A travel agency often collects its customers’ money weeks or even months before departure. It pays its suppliers on their own terms: the airline when the ticket is issued, the hotel on confirmation or just before arrival, the coach company after the trip.

The result: on a single booking, money comes in and goes out on different dates, in several instalments. With few bookings, a spreadsheet is enough. Beyond that, questions pile up: has this customer paid the balance? Has this hotel been paid? How much cash is really left once suppliers are paid?

Customers: deposit, balance and due dates

Most agencies ask for a deposit at booking, then the balance before departure. To keep this readable, each booking should show:

  • the total amount invoiced;
  • payments already received, with their date and method (bank transfer, card, cash…);
  • the amount still due;
  • the balance due date.

A partly paid invoice should never get lost in the crowd. A list of upcoming balances, sorted by departure date, lets you chase payments at the right time rather than at the last minute.

Suppliers: link every payment to a booking

The most common mistake is paying suppliers “on the side”, straight from the bank, with no link to bookings. You end up not knowing whether a hotel was paid twice, or not at all.

Best practice:

  1. for each service purchased, a purchase order to the supplier, linked to the customer’s booking;
  2. every supplier payment recorded against that purchase order;
  3. a clear status: to pay, partly paid, paid.

You then know at any time what you owe, to whom, and for which trip.

Margin, booking by booking

Once sales and purchases are linked to the same booking, the margin works itself out: what the customer pays, minus what the services cost. That is the figure that really matters for an agency, far more than revenue.

Tracked booking by booking, it reveals unprofitable trips, suppliers that have become too expensive, or discounts granted a little too easily.

Cash flow: customer money is not yours yet

Deposits received swell the bank balance, but part of that money is already owed to suppliers. To steer calmly, keep apart:

  • the money collected;
  • what is still to be paid to suppliers on the same bookings;
  • what is still to be collected from customers.

If you have several accounts or tills (bank, office till, a branch’s account), also record the transfers between them: it is the only way for the balances shown to match reality.

A simple weekly routine

Twenty minutes a week is enough to stay in control:

  1. chase customer balances that are coming due;
  2. check supplier payments due in the next fortnight;
  3. match payments received against the bank statement;
  4. look at the margin on bookings that departed the previous week.

How ATHIX helps

In ATHIX, each booking carries its invoice, the customer’s payments and the amount still due. Supplier purchases go through purchase orders linked to the booking, with their payments, and the treasury module follows your accounts and the transfers between them. Discover the travel agency software, see the pricing or book a demo.