the services have not yet been supplied, nor the invoices received from the suppliers.

Actual Income	1000.00
Actual Expenses	0.00
Profit	1000.00

This is not a true reflection of the actual state of the booking, because there are expected expenses of 800.00, so at the end of each accounting period, the Voucher List Report is run and the value of outstanding vouchers is accrued as an expected expense. The accrued amount is automatically reversed in the following accounting period.

Actual Income	1000.00
Actual Expenses	0.00
Outstanding Vouchers	800.00
Profit	200.00

In the course of the next accounting period, actual expenses of 750.00 may have been received, so the figures will be:

Actual Income	1000.00
Actual Expenses	750.00
Outstanding Vouchers	50.00
Profit	200.00

If a supplier’s invoice is never received for the outstanding value of 50.00, the booking profit is understated by that amount. I.e., the difference between income and expenses for the tour (the Tour Operators profit) is in fact 250.00, not the 200.00 showing in the accounts.

Close Vouchers can be used to ‘close and remove’ the outstanding voucher and its residual value of 50.00 making the profit of the tour 250.00 and removing the expected liability of 50.00 from the accounts.

There are no hard and fast rules regarding the time frame between the end of a booking and when any outstanding's can or should be taken up via Close Vouchers. The system itself has no rules. Industry guidelines seem to be that vouchers older than 2–6 months are closed using this process.

NOTE: If an invoice is received from a supplier subsequent to the voucher being closed, it can still be paid—a warning message will display advising that the voucher had previously been closed, but does not prevent payment.

Close Vouchers

1. From the Home Menu select Home > Financials > Accounting > Bookings Management > Close Vouchers.

   1. Click the Home Menu to expand it:

      

   2. Click the Financials menu option to expand it:

      

   3. Click Accounting to go to the Accounting menu to expand it:

      

   4. Click Bookings Management to go to the Bookings Management menu to expand it:

      

   5. Click Close Vouchers to go to the Close Vouchers filter screen.

      

2. There are 4 selection tabs across the top of the screen:

   • Booking
   • Analysis (Booking & Agent)
   • Service
   • Analysis (Supplier & Product)
3. If the required selections have been made from the Booking Tab, click the Results tab or Search.

   

4. Further selection filters can be set using the 6 Booking Analysis codes and the 6 Booking Agent Analysis Codes.

   When the screen displays, by default the codes are in collapsed mode. Click the + to expand the code lists as required.

5. When all selections have been made, click the Results Tab, or Search.

   

6. Vouchers that match the selection criteria will display on the Close Vouchers Results Tab.

   

   

The information displayed is too wide to fit in one screen-shot. The scroll bar at the bottom of the screen can be used to scroll across.
7. To select vouchers in the list, check the check-box(es) to the left of the Voucher.
   1. To select all vouchers listed, click Select All.

      

      NOTE: Selected displays the number of vouchers in the list that have been selected and Found displays the total number of vouchers found based on the search criteria.

   2. To unselect all selected vouchers click Unselect All.

      

   3. To close the vouchers, click Close Vouchers.

      

8. Prior to processing commencing, a confirmation dialogue displays. This dialogue also gives the option of outputting a Closed Voucher Report.

The Bookings tab allows voucher selection filters to be set based on a specific range of Booking Header criteria.

• Travel Date From/To
• Booking Name
• Booking (Full) Reference From/To
• Last Service Date From/To
• Consultant
• Booking Type - All, Groups or FIT's
• (Booking) Currency
• Booking Status
• (Booking) Branch
• (Booking) Department

Further selection filters can be set using the 6 Booking Analysis codes and the 6 Booking Agent Analysis Codes.

When the screen displays, by default the codes are in collapsed mode. Click the + to expand the code lists as required.

The Service tab allows voucher selection filters to be set based on a range of specific Service and Product criteria.

• Service Date From/To
• Service Date Entered From/To
• Supplier From/To
• Master Supplier From/To
• Voucher (Number) From/To
• Outstanding Amount From/To
• (Product) Code From/To
• Location
• Service Status
• Service Code

NOTE: The Voucher From field cannot be blank. It defaults to 0 to enable the Search button. To define a voucher search range, enter the required voucher from and to.

Further selection filters can be set using the 6 Supplier Analysis codes and the 6 Product Analysis Codes.

When the screen displays, by default the codes are in collapsed mode. Click the + to expand the code lists as required.

NOTE: The arrow to the left of the Select All/Unselect All can be used to hide the side panel. When the side panel is hidden, the Right Arrow is replaced by a Left Arrow which can be used to reveal the panel.

Voucher Details Section

This section displays the details of the currently highlighted voucher line - regardless of whether it has been checked for closure or not.

Close Voucher

This is the only selectable field in this section of the screen. The check-box shows that the voucher has been selected for closing. It can be unchecked here.

Voucher Number

The number of the current voucher.

Cost (Base)

The cost of the service in system base currency.

Invoiced (Base)

The sum of all amounts that have been invoiced by the supplier for the voucher.

Outstanding (Base)

The amount currently un-invoiced (or over-invoiced) for the voucher. This is the amount that will be added (or subtracted) to the booking profit.

Vouchers Section

The total number of vouchers found which match the selection criteria and the number selected for closing.