Setting Up Groups
The Group Master table contains information about each group, such as the group code and description, departure and return date, deposit amount and final payment due date, and codes for options passengers can select in addition to the base package.
Before you can set up a group, you need to make certain decisions about handling the group, which options are available, and so forth.
Updating Flights and Passengers
Information in the GT Segments table is used to generate the Airline and Arrival/Departure Manifests. If you do not need these reports for a particular group, you can set up the group so that the Interface will not store any flight information for that group, which saves disk space and processing time. Not storing flight information is usual for retail groups, because these reports are intended primarily for tour operators and airlines with which you block space.
Some agencies prefer to have their GlobalWare operators maintain passenger information instead of front-room agents. For this situation, GlobalWare enables you to set up the group so that the Interface creates a passenger record but does not update it with later changes. The one exception to this is rooming code, which the Interface always updates if a rooming code is entered in a PNR.
Group or Retail Accounting
When you set up each group, you indicate the type of accounting that will be used: true group or a retail group.
Options
Group packages you re-sell often include options that are not included in the base package price. Typical options include such things as side trips, special rooms or cabins, and tickets for shows.
Options do not necessarily cost extra; for example, you usually do not charge extra for a non-smoking room in a hotel. Or, you can set up a tour that a passenger can take in June or July. If the option does cost extra, you can add that amount in the Price field on the Group Options window.
You assign each option an option code and enter the code and a description when you set up the group. For each passenger, you enter the codes the passenger has selected in the PNR or in the GT passenger record.
For each option, you can assign a maximum number available. For example, a cruise could have 50 outside cabins. You can generate the Inventory Summary report to track how many of an option you have sold and how many are still available. The Option Manifest lists each passenger in the group who has signed up for a particular option.
Air Revenue Types for True Groups
For true groups, when you issue tickets, you owe ARC for the ticket (less commission) and Post Invoices creates ARC payable transactions in the general ledger for the tickets.
However, packages for groups can include the air tickets in the package price, and therefore the non-ARC sale includes the price of both ARC and non-ARC services.
Air revenue types A (air included in price of package) and U (air not included) ensure that the general ledger accounts for money your agency owes to ARC when you issue tickets.
Tickets Are Separate from the Package (Revenue Type U)
Use revenue type U when tickets are not included in the price of the package.
This revenue type is the same as retail air, except that Post Invoices posts the commission to Group Deposits (instead of revenue). For example, assume the air tickets are $220 ($200 base, $20 tax, $20 commission). If the form of payment is not plastic, Post Invoices posts the following:
|
Revenue Type U |
|
|
Contra
Sales (7990) |
+220 |
Tickets Are Included in the Package (Revenue Type A)
Use revenue type A (with sale type G) when the ticket price is included in the package price.
If tickets are included in the price of the package, the sale is recorded in the general ledger when you invoice the sale of the package. For a group revenue type A ticket, Post Invoices posts to the ARC payable but does not post to sales. If the form of payment is receivable, Post Invoices does not post to receivables, because it is accounted for the receivable in the package price.
The offset to the ARC payable is posted to group deposits. For example, assume the package is $2000 and the air tickets are $220 ($200 base, $20 tax, $20 commission). If the form of payment is not plastic, Post Invoices posts the following:
|
Package |
|
|
Ticket (Revenue Type A) |
|
|
Group
Deposits |
-2000 |
|
Group
Deposits |
+220 |
Included Versus Not Included Air
When you set up a true group, Air Included in Package Price determines the revenue type for interfaced tickets. If you check that box, the revenue type for the group defaults to A; if you remove the check mark, the revenue type defaults to U. (For retail groups, revenue type U is not used.)
If you need to handle one passenger's ticket in some other way, you can override the default revenue type with the appropriate one when you invoice the ticket.
Revenue Types for Refunds
If a passenger needs to return a ticket, use the same revenue type as the original ticket when you enter the refund.