Control Report .ng | HotelKey Knowledge Base

Control Report Overview

Parent Hub: 💰 Finance & Accounting Reports

Category: ⚖️ Ledgers & Trial Balance / 💳 Payments & Transactions

Target Roles: Directors of Finance & Controllers, Night Auditors, Accounting Managers & Clerks, Front Office Supervisors

Key Value: Provide complete shift settlement auditing and cash drawer governance by contrasting system cash expectations against drops and variances, while itemizing credit card processing volume by card brand and individual user.

Executive Summary

The Control Report is an indispensable daily financial control and cashier shift reconciliation tool within the ⚖️ Ledgers & Trial Balance and 💳 Payments & Transactions modules. Designed for strict cash handling governance and credit card processing oversight, it structures all daily monetary settlement activity into three specialized functional audit perspectives.

By contrasting cashier drawer expectations (System Reading) against outlays (Paid Out, Currency Exchange), drops (Deposit Recorded), reimbursements (Due Back), and variance calculations (Over Short), while summarizing electronic payment volume across card brands (Credit Card By Type) and individual staff members (Credit Card By User), this report enables controllers, night auditors, and supervisors to enforce drawer accountability, balance merchant gateway batches, and eliminate shift handoff discrepancies.

Key Capabilities

Three Functional Audit Sections: Divided into cashier drawer reconciliation (Cash By User), merchant batch balancing (Credit Card By Type), and staff card processing logs (Credit Card By User).
Automated Over/Short Detection: Automatically calculates physical cash drawer variances (System Reading - Deposit Recorded = Over Short) per user to enforce shift-end staff accountability.
Granular Cashier & Merchant Reconciliation: Itemizes physical cash drops, currency exchanges, paid-outs, direct-bill routing, and credit card tenders down to individual staff user accounts (Username).

Report Views & Functional Breakdown

The Control Report organizes daily payment and cash handling activity across three structured operational sections:

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                            CONTROL REPORT                              │
├──────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┬──────────────────┤
│ 1. Cash By User          │ 2. Credit Card By Type   │ 3. Credit Card   │
│    (Drawer Governance)   │    (Brand Batching)      │    By User       │
└──────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┴──────────────────┘

1. Cash By User

Functions as the primary cashier shift-audit ledger, evaluating physical cash drawer balancing and settlement handling per individual user.

Primary Use: Verifying cashier drawer counts, auditing paid-outs, validating recorded cash drops, and identifying drawer overage or shortage variances.
Key Metrics: Username, System Reading, Paid Out, Currency Exchange, Received, Deposit Recorded, Over Short, Due Back, Direct Bill.

Cash by User Section

2. Credit Card By Type

Delivers an aggregated macro breakdown of property-wide electronic payment processing grouped strictly by credit card brand.

Primary Use: Night audit batch balancing, verifying merchant processor gateway totals, and confirming batch deposits prior to shift close.
Key Metrics: Type (VISA, MASTER, AMEX, DISCOVER, etc.), Total.

Image 8-13-26 at 2.16 PM.png — Credit Card by Type Section

3. Credit Card By User

Itemizes electronic payment processing volume down to specific staff members cross-referenced with card tender types.

Primary Use: Auditing individual cashier payment activity, investigating credit card batch imbalances back to the originating user, and verifying manual card entries.
Key Metrics: Username, Type (VISA, MASTER, etc.), Total.

Image 8-13-26 at 2.18 PM.png — Credit Card by User Section

Data Dictionary (Dynamic View Columns)

Customize your default view using the Configure (⚙️) icon on the report page. Below is the full data dictionary available across all sections of this report:

💡 Tax Treatment Note: All monetary figures (System Reading, Paid Out, Deposit Recorded, Direct Bill, and Total) represent Gross Amounts (Includes Taxes & Fees) collected or processed at the front desk.

Column Name	Description	Data Source / System Mapping	Includes Taxes & Fees?
Username	User email of the staff member responsible for the shift or transaction.	System Audit Log	N/A
System Reading	Calculated gross physical cash expectation expected in the drawer by the PMS.	`SUM(Cash Postings) - Paid Out + Exchange`	🟢 Yes
Paid Out	Physical cash disbursed from the drawer for petty cash or approved payouts.	`SUM(Paid Out Postings)`	🟢 Yes
Currency Exchange	Net cash adjustments resulting from foreign currency exchange trades.	`SUM(Currency Exchange Net)`	🟢 Yes
Received	Total gross cash received and processed during the user's shift.	`System Reading + Paid Out - Exchange`	🟢 Yes
Deposit Recorded	Actual physical cash drop or safe deposit amount logged by the cashier.	Cashier Shift Drop Entry	🟢 Yes
Over Short	Calculated variance between system expectation and recorded deposit.	`System Reading - Deposit Recorded`	🟢 Yes
Due Back	Reimbursement amount owed back to the cashier drawer float.	System Float Reconciler	🟢 Yes
Direct Bill	Direct-bill transfers or city ledger charges authorized during the user's shift.	`SUM(Direct Bill Postings)`	🟢 Yes
Type	Credit card tender brand or payment processor category (e.g., `VISA`, `MASTER`).	Payment Gateway Token	N/A
Total	Cumulative gross dollar amount processed for the card type or user.	`SUM(Processed Card Transactions)`	🟢 Yes

Customization & Platform Features

User & Property Preferences

Personal Preference: Tailor your individual view by hiding or dragging columns. Your preference saves automatically for future sessions.
Property Defaults: System Admins can configure standard default layouts across all property users to streamline operational reporting. To maximize audit efficiency, group the columns into the below logical blocks:
- Section 1: Cash by User
  - User Identifier (Col 1): Username
  - Cash Movements & Adjustments (Cols 2–6): System Reading | Received | Paid Out | Currency Exchange | Direct Bill
  - Deposit & Shift Reconciliation (Cols 7–9): Deposit Recorded | Due Back | Over Short
- Section 2: Credit Card by Type
  - Card Brand (Col 1): Type
  - Batch Production (Col 2): Total
- Section 3: Credit Card by User
  - User & Card Context (Cols 1–2): Username| Type
  - Shift Processing Total (Col 3): Total

Advanced Controls

Exporting & Shift Auditing: Download in Excel or PDF format to attach to cashier drop envelopes, shift audit packets, or night audit documentation.
Filtering: Filter data by specific Username, Type (VISA, MASTER), or non-zero Over Short entries.
Highlighting (Conditional Formatting): Apply custom rules to automatically highlight cashier drawer variances (Over Short ≠ $0.00) or high-value paid-outs.

Within ⚖️ Ledgers & Trial Balance & 💳 Payments & Transactions:

Day End Summary Report – Review consolidated daily revenue, tax, and payment blueprints at business day close.
Paid Out Activity Report – Itemized audit trail of all cash disbursements and petty cash outlays.
All Payments Report – Line-item transaction audit capturing token details and GL routing for every payment.
Payment Activity Overview – Technical transaction evidence linking payments to room numbers and processor tokens.
Settlement by Payment Type Report – Compare detailed settlement ledgers against daily roll-up summary totals.

Cross-Pillar Deep Dives:

📬 Billing & Receivables (AR): To audit direct-bill transfers authorized during the shift, cross-reference Direct Bill Reconciliation Report or Accounts Receivable Activity Report.
🏛️ Taxes & Expenses: To inspect cash outlays and petty cash vouchers, review Paid Out Activity Report.
📈 Forward Revenue & Analytics: Looking for forward-facing revenue projections or macro performance metrics (like RevPAR or ADR)? Please visit the [📈 Revenue & Analytics] reporting hub.