Receptionist and front office

Welcome to the front desk. This manual follows a day at reception in JupitaPos — from the morning’s arrivals to the last checkout — and points you to the step-by-step guide for each job, with pictures of the real screens. Rooms sit next to the restaurant: the same customers, tills, payment methods, receipts and books.

Who this manual is for

You welcome the guests and look after their stay: you take bookings and deposits, check guests in and give them a room, move them or extend their stay, post the extras to their folio, take their payments and check them out. The front office manager also sets up the rooms and their prices, approves what the desk may not do alone, and reads the room reports.

• System roles: Receptionist (receptionist) and Front Office Manager (front_office_manager). The table at the end shows what each may do.
• In the pictures: Rita (Rita Reception) works the desk of Kololo Suites, the twelve rooms above the Kololo restaurant of Jupita Restaurant Demo; Faith (Faith Frontoffice) is the front office manager. The guests are invented, and their phone numbers and identity numbers are covered in the pictures.
• Where you work: at the desk, on a computer or a tablet; the rooms module needs the connection — when it drops, the desk keeps what it last saw and saves your requests until the line is back.

A day at work

New at the desk? Practise on the real screens first — Start training mode.

1. Sign in and clock in — Sign in, Clock in and out.
2. Open the Front desk and read the day: arrivals, departures, guests in house, rooms to clean — Read the reception, housekeeping and room-service dashboards.
3. If you take cash, open your till — Open the till with a float.
4. Answer the website’s room requests waiting for you — Take room bookings on your website.
5. Take the day’s bookings — by phone, e-mail, at the desk — and the deposits — See which rooms are free, Take a room booking, Take, refund or keep a deposit.
6. Check the departures out: read the folio with the guest, take the payment, give the receipt or the tax invoice — Read and settle a folio in full, Check a guest out.
7. Check the arrivals in, in rooms housekeeping has made ready — Check a guest in.
8. Through the day: extras on the folio, room moves and extensions, walk-ins, room service charged to rooms — Charge extras and take payments on the folio, Move a guest to another room, or extend the stay, Take a walk-in guest, Take and deliver room-service orders.
9. Before you hand over, check the open folios and anything waiting — See every open guest folio, Settle room charges that arrived after checkout.
10. Count and close your till, and clock out — Count and close the till.

Guides you will use

Set-up and prices (front office manager)

• Set up rooms and rates — the property, room types and rooms.
• Set prices by date — weekend and season prices, closed dates, minimum stays.
• Keep the list of charges — laundry, minibar, late checkout.
• Print the room QR codes for guest room service — the codes guests scan in their room.

Bookings

• See which rooms are free — the availability grid.
• Use the room calendar — who is in which room, night by night.
• Take a room booking — one room.
• Book several rooms at once — a family or a group, all or nothing.
• Take, refund or keep a deposit — before arrival or at check-in.
• Take room bookings on your website — requests and paid bookings from the storefront.

The stay

• Check a guest in — the room, the guest’s document, the deposit.
• Take a walk-in guest — no booking, a room now.
• See who is in house.
• Move a guest to another room, or extend the stay.
• Take and deliver room-service orders — the desk can accept and send.

The folio and payment

• Charge extras and take payments on the folio.
• Read and settle a folio in full — the statement, corrections, verification.
• See every open guest folio.
• Charge a restaurant or bar bill to a room at the till — what the till does, so you can explain it.
• Give the guest a statement or confirmation — documents sent and kept.

Checkout and after

• Check a guest out.
• Settle room charges that arrived after checkout.

Reports and the module (front office manager)

• Read the room reports — occupancy, room revenue, deposits held.
• Check background work and rebuild summaries.
• Supervise housekeeping: reopen work, read a room’s timeline, block rooms.

When the internet is down

• Keep the front desk going without a connection.
• What happens when the connection returns.

When something goes wrong

• Troubleshoot the rooms module — the common messages in one place.

Quick reference

Getting help

• The front office manager (Faith in the demo) approves what the desk may not do alone: checking a guest in to a room not yet clean or before the deposit arrived (an override, with a reason), a price that is not on the list, a deposit refund.
• A manager with payments.verify checks card and mobile-money payments typed in by hand against the provider.
• The administrator fixes your account, your till and your access.
• The owner or administrator pauses or reopens new room bookings for the business (Modules) — see Pause new room bookings.
• The Help Center: Help & Training › Role-Based Manuals in the menu, or the ? at the top of any screen — Find help.
• Troubleshooting you will need most: Troubleshoot the rooms module.

Manuals you can also read

• Cashier — For the cashier at the till — opening the drawer, ringing up and taking payment, verifying mobile money and counting the drawer at the end of the shift. The till, the terminal and the point of sale; nothing else.

What you can do

These are the permissions of the roles this manual is for. Permissions marked ● are sensitive. If your business gave you a custom role, ask your manager what it allows.