Finance terms explained

What it does

This page lists every finance word the Money area uses, what it means, and, for a number, how it is worked out. It is the same text you see when you point at the small i beside a word on screen, gathered in one place so you can learn it or look one up. Where a report explains a term in its own way, the report’s explanation wins.

If you are new to hotel finance, read How Upstay counts your money first. Then use this page as a dictionary.

Who can use it

Everyone. You will only meet a term on screen if your role can open the page or report it is on.

Where to find it

On any finance page or report, point at the i beside a column, row or tile name (tap it on a phone). Or open this page from Money in the help site.

How to read a formula

Each term starts with what it means, in one or two sentences.
A line starting How it is worked out gives the sum. ”÷” is divided by, ”×” is times, ”−” is minus.
All money is in rupees with two decimals, and revenue is always before GST unless the term says otherwise.

The terms

Rooms and occupancy

Occupancy
The share of the rooms you could sell that you did sell.
How it is worked out: Rooms sold ÷ rooms available

Rooms available
The rooms you could have sold: every room in the hotel for every night, less rooms out of order.
How it is worked out: Rooms in the hotel × nights − out-of-order room nights

Rooms sold
Room nights a guest paid for. Complimentary and house-use rooms are not counted as sold.

Room nights
One room for one night. Two rooms for three nights are six room nights.
How it is worked out: Rooms × nights

Complimentary
A room or service given free, with a reason and who authorised it. It is not counted as sold.

House use
A room the hotel uses itself (staff, an owner, a repair crew). Not sold and not counted in occupancy.

Out of order
A room that cannot be sold (a repair, a fault). It comes out of rooms available, so it does not lower occupancy.

Guests in house
Adults and children staying in the hotel that night.

Rates and revenue

ADR, the average daily rate
What a sold room paid on average for a night, before GST. Free rooms are left out, so they never pull the rate down.
How it is worked out: Rooms revenue ÷ rooms sold

Net ADR
What a sold room night brings in after the commission the booking source keeps.
How it is worked out: (Rooms revenue − commission) ÷ rooms sold

RevPAR, revenue per available room
Rooms revenue spread over every room you could have sold, sold or not. It moves with both price and occupancy.
How it is worked out: Rooms revenue ÷ rooms available
How it is worked out: Same as ADR × occupancy

TRevPAR, total revenue per available room
Every department’s revenue (rooms, food, banquets, laundry) spread over the rooms you could have sold. What each room is worth to the whole hotel, not just its rent.
How it is worked out: Total revenue ÷ rooms available

GOPPAR, gross operating profit per available room
Profit before other costs spread over the rooms you could have sold. Upstay counts only the costs it records (payroll, commission, paid-outs), so it is not your full profit.
How it is worked out: (Total revenue − costs Upstay records) ÷ rooms available

Revenue
Everything earned in the period, before GST. A room night is earned on the night it is used, not when money comes in.
How it is worked out: Rooms + restaurant + room service + banquets + laundry + other

Rooms revenue
What the room nights of the period earned, before GST and after any allowance.

Allowances
Discounts, waivers and goodwill taken off bills. They reduce revenue, so they show as a minus.

Direct share
The share of room revenue from bookings no OTA sent: walk-ins, your own website, Upstay, companies, agents and event planners.
How it is worked out: Direct room revenue ÷ all room revenue

Commission
What an OTA, Upstay or an agent keeps from the bookings they sent. GST at 18% is charged on commission on top.
How it is worked out: Room revenue from that source × its commission rate

Commission rate
The share of a booking’s room revenue the source keeps, from your contract with it.

Money in

Money collected
Money that came in, by every mode, including advances for future stays. It is not revenue.
How it is worked out: Cash + UPI + card + online + bank transfer + collected by the OTA + Upstay credit

Upstay credit
Credit a guest used from their Upstay wallet. Upstay pays it to the hotel, so it counts as money collected.

Collected by the OTA
A prepaid OTA booking: the OTA took the money and pays it to you after checkout, less its commission.

Online (link or website)
Paid through a payment link or on the hotel’s website. Upstay collects it and it reaches the hotel in the Upstay payout.

Bank transfer
NEFT, RTGS or IMPS straight into the hotel’s bank account.

Refunds
Money given back to a guest, shown as a minus. A refund is its own entry; the payment it came from stays.

Still owed
What the bill still needs to be paid.
How it is worked out: Bill − paid

Balance
What is still owed on the bill.
How it is worked out: Charges − payments

Gross
The full amount before anything is taken off.

Net
The amount after what is taken off.

Ledgers and the books

Guest ledger
The bills of guests in the house: charges so far less what they paid.

City ledger
Bills sent to companies, agents, event hosts and OTAs that are not paid yet.

Advance deposits
Money received for future stays and functions. The hotel owes it until the guest stays, so the ledger shows it as a minus.

Upstay payout ledger
Money between Upstay and the hotel: online payments and Upstay credit Upstay collected for you, less its commission and transfers made.

Opening
The ledger’s balance at the start of the day.

Added today
Charges added to a ledger in the day: bills, or a function invoiced to its host.

Taken off
Money taken off a ledger: payments received, or new advances for the deposit ledger.

Moved between
Money moved from one ledger to another (a bill routed to a company, an advance applied to a stay). Moves between ledgers cancel out.

Closing
The ledger’s balance at the end of the day. It must equal opening + added − taken off ± moved, or the day does not close.
How it is worked out: Opening + added − taken off ± moved

Debit
The left side of a journal entry. In every entry the debits equal the credits.

Credit
The right side of a journal entry. In every entry the credits equal the debits.

Trial balance
The check that every rupee posted as a debit is also posted as a credit, so the books balance.
How it is worked out: Sum of debits = sum of credits

Running balance
The balance after each line, starting from the opening balance.

Age
Days since the invoice date (or the link was sent). Older is harder to collect.

Cash drawer

Float
The cash a drawer starts the shift with, for change.

Expected cash
The cash that should be in the drawer when the shift closes.
How it is worked out: Opening float + cash received − paid out − cash refunds

Counted
The cash counted in the drawer at the end of the shift.

Difference
Counted cash against what was expected. A minus means the drawer was short; it needs a note.
How it is worked out: Counted − expected

Paid out
Cash taken out of the drawer for an expense (a vendor, an auto, a repair), with a receipt.

Bookings and the day

Arrivals
Bookings due to check in on the day.

Departures
Guests due to check out on the day. A guest leaving today is not charged a night for today.

Walk-ins
Guests who arrived without a booking and were booked at the desk.

Cancellations
Bookings cancelled in the period, with any fee kept by your cancellation policy.

No-shows
Guests who were due and did not come. A guaranteed booking keeps the charge your policy allows, counted as other revenue, not as a room sold.

No-show rate
The share of arrivals due who did not come.
How it is worked out: No-shows ÷ arrivals due

Source
Where the booking came from: walk-in, your own website, Upstay, an OTA, a company, an agent or an event planner.

Market segment
Why the guest came: business, leisure, wedding and events, government, group or a long stay.

Who pays
The guest, a company the bill is routed to, the OTA that collected, or the event hosts.

OTA, online travel agency
A booking site such as MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, Booking.com or Agoda. It sends bookings for a commission.

Planning ahead

On the books
Rooms and revenue already booked for a future night.

Pickup
Rooms booked for a future night since the last time you looked (a day or a week ago).
How it is worked out: On the books now − on the books then

Pace
How full future nights are now, against how full the same nights were at the same time last year.

Forecast
An estimate: what is on the books plus what usually comes in that close to the night, never more than the rooms you can sell.

Lead time
How many days before arrival a booking was made.
How it is worked out: Arrival date − date booked

Length of stay
How many nights a booking stays.

Budget vs actual
The owner’s monthly plan against what happened.
How it is worked out: Actual − budget

Variance
How far the actual figure is from the plan or the expected figure.
How it is worked out: Actual − plan

GST and other taxes

GST
Goods and Services Tax on each bill, owed to the government. It is charged on top of revenue and is not revenue. Rooms up to ₹7,500.00 a night are 5% without input credit; above that 18%. Food 5%, banquets, laundry and other services 18%.
How it is worked out: Taxable value × the line’s GST rate

GST collected
Output tax on every bill in the period, owed to the government.
How it is worked out: Sum of CGST + SGST (+ IGST) on every bill line

CGST, central GST
The central government’s half of GST on a sale within your state.
How it is worked out: Taxable value × (GST rate ÷ 2)

SGST, state GST
Your state’s half of GST on a sale within your state.
How it is worked out: Taxable value × (GST rate ÷ 2)

IGST, integrated GST
GST on a sale to a business in another state, charged in full instead of CGST + SGST.

Taxable value
The amount GST is charged on: the price before tax, after any discount.

SAC, the services accounting code
The code GST uses for a kind of service: 996311 rooms, 996331 restaurant, 996334 banquets, 999712 laundry.

HSN / SAC
The codes GST uses for goods (HSN) and services (SAC). Each line of the GSTR-1 HSN summary is one code.

B2B
A sale to a business with a GSTIN. It is listed invoice by invoice in GSTR-1.

B2C
A sale to a guest without a GSTIN. It is summed by rate in GSTR-1.

GSTIN
A business’s 15-character GST registration number.

Credit note
A document that reduces an invoice already issued (a refund, a discount after checkout, a mistake). GST comes back at the line’s rate.

GSTR-1
The monthly (or quarterly) GST return of your sales: B2B invoices, the B2C summary, credit notes, HSN/SAC and documents. Due on the 11th of the next month for monthly filers.

GSTR-3B
The monthly GST summary return where the tax is paid: output tax by rate, less credits such as TCS. Due on the 20th of the next month for monthly filers.

TCS, tax collected at source
GST the OTA keeps from your payout (0.5% of the sales it made for you) and pays to the government in your name. It is a credit you claim against the GST you owe.
How it is worked out: Net sales through the OTA × 0.5%

TDS, tax deducted at source
Income tax an OTA (section 194-O, 0.1%) or a company keeps from what it pays you and pays to the government in your name. You claim it in your income tax return. You also owe TDS on agents’ commission above ₹20,000 a year (194H).
How it is worked out: Payment × the section’s rate

GST on commission
GST at 18% the OTA charges on its commission. Claim it if your hotel takes input credit.
How it is worked out: Commission × 18%

Net received
What an OTA paid into your bank after commission, GST on commission, TCS and TDS.
How it is worked out: Gross − commission − GST on commission − TCS − TDS

Tips & good to know

A quick way to remember the three room numbers: occupancy says how full you were, ADR what each sold room paid, and RevPAR combines the two (RevPAR = ADR × occupancy).
Free (complimentary) and house-use rooms are never counted as sold, and out-of-order rooms come out of rooms available, so they never distort occupancy or ADR.
Money collected and revenue answer different questions: what came in, and what was earned. They are rarely the same on any one day.
GST rates here are the usual ones; ask your accountant to confirm your hotel’s before filing.

Troubleshooting

A word on screen has no i → It is an everyday word, or a name (a guest, a company). If a finance word is missing its i, tell Upstay support.
A number does not match your own sum → Check that you used revenue before GST, and rooms available after out-of-order rooms. Every report reads the same closed days, so two Upstay reports never disagree.