The business date
A hotel's day does not end at midnight. Guests still check in at 01:00 and the bar may still be open. So Pulse keeps a business date: the hotel's trading day, which ends only when night audit closes it.
The three dates
Every staff page shows a banner under the top bar:
| Date | What it is |
|---|---|
| System date | Today's calendar date in the hotel's time zone. It changes at midnight, like any clock. |
| Working date | The one open trading day. Every charge, payment, bill, laundry order, stock movement and journal is dated on it, whatever the clock says. |
| Last audited date | The newest day night audit has closed. Its figures are final and locked: nothing dated on it can be added, changed or deleted. It is always the day before the working date. |
A drink at 01:30
A guest orders a drink at 01:30 on Sunday, before the night audit of Saturday has run. The working date is still Saturday, so the drink is dated Saturday and appears in Saturday's figures. That is correct: it was sold during Saturday's trading day.
The colours
| Banner | What it means | Who acts |
|---|---|---|
| Grey: Working date open | A normal day. | Nobody. |
| Amber: Night audit due | The night-audit window has opened. Everything you post still goes to the working date. | The night auditor runs night audit. |
| Amber: Working date ahead of the system date | Night audit was run early, so postings go to tomorrow's date. | Nobody: the calendar catches up at midnight. |
| Red: Night audit missed | The day ended and night audit has not run. | Night audit must run now. |
| Red: Business-date integrity problem | The dates were changed outside Pulse. | Call the general manager or administrator. |
Nobody types the date
The working date moves forward only when night audit completes. Nobody types it in. Only the general manager or administrator can reopen the last audited day, and every such change is recorded with who did it and why.
Remember A correction for a day that is already closed is posted on today's working date, with the date it relates to and a reason. The closed day itself is never changed.