The checkout wizard walks you through everything needed to finish a guest's stay: it shows what still has to close, closes each room one at a time (charging any late checkout), and ends on the balance to receive or refund before it closes the folio.
Open it from the folio with Settle & Check Out Guest.
Before you start
- You need Room Management access.
- Fix any historical billing mistakes first with Review Billings (a separate button) — the wizard bills the remaining nights as-is.
- A folio can't be finalised while any room is still checked in. The wizard handles that for you by closing each open room in turn.
The three steps
1. Overview
Shows the whole picture:
- Rooms to check out — every open room, with its late checkout fee and the amount closing it will add to the folio.
- Already checked out — rooms that are done.
- Projected balance — what you'll receive or refund once every open room is billed.
The amounts come from the billing engine itself, so they are what will be posted, tax and service charge included. (If the engine can't be reached, an approximate figure is shown with ≈.)
End billing by is the moment the guest leaves. It starts at the hotel's current time. Change it only for a guest who left earlier; it can't be in the future.
What check-out charges
- Nights already charged stay as they are.
- A night that has reached its charge time is charged.
- The stay's first night is always charged, even when the guest leaves before its charge time (for example a day use). Lower % to bill for a day-use rate, or set it to 0% to waive it.
- Staying past the due-out time (but leaving before the next night's charge time) is a late check-out, not another night. The room type's late check-out fee is added once its grace minutes have passed. If the room type has no fee set, nothing is added.
- Staying past the next charge time adds a full night.
If every room is already checked out, you go straight to Settle & Finish.
2. Close rooms (one at a time)
The wizard shows one open room at a time ("Room 1 of 3"):
- Read the list of nights: Already on the folio, Charged now or Not charged, with each amount, and the Late checkout fee (set by the room type).
- Check % to bill (usually 100%; lower it for a day use).
- Check Added to the folio for this room. That is exactly what will be posted.
- Click Bill & Close This Room.
That posts the room's charge and its late checkout and checks the room out — all in one step. The wizard then moves to the next open room automatically. When the last room closes, it advances to Settle.
3. Settle & finalise
Shows the guest's final balance:
- Owes money → Receive Payment to take the balance.
- Overpaid (credit) → Refund Overpay to pay the guest back, or Keep as sponsor credit to leave the money on the sponsor's account for future stays or other guests (both need a sponsor customer on the folio). See Sponsor credit on a folio.
- Balanced → nothing to settle.
When the balance is zero, click Check Out Guest. The folio is marked closed, the departure date is stamped, and you're offered a reposting prompt. New charges or payments are only possible after re-opening the folio.
Tips
- You can close the wizard part-way through and reopen it later — every room you already closed stays closed, and the wizard picks up from the rooms that are still open.
- The late check-out fee comes from the room type (Late Checkout Policy). To change it, change the policy; for a one-off waiver use the Bill And Checkout dialog, where the fee can be lowered.
- The Settle step shows the real balance after billing, including payments.
Common problems (charges)
- "Bill until … is in the future" → End billing by is later than the hotel's current time. Set it to when the guest actually left. If it happens with the default time, this computer's clock or time zone is wrong, or the hotel's time zone under Organization Profile is.
- A day-use guest is charged a full night → that's the rule for a first night. Lower % to bill before closing the room.
Common problems
- "Check Out Guest" is greyed out → the balance isn't zero. Receive the payment or refund the credit first, or use Acknowledge imbalance to close a sponsored / write-off folio anyway.
- "One or more rooms are still checked in" → a room reopened or wasn't closed. The wizard sends you back to the Close step to finish it. (Outside the wizard, the per-room Check Out button on the room card also closes a single room.)
- Refund is unavailable → the folio has no sponsor customer to refund against. Acknowledge to close, and handle the refund separately.
- A room won't close → an error message explains why (e.g. billing failed). Rooms you already closed are safe; fix the inputs and retry that room.
- "Room billing is running right now for this property" → the scheduled billing was busy when you closed the room. Nothing was billed or checked out; wait a moment and close the room again.