What is Night Audit Entry?
Night Audit Entry is a critical part of our Labor Management Tools because it tells the system what actually happened at the hotel yesterday from an operational data standpoint (ex: room cleans, rooms sold, etc.)
This information is used to calculate the "Plan Hours" that are then compared to the actual hours from the time clock punches. These calculations give you a good idea as to how your hotel performed each day as compared to your labor standards.
We also generate daily revenue email alerts based on the information entered. If the night audit information isn't on time (by 6am local time), then the system cannot build the Plan Hours and your Daily Labor Check-Ins will not be very useful. Also, your Revenue Alerts will show Missing Data, making them much less useful also.
What is the Night Auditor Login?
The Night Auditor login only has access to enter the Night Auditor information and cannot see reports, Daily Labor Check-in or any other department information. Please use this shared login for all auditors so that you do not need to request and maintain individual credentials every time you hire a new auditor. Learn how to change the password of your auditor account here.
ACTION: Before your Night Auditors can log in for the first time, please log in with your account and access Night Auditor Entry. Select "Manage Auditor User" to update the password to something permanent and ensure the night auditors are aware of the password. We recommend writing it down so you don't forget it.
How do I enter the data?
Entering this information takes no more than 3-4 minutes. Our 'How to Enter Night Audit Data' instructions are available in Hotel Effectiveness on the main Night Audit Entry page. We highly recommend that you print this, write the Auditor's username and permanent password on it, and post it next to the auditors' workstation. This can also be used to train your auditors how to perform this task. If you have a nightly checklist, this simple task should be added to it.
ACTION: Print the Instructions page and write in your Auditor Username and Password.
When do I start entering Night Audit Data?
As soon as possible.
ACTION: Enter in last night's data using the Auditor's dedicated login. This will be a good first step to show you how simple the process is and will also allow you organize your internal data sources/reports that need to be referenced so the auditor can enter for each piece of data correctly.
How do I know if it was entered by my Auditor?
Most managers can sign up for the 'Missing Night Audit Entry' email alert in My Email Alerts. It highlights any of the last 10 days that are missing Rooms/Revenue or Housekeeping Data. It is only sent when there is a data problem (data is missing). It will continue to send until the problem is resolved and the data updated.
How do I edit the data if my Auditor forgot to enter it?
This happens from time to time and is very easy to do. Simply open Hotel Effectiveness with your login, click 'Night Audit Entry' from the home page, click 'Edit Existing Data', select the missing date and go back through the Step by Step wizard to enter any missing information. You will need to click 'Open for Edits' to open any existing data, even if they are loaded as 0's. Once this is saved, the Plan Hours are recalculated at the top of the hour and updated throughout the Labor Management Tools.
Is historical data important?
We recommend that you load the system with at least last year and year to date this year for daily Rooms Sold and Revenue data. There are two reasons. The first is that our Revenue Alerts have a lot of Year over Year comparisons, so those are much more useful if they have historical data. The second is that our Scheduling tool uses the revenue history for its forecasting and trending.
The more data that's collected, the better the trends and system forecasts. Instead of entering all of your historical data day by day, we have the ability to import the daily data into our system directly so you just need to complete one file. Click here to learn how to do this