ACTIVITY 11 -TABULAR LEDGERS

In hotels of today there are a variety of means of recording guest charges. The main methods used can be incorporated into three separate categories:

Cash register
Computer system
Manual Tabular ledger

The manual tabular ledger is commonly used in hotels of a relatively small size, simply because it lends itself to smaller style establishments. You often hear of people saying "put it on my Tab", this term "Tab" simply means Tabular ledger.

TYPES OF TABULAR LEDGER

There are two main types of Tabular ledgers used which are:

Horizontal
Vertical

The horizontal tabular ledger is set up with the room numbers down the left hand side and the charges are placed across the top of the form. Conversely, the vertical tabular ledger has the room numbers across the top of form with the charges down the left hand side of the form.

EXAMPLES
The tabular ledger is a summary of all charges that are incurred by all guests during the course of a day. Once the charges are entered into the tabular ledger a guest account is then completed by transferring individual charges onto individual room accounts similar to the following form shown here:

Completing a Tabular Ledger

The following exercise shows details relating to a tabular ledger. Using the details provided, you are shown the rates, guests in residence and a list of their daily transactions. The ledger shown has been partially completed to give you some idea of how the various transactions are entered onto the ledger from the list of transactions. We will go through the transactions one at a time in order to explain the purpose of each entry.

Having completed the previous tabular ledger, you are now required to draw up an individual account for Mr Clarke in Room 101 who has checked out. Use the form provided here for this purpose: