Author: Sanjeev Chib

Managing your trust bank account can be complex, especially with such large volumes of invoices to keep track of. Which is what makes the Merang TravelOffice such a useful tool for travel companies as it keeps track of and helps you control the cash flowing into and out of trust.

Setting up and using a Trust Bank Account for your business is always a good idea (even if it is not required in your area). The Trust Bank Account will ensure that there is always money available to pay-off suppliers from the cash received from customer sales, and only the difference (i.e. commission) is transferrable to a “General” Bank Account to pay you overheads (i.e. rent, advertising, payroll) etc.

Many of our users have been asking us to provide them with some step-by-step guidelines on what to do with customer deposits and supplier payments. So, below is our step-by-step guide on how to record and reconcile customer deposits and supplier payments using the Merang TravelOffice system. Remember, not all steps need to be performed daily; the reconciliations can be done monthly, quarterly, or annually.

So here goes:

A. Customer Deposits Received:

1. Deposit: When you receive cash from the customer, deposit the cash in your trust bank account (within 3 days per TICO), and make a note of this deposit in your deposit book you obtained from the bank. In your deposit book, record the date you deposited it, the invoice number (from the merang system) and the amount, so that you can later reconcile it.

2. Record: In the merang system, go to the second page of the invoice (“Customer Fare Received” tab), and click on “Add Payment”. Select the method of payment (e.g. cash/cheque), the date the money was received, the amount, and who it was received from.

[Note: If the invoice is already marked as "Complete" or "Accounting", then you can record the amount recieved by logging into the back-office, click on "Accounts Receivable-Customer" (gives a list of invoices for which amounts are still receivable from customers), and record the amount received here.]

3. Reconcile: On a monthly, quarterly, or annual (you decide) basis , you need to reconcile (i.e. match) what is recorded in the merang system to what was deposited in the trust bank account. To do this, simply login to the back-office, click on “Accounts Receivable-Customers”, and then from the left-side menu, click on “Reconcile Cash Receipts”. This will give you a list of all amounts that you had recorded as received from customers, that you need to reconcile to your deposit book/bank statement.

Match the invoice number & amount from merang to what is listed in the deposit book and the bank statement – click on “Reconcile” and record the date the amount was deposited into the trust bank account.

B. Payments Made to Suppliers:

1. Pay and Record: When you pay the supplier, go to the last page of the invoice (“Supplier Payments” tab), and click on “Add Payment”. Select the method of payment (e.g. cash/cheque, or company credit card), the cheque number (if any), date the money was paid, and the amount.

[Note: If the invoice is already marked as "Complete" or "Accounting", then you can record the amount paid by logging into the back-office, click on "Accounts Payable-Supplier" (gives a list of invoices for which payment is due to suppliers), and record the amount paid here.]

2. Reconcile: On a monthly, quarterly, or annual (you decide) basis, you need to reconcile (i.e. match) what is recorded in the merang system to what was paid from the trust bank account. To do this:

a. If amount was paid to supplier by cheque/cash/draft:
Simply login to the back-office, click on “Accounts Payable-Supplier”, and then from the left-side menu, click on “Reconcile Payments”. This will give you a list of all amounts that you had recorded as paid to suppliers, that you need to reconcile to your bank statement.

Match the invoice number & amount from merang to what is listed in your cheque stubs and bank statement – click on “Reconcile” and record the date the amount was withdrawn from the trust bank account (based on the bank statement).

b. If amount was paid to supplier by Credit Card:
Simply login to the back-office, click on “Accounts Payable-Company Credit Card”. This will give you a list of all amounts that you had recorded as paid to suppliers by credit card, that you need to reconcile to your credit card and bank statements.

Match the invoice number & amount from merang to what is listed in your credit card statement, and bank statement – click on “Reconcile” and record the date the amount was withdrawn from the trust bank account to pay the credit card statement.

C. Transferring Commission Amounts from Trust to General Accounts:

Only once the above steps A and B are completed (including reconciling), then you can transfer the amounts from the trust to the general account. To do this, log into the back-office, and click on “Cash – Trust Account”. This will give you a list of all invoices that have been fully reconciled (both the deposit side and the payment side) and the amounts that you can transfer to the general account. Once you have transferred the cash from trust bank account to your general bank account, you can record them as transferred here so that you don’t end up transferring them again.

Author: Team Merang

Some users have asked about how to change or update information on the invoices. This would depend on the status of the invoices, as summarized below:

1. For invoices in “Pending” or “Review” status: 
As these invoices have not yet been transferred to the back-office module, you can edit them directly, without any impact to the back-office accounting:

• Login to the invoice module, search for the invoice and click ‘edit’ to make changes to the invoice.
• To make changes to the products or insurance items, once the invoice opens (under the first ‘Booking Details’ tab), scroll down to where the “product” and “insurance” section. You can click on ‘edit’ besides any product or insurance item, which will open the product or insurance window. Make the changes/upgrades to the product or insurance item, including the customer fare or supplier net cost information, and click on the “Save Product” or “Save Insurance” button.
• Remember to always click on “Save Invoice” when making changes.

2. For invoices in “Complete” status:
Although these invoices are “complete” you can change the status back to “pending” or “review” and then follow the steps in (1) above. To change the invoice status:

• Login to the invoice module, search for the invoice and click ‘edit’.
• Once the invoice opens, you will notice that it is in a read-only format, except for the Invoice Status field (a drop-down field), which you can change.
• Change the status to either “pending” or “review”, and click the “Save Invoice” button.
• After the status is changed, follow the steps in (1) above to change or update information in the invoice.

 3. For invoices in “Accounting” status:
As these invoices are now in the back-office accounting stage, no changes are permitted from the invoice module (to preserve the integrity of the invoices). However, you can still make any edits/updates to these invoices, but only through the back-office module. To do this:

• Login to the back-office module (you must be assigned a user role of “Administrator” or “Accountant” to do this. For agents, please check with the office “Administrator” or “Accountant” to make this change).
• Once logged into the back-office module, click on “Invoice Management from the left-side menu.
• Search for the invoice and click on ‘edit’ to edit the invoice.
• Make changes, as normal, to the invoice.

(Please note: if you need to record a refunded amount to these invoices, you can add a payment, and put a negative (“-”) sign before the amount to record the amount refunded).

If you have any specific questions about a certain invoice, do drop us a note and we will walk you through it.

Author: Team Merang

We just added a few more features to the Invoicing Module which, we hope, you will find useful. Here is a summary of them:

1. Agent Dashboard:

When you log in to the invoicing module, you will now notice 4 boxes; previously we only had 2 boxes (create new invoice, and search invoice).

• My Booking Activity: Provides a quick summary of the commission earned for the company (“Total Commission” ) and agents (“My Commission”). Based on the user’s role, they would see either the information for their own invoice, or can switch between their invoices or the company’s/office’s invoices. Please note that the booking activity only displays the commission information for invoices that are in the post-review status (i.e. that are “completed”, in “Accounting” or “Closed”). Also, the information displayed is for the previous month, current month, and year-to-date (YTD).
  
• Who Owes Me: This box provides a list of customers who still have an amount owing to your company. Based on the user’s role, they would see either the information for their own invoice, or can switch between their invoices or the company’s/office’s invoices. The information displayed is for invoices in all stages ( i.e. also includes those invoices in “Pending” or “Review” status). The list only displays the first 8, and if you need to see the complete listing, click on “Full Report”. Dates highlighted in red are past-due. If you click on the icon, a copy of the invoice opens so that you can obtain the customer’s contact information and you can view all details of their booking.

Please note for both new boxes: For users who have been assigned a role of “Inside” or “Outside” agent, they would see this information for their own invoices only . For users who have been assigned a role of “Manager” can switch between seeing information for their own invoices and all of the office invoices (for their branch). For users who have been assigned a role of “Administrator” or “Accountant” can switch between seeing information for their own invoices and all of the company’s invoices. 

2. A better Search:

We have improved the search invoices box so that you can now also search by booking date. Also, you can select a period of time to search by Booking Date or Departure Date. When the search results are displayed, we have also included the field for “Booking Date”.

Author: Team Merang

We successfully launched version 3.0 of the TravelOffice system in October. Since then, many of you asked us to summarize the changes/enhancements and highlight new features added. So here goes:

• Simplified Login Page:
  The login pages for both modules (invoice and back-office) has been simplified with a single login page. Also, we created a quick link to switch between the Invoice Module and Back-office Module quickly without logging out (for users assigned with Administrator, Accountant, or Manager roles).  
• Invoice Module Enhancements:
  We changed the layout of the customer invoices generated through the system. In addition, we added two more payment options under the customer and supplier payments sections:
   - Supplier Coupon: for customers that redeem supplier coupons
  - Cash (Non-Trust Account): For payments made to suppliers not through the Trust account.(Both of these also affect the Trust Account calculations and the Journal Entries, which have also been modified to accept these).
• Back-office Module Enhancements:
  Travel Document Requirements Profile: You can create ’standard travel document requirements’ profiles for various destinations. Then, on the invoice, simply select the ‘travel document requirements’ statement for the destination to display on the invoice (This is for your compliance to travel industry requirements in various jurisdictions).Invoice Profile: You can now customize the various “Payment Titles” – the standard are ‘Adult Price’, ‘Child Price’, ‘Single Supplement’, ‘Surcharge’,'Taxes’, and ‘Other’. You can now customize these to meet your company’s requirements.

  Marketing Reports: We have now added a customer profiles marketing report which lets you print a list of your customers contact information (e.g. address, phone, fax, e-mail address) which can be used to create labels, send e-newsletters or bulk marketing e-mails etc.

Our team is currently working on some more minor modifications, which we hope to release within the next few weeks (release 3.1).