Sales & Catering - Delphi release notes

These release notes describe new features and fixed issues in the 2014 releases of AmadeusSales & Catering - Delphi. If you want to schedule a complimentary update, please contact Amadeus Support. To determine the release installed in your org, see Installed Packages.

December 17, 2014 (R8)

Your property may require several updates to the Volume Contract and Volume Contract Period page layouts to ensure the accuracy of automatic calculations and revenue roll-ups.

New features and enhancements

The following two features are applicable to properties integrated with the Opera PMS. Both provide functionality that allow volume contracts to be updated with future and actualized production based on reservations sent from Opera.

Volume contracts - Corporate negotiated rate (CR0091034)

Companies negotiate a rate with a hotel based on an agreed number of room nights. The property then assigns a corporate ID and one or more rate codes to the company profile in Opera. When guests make a reservation and reference the company or rate code, this information is associated with the reservation. A corporate contract does not guarantee availability at the negotiated rate, however, so no rooms are "held" for the company. Guests can book if their rate is available.

Volume contracts - Allocations (CR0091035)

Also known as wholesaler blocks or wholesaler allotments, allocations may be contracted for a designated number of rooms per night at a discounted rate. In Opera, these are created as "business blocks" with a block code and may be deduct or non-deduct.

You may also view a list of reservations on the Volume Contract page. No information is sent to Opera for volume contracts.

Fixed issues

Events, menus, and items

CR0090481: When a menu includes a revenue breakdown for Rental, the banquet check no longer displays that amount as a separate line item under the Rental section.

CR0090759: A “Duplicate Field Selected” error message is no longer displayed when you copy, move, or clone a booking and the user locale is set to Turkish.

CR0091075: The Override Booking Status checkbox on the Booking Event page is no longer selected by default when you create a new event from the Booking Events grid on the Booking page.

CR0091175: An error message is no longer displayed when you attempt to grant a property access to an account.

CR0091180: You no longer receive an error message on the Availability page when you select a date with bookings that have guestrooms but the Decision Date field is blank.

CR0091283: You can now view a property’s details when you have Read Only access at that property.

Opera integration

CR0091093: You can now edit the PMS ID/Group Code field in the Room Block Details window after the room block has been saved.

Setup

CR0091295: Permission sets have been modified to prevent Sales & Catering and Event Only users from deleting inquiries, bookings, and volume contracts.

October 20, 2014 (R7)

Instructions for enabling the R7 features can be found in the following topics:

For assistance with any feature configuration, contact your Amadeus sales representative to learn more about our Professional Services offerings.

New features and enhancements

Review Items by BEO Section window (CR0090946)

Using the new Review Items by BEO Section window, you can preview an event order and quickly confirm that all the necessary menus and items have been added. Accessed from the Manage Menus and Items page, this window allows you to select a BEO template and see the menus and items that have been assigned to their corresponding sections. Within each section, events are sorted by date and time (if the event order contains multiple events), and items are displayed according to their defined sort order. In addition to the event name, the window displays the event’s start date and time, function room, and BEO number (if an event order has been merged). Additionally, you can double-click a menu or item to open the Editing Item Details window where you can make any necessary updates.

Copy menus and items between events and bookings (CR0090947)

The Menu and Item Search window has been enhanced to support copying menus and items from one event to another. You can choose to copy menus and items from an event on the current booking or a different booking altogether. For example, if you have a BEO for Day 1 that includes a Breakfast, AM Break, All Day Meeting, and Lunch, you can quickly copy those menus and items to the BEOs for Days 2, 3, and 4 of the program. Similarly, if you have a customer who attended a meeting last year and want to hold the same meeting this year, you can find that booking and copy its menus and items to the current booking’s events. The menu and item quantity will automatically update based on the Calculate Quantity setting.

Search for menu items (CR0090948)

When searching for menus and items on the Manage Menus and Items page, you can now filter the menus by their child menu items. All detailed menus where that item displays will be returned in the search results. For example, if you have a Grilled Filet Dinner that includes a Caesar salad as part of a choice group, you can enter “Caesar” in the search field, and every instance of the Grilled Filet menu will be returned in the search results. This feature is especially helpful when you need to update menus and items across multiple events on a booking.

Multi-property availability (CR0090989)

A Select Properties button has been added to the Availability page, allowing you to view availability at multiple properties at the same time. Each of the three sections on the Availability page (Daily Information, Guestroom Bookings, and Function Diary) will display data for the selected properties. Up to 15 properties can be displayed at any time.

Add merge fields to the Merge Add-In Tool (CR0090988)

A new option has been added to Amadeus Settings that makes it easier for an administrator to add new merge fields to the Merge Add-In tool. The new fields will be available to users the next time they open Microsoft Word.

Packaged permission sets (CR0091008, CR0091009)

Permission sets now replace profiles for managing most permissions. A permission set allows you to completely customize user access within the different areas, such as custom objects, tabs, fields, and Visualforce pages. Each user is assigned at least one permission set (some users may have multiple). Because permission sets are controlled by the managed package and cannot be modified, all users who have been assigned a particular permission set will automatically receive the updated permissions when their org is upgraded. There is no need to make manual updates, saving you time and ensuring greater consistency in deployments.

For example, a new feature may involve several permission configurations. Rather than having to make those changes in each of the eight Amadeus profiles (Sales and Catering User, Sales and Catering View Only User, Sales and Catering Property Administrator, Sales and Catering Corporate Administrator, Event Only User, Event Only View Only User, Event Only Property Administrator, Event Only Corporate Administrator), the corresponding permission sets will be automatically updated by the new package and the appropriate users will receive those permissions.

Permission sets cannot be packaged for standard Salesforce objects, such as Accounts, Contacts, and Activities. Profiles control user access within those areas as well as page layout assignments. Each user must continue to be assigned a single profile in addition to their appropriate permission sets.

Support for Unicode fonts in Visualforce reports (CR0090945)

You can now export Amadeus reports in PDF format and display the data in different locales.

Merge from volume contract periods (CR0091029)

You can now create tables for volume contract periods in merge documents.

Custom booking status (CR0091030)

The Custom Booking Status field has been added to the Guestroom Bookings section of the Availability page.

Meeting classes (CR0091037)

administrators can now define setup values for meeting classes and add the Meeting Class field to the Booking page layout.

Fixed issues

Accounts and contacts

CR0091110: You no longer receive an error message when you attempt to give a property access to an account.

CR0091156: You can now create a person account when you have a default property and the Automatically Assign Default Property on Account security option is selected.

Availability

CR0091115: You can now open an event’s associated booking by clicking the arrow icon in the Function Diary’s Quick Create window.

CR0091164: An error message is no longer displayed on the Availability page when you attempt to view a date that has bookings with room blocks but no decision due date.

Events, menus, and items

CR0090438: Modifying the Guaranteed attendance on a booking event no longer updates the Booked Quantity of a menu or item.

CR0090905: You can now create events in the Booking Events grid on the Booking page for a property that has an ampersand (&) in its name.

CR0091021: An error message is no longer displayed when the name of a combination room component or function room setup exceeds 80 characters.

Inquiries

CR0090824: An inquiry’s temporary contact is now created as a record when the inquiry is converted to a booking. The new contact record is displayed in the Customer Information section of the booking.

MeetingBroker integration

CR0090441: The status of an RFP inquiry is now set to Turndown when the Turndown button is clicked.

Merge and reports

CR0090369: The BEO template has been updated to hide the @ symbol next to a menu or item when the price is not displayed.

CR0090888: The Merge Add-In tool now displays properly for users running Windows 8 and Word 2013.

CR0090995: During the batch merge process, you no longer receive an error message when one of the merge fields in the document template is not populated by a property value. For example, you can successfully batch merge when the template contains the Fax merge field but a fax number is not entered on the Property page.

CR0091117: You can now generate the GRC report in PDF format when the Picked Up option is selected.

CR0091158: The GRC report now displays all rooms for bookings that span multiple months.

August 29, 2014 (R6)

Instructions for enabling the R6 features can be found in the following topics:

For assistance with any feature configuration, contact your Amadeus sales representative to learn more about our Professional Services offerings.

New features and enhancements

Booking Events grid (CR0090810)

The new Booking Events grid allows you to edit a booking’s events directly from the Booking page. Editing events in a grid format is helpful when you need to make changes to a single field across many events (such as setting the guarantee to 50 for dinner and to 25 for six breakouts). You can also create new events directly in the grid. Conflicts display a warning icon next to the event. You can then hover over the event to display the details of the alert in a popup message. Other actions you can perform from within the Booking Events grid include:

When you click the Manage Events button in the grid, you can also do the following:

Edit multiple events (CR0090809)

When you need to make the same change to multiple booking events, you can now "bulk update" those events rather than editing them individually. For example, moving events from one function room to another takes just a moment when you use the new Edit Multiple Events window to apply that change. This window is accessed from the editable Booking Events grid on the Booking page. Simply click the Manage Events button, select the events you want to edit simultaneously, and then click the Edit Multiple button. The following fields can be bulk updated:

An additional field, Move Events by Days, is also available in the new window. This field allows you to move the selected events forward or back by a set number of days. If the events are moved outside the booking’s date range, a notification is displayed and you have the option of adjusting the event dates to stay within the booking’s date range or changing the booking to reflect the new event dates.

Clone events (CR0090810)

Using the new Clone Events window, you can copy one or more selected events to any number of days within the booking’s date range. This is helpful when you have a program that consists of several recurring events that have the same event order requirements. For example, a four-day program may have the same continental breakfast and breaks each day. Rather than recreating each of those events and adding the same menus and items, now you can copy the events along with their menus and items. You have the flexibility of copying the events to the next day, to all days in the program (minus the booking departure date), or to a custom date range. You can also choose to copy the events to a specific day of the week or the month. When a cloned event is outside the booking’s date range or a function room conflict occurs, a warning icon displays. You can then hover over the event to display the details of the alert in a popup message.

Edit multiple menus and items (CR0090813)

Using the All Events option in the Manage Menus and Items window, you can now see the menus and items for all events on a booking. Menus and items are grouped by event and are displayed by event start time. The event header information includes the event name, date and time, and BEO number if the event order document has been merged. With this new display, you can quickly add or replace menus and items across multiple events. For example, you detailed 50 event orders for a booking. That customer just called and want to replace the cookies with brownies on all their PM Breaks. Rather than opening each PM Break individually, you can select All Events in the Manage Menus and Items window, search for all PM Breaks, and then do a “bulk replace” of the cookies with brownies.

To add a custom menu or item to an event order, you must open that event individually in the Manage Menus and Items window. This also applies to reordering the menus and items on an event order.

Exclude draft BEOs from batch merge (CR0090812)

When batch merging, you can now filter out the event orders that are not ready for distribution by selecting the Done BEOs Only checkbox on the Create Batch Merge Document page. When this checkbox is selected, only those event orders where ALL booking events are marked Done are returned.

Disable booking day snapshots for a property (CR0090811)

Previously only available as an organization-wide setting, booking day snapshots can now be disabled at the property level. This allows one property to go into backlog modeClosed(Backlog mode allows users to enter historical bookings and manually set the Booked and Last Status Date fields, which are otherwise set by the system automatically.) without affecting other properties in the organization.

For example, if a new hotel is added to an organization, the existing properties can remain “live” (meaning their snapshots will continue to be created and available in Pace reports), while the new property goes into backlog mode (during which time the creation of booking day snapshots is disabled). The Disable Booking Day Snapshots option is located on the Property page (by default the checkbox is cleared) and is available to system and corporate administrators.

Opera PMS integration enhancements

CR0090740: A new user profile and permission sets have been added for the NWS Integration User. This simplifies the process of ensuring that the NWS Integration User has the correct privileges for data collection and updating records related to the Opera integration.

CR0090822: When allotment messages are “synched” from Opera and an inbound allotment message from Opera does not contain the correct elements, the system will fail the message and notify you that the necessary pickup elements are not present.

CR0090828: Reservations associated with non-deduct PMS only groups will now be counted toward Transient Sold in the GRC.

Fixed issues

Bookings

CR0090742: You can now edit bookings created in a different time zone without receiving an error message.

CR0090835: You can now use the Create Booking from Inquiry page to change the owner of a booking that is created from an inquiry.

CR0090840: Rates and Revenue fields are now displayed in “Currency 0.00” format in the Room Block Details window and the inline Guestrooms grid on the Booking page.

CR0090841: When the expected attendance for a booking event is changed to 0 or NULL, the revenue values update accordingly on the Booking Event page.

Events, menus, and items

CR0090833: When using the Copy Event page, you must enter a name for each event before they can be copied.

Inquiries

CR0090824: When a temporary contact has been entered on an inquiry, that contact record is created when the inquiry is converted to a booking. The contact is associated with the existing account and is displayed in the Customer Information section of the Booking page.

Localization/internationalization

CR0090842: The Grant Property Access page is now fully localized.

Merge documents

CR0090793: You can now merge a BEO template that contains section names with spaces between words.

Opera PMS integration

CR0090264: The following error message is no longer displayed in the Newmarket Web Services Console (Amadeus Settings tab): “Scheduler has not run for more than 5 minutes.”

CR0090741: The Opera integration now calculates the “today” date correctly for each time zone in a multi-property organization.

CR0090743: When Opera sends a message that is too large, a failed message is displayed in addition to creating a log entry.

CR0090744: Inbound allotment messages can be received from Opera that contain special characters in the Rate Code.

CR0090745: Large (10,000+ room nights) Opera only room blocks are now supported.

CR0090746: The specified alternate language code now populates the Alt Language field for all profiles sent to Opera (Corporate, Travel, Contact).

CR0090825, CR0090826: You can now convert an inquiry to a booking when integrated with Opera. Additionally, a notification message is displayed when an error occurs during the conversion.

CR0090827: The PMS ID/Group Code for an event-only booking cannot contain special characters, and it must meet the property-defined minimum and maximum character length.

Setup

CR0090780, CR0090781, CR0090836, CR0090837, CR0090838: Inactive properties are no longer available for selection for bookings, volume contracts, events, menus, or guestrooms. Similarly, inactive function rooms are no longer displayed in the Function Diary, the Function Room lookup on the Booking Event page, or the Unassigned Function Room lookup on the Property page.

CR0090832: The appropriate days of the week must be selected to generate guestroom type day records.

Volume contracts

CR0090834: The Enter Pickup tab for volume contracts no longer displays cancelled, lost, or declined volume contracts.

CR0090839: The default status for both new and cloned volume contracts is now Bid.

July 28, 2014 (R5)

Instructions for enabling the R5 features can be found in the following topics:

For assistance with any feature configuration, contact your Amadeus sales representative to learn more about our Professional Services offerings.

If your property will not be using the batch merge feature, you will need to remove user access to the Batch Merge object.

New features and enhancements

Batch merge (CR0090250)

The new batch merge functionality allows you to generate a single Word or PDF document that includes multiple event orders or banquet checks. You can batch merge all event orders or banquet checks for a specific booking, or you can choose to search for selected event orders or banquet checks to merge:

Item inventory (CR0090647)

When you search for items to add to an event, you are now notified when the specified quantity exceeds inventory based on other events that have selected the same item. For example, if your property has one LCD projector and Meeting A is using the projector from 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM, you will receive a warning when you try to sell that projector on another meeting being held from 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM.

Inventory report (CR0090646)

A new Inventory report indicates which items have been oversold, meaning their inventory has been exceeded on a particular date and time.

Opera PMS mappings (CR0090662, CR0090663)

You can now map the following fields to the corresponding Opera fields:

Delphi Field Opera Field
Booking Lead Source or Account Region Source
House Method or Booking Lead Source Channel/Origin

Fixed issues

Availability

CR0089664: Properties with Japanese regional settings can now create booking events directly in the Function Diary.

CR0090068: When you hover over a function room in the Function Diary, the pop-up details include the function room's entire description.

CR0090582: You can no longer select an inactive property to view on the Availability page.

CR0090642: The Occupancy % field on the Availability page has been clarified to read "Definite Occupancy %."

Bookings

CR0089880: When you clone a booking, the Booked Date field displays the correct Booked Date for the copied booking events.

CR0090626: When you are prompted to select a property for a new booking, the Select Property picklist is now sorted alphabetically.

CR0090627: In the Add Room Type window (accessed from the Room Block Details window on the Booking page), the following message is displayed when you click the Add button without selecting a room type: "Please select a room type before clicking the Add Room Types button."

CR0090629: The Room Block Details window (accessed from the Guestrooms area of the Booking page) has been modified to display the exact name of the property's Run of House room type for localization purposes. Additionally, the Available row under Run of House now displays "Total Available" to be consistent with other areas of the application.

CR0090633: The type-ahead functionality in the Property picklist on the Enter Pickup page now sorts correctly.

CR0090635: An inactive property cannot be selected for a guestroom block.

CR0090638: When you are notified that a booking cannot be moved, the booking is no longer deleted.

CR0090641: You can now move a booking with room blocks to a future date without receiving an error message that results in the booking being deleted.

Events, menus, and items

CR0090347: When you enter the Actual Attendance on an event, only the Actual Quantity of a per person menu or item is updated; the Booking Quantity is not changed.

CR0090622: When you search for menus or items by name in the Menu and Item Search window, the search results display all matching records.

CR0090636: When searching for a menu or item for a booking event, you can now search by its abbreviation.

Localization and internationalization

CR0090630: When you click the Copy Events button on the Booking page and then select Weekly on the Recurring Series of Booking Events page, the days of the week are displayed in your property's locale.

Merge and reports

CR0089788: When you select a template for a booking merge document, you can now select the guestroom blocks and events you want to include in the document.

CR0090200: The Group Lost Business report now displays the date a booking was cancelled, turned down, or lost.

CR0090356: The Kitchen report no longer shows HTML code in the description of the menus and items included in the report.

CR0090358: The font size of the Kitchen report has been increased when it is output to PDF format.

CR0090631: The Lost to Competitor field is now displayed by default in the Group Lost Business report.

CR0090637: In the GRC report, the property name is no longer being displayed beside each month in the selected date range.

CR0090639: The data in the Account Hierarchy report is grouped to show the hierarchical relationship between a parent account and its child accounts. The accounts within each group are sorted alphabetically.

CR0090640: An error message is no longer displayed when you run the Account Recap report.

CR0090645: When an event order has multiple events, the event classification and function room are displayed in bold to help distinguish between events and rooms.

Opera PMS integration

CR0090643: You cannot move a room block when pickup has been entered.

CR0090644: The booking status of an event only booking can no longer be downgraded (for example, Definite to Tentative). Additionally, if an event only booking has been lost, cancelled, or turned down, its status can no longer be changed back to Definite or Tentative.

Setup

CR0090628: The following message is now displayed when you attempt to create guestroom type days for more than one year: "Daily Guestroom Values can be created for a maximum of one year at a time. Please select a different date range."

Volume contracts

CR0090632: You are prompted to select a lost reason when you set the status of a volume contract to Lost, Declined, or Cancelled without specifying a reason.

June 30, 2014 (R4)

Instructions for enabling the R4 features can be found in the following topics:

For assistance with any feature configuration, contact your Amadeus sales representative to learn more about our Professional Services offerings.

Features and enhancements

Opera PMS integration (CR0090499)

R4 can now be integrated with an existing MICROS Opera property management system (PMS). With this two-way integration, Amadeus will communicate any new or modified room blocks to Opera in near real-time. In turn, when guests make reservations that are associated with a group, Opera will update Amadeus with the future pickup. Amadeus is then updated at departure with the actualized rooms and revenue associated with the room block. Amadeus guestroom availability is also updated to reflect transient sold counts for reservations/group blocks that are not linked to a room block.

The following image illustrates the two-way communication that occurs:

The integration between the two systems eliminates the need for dual data entry and the risk of data discrepancies. This allows Sales Managers to do the following:

Automated group creation (CR0090500)

When a room block status changes to tentative or definite, the room block, as well as its associated booking, account, and contact information, is sent to the Opera PMS, eliminating the need for time-consuming and error-prone manual data entry. If the booking has multiple room blocks, each room block will create a unique Opera business block. You will immediately receive a task if a new or updated booking or room block has not been accepted into Opera, allowing you to resolve the issue in Amadeus. As guests make reservations that are associated with the group, Opera sends the pickup counts and rates to Amadeus and the linked room block is updated accordingly in near real time.

Bi-directional room block updates (CR0090501, CR0090502)

A PMS ID/Group Code field has been added to the New Room Block and Modify Room Block windows. This field is required to save the room block and create a corresponding room block in the Opera PMS. When a room block is modified in Amadeus (for example, a new guestroom type is added to the pattern or the room block status is changed), the corresponding room block is updated in Opera. Likewise, changes made in Opera (for example, blocked rooms and picked up rooms) flow back to the linked room block in Amadeus. This enables Sales Managers to view reservation counts and the associated rates/revenue so they can determine how the group is picking up against the number of forecasted and contracted guestrooms. Having access to this information before a group's arrival allows Sales Managers to communicate with the meeting planner and exercise any penalties that may be pending based on picked up numbers.

While Amadeus is the system of record for account and booking/room block information and Opera is the system of record for actual pickup and revenue, the following room block changes can be made in either system: block counts, cutoff date, rate code, package code, cancellations. To ensure that the picked up rooms and rates from Opera are not overwritten, the corresponding fields in the Room Block Details window in Amadeus are view-only for integrated properties. If a discrepancy is identified in either Amadeus or the Opera PMS, a message is displayed in the Message Viewer and the booking owner is assigned a task to resolve the issue.

Room block comparison (CR0090503)

Property administrators can view room blocks that are out of sync due to an inbound/outbound failure during the message exchange. Linked room blocks that are discrepant on date, total blocked, and total picked up rooms will be displayed. Users can then take action in the corresponding system to reconcile the discrepancy.

Room block integration enhancements (CR0090504)

The integration with the Opera PMS requires additional information for each of the room blocks associated with a booking. As such, several enhancements have been made to the user interface:

Group production (CR0090507)

Final pickup and revenue for a booking's room blocks are rolled up into the Guestroom Information section of the Booking page, allowing Sales Managers to compare actualized roomnights/revenue against what was forecast and contracted. A new Reservations tab also displays posted revenue for individual guests.

All posted revenue from Opera can be viewed on the associated booking. Sales Managers can then use this information to negotiate future business with the group to maximize revenue for the property.

Real-time availability (CR0090508)

To maximize revenue for their property and meet their sales goals, Sales Managers need to know the actual number of rooms left to sell at their property by guestroom type and by day. With the Opera integration, the Daily Information section of the Availability page now displays the number of rooms that have been sold to transient guests. These include transient reservations and rooms blocked against Opera only groups.

Group room listing (CR0090509)

The new Reservations related list displays the list of guests associated with a booking. Reservation details include the guest name, arrival date, departure date, room number, rate, reservation status, VIP, share code, PMS ID/Group Code, and room block name.

Retiring guestrooms (CR0090511)

Guestroom types that are no longer in use can now be retired. (Retiring a guestroom type marks it as inactive and removes it from inventory.) For example, your property may want to retire the Smoking King and Non-Smoking King guestroom types and begin using a single King guestroom type. Before retiring a guestroom type, you can check all future room blocks that have that room type and manually allocate the room counts to an active room type. When you clone a booking with room blocks that contain a retired guestroom type, a warning message will be displayed on the Clone Booking page and the affected room blocks will not be cloned.

Message Viewer (CR0090518)

The Message Viewer allows property administrators to monitor the integration messages exchanged with Opera. This viewer also displays whether a message failed or succeeded and provides business context to the nature of the error.

Event-only bookings (CR0090568)

Sales Managers can send event-only bookings to the Opera PMS, allowing a Posting Master to be created and eliminating the need to manually create the booking in Opera. After the group has departed, Amadeus is updated with the booking’s actualized revenue.

Alternate language support (CR0090567)

Several alternate language fields are now supported for accounts, contacts, bookings, and room blocks.

If your property is integrated with the Opera PMS, a Send Alternate Language property setting can be configured during the integration implementation to send your alternate language fields to Opera.

Accounts and contacts

The following alternate language fields can be added to the Account and Contact page layouts:

Accounts (Alternate Billing Address) Alternate Name

Alternate Address 1, 2, and 3

Alternate City

Alternate State

Alternate Postal

Alternate Country

Alternate Language Code
Contacts (Alternate Mailing Address) Alternate Salutation (Honorific)

Alternate First Name

Alternate Last Name

Alternate Address 1, 2, and 3

Alternate City

Alternate State

Alternate Postal

Alternate Country

Alternate Language Code

These fields are displayed in the Alternate Language section of the page. When users populate an alternate language field, they are required to select the appropriate language code from the corresponding picklist. A set of default language codes are provided, but an administrator can add more codes as necessary.

Bookings

An Alternate Booking Post As field can be added to the Booking page layout and placed directly below the Post As field. As a counterpart to this field, a new Default Alternate Language Code option has been added to the Property page. This allows the administrator to set the default language for the Alternate Booking Post As.

Room blocks

To display a room block name in an alternate language, the administrator needs to select the new Use Alternate Language checkbox on the Property page. This displays the Alternate Name field in the Room Block Details window.

Availability

CR0090486: A Room Block Detail button has been added to the Guestroom Information (GRC) section of the Availability page. Clicking this button displays all room blocks that are in house on the selected date along with their current status and PMS ID/Group Code. To view additional information about a room block, double-click it in the grid. This opens the Room Block Details window.

Bookings

CR0090505, CR0090506: Each room block on a booking can have its own status (Prospect, Tentative, Definite, Block Cancelled). For example, the primary room block might be definite, but an overflow room block at an alternate property might be tentative. Alternatively, one of the room blocks may need to be cancelled while the others continue to be definite. When you create a room block, its status initially defaults to the booking status. The room block status will continue to reflect the booking status until you manually change it using the Status field in the Modify Room Block window. At that point, the room block will maintain its own status independent of the booking status. However, if the status of the booking is changed to Cancelled, Turned Down, or Lost, the status of all its room blocks will automatically be set to the corresponding status. Additionally, if the property is integrated with the Opera PMS, a room block must have a status of Block Cancelled before it can be removed from a booking.

Events, menus, and items

CR0090483: When you create a simple or detailed menu in Setup and the menu's revenue breakdowns do not add up to its unit price, a notification is displayed at the top of the Item page, alerting you to the discrepancy.

MeetingBroker integration

CR0090616: The MeetingBroker Reference Number field has been added to the Inquiry and Booking page layouts. The Reference Number is an identification number assigned to an RFP by some sending channels.

Merge and reports

CR0090487: The Banquet Check Summary report now includes taxes, gratuities, and administrative charges.

Fixed issues

Availability

CR0090341: The performance of the Function Diary has been improved to accommodate properties that have a large number of function rooms.

CR0090484: The Guestroom Information (GRC) section of the Availability page now displays the average rate and total rooms for all bookings.

Other

CR0090482: When you create guestroom blocks for multiple properties, the currency of those properties must match the currency of the property where the booking was created.

May 6, 2014 (R3)

Instructions for enabling the R3 features can be found in the following topics:

For assistance with any feature configuration, contact your Amadeus sales representative to learn more about our Professional Services offerings.

Features and enhancements

Availability

Option events (CR0090348)

If a function room is already booked by another group, you can add your event as an option for that function room (sometimes called a waitlist). If the event in the function room cancels, your property can then review all options for that function room to determine which event best meets your property's needs. The following changes have been made to the user interface to support the new option events feature:

Function Room Option and Option Number fields

The following fields have been added to the Booking Event page:

If the preferred function room becomes available, you can manually assign it to the event using the existing Function Room field on the Booking Event field. After this field is populated, the event will begin holding space in that room and will be included in conflict checking.

Function Diary

The Function Diary displays all the option events for a function room to help your Catering team determine which events can be moved into the room if the primary event cancels. An option event displays as a lighter shade of its status color (for example, light blue for tentative) in the Function Diary. Point to the option event to view its details. If you drag the primary event, the option event will be updated automatically to the new date/time.

Create Options on Conflict checkbox

When you attempt to block an event in a function room that is not available, the system will send the event to your property's Unassigned room. If your administrator has enabled the new Create Options on Conflict checkbox on the Property page, that event will also be added to the original function room's waiting list. You are still required, however, to move the event out of Unassigned and into an available function room to ensure that it is holding space at your property.

Options Events report

A new Option Events report has been added to the Reports tab. This report provides a summary of booking events that have been assigned a function room option.

Events, menus and items

CR0090327: When a new text item is created, the Hide Quantity and Hide Price options will always be set to true so that zeroes will not be displayed on the event order.

Merge Documents

CR0090160: When an event order section does not contain any items, a minor adjustment can be made to the template that prevents the event details from being displayed in that section.

Reports

Change Log Report (CR0090351)

The Change Log report displays updates to distributed event orders that need to be communicated to the operations teams. The report pulls data from Change Log records that have been entered on the Booking Event page. Included with this new feature is the Do Not Print on Change Log Report option. Located on the Change Log Entry Detail page, this checkbox prevents a change entry from being included in the report. For example, if a customer calls at 9:00 AM to report the guarantee is 75 and then calls again at 1:30 PM to change the guarantee to 85, you can suppress the initial entry so your property staff is not confused.

Fixed issues

Availability

CR0090068: The entire room description is displayed when you hover over a function room name in the Function Diary.

CR0090190: The Function Diary displays the date in DD/MM format for properties using the Salesforce Australian locale.

Bookings

CR0090151: The Date Tentative and Date Definite fields are automatically populated when the corresponding status is set on the booking.

Delphi.Net Upgrade

CR0090164: You can now edit text items that have been added to booking events.

Events, menus and items

CR0090146, CR0090329: Creating a booking event from the Function Diary or Booking Events Home page now defaults the appropriate account on the booking event record.

CR0090152: When you add an item to a detailed menu in Setup, you can change its Quantity Calculation, Do Not Print on BEO, Do Not Print on Banquet Check, Hide Quantity on BEO, and Hide Price on BEO settings to indicate how it is handled as a menu item. You can also change those settings to indicate how the item is handled as a choice group item on a detailed menu. Those unique settings for the item are now maintained when a user adds the detailed menu to a booking event and do not need to be updated. This change allows an item to be sold a la carte or as part of a menu without having to create the item multiple times in Setup.

CR0090176, CR0090051: The order of the menus and items in the Manage Menus and Items window is maintained on the printed event order. Additionally, the order of selected choice group items in the Editing Item Details window is also maintained on the printed event order.

Merge Documents

CR0090233: When the price of a menu or item is hidden on the event order or banquet check, the @ symbol is also hidden.

Reports

CR0090230: The Event Posting report no longer displays cancelled or turned down bookings.

CR0090328: The GRC report no longer displays the report header details above each property that is listed.

Setup and configuration

CR0089957: When Amadeus account security is deactivated for an organization, users can now create a booking from an account without having to associate that account to a property.

CR0089995: Corporate administrators with View All/Modify All permissions at a property can now assign users access to that property.

CR0090024: Decimals in function room dimensions (for example, 5.5 meters) are now maintained and are no longer rounded to whole numbers.

CR0090109, CR0090159: If you use custom record types for bookings, the setup values that you create will be properly displayed on those record types.

CR0090114: Tax rates with three decimal points are maintained and are no longer rounded to two decimal points.

March 28, 2014 (R2)

Instructions for enabling the R2 features can be found in the following topics:

Features overview

Setup and configuration

Property configuration

Amadeus Sales & Event Management supports multiple properties, allowing each one to configure attributes, such as function rooms, guestroom types, menus, items, and choice groups, event classifications (including default average checks and items), user logins, and sales goals.

Platform capabilities

The Force.com platform provides the following capabilities:

Manage user access to properties

administrators can manage individual user access to a property. Users can be given permissions to modify all records at a property or only the records they own. Users can also be granted access permissions to specific records they do not own (for example, a booking they did not create but are sourced on). Users who have not been granted access to a property will not see that property.

Default average checks

Default average checks can be added for each event classification. For example, a Dinner event classification might have a $30 per person average check for Food and a $500 per event average check for Resource. When a user creates a booking event and selects Dinner as the event classification, the default average checks will be automatically added to the event. The user can modify these average checks, if needed.

Default menus and items

Each event classification can have default menus and items associated with it. For example, an administrator can assign water pitchers and pads of paper as the default items for a meeting. When a user creates a new booking event and selects Meeting as the event classification, those default items will be automatically added to the event. The user can modify these items, as needed.

Document templates

Administrators can create merge templates using Microsoft® Word®. After the template has been created, it is uploaded into Amadeus Sales & Event Management and is available to generate merge documents, such as event orders, banquet checks, and contracts. Merge templates can be created at the property or corporate level and can be merged from accounts, contacts, inquiries, bookings, and volume contracts.

Function Room Setup Capacities

Minimum and maximum capacities can be specified for each function room setup. For example, the Grand Ballroom holds a maximum of 250 people with rounds of 10. When a booking event with more than 250 people is blocked in the Grand Ballroom with rounds of 10, the user will be alerted that the event exceeds the maximum number of attendees allowed. This is just a notification, however. The user will be allowed to proceed and save the booking event in that room.

Detailed revenue classifications for items

Revenue classifications have been improved to support a property-level hierarchical list. For example, a property can create a child revenue classification called Liquor under the parent classification, Beverage. Revenue classifications drive taxing, event order placement, and reporting.

Tax groups

A tax group is a collection of individual taxes, each of which is associated with one or more revenue classifications. When a user selects a tax group for a booking event, the appropriate taxes are automatically applied based on the revenue classifications assigned to each menu and item on the event. The administrator can build different tax groups simply by putting together different combinations of the same taxes (for example, a City Sales Tax can be used in both Tax Group A and Tax Group B). Within each tax, the administrator can define a schedule of tax rates and indicate whether or not the tax also applies to administrative charges and gratuity. When changes are made to an individual tax, the tax group is automatically updated, and the new tax information is used when the banquet check is run.

Sales Manager sales goals

Individual Sales Manager goals can be set for guestrooms, guestroom rates, and event revenue. They can also be set based on the consumption date, activity date, or both. For example, a Sales Manager goal might be to book $10,000 is Food & Beverage revenue in January 2014 for consumption in February 2014.

Property budgets

Multiple property-level budgets can be set for specific guestroom and revenue targets. For example, specific budgets can be set for the overall property performance, and "stretch budgets" can be entered to track property performance against a higher budget.

Setup values

Corporate and property setup values can be defined for several picklists. For example, the following setup values might be defined for the Market Segment picklist: Corporate, Local Association, National Association, and SMERF. Examples of other picklists that use setup values include Housing Method, Function Room Setup, Event Classification, and Billing Information. When users click a picklist, they can select from the list of setup values that have been defined. Corporate setup values are available to all properties. Property setup values are available only at the property where they are defined. For example, if one property needs a unique function room setup, such as a Luau, the property can create that value and it will only show for their booking events.

Menus and items

Additional configuration options have been added for menus and items, including a rich description field, flags to show/hide prices and quantities on event orders, and options for automatically calculating quantities.

Two types of menus are available to add to booking events: simple menus and detailed menus. A simple menu is a standard offering that does not include any choices or items sold a la carte. If the menu includes items from different revenue buckets, the administrator can allocate portions of the unit price to the appropriate revenue classifications. For example, a Breakfast Package menu includes coffee and a flip chart for $50. The revenue breakdown for that menu might then allocate $30 to Food and $20 to Resource.

A detailed menu includes child menu items, choice groups, or both. Detailed menus are best used for more complex scenarios where customers have a choice of items or need to charge a la carte pricing for particular items on the menu. For example, a Taste of Italy menu might include a choice of garden or Caesar salad, a choice of ziti or ravioli, and a choice of tiramisu or cannoli. Detailed menus are also tailored for "per item" menus, such as receptions or cash or hosted bars.

Items and menu breakdowns are assigned a revenue classification to allow for accurate taxing on the banquet check.

Users can also create menus and items on-the-fly while they are detailing the event order for a booking event.

Account sharing

Accounts can now be shared to all or specific properties. Only users with access to those properties will be able to see and work with those accounts. Additionally, an option can be enabled that automatically assigns the user's default property to any accounts they create. (If a default property has not been set for the user, the organization's default property will be given access instead.)

Inquiries

Using the Inquiries tab, you can create new leads and manage incoming RFPs (if integrated with MeetingBroker) and then track their progress to closure as a turndown or booking. If a booking is created from a MeetingBroker RFP, users can generate a proposal and send it back to the RFP sender. Assuming the property wins the business, any changes to the booking are automatically sent back to the sender.

Bookings

Revenue tracking

Users can now track forecasted, booked, and actual revenue from the booking. Revenue numbers are broken out into the seven revenue classifications (Food, Beverage, Resource, Audio Visual, Administrative Charge, Function Room Rental, and Other).

Transactions

Users can now manage charges and deposits (transactions) from a booking (as well as its associated booking events). This allows properties to keep track of the deposits a customer must make as well as when the deposits are received.

Booking events

Picklists for start and end times

The start and end times for a booking event are now displayed as picklists, making it easier to update the time. In addition, both 12-hour (AM/PM) and 24-hour picklists are available to add to the Booking Event page layout.

Improved conflict check messages

If a function room conflict occurs when a user is working with a booking event, the event will be sent to the "Unassigned" TBA function room (as configured by the property), and a message will be displayed to the user. The user can then make alternate arrangements for the booking event, as needed.

Transactions

Users can now manage charges and deposits (transactions) from a booking event (as well as its associated booking). This allows properties to keep track of the deposits a customer must make as well as when the deposits are received.

Merge documents

Users can create merge documents directly from accounts, contacts, inquiries, bookings, and volume contracts. The merge documents (for example, event orders and banquet checks) are stored as attachments on the associated record.

Integrations

MeetingBroker

RFPs sent to a property via MeetingBroker are automatically created as inquiries. Users can then choose to turn down the inquiry (no booking is required) or create a booking using the RFP data. After a booking is created, users can then generate a proposal and send it back to the RFP sender. If the property wins the business, any changes to the booking are automatically sent back to the sender.

eProposal

Integration with Cendyn® eProposal® speeds up the process of creating a proposal directly from a booking, while ensuring the customer-facing proposal is professional and polished. An eProposal subscription is required.

Microsoft Outlook

Salesforce for Outlook® syncs a user's Outlook contacts, calendar events, and tasks with Salesforce.

Reports

Many out-of-the-box reports are provided, including the following:

Training and Help

The Amadeus Training & Help tab provides users with a library of self-paced lessons and videos to get up and running as quickly as possible. Additionally, a comprehensive Help system provides users with quick answers to common tasks.

Enhancements

Accounts and contacts

CR0090134: Users can now have their default property automatically added to the accounts they create. Located on the Newmarket Security Settings page (All Tabs + > Amadeus Settings > Enable Property-Level Security), the Automatically Assign Default Property on Account option is an organization-wide setting that can be enabled by a corporate administrator. After it’s enabled, the user's default property is automatically added the Account Properties section whenever a new account is created. If a default property has not been selected for a user, the organization's default property is given access to the account instead. Users can set their default property by going to All Tabs (+) > Amadeus User Settings.

A new Billing Information section can be added to the Account page layout with the following fields: Billing Information and Commission %.

Bookings

To help you manage a booking's billing information, a new section can be added to the Booking page layout with the following fields: Master Billing, Room and Tax Billing, Catering Billing, and Billing Comments. Other changes that can be made to the Booking page layout include the addition of the Onsite Contact and Other Manager fields. The user selected in the Other Manager field is granted edit permissions to the booking.

Inquiries

A Rating field is now available to add to the Inquiry page layout. This allows you to rate the likelihood that an inquiry will book with the property.

Merge and reports

CR0089949: An Event Date field is now available to add to event order templates.

CR0090065: The GRC report now opens in a new tab when it is run.

Fixed Issues

Accounts and contacts

CR0090113: An error message is no longer displayed when an account has more than 200 contacts and you assign it to a new contact.

Bookings

CR0090022: When Amadeus Booking/Volume Contract Security has been disabled and you create a new booking or volume contract from an account, the account defaults on to the new record.

CR0090049: The following error message is now displayed when you try to create an event from a booking that is sourced to an inactive user: "This booking has one or more inactive users listed as the Booking Owner, Catering Manager, Service Manager, Additional Sales Manager, or Other Manager. Please make sure only active users are listed in these fields."

Merge and reports

CR0090037: The GRC report now runs when the selected Booking Owner has access to only one property.

CR0090136: Merge documents (for example, contracts) can be generated for bookings that have multiple events on the same day with the same start time.