Operations
Night audit
Also written: night auditor
What Night audit means
The daily operational process—and the staff role performing it—that reconciles all room revenue, non-room charges, and guest ledger transactions accrued over the previous 24 hours. Occurring overnight, it closes the current business day, generates financial reports, and rolls the property management system into the next date.
How it is used
Night auditors work the low-occupancy hours between midnight and 6:00 AM to review city ledger postings, process late check-ins, verify credit card settlement files, and balance point-of-sale revenues against front desk postings. General managers use the resulting daily flash report to spot posting errors, track late cancellations, and review revenue collection before morning operations begin. Financial controllers rely on this audit to ensure accurate general ledger transfers.
Worked example
During a 2:00 AM run, a night auditor identifies a $45 room service charge posted to room 204 instead of room 402. The auditor corrects the ledger entry, posts late-arriving corporate room rates, settles $12,400 in daily credit card transactions, and generates the morning manager report showing an accurate 82% occupancy and $165 ADR.
Common mistake
Treating the process as a passive software button-press rather than an active manual verification of revenue postings leads to compounding accounting errors across billing cycles.