A sponsor is whoever pays for a guest: the guest themselves, their employer, or a company. The Sponsor panel on the right of a folio shows what that sponsor owes across all their folios, and whether they have money on file that you can put toward this guest's bill.
When they do, an Apply Sponsor Credit button appears.
What "Sponsor credit available" counts
This is the figure in the folio's Sponsor panel. It is the sponsor's money, not the guest's: the guest's own spare money is the Unused guest payment row in the totals panel.
| Where the money came from | Counts? |
|---|---|
| A payment the sponsor made in advance, not yet applied to any bill (taken in this system under Sales → Customer Receipts) | Yes |
| A guest the sponsor paid for who checked out having overpaid | Yes, the overpayment |
| A guest's credit that was transferred to the sponsor (see below) | Yes |
| Money for a guest who is still in-house | No, it's reserved for that guest's own bill |
| A guest who checked out owing or paid exactly | No, the money was used up |
| Payments recorded in the old desktop system | No (desktop receipts don't record which bills they paid) |
Anything already applied to other guests is subtracted, so the same money is never used twice.
Apply the sponsor's credit to this folio
- Open the guest's folio.
- In the Sponsor panel, click Apply Sponsor Credit.
- A receipt opens in Applying credit mode: no money changes hands, so there is no payment method to enter. It shows how much credit is available and where it comes from.
- The guest's outstanding bills are listed and the credit is filled in for you, oldest bill first. Untick or change any amount.
- Click Save.
The receipt is kept as a record of which bills the credit paid. On the folio it appears as a Sponsor Pay row, Paid from sponsor credit (receipt #…), with its date, number and operator. Click it to open the receipt. Balance Due drops straight away.
A payment the sponsor makes directly against this guest's bills shows the same way, as Paid by sponsor or group (receipt #…).
The guest's own money comes first
A guest's own payments pay the guest's bills before any sponsor credit does. If a guest pays before a bill exists (an advance, or a round figure at check-in), that money sits as the guest's Unused guest payment and is applied automatically as each night or charge is posted, at check-out, and on the nightly billing run. You don't have to do anything.
So Apply Sponsor Credit only works for what the guest's own money leaves open:
- the folio's Sponsor panel says The guest's own … on file covers what is open here instead of offering the button;
- a credit-only receipt that applies more than that is refused with already covered by the guest's own payments or Only … is still open … after the guest's own payments. Reduce the amount to what is still open.
Keep a guest's overpayment with the sponsor
When a guest has paid more than their bill, you can refund the guest, or leave the money on the sponsor's account for future stays or for other guests.
- At check-out: on the Settle step, click Keep as sponsor credit next to Refund Overpay.
- On a folio whose rooms are all checked out: click Transfer credit to sponsor under the totals.
First, any of the guest's own payments still needed for their bills pays those bills, so the bills read as paid. Only the money left over moves.
The guest's balance becomes zero and the amount appears in the sponsor's Sponsor credit available. On the folio:
- the grid shows a dated Balance Transfer row, Transfer of Balance To Sponsor Account, as a debit: it takes the credit off this folio;
- the totals panel stops counting it as an Unused guest payment, and a note under it says how much went to the sponsor.
Changed your mind? Click Undo transfer on the folio. This works as long as the sponsor hasn't used the money yet.
Before you start
- You need Room Management access, plus the Payment Receipt right to apply credit.
- Transferring a guest's credit needs the Allow refund / crediting role (or Administrator), and every room must be checked out.
Tips
- Sponsor credit available is often 0, and that is usually correct. Money that was spent on bills is not credit.
- "Outstanding across folios" and "Sponsor credit available" are different questions. A sponsor can owe you money and hold credit from an advance payment. Applying the credit reduces what they owe.
- A guest's own deposit is not sponsor credit while they are in-house. It is already reducing their own balance.
- To take money from a sponsor before their guests arrive, record a receipt for the sponsor under Sales → Customer Receipts without ticking any bill.
Common problems
- "Apply Sponsor Credit" doesn't appear → the sponsor has no credit, or this folio owes nothing, or the folio is closed.
- "Only X of credit is available" → someone applied part of it meanwhile. Lower the amounts and save again.
- "Check out every room first" → you can only transfer a guest's credit once they can no longer be charged.
- "The sponsor has already used part of this credit" → the transfer can't be undone, because the money has gone to another guest.
- An old advance payment isn't counted → it was recorded in the desktop system. Apply it by editing that receipt and ticking the guest's bill.