User Activity Report .ng | HotelKey Knowledge Base

User Activity Report Overview

Parent Hub: ⚙️ System & Administration Reports

Category: 👤 User Activity Reports

Target Roles: Front Office Managers, Night Auditors, Rooms Operations Directors, Hotel Controllers, Compliance Officers, System Administrators, General Managers

Key Value: Comprehensive forensic audit trail of all front desk reservation modifications, tracking staff accountability across room reassignments, stay dates, financial charge adjustments, payment refunds, rate code overrides, and reservation cancellations.

Executive Summary

The User Activity Report is an essential administrative governance, financial audit, and operational compliance document within the 👤 User Activity Reports category of the ⚙️ System & Administration Reports hub. Designed to deliver complete operational and financial oversight over front-line property management system (PMS) actions, it provides a timestamped log of modifications executed against guest reservation records across designated date ranges.

Focused on reservation lifecycle governance through the Reservations section, this report captures the precise chronology of system events committed by hotel staff members. It maps operational timestamps (Date, Time) and operating user credentials (User) directly to reservation master parameters (Confirmation Number, Guest Name, First Name, Last Name, Checked In Date Time, Checked Out Date Time, Room Number), action classifications (Action, e.g., ROOM_NUMBER_CHANGE, CHECKOUT_DATE_CHANGE, ADJUST_CHARGE, REFUND_PAYMENT, STAY_CHANGE, CANCEL_RESERVATION, MISC_CHARGE_EDIT, RATE_CODE_CHANGE), before-and-after values (Previous Value, Current Value), and clerk rationale (Remarks). This level of visibility enables management to investigate billing discrepancies, audit rate and room overrides, verify cash/credit refunds, and ensure adherence to internal standard operating procedures.

Key Capabilities

Forensic System Audit Trail: Captures real-time logs for all reservation modifications, logging exact calendar dates (Date) and execution timestamps (Time) down to the second.
Operator Accountability & Traceability: Links every transaction directly to the staff member (User) who performed the action, preventing anonymous updates and verifying shift compliance.
Multi-Category Action Auditing: Categorizes system interactions across operational and financial change types, including room reassignments (ROOM_NUMBER_CHANGE), departure date shifts (CHECKOUT_DATE_CHANGE), billing adjustments (ADJUST_CHARGE), payment refunds (REFUND_PAYMENT), stay window modifications (STAY_CHANGE), booking cancellations (CANCEL_RESERVATION), miscellaneous charge edits (MISC_CHARGE_EDIT), and rate plan changes (RATE_CODE_CHANGE).
Value Transformation Comparison: Tracks exact field state transformations by recording the original setting (Previous Value) alongside the updated configuration (Current Value).
Operator Justification & Reason Capture: Preserves clerk comments, discount reasons, rate delta calculations, and cancellation notes (Remarks) to substantiate financial overrides and operational decisions.

Report Views & Functional Breakdown

The User Activity Report presents audit trail records in a unified single-table master matrix supporting three primary operational perspectives:

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        USER ACTIVITY REPORT                            │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                         Unified Matrix View                            │
├──────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┬──────────────────┤
│ 1. Audit Stamp & User    │ 2. Guest Profile & Room  │ 3. Action Delta  │
│    Identification        │    Stay Context          │    & Audit Notes │
└──────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┴──────────────────┘

1. Audit Stamp & User Identification

Monitors the exact execution timestamp and user credentials responsible for committing changes to the PMS database.

Primary Use: Establishing the chronological sequence of front desk operations and verifying operator ownership for shift-end audits.
Key Metrics: Date, Time, User.

2. Guest Profile & Room Stay Context

Connects the operational or financial action to the affected guest reservation, check-in/out timestamps, and assigned room physical inventory.

Primary Use: Providing complete reservation and stay context to determine the guest impact of room changes, extended stays, or rate modifications.
Key Metrics: Confirmation Number, Guest Name, First Name, Last Name, Checked In Date Time, Checked Out Date Time, Room Number.

3. Action Delta & Audit Notes

Captures the operational action category and provides before-and-after data comparisons alongside operator remarks.

Primary Use: Evaluating the operational nature and business impact of the modification (e.g., charge adjustments, refunds, rate code overrides, or cancellations).
Key Metrics: Action, Previous Value, Current Value, Remarks.

Image 10-29-26 at 1.59 PM.png — Reservations

Data Dictionary (Dynamic View Columns)

Customize your default view using the Configure (⚙️) icon on the report page. Below is the full data dictionary representing all 14 exact dynamic columns available in this report, sorted in alphabetical order by column name:

💰 Financial Posting Logic: Financial actions logged under Action (such as ADJUST_CHARGE and REFUND_PAYMENT) capture monetary amounts, department descriptions, and billing adjustments directly within Current Value and Remarks. Negative adjustment values represent posted credits, discounts, or write-offs, while positive refund values indicate cash, credit card, or ledger disbursements.

Column Name	Description	Data Source / System Mapping	Includes Taxes & Fees?
Action	Type of operational or financial modification performed on the reservation (e.g., `ROOM_NUMBER_CHANGE`, `CHECKOUT_DATE_CHANGE`, `ADJUST_CHARGE`, `REFUND_PAYMENT`, `STAY_CHANGE`, `CANCEL_RESERVATION`, `MISC_CHARGE_EDIT`, `RATE_CODE_CHANGE`).	System Audit Log > Action Type	N/A
Checked In Date Time	Exact calendar date and timestamp when the guest was officially registered and checked in to the hotel.	Reservation Master > Check-In Timestamp	N/A
Checked Out Date Time	Exact calendar date and timestamp when the guest was checked out and the reservation was settled.	Reservation Master > Check-Out Timestamp	N/A
Confirmation Number	Primary unique system confirmation number assigned to the guest reservation.	Reservation Engine > Confirmation ID	N/A
Current Value	New or updated setting committed to the reservation record following the action (e.g., new room number, revised departure date, posted adjustment, refund amount, or updated status).	System Audit Log > Post-Action Value	🟢 Yes (if related to charges or refunds)
Date	Calendar date on which the user transaction or system modification occurred and was logged in the audit trail.	System Audit Log > Transaction Date	N/A
First Name	First name of the primary guest registered on the reservation.	Guest Profile > First Name	N/A
Guest Name	Full name of the primary reservation guest, formatted as LAST FIRST.	Guest Profile > Full Name	N/A
Last Name	Last name (surname) of the primary guest registered on the reservation.	Guest Profile > Last Name	N/A
Previous Value	Historical data value of the field prior to the modification committed by the user (e.g., previous room assignment, original checkout date, prior status, or previous rate code).	System Audit Log > Pre-Action Value	🟢 Yes (if related to charges or refunds)
Remarks	Operator notes, discount justifications, rate delta details, or reason codes captured during the action.	Audit Trail > Operator Comments	N/A
Room Number	Physical guest room number assigned to the reservation at the time of the logged activity.	PMS Room Master > Room Assigned	N/A
Time	Exact time of day (hours, minutes, seconds) when the transaction was executed.	System Audit Log > Transaction Time	N/A
User	Full name or system login ID of the front office clerk, manager, or system process executing the modification.	User Security Master > Username	N/A

Customization & Platform Features

User & Property Preferences

Personal Preference: Tailor your individual view by hiding or dragging columns. Your preferences save 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:
- Audit Timestamp & User Accountability (Cols 1–3): Date | Time | User
- Reservation Key & Guest Profile Identifiers (Cols 4–7): Confirmation Number | Guest Name | First Name | Last Name
- Stay Execution Schedule & Room Inventory (Cols 8–10): Checked In Date Time | Checked Out Date Time | Room Number
- Audit Action Classification & State Diff Tracking (Cols 11–13): Action | Previous Value | Current Value
- Audit Documentation & Explanatory Context (Col 14): Remarks

Use the top-right toolbar icons on the report page to manage and export your data view:

Icon	Action / Feature	Description
	Knowledge Article	Opens the knowledge base article to learn how to interpret this report.
	Saved Views	Saves your column filtering, sorting, and highlight preferences so you can easily reload your custom view later without reconfiguring the report.
	Filter	Opens filter controls to isolate specific data within a column based on your selected criteria.
	Highlight	Highlights column values in a designated color based on selected conditions.
	Export	Exports and downloads the report in various formats (Excel, PDF, CSV) for offline analysis or printing.
	Configure	Opens column selection controls to toggle visibility, reorder columns, or hide rows with all zeros.
	Additional Configuration	Provides advanced report configuration and display formatting options to customize data presentation.

Advanced Controls

Billing Adjustment & Refund Audits: Filter by Action = ADJUST_CHARGE or REFUND_PAYMENT during night audit to ensure all discounts and cash/credit payouts have valid manager authorization and matching receipts.
Rate Code Override Oversight: Filter by Action = RATE_CODE_CHANGE to audit instances where clerks manually changed guest rate tiers, verifying that corporate or promotional qualifications were met.
Highlighting (Conditional Formatting): Apply custom rules to automatically highlight high-risk actions (Action = REFUND_PAYMENT), cancellations without penalty, or modifications completed during off-hours.

Within ⚙️ System & Administration Reports & 👤 User Activity Reports:

Clerk Activity Report – Two-section cashiering audit tracking line-item payments and shift tender summaries by clerk.
Clerk Reservation Summary Report – Staff performance audit tracking booking volume, lodging revenue yield, and cancellations by clerk.
Clerk Shift Report – Seven-section cashiering audit tracking drawer balances, cash drops, paid-outs, and shift intervals.
Daily Activity Report – Focused single-day front desk operational audit tracking room moves, stay adjustments, and cancellations.
Guest Service Agent Productivity Report – Two-section front desk operational efficiency report tracking hourly check-in and checkout curves.
Operator Security Report – Comprehensive security log tracking user logins, system permissions, role templates, and account statuses.

Cross-Pillar Deep Dives:

💳 Financial & General Ledger: Reconcile billing adjustments (Action = ADJUST_CHARGE) and payment refunds (Action = REFUND_PAYMENT) with Revenue Summary Report and Clerk Shift Report to verify ledger balance accuracy.
🛎️ Front Desk Operations: Cross-reference room changes (Action = ROOM_NUMBER_CHANGE) and stay adjustments (Action = STAY_CHANGE) with Room Move Activity Report and In-House Guest to ensure seamless guest services coordination.