11th Edition Market Segmentation

Revenue

The primary source of revenue for a lodging property generally arises from the rental of rooms and suites to guests. Rooms Revenue is divided into four parts: Transient Rooms Revenue, Group Rooms Revenue, Contract Rooms Revenue, and Other Rooms Revenue.

Transient Rooms Revenue

Transient Rooms Revenue commonly includes revenue derived from rental of rooms and suites by individuals or groups occupying fewer than 10 rooms per night. It also includes rooms leased to guests who have established permanent residence, with or without a contract. Transient stays typically include the following categories:

Retail: A market positioned, seasonally priced room rate for transient business. It is a non-discounted, non-qualified rate that is always available when the hotel has rooms to sell.
Discount: A rate open to the general public (non-qualified) under which the guest pays less than the Retail rate. Examples include advance purchase, loyalty redemptions or offers, packages, promotions, and online travel agency (OTA) opaque.
Negotiated: A rate negotiated with special (typically corporate) accounts. Identification with a particular company or organization is required to obtain this rate.
Qualified: A rate that requires the customer to be associated with a particular organization or to have a specific affiliation in order to book Identification is required upon check-in. Examples include senior citizen, AAA, government, and employee rate.
Wholesale: A discounted room rate packaged with outside travel and/or car rental prior to being sold to the guest. The rate is not visible to the guest.

Group Rooms Revenue

Group Rooms Revenue includes revenue derived from renting blocks of rooms or suites to a group. A group is typically defined as 10 or more rooms per night sold pursuant to a contract. Group Rooms Revenue is recorded net of discounts to wholesalers for selling large blocks of rooms. Rebates or subsidies granted directly to a group should be recorded as contra revenue. To facilitate effective sales and marketing efforts, Group Rooms Revenue is generally segregated by market segment. Market segments typically include the following categories:

Corporate: A negotiated rate for a block of rooms associated with a company related to industries such as, but not limited to, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, insurance, financial, law firms, professional sports organizations, entertainment companies, and transportation corporations.
Association/Convention: A negotiated rate for a block of rooms associated with a trade, professional, or philanthropic association.
Government: A negotiated rate for a block of rooms associated with qualifying government agencies including, but not limited to, active military, national security, and health and human services.
Tour/Wholesalers: A negotiated rate for a block of rooms associated with tour operators/wholesalers who package together travel components and sell them as escorted tour group, escorted tour series, or inbound ad hoc group.
SMERF (Social, Military, Educational, Religious, Fraternal): A negotiated rate for a block of rooms associated with organizations that fall into the categories of social (a celebratory or personal event), military (veterans, support, and social groups), education (private or public organizations founded and united for the specific purpose to educate), religious (faith-specific organizations), and fraternal (honor societies, fraternities, sororities, unions, and unique forms of organizations that limit membership to specific fields of study, expertise, or employment).

Contract Rooms Revenue

Contract Rooms Revenue includes revenue derived from a contract with another entity for a consistent block of rooms for an extended period over 30 days. Contract Rooms Revenue is recorded net of discounts. Examples include domiciled airline crews, ongoing corporate training seminars, and incentive-based benefit programs.

Other Rooms Revenue

This includes no-shows, day use, early departure fees, late check-out fees, rollaway beds, cribs, surcharges, and service charges.

CIA Configuration Guide

Introduction

At Computer Ingenuity Associates, Inc. (CIA), we are glad to work with you to create better budgets, accurate forecasts and more profit using our software tools in your hotel management operations. You are receiving this document because you have purchased a license to one or more of the following:

CIA Financial Planning (which might include (DREV, FBREV, Buddy and BPLAN)
DSTAT
CIA Online Portal
HLO – Hotel Labor Optimization

These software applications and services can be highly customized to meet your specific needs and integrate with your other systems. To get you up and running in the most efficient manner, we have designed this step-by-step configuration guide. CIA Configuration Guide

Configuration Steps

STEP 1 is the Data collection phase. We will provide you with a series of spreadsheets to complete that will collect key data about your company and the hotels you operate.

STEP 2 is the Configuration phase where we will build databases based on the data you provided.

STEP 3 is the History Loading phase. Assuming this is not a pre-opening situation, your historical information will be of great value in the use of the system. Pre-loading operational data from this year and last year will improve your productivity will these tools.

STEP 4 is the Interface phase. Once the CIA systems are installed on your hotels’ systems, we will implement interfaces to pull data in an automated way. Depending on the systems you identify in STEP 1, we may have existing interface process. Otherwise, we may have to build into the timeline a project to design and create an interface. You may also choose to use the system with manual data entry until an interface is tested.

Timeline

It is difficult at the outset to set a timeline for completing the configuration. This depends, in part, how quickly you are able to gather the data and files we need. In our experience, the entire process can take from 3 to 20 weeks depending on the complexity of your setup and in what form you provide the data we need. While all steps must be completed before we can do training and you can start using the systems, you do not need to complete one step before working on the next. The steps are described below and may be worked on simultaneously. A timeline for implementation will be defined after completion of Step 1.

Let’s get started…

Step 1 – Data Collection

In this phase, we will need you to send us certain “hard copy” documents and fill out some surveys.

Company Survey

We have prepared an Excel workbook named ‘Customer Data Collection Survey (Custom).xlsx’ for you to complete and return to us. This is information common to all hotels in your company. Individualized information for each hotel is collected separately (see Systems Survey section below). It is important to complete all tabs of the workbook. Contact us if you have questions about any of the specific data required.

Hard Copy Samples

The “hard copy” documents can be provided on paper, PDF format or Excel format. In some cases, a sample from one hotel is all that is needed since the report will be the same at every location. We will highlight any instances where we’ll need a copy for each hotel.

Please provide a copy of these documents:

A sample of the Daily Report (or Manager’s Report) produced daily from the PMS or other system. Provide a copy for each hotel only if they are different by hotel.
A sample Trial Balance Report for one day showing transaction totals. Provide one report for each hotel only if the PMS configuration is not the same across hotels.
Do Banquet charges flow through PMS? If not, provide sample banquet check recap report.
A sample of your monthly Profit & Loss (P&L) Statement showing all accounts. We will mimic this format in the budget reports.

Other reports that that may be useful in the configuration phase include:

Last Daily Report of each Month for past three months
Last Group Room Booking Pace Reports
Group Room Control Log
Banquet on Books Report
Report showing month end values from Time Clock System for past 3 months

Systems Surveys

There is a Systems Survey form in Exhibit A of this configuration guide. It is important to have this completed for each hotel being configured. For your convenience, we will also provide an Excel format of this form.

Step 2 – Configuration

We will construct customized databases based on the data provide in Step 1. The databases include:

Company database – containing the Company Name, calendar and hotel list
Security database – to store all the user logins and authentication information
C_Master – this is the “master” list for accounts, departments, jobs, market segments, outlets, meal periods, etc. The individual hotel databases will be derived from this.
mdb – This is the initial template for creating databases used by DSTAT.

Step 3 – Loading History

To get the fullest benefit from CIA Financial Planning, we load history for the latest complete year (i.e. “last year”) and the latest incomplete year (i.e. “current year”). In this section, we will highlight the various historical data needed and methods available to get that historical data into CIA Financial Planning.

The history data loaded will include:

Room nights and Room Revenue History by Market Segment
Food and Beverage Revenue History by Outlet / by Meal Period
Labor cost and hours worked by position
Line Item expense (P&L History)

DSTAT

The major revenues in the hotel (such as Rooms, Food and Beverage) are stored and budgeted as daily values. Therefore, it is important to have a source of daily history. Whether you are using DSTAT for night audit or not, this application will be used to track daily revenue data going forward. It can also be loaded with historical data.

Loading history into DSTAT first and then using DSTAT to export history is the easiest and most accurate method of loading daily revenue history to CIA Financial Planning since the export of data to CIA is already configured. However, this method assumes that the history is available in the PMS to load into DSTAT.

Market Segment History (DREV)

If historical rooms and revenue by market segment is not available in DSTAT, we can read the history from a .csv file. If the data is not in the correct format, you will have to re-format the data or incur extra contract fees to have CIA re-format the data for you.

Food & Beverage Revenue (FBREV)

If historical covers, food revenue and beverage revenue is not available in DSTAT, we can read the history from a .csv file. If the data is not in the correct format, you will have to re-format the data or incur extra contract fees to have CIA re-format the data for you.

Sample history file format

The F&B history can be loaded using account numbers since covers and food revenue by meal period has a unique account number in Buddy. Beverage (liquor, beer, wine) has unique account numbers as well. CIA has the ability to read history in this format:

Day	Account	Amount
1/1/2013	1101-42970-0000	884.00
1/1/2013	1101-42980-0000	576.87
1/1/2013	1101-42990-0000	202.52
1/1/2013	1101-43000-0000	318.77
1/1/2013	1101-43030-0000	-403.00
1/1/2013	1101-43060-0000	17.61
1/1/2013	1101-43070-0000	65.84
1/1/2013	1101-43080-0000	19.42
1/1/2013	1101-93511-0000	78.81
1/1/2013	1101-93512-0000	32.58
1/1/2013	1101-93513-0000	13.23
1/1/2013	1106-42990-0000	1,252.65
1/1/2013	1106-43060-0000	420.42
1/1/2013	1106-43070-0000	356.26

Note: if daily F&B values are not available, then monthly values can be prorated into the daily format above.

Line Item History (Buddy)

The “Buddy” module is used to budget & forecast line item expenses and print financial reports. Data is loaded by month by account. There are several “standard” formats that can be used for reading this history. Since you’ll need to read P&L actuals every month, the simplest method for loading P&L history is to use the standard format defined by your accounting system. One such format is shown below.

Historical P&L Actual values

Year	Period	Account	Amount
2015	1	3010-40300-00000	14544.37
2015	1	3010-43300-93514	-233487.77
2015	1	3010-43300-93586	-117763.81
2015	1	3010-43300-93682	-36462
2015	1	3010-43300-93962	-8725.92
2015	1	3010-43300-94026	4229.16

Each file has data for one property for one year
Columns are Year, Month, Account Number and Amount (dollars)
Revenue are negative, expenses are positive

Hours and Labor Cost History (Buddy)

The hours and labor cost history are used for comparison reporting and default Standards in Labor. There are two files for each hotel.

The first .csv file has hours and cost by job by period:

Property	Year	Period	Position code	GL Account	Hours	Expense
3320	2015	1	3010051360	0	320	6342
3320	2015	1	3010051365	0	160	3918
3320	2015	1	3010051380	0	320	5816
3320	2015	1	3010057359	0	24	294
3320	2015	1	3010057361	0	334	3937
3320	2015	1	3010057363	0	330	4215

Position	Day of Week	Hours	Stat	Num Days	Hours	Stat	Num Days	Stat	Description	Per Text
3010051360	2	464	24887	52	152	7103	13	102	Rooms Sold	Room
3010051360	3	464	30961	52	152	8747	13	102	Rooms Sold	Room
3010051360	4	464	31394	52	152	8926	13	102	Rooms Sold	Room
3010051360	5	464	28468	52	160	8439	13	102	Rooms Sold	Room
3010051360	6	464	29837	52	152	7657	13	102	Rooms Sold	Room
3010051365	2	416	24887	52	104	7103	13	102	Rooms Sold	Room
3010051365	3	416	30961	52	104	8747	13	102	Rooms Sold	Room

The second .csv file has day of week averages by position.

This file contains Day of Week averages for the past 52 weeks and the past 13 weeks
Day of week 1=Sunday, 2=Monday, etc.
Stat is the value of the statistic over that period
Stats are defined by position as that which is most relevant for that job

Note: is using ADP eTime and loading automatically to the CIA online portal, then these files will be generated automatically.

Step 4 – Interfaces

Once the databases are configured and deployed, you will use the system daily to import values from PMS, POS and Timekeeping systems to produce Daily Reports, journal entries for accounting and history for the forecast. Once per month, data will be read from the PMS, Sales system, and accounting system to prepare for the doing the forecast.

Daily Interfaces

Export file from PMS (e.g. Opera, SMS-Host, OnQ, etc.)
Export file from POS (e.g. Micros, Infogenesis, etc.)
Export file from Timekeeping System (e.g. ADP eTime, Kronos, etc.)

Monthly Interfaces

Group Room Data from Sales System (e.g. Delphi, Hotel SalesPro)
PMS Reservation Data
Banquet On the books from Sales System
Import labor hours and cost by month
Import labor hours by Day of Week for past 52 weeks
P&L actuals from accounting system

The details of these interfaces are described in a separate document.

Exhibit A – Data Collection Checklist for CIA & DSTAT

Use for Transition to New Management Company

Hotel Information

Hotel Name
Property Code
Number of Guestrooms
New Mgmt Start Date
F&B Outlets	Outlet	Meal Period	Revenue Ctr No. or Acct Product Code

Systems Interface

Use the chart below to record the Software Name and version currently used at the hotel along with the replacement system (if applicable).

	Current System	New System (include projected installation date)
PMS (Name & Version)
POS (Name & Version)
Time Clock Software (Name & Version)
Source of Daily Market Segment Data
Source of Daily F&B Covers & Revenue
Sales & Catering System (Name & Version)
Source of P&L History (i.e. accounting system)

Items to collect:

Use this chart to check off items as they are collected.

	A Sample of Current Daily Report – PMS report, Excel workbook or other system report used to report daily statistics and revenues to management.
	A printout of all Transaction Codes and Descriptions in PMS. (e.g. For Fidelio, print the ‘Department Code – Number Order’).
	A listing of all Market Codes defined in the PMS; with Market Segment they roll into.
	A sample PMS close out report such as the Balance Check Report in Fidelio or the Detailed Trial Balance in Opera.
	A sample of a close out report from the POS. This should be whatever report(s) used by the accounting dept to create the current Daily Report.
	A listing of all positions (by code) defined in the Time Clock system.
	A sample daily report from the Time Clock system showing Position Code, Hours Worked and Expense (e.g. in ADP Time$aver, use the Hours Worked Summary for one day).

Questions to Ask:

Question	Answer / Comment
Are the PMS, POS and Time Clock systems connected via a common internal network within the hotel?
Do the accounting office computers have direct access to the server folders containing the data for PMS, POS and Time Clock? Is so, what type of database is it (e.g. .dbf, .mdb, .mdf)?
Are there ‘export’ features in the PMS, POS and Time Clock software which enable the dump of daily data to an external data format (.txt, .csv, .xls)?

Budget software task overview

To get to Budget Mode

When in Forecast Mode, on the Main CIA screen, choose Property Utilities
Click the button that says “Start working on Budget 20xx”

Week 1

All tasks listed in this section can begin as soon as the budget modules become available, or sooner in the case of those steps that require the gathering of external data (i.e. Wage surveys).

Room Revenue – DREV

Load and verify historical rooms, rates, and revenues by segment
Load and verify On Books group rooms, rates, and revenues
Load impact statements defining major changes effecting room nights and rates. These changes will be applied to current year totals, creating a first pass budget.
Determine for each Group segment whether “On Books” values or Historical Totals is a better default value for the budget year. (This selection is indicated when the Positive impacts are saved).
With a first pass budget created print the Revenue Presentation report to review the current level of business in each segment. Use the Revenue Presentation Report, On Books Report, and Day by Day Recap report to view totals.
Detail Group “To Be Booked” (anticipated) business by day by segment. This can be done by either entering new group segment totals into the Daily screen, or “To Be” booked values into the On Books screen.
With the Group segments budgeted to desired levels, reprint the Presentation, On Books, and other reports to begin examining what changes are needed to the Transient Segments.
If major changes are needed to the Transient Segments, try using the Patterns screen, to create three distinct levels of business that can be pasted into each week of the year as necessary. (If only minor changes are needed, proceed to step 10)
Once patterns are created, switch to the daily screen, where you can select for each transient segment the appropriate level of business for each week (High, Average, or Low). Once the default values from the pattern are entered, you can manually change any days that need further refining.
When transient segments reach the point where only minor changes are needed, go through each week refining the budget by entering specific room nights and rates where necessary.
When all desired changes are made, reprint reports to determine if budget is at necessary levels. If budget meets expectations, proceed with remainder of budget process.
If additional changes are needed, you may be able to make the necessary modifications using the Monthly screen. This screen allows for discreet changes in room nights and any change to rate structure.

DREV should be completed during the first week of the budget process, as several other steps throughout the process are dependent on the rooms’ budget.

FBREV

All tasks listed below can be completed while the rooms’ budget is being worked on.

Load and verify historical covers, average checks, and revenues by outlet by meal period
Load and verify On Books covers, average checks, and revenues by meal period. (Complete the detailing of all Catering bookings for the budget year)
It is possible to enter Capture percentage, Per occupied room amounts, and cover and average check amounts into each outlet before the rooms budget is complete, but resulting revenue totals should be ignored until the rooms budget is completed.

LABOR

Current and Proposed wage surveys, Wage and Benefit surveys, and the list of employees that exceed the wage scale can be entered at any time through out the budget process, as they do not directly effect the calculation of budgeted labor cost.
Once the current and proposed wage sections are complete, the Copy button can be used to enter default values into the monthly screen. The dates indicated in the wage scales will be used to determine the Regular pay rate for each month, the overtime will automatically calculate as 1.5 times the regular rate of pay. Contract rates will have to be keyed into the form. You can overwrite any amount by merely typing in the desired field.
Standards can be entered into the Labor program at any point, however labor cost will not be calculated until the revenue modules (DREV and FBREV) are complete, and the monthly wages screen is complete.

Buddy

Historical totals can be loaded and verified against the P&L at any time.
Users can enter the format and factor for any expense or other revenue lines at any time, however totals should not be considered correct until such time as the revenue modules, labor program, and ASAP (Sales and Marketing and total operating expense only) are completed.
Explanations can be written at anytime provided that annual amounts are not going to be referenced in the text.

ASAP

Templates for Action Types should be created, including default support tasks and account numbers.
Action plans, their details and costs can be completed at anytime, as they are not related directly to any other module in the process. Some consideration should be given to the focus of growth in certain segments or areas of the hotel.

Week 2

These tasks are dependent upon rooms’ statistics and revenue being complete

FBREV

The steps described below are performed once in Step 5 to complete the forecast of the current year, and then again in Step 6 for the budget year.

With history and on books values loaded and verified, and the completed rooms budget loaded from DREV, the Catering revenue forecast and budget can now be completed.
Proceed to step 5 of FBREV and begin the process of forecasting the remainder of the year as follows:
The Group Room food covers can be entered either as a capture percentage or whole cover number. In either case, the value should be initially entered into the Monthly screen.
Switch to the daily screen and refine any specific dates that appear to need adjusting, for Group Room related only.
If a number of dates required adjustment in step 3, continue to complete all other months using only the daily screen. If only a few dates required adjustment, complete the monthly screen for all remaining budget months, and then make a second pass through the daily screens to catch any minor adjustments needed.
With the Group Room Related banquets forecast complete, enter the To Be Booked covers and average check amounts for the Local / Social Catering. Again use one month as a test to see if the spread of data entered into the Monthly screen will work, or whether entries need to be done on a daily basis.
Proceed with the completion of the Local / Social banquet food revenue screens for each month.
With Banquet food revenue completed, proceed to the screens for Banquet beverage and miscellaneous revenues and complete the finalization of budget numbers for those sections.
While Banquet Beverage and Miscellaneous revenues are completed. The process of forecasting food revenue for other outlets can be completed.
Capture percentages, covers per day, specific covers (for holidays, etc.), and average checks can be loaded into the monthly screen as defaults.
With the monthly screens complete, make a second pass through the outlet looking at the daily screen. Note any date that has unusual capture % numbers on the right hand side of the screen. Use the Group Details and All Outlets buttons to look at more detail about the dates in question. Adjust the capture percentages, cover counts, or average checks for the outlet as necessary.
Complete the process described in steps 10 and 11 for each outlet, before proceeding to the beverage budgets. Print the Verification report and ensure that you are satisfied with the food and banquet forecasts.
Return to each outlet and forecast the desired beverage revenue, either as a dollar amount or based on the indicated factor.
Reprint the verification and other reports to review the total forecasted revenues.

LABOR

With the wage screens and rooms budget complete:

The Position by Average Rate, Proposed Wage Report, Individuals Over the Maximum Rate, Competitive Wage Survey, and Competitive Benefits Survey reports can all be printed.
Any jobs based on fixed weekly schedules (i.e. Administrative Assistants, Engineering Positions, etc.) can be budgeted by entering the desired weekly schedules.
All positions whose payroll is based on Occupied Rooms can also be budgeted. Standards using hours per Occupied room or levels based on occupied rooms can be calculated.
Standards can be entered for positions based on Food and Beverage factors or total revenues, but totals will not be calculated.

Buddy

With historical totals verified, and the rooms budget complete:

Rooms’ department expenses can be completed.
Any account based solely on occupied rooms, or room revenue, can be completed. (I.e. Reservations Fees, certain maintenance accounts, etc.
Users can continue to enter the format and factor for expenses or other revenue lines, not directly tied to rooms’ statistics or revenue, but should not review totals until other modules are complete.
Users can continue to complete explanation screens.
Any report for the Rooms Department can be printed.

ASAP

Action plans, their details and costs should be completed and any additional cost (not related to specific actions) should be entered into the additional expense screen.
Once data entry is completed, the Project Budget Detail, Budget Expense by Account, and Total Budget Expense by Account reports should be reviewed.
Adjustments should be made to cost as necessary.

Weeks 3 – 4

These tasks are dependent upon both rooms and f&b statistics and revenues being complete:

LABOR

Budget figures for F&B positions can now be calculated and reviewed. Standards using hours per covers or levels based on covers or food and beverage revenues can be calculated.
Standards can be entered for positions based on Food and Beverage factors or total revenues, but totals will not be calculated.
Once standards for all hourly positions are entered, all reports can be printed and reviewed,
Make adjustments to standards as necessary.

Buddy

Food and Beverage division expenses can be completed.
All accounts can be completed.
All necessary explanation screens should now be completed.
All reports should be printed and reviewed.
Any necessary changes should be made.

ASAP

Verify that final values from the Action Plans should be loaded into Buddy.

BPLAN

All required DREV and FBREV values should load to the Plan when the program is accessed.
From the File menu select “Print All” to print the entire plan.
Manually review the pages of the plan and the values loaded from the other programs.
Gather the information needed to complete the various pages.
Once Buddy is complete, re-access the Plan to import final budget data.
Once all pages are completely filled out, print the plan.

HOW To Troubleshoot when DREV will not read data form Delphi MPE

Issue

The data from Delphi MPE is stored in a file named ppppRoomPace.csv where pppp is the Property Code for the hotel. For example, 1234RoomPace.csv contains sales data for property 1234.

The file containing the sales data is typically stored in a folder named “Delphi” under the main Budget folder for CIA Financial Planning. For example, if CIA launches from X:\CIA\Budget, then the standard location for the Delphi data file is X:\CIA\Budget\Delphi.

If there is a problem reading the data into DREV, follow the troubleshooting steps below.

Troubleshooting

Using Windows Explorer, go to the folder where the Delphi data file is located (e.g. X:\CIA\Budget\Delphi) make sure there’s a file named ppppcsv where pppp is the Property Code for the hotel.
Make sure the property is set to read from Delphi MPE. On the CIA Financial Planning menu, select “Property List” and check that the Sales System is set for “Delphi (Hosted)”. If not, click the Revise button and change to the correct setting using the dropdown menu.
Open DREV, and check that the third item on the left says “Load DelphiMPE Data and Run Pace Report”. If not, go back to #2 above.
Click on the link labeled “Load DelphiMPE Data and Run Pace Report”. If another dialog does not appear, then DREV did not find the file in the expected location. The resolution will depend on how the data file is delivered.
1. If the file is downloaded using CIA, go to the Administrative Option menu and select the option labeled “Download Delphi MPE (Hosted) Data”. If this option does not appear, then the file DelphiPath.Txt is missing. Contact CIA technical support for assistance.
2. If the file is placed in the folder using another method, then the path in the registry is the issue. The path to the csv file is in registry key \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VB and VBA Program Settings\DREV\SalesLoad\Path. This registry setting is created automatically when CIA downloads the file (#a. above) but must be set manually otherwise.

Note: You can use the DelphiPath.Txt to download the file one time and set the registry key. Subsequent reads will come from that same location.

Error 31104

Error 31104 – Tab control must have a tleast one visible Tab at 962 in Buddy frmBudgetInput:cboAccount_Click() at 1293

Summary

When using the Buddy program, the user may get the message:

Cause

There is a known issue in Buddy when the user click on the button labeled: Turn Calcs OFF

The user may also be prompted about turning calculations OFF if calculations take a long time (i.e. more than a few seconds).

If Calcs are Turned OFF and then the user clicks to move to the next account, this error will be generated.

Solution

Until this bug is fixed, users are advise to not turn Calcs OFF.

HOW TO Setup PDF Printer for Use in CIA and DSTAT (Feb2013)

Description

CIA Financial Planning and DSTAT can print any report to PDF format from the report preview screen by clicking the PDF button (or Email button). To perform this function, the software must setup a temporary printer named ‘CIA PDF Printer’ and output the report to that printer. The user must have local administrator rights to create the printer. Note that this procedure has changed for 2013.

For most users, the CIA PDF Printer is created as needed when PDF output is requested. However, some users do not have rights to create a printer on their local computer. In this case, an alternative method of creating the CIA PDF Printer before launching CIA Financial Planning is needed. Whether the user has rights to create a printer or not, creating the PDF printer up front will make PDF generation faster.

Downloading the Setup

The setup program for creating the CIA PDF Printer is now included as part of the “BudClient” (and DstatClient for cases where CIA Financial Planning is not installed). You must use a BudClient dated after June, 2013. It can be downloaded using the URL:

https://ciasoft.com/BudClient.EXE

Save this file to the CIA\Budget folder on the hotel’s server. This will make it accessible to all users of CIA Financial Planning.

Running the Setup

Using an account that has administrative rights, or using “Runas Administrator”, double-click BudClient.EXE to run it. This will setup CIA Financial Planning to run on the local computer. It will also create the folder CIA\Budget\PDF and copy PDF printer driver files to it.

Setting Up the Printer (Optional)

If the user does not have right to create printers, it will be necessary to create the printer prior to running CIA Financial Planning. Do this by opening the CIA\Budget\PDF folder, find the file named InstallCIAPrinter.bat and double-click to run it. If successful, you should see a window like this:

(Note: you must have local administrator rights to run this setup)

Click the OK button in this window.

Verifying the Printer Setup

To verify that the PDF printer is created and ready to use, click the Start button and then click ‘Devices and Printers’. If the previous steps were successful, you will see a device icon labeled ‘CIA PDF Printer’. At this point, the local computer will have a “permanent” printer that CIA Financial Planning and DSTAT can use to create PDF output.

Troubleshooting

Follow these steps if clicking the PDF button produces an error:

Open “Devices and Printers” (under Control Panel). If there is an existing printer named “CIA PDF Printer”, remove it by right clicking and selecting “Remove Device”.
Open the PDF folder located under the Budget folder. All the DLLs should be dated 2/13/2013 or later. If they are earlier, download the latest BudClient.exe from the CIA website and run it on the workstation.
Find the file named “InstallCIAPrinter.bat” and run it. That should create the “CIA PDF Printer”.
If the error persists, right click on “CIA PDF Printer” and select “Printer Properties”. Then, click on the Ports tab. Create a port named “nul:” and assign it to the CIA PDF Printer.

How To Download Accounting History Data

Launch CIA
Go to Administrative Options and Select “Download Accounting History Files”

HOW TO Setup PDF Printer for Use in CIA and DSTAT

Procedure for Setting Up PDF Printer for Use in CIA and DSTAT

NOTE: This procedure is to be used for CIA Financial Planning version prior to February, 2013. For newer versions, please see updated instructions.

Description

A new method of creating this temporary printer has been implemented in which the CIA PDF Printer is installed once (by an administrator) and then not removed when printing is complete. This is useful when users do not have rights to create printers. It also solves issues printing on 64 bit systems.

Downloading the PDF Setup

The setup program for creating the CIA PDF Printer can be downloaded using the URL:

https://ciasoft.com/PDFSetup.EXE

Save this file to the CIA\Budget folder on the hotel’s server. This will make it accessible to all users of CIA Financial Planning.

Setting Up the Printer (All Systems)

Go to the CIA\Budget folder and run PDFSetup.EXE (double click the file to run).

The PDFSetup program will create a folder CIA\Budget\PDF and copy files to it. Then, a Windows Explorer window will open showing the files. Find the file named InstallCIAPrinter.bat run it (double click). If successful, you should see a windows like this:

(Note: you must have local administrator rights to run this setup)

Click the OK button in this window. Then, click the FINISH button to close the setup program.

Changing the Printer Port (Windows 64 bit Systems Only)

Click the Start button and then click ‘Devices and Printers’. If the previous steps were successful, you will see a device icon labeled ‘CIA PDF Printer’.

Right click this icon and select ‘Printer Properties’.
Click the Ports tab.
Click the Add Port… button
Select ‘Local Port’ and then click the New Port… button
For the port name, enter CIAPDF and then click the OK button
Close the Printer Ports window
Click the Close button on the CIA PDF Printer Properties window

At this point, the local computer will have a “permanent” printer that CIA Financial Planning and DSTAT can use to create PDF output.

Troubleshooting

If you click on the PDF button to output a report in PDF format and get an error, follow these steps prior to contacting Technical Support. Exit CIA Financial Planning before following these steps.

Click the Start button and then click ‘Devices and Printers’. Do you see a printer named “CIA PDF Printer”? If so, right click on this icon and select “Remove Device” to remove the printer so it can be recreated in the following steps. If no CIA PDF Printer exists, go directly to #2 below.
Using Windows Explorer, see if the folder CIA\Budget\PDF folder exists. If not, go back and follow the instructions in the above section titled “Downloading the PDF Setup” and then continue with the instructions under “Setting Up the Printer (All Systems)”. If the second to last message in the dialog box does not say “Printer setup succeeded”, then you likely do not have the administrative right to install the printer. In this case, you must contact your company’s Helpdesk for further assistance; and reference these instructions.

Enter Meeting Room Rental at Sonesta ES Hotels

Enter Meeting Room Rental at Sonesta ES Hotels

Room Rental Revenue is posted to the Banquets Dept (1151) and is forecasted in the FBREV module of CIA. To enter the forecasted Room Rental for the first time, follow these steps:

Log into CIA, and click on ‘FBREV – Food & Beverage Revenue’
Go to the Utilities menu and select ‘Setup Outlets’. On the line labeled “Corporate (Group)”.
- Under Name type “Banquets”
- Check the box for ‘Budget this Outlet’
- Click the OK button

The above steps must be done only time. You will not have to do this each month.

From the main FBREV screen, click the button labeled “Change 2013 Forecast”
On the next screen, set the Outlet to Banquets, set the Revenue to Other and click the link for “Change Forecast”
On the next screen, enter the monthly forecasted room rental. Make sure to select the correct month at the top of the screen.

When all future months are entered, close FBREV and save data. When you enter the Buddy program, these revenues will automatically import to the forecasted P&L.

Submitting an Official Forecast

Each time you make a change to your forecast, that causes the Buddy program to recalculate EBTDA (or Net Income) the software will be triggered to Submit the Forecast to corporate for review. This occurs after you exit Buddy and subsequently exit the CIA software all together.

After closing the Main CIA Plan Menu a pop up will ask “Are You Ready to Submit Forecast”

If you answer YES

The forecast is:

Archived for use in comparison reports at a later time

Updated in the DSTAT program, for use as a comparison on Daily Reporting

Sent via FTP to the Corporate Reporting Portal for review

Backed up into a zip file on your computer

Please note that if you are prompted that an “Official Forecast has already been submitted, do you wish to replace it” respond YES if you are submitting changes for review.

If you answer NO

The forecast is:

Backed up into a zip file on your computer

Sent via FTP to the CIA Online Portal as an offsite back up

What if I don’t get the prompt?

You may have changed the forecast but not in a way that caused EBITDA to change:

Make sure that the Forecast is not LOCKED. Look at the bottom of the Main CIA Plan Menu is the letter F in Red?

Open Buddy and reprint the BFA report. This is to make sure that you fed all changes to the bottom line.

Exit all the way out of CIA, and see if the submission is now triggered.

If needed you can manually submit the Forecast:

From the CIA Main Plan Menu

Click on the Administrative Option button

From the popup menu, highlight the Finalize and Submit Forecast option, and click the Select button

If both of the above processes fail to submit your forecast:

You have a technological issue, and will need to submit an email to support@ciasoft.com

Please include in the email that you have tried these steps.