Departures and Check-out
The check-out dialog — the live folio balance, taking payment, the settlement gate and its override, late check-out fees, and what check-out locks.
Departures are worked from the same board as arrivals. Front Desk → Arrivals & Departures lists every In-House stay leaving today under Today's Departures, each row showing the room, the nights stayed and whether the guest still owes anything, with a Check Out button that opens the check-out dialog. The same dialog opens from an in-house reservation's status chip, so the money, the override and the late-fee waiver have one implementation wherever you start.
Check-out is the point of no return for the stay's billing. The folio closes as part of it, there is no Undo check-out, and no screen reopens a closed folio — so read What check-out locks before you confirm.
Reading a departure row
The row shows the guest's initials and name, then the room number and N nights, then one of two money lines:
- Paid in green, with a tick, when nothing is outstanding. The Check Out button is outlined.
<amount>outstanding in red, with a warning triangle, when the guest still owes. The Check Out button turns red.
The figure comes from the live folio, so it is the real balance and not the booked total.
Check a guest out
Open Check Out
Click Check Out on the row, or open the reservation and choose Check Out from its green status chip. The dialog is titled Check-Out — <reference> and repeats the stay for confirmation: Guest, Room, Stayed N nights and Check-in → Check-out.
Read the balance
Below the summary, the dialog reads the folio live:
- Outstanding balance with the amount, and Take the payment before checking out. Leaving with a balance is only possible if the property allows it, and needs a reason.
- Paid in full — No outstanding balance — ready to check out.
- Overpaid —
<amount>is due back to the guest.
Take the payment
Record payment opens the same Record Payment dialog the Billing tab uses — the same methods, the same tender currency, the same posting rules — prefilled with the outstanding amount. Recording a payment refreshes the folio, so the figure in the dialog behind it corrects itself and the button stops warning. Payments are documented in Payments.
Check out
Check out sends it. A <Guest name> checked out toast confirms it, the row leaves the board, and the reservation turns grey and reads Checked Out.
Post everything before you confirm
Minibar, laundry, a damage charge — post it from the reservation's Folio tab first. Check-out closes the folio in the same commit, and Folio is closed; reopen it before posting is the answer to anything that arrives afterwards. See Folios.
Leaving with a balance
A negative balance never blocks a departure: the guest has overpaid, they are owed a refund, and holding them at the desk over money the property is holding too much of helps nobody. Only a positive balance stops a check-out.
When money is owed, the server refuses the check-out and the PMS opens an Outstanding balance dialog rather than a toast — one refusal, one message. The dialog carries the server's own wording, which already names the amount:
Cannot check out: 240.00 MVR is still outstanding on the folio
It says to settle the folio from the Billing tab first, and offers an escape hatch: an Override reason box — the placeholder suggests invoice to company, agreed late payment — and a red Check out with balance button. Go back closes it so you can take the payment instead.
The override only works if the property allows it
Departing with a balance is off by default. Where the property has not switched it on, the same refusal comes back no matter what reason you type, and the dialog reopens with the fresh message. The switch is a property-level setting that is not exposed anywhere in the PMS — a property that needs it has to have it set for them. Treat the override as unavailable until then.
Where it is allowed, the reason is mandatory: the button stays disabled until you type one, the server refuses a blank one (Cannot check out with <amount> outstanding without a settlementOverrideReason), and the reason is written to the audit log with the amount, as Checked out with an outstanding balance of 240.00 MVR. An unexplained write-off of a guest's debt is exactly what an audit asks about later, which is why Innvera will not take an empty one.
Late check-out fee
A departure past the property's check-out time earns the property's late check-out fee. It posts before the settlement gate is evaluated, so the guest's new debt is part of the balance the gate rules on.
A departure is late when, on the property's clock, either the date is past the reservation's check-out date, or it is the check-out date and the time is past the property's check-out time plus any grace window. Leaving early or on time posts nothing.
The dialog says what is coming in the line under the Waive late check-out fee switch, in the same shape as the early check-in notice:
- On time — within the check-out time 12:00 (+30 min grace). No fee.
- Late by 2 h — posts 40.00 MVR (after 14:00).
- Late by 1 day 3 h — no late check-out fee is configured for this property, so nothing will post. Set one under Settings → Property → Stay Rules.
The amount comes from the property's Stay Rules: a ladder of brackets, each a flat amount or a percentage of the night, and the latest bracket the clock has passed wins. Any day after the departure date counts as the latest bracket there is, and the folio line reads Late check-out fee (past departure date) rather than naming a time. With no ladder set, the flat Late check-out charge from the property's general settings applies.
Like the early check-in fee, it needs a folio that is not CLOSED and is assessed at most once per stay — any existing line of that type, even one staff voided, means the decision was already made.
Waive it
Turn on Waive late check-out fee and type a reason — the placeholder suggests late flight, room not needed. An empty reason is refused by the dialog (Give a reason for waiving the fee.) and by the server (A reason is required to waive the late check-out fee). The waiver, the amount forgone and the rule that earned it all go to the audit log.
A refused check-out can still have charged the guest
Because the fee posts before the gate, a late departure that is then blocked for an outstanding balance keeps the fee on the folio. That is deliberate — the late departure already happened and the money is owed. The folio is re-read on the error path, so the new balance is on screen straight away, and a retry will not post it twice.
What changes on check-out
| Thing | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Reservation status | In-House | Checked Out (grey) |
| Departure stamp | — | checked out at the moment you confirmed, against the user who did it |
| Folio | OPEN or SETTLED | CLOSED, with the closing time stamped on it |
| Every assigned room's occupancy | Occupied | Vacant |
| Every assigned room's condition | whatever it was | Dirty, and off the assignable list until housekeeping finishes |
| Deep-clean counter | — | +1 stay since the room's last deep clean, feeding the housekeeping cadence |
| Reservation editing | already disabled | Read-only — Checked-out reservations are read-only. |
| Status actions | Check Out | None — the chip is a static badge |
| Notifications | — | A Guest checked out item in the live feed and the bell, naming any balance left outstanding |
Locking the folio is part of checking out, not a follow-up: a charge landing between the two would leave a departed guest owing money on a reservation nobody is looking at any more.
An OTA-collected stay also raises an invoice on the channel's account as it checks out, so what the channel owes can be chased and matched — see Receivables and City Ledger.
Dirty on check-out can be turned off
Marking the room Dirty is controlled by dirty on check-out in the property's housekeeping settings, on by default. With it off, the room still goes Vacant and the stay still counts toward the deep-clean cadence — only the condition and the assignable flag are left alone. See Room Statuses.
What check-out locks
Check-out cannot be undone
Checked Out is a terminal status. The status chip offers no further transitions and no action anywhere in the PMS returns a reservation to In-House. The folio is CLOSED; posting to it fails with Folio is closed; reopen it before posting, and no screen exposes a reopen. If a guest is checked out by mistake and then extends, the practical fix is a new reservation for the remaining nights on a fresh folio — and a note explaining it.
Check these twice before you confirm:
- Every charge is posted. After check-out there is no way onto that folio.
- The invoice is right. Print or email it from the folio before closing, not after.
- The guest is actually leaving. A day-use extension is easier to grant before the folio locks.
Running Check Out on a reservation that is already Checked Out is harmless — the server returns it unchanged without re-closing anything.
Giving the room back
One thing a finished booking can still do is release its room. A cancelled, no-showed or checked-out reservation keeps its room assignment, which leaves a bar on the Calendar for a room nobody will sleep in; dropping that bar on the room type's Unassigned row clears it. Nothing else about a finished booking moves — its dates, room type and price are history, and any other change is refused with Only confirmed or checked-in reservations can be moved. The segment keeps its type, dates and price; only the physical room is released, and the change is recorded as Room unassigned from a finished booking.
When check-out is refused
| Message | Why | Fix |
|---|---|---|
"Cannot check out: <amount> is still outstanding on the folio" | The folio has a positive balance and the property does not allow departing with one. | Take the payment with Record payment, then check out. |
"Cannot check out with <amount> outstanding without a settlementOverrideReason" | The property allows departing with a balance, but no reason was given. | Type a reason in Override reason and use Check out with balance. |
| "Only checked-in reservations can be checked out" | The reservation is On Hold, Confirmed, Cancelled or No Show — nobody is in the room. | Check the guest in first, or cancel instead. |
| "A reason is required to waive the late check-out fee" | The waiver switch is on with an empty reason. | Type the reason, or turn the switch off. |
| "Reservation not found" | Deleted, or it belongs to a property you cannot access. | Re-open it from Bookings. |
Tips
- Work departures before arrivals. A room only becomes assignable again after check-out and housekeeping's clean and inspection; doing departures first gives the board the most time.
- Chase the balance on day two, not at the door. The reservation's Folio tab shows the running balance all through the stay, and the board's red rows tell you which departures will be awkward before the guest is standing there.
- Use the Housekeeping board after a busy morning. Every check-out you run adds a
Dirtyroom to it; see The Board. - A negative balance is a refund, not a blocker. Check the guest out, then handle the refund from the folio.
Related
Arrivals and Check-in
The arrivals board and the three-step Check-in dialog — identity, the guest register, room confirmation, early check-in fees and walk-ins.
Front Desk Report
Arrivals and departures over a range of days, with what became of each booking — the morning hand-over sheet, printable and exportable.