Documentation around the use of linear agreements in Maxxton Software
Introduction
What is a linear agreement?
A short explanation is that a linear agreement is a guaranteed allotment that is typically paid before arrival (and the amount is not depending on the number of reservations).
The linear agreements are focussed on the French market and because of that it is designed and developed with the French market in mind.
Its main purpose is too be able to invoice the linear agreement separately from the customer reservations and it depends on the NF525-legislation implementation for invoicing.
Main difference between Allotment & Linear
Similar to the allotment method used by partners, linear reservations also use the allotment feature, but the main difference is invoicing. Invoices for linear are typically paid in January.
Allotment bookings: Bookings have actual rates which are invoiced to DC, minus commission, via Agent Settlement module. Typically done after checkout
Linear bookings: Linear cost should be invoiced to a partner. Invoice is independent from guest stay and is typically invoiced at the beginning of the (fiscal) year (commonly even before arrival).
Conceptual flow
The full process of a linear agreement can be broken down into three main conceptual flows:
Initial setup
Configuration of the linear agreement
Invoicing the linear agreement
The initial setup only needs to be done once for a distribution channel or partner. See https://maxxton.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/TP/pages/edit-v2/1210482714?draftShareId=8f69a08f-5544-476a-b87e-923dc2810a50#Initial-setup for more details.
The next step would to do the setup of the actual linear agreement, this needs to be done for each new agreement and can be repeated as often as necessary. During this flow the user allocates the units/types for the agreement for the agreed periods and a linear contracted rate reservation is created to prepare the invoicing flow.
Initial setup
Prerequisites
The feature flag ‘Linear distribution channel’ should be enabled
Feature flags can only be enabled by Maxxton employees, if it is not yet enabled at your environment, please contact Customer Success to get this enabled.The feature flag ‘NF525 Compliancy’ should be enabled.
Linear agreements are mainly developed for the French market and it depends on the NF525 flow for generating invoices. For that reason, it is a requirement that this feature flag is enabled. Feature flags can only be enabled by Maxxton employees, if it is not yet enabled at your environment, please contact Customer Success to get this enabled.The parent distribution channel that you want to use needs to already exist
Usually distribution channels are created in a tree structure and they all use this parent / child structure. Although not strictly necessary, it is advised to have a parent available for this.The rate type that you want to use for the customer reservations needs to exist
Please note; in most scenarios this is expected to be a 0 rate since the reservation is already paid for with the linear agreement. It is required to have a valid rate type to be able to make the reservation.The reservation category that you want to use for the linear reservations need to exist
Please make sure that this reservation category should be an explicit reservation category configured to be for linear agreements. Since this is a very specific step, it is included at this page as well; see https://maxxton.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/TP/pages/edit-v2/1210482714?draftShareId=8f69a08f-5544-476a-b87e-923dc2810a50#Configure-a-reservation-category-for-use-for-linear-contracted-rate-reservations
Access
There are several permissions required to be able to configure a new distribution channel for a linear agreement:
Channel Manager permission
Channel Manager - Distribution Channels permission
Setup
Configure a reservation category for use for linear contracted rate reservations
The main reason to use a different reservation category for the linear reservation is to make it possible to use a different ledger for linear reservations compared to ‘regular’ reservations. Using a different ledger can then be done by configuring a ledger group.
Creating a new reservation category is easy; just go to: Channel Manager → Configuration → Reservation Categories
From there it is straightforward;
Press ‘Create reservation category’
Add the name, code and description
Save the new reservation category
After you have created a new category, it is important to mark this reservation category to be used for the linear reservations. This can be done like this:
Press the ‘3-dots’-menu in the top right corner
Select ‘Settings’
Toggle the button for ‘Use for linear contracted reservation’ to enabled
Done
You could change some optional settings now too, like translations for the reservation category or the color of the reservation category. The last one isn’t that important since linear contracted rate reservations are never shown in the planning chart.
Configuration of a linear distribution channel (first-time use)
If you are setting up a new distribution channel for use with linear for the first time, follow this path to create a new distribution channel:
Maxxton Software Home Page > Channel Manager > Distribution channels
From there follow the following steps:
Click Create distribution channel
In the following modal window, please enter the following data:
Parent: the parent distribution channel, useful to be able to inherit settings
Name: free type field for the name, important to recognise the channel. This will also be used on invoices.
Code: short language-independent identifier. You can choose the code. It needs to be unique and shouldn’t contain any whitespaces.
Description: (optional) free description of the channel, place to be able to include details if necessary.
Currency: choose the mandatory currency
Type: Choose the type of the distribution channel. Please note that if you want to use the channel for linear agreements, it needs to be either 'Touroperator' or 'Comité d’entreprise'
Once one of these types is selected, you can select the option to configure the channel to be of the type linear. Don’t forget to enable it, this can only be done during the creation of the distribution channel.
Allotment use: As soon as you have selected the type linear, it will automatically select ‘Book only from allotment’ since that is the only combination allowed.
Select Next step
Select applicable rate types for this distribution channel
Please note; that this will be the rate type that will be used for creating the reservations for customers, so this will commonly be a rate type that will have 0 rates since the stays are paid as part of the agreement instead of per reservation.Configure inventory for the new distribution channel
It would be up to you to decide how to configure the inventory, all the options offered in the workflow are supported for the linear channel as well. However, best practice would be to create a distribution channel group ‘Linear’ and add all the linear DCs in that group. If that distribution channel group is already added to the representation of (some, all, many) accommodation types, that would mean the suggested approach for adding another Linear channel is to use the distribution channel group to configure the inventory for the new channel. This would avoid a lot of manual work.
Please note; that adding inventory for a linear channel would not make it automatically bookable since a linear channel can only book from previously bought inventory. And previously bought inventory will be made available by adding allotment for the channel. Adding this inventory will make it possible to add the allotment. It will therefore not hurt to configure more accommodation types from the beginning, that will make you more flexible when actually configuring the allotment.
Select reservation categories
Now it is important to select at least two categories here; one linear and one regular for the guest stays.Press finish to create the distribution channel
You are now done, but please note that depending on the selections made in the inventory step, it might take some time to fully complete the process. It will run in the background though so you don’t need to wait for this.
Add (invoice) address for a distribution channel
Since linear contracted reservations won’t have a customer, the distribution channel details will be used to send the confirmation or invoice to. To make sure that this is possible, please configure the address of the distribution channel. The NF525 invoice will automatically be sent to the invoice address and if that is not configured, it will fall back to the (normal) address.
Steps to take:
Go to Channel Manager → Distribution channels
Open the distribution channel
Click on the ‘Address’ button
A side panel will show;
Click ‘Create new address’ for a new mailing address and follow the steps
Click the toggle button next to ‘Configure address’ in the Invoice address section to configure an invoice address
Default payment terms can also be configured for the distribution channel, Nilesh Wani can you update this section? And include whether this can be inherited from the parent DC or not?
Configuration of a linear agreement
Prerequisites
This flow can only be started from a distribution channel that books from allotment
This flow can only be started from a distribution channel that has the linear setting enabled. This can be done for a touroperator or CSE distribution channel. See https://maxxton.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/TP/pages/edit-v2/1210482714?draftShareId=8f69a08f-5544-476a-b87e-923dc2810a50#Configuration-of-a-linear-channel-(first-time-use)
Access
There are several permissions required to be able to configure a new distribution channel for a linear agreement:
Channel Manager permission
Channel Manager - Distribution Channels permission
Conceptual flow
With each linear agreement that you make with a channel, you will need to go through the allotment flow. In case the distribution channel is configured to be a linear distribution channel, the flow for the allotment will work slightly different compared to the normal allotment flow. However, the allotment still plays an important role.
In the flow diagram above you can see the different steps that need to be taken. The blue steps are user actions and the yellow steps are the automatic (behind-the-scenes) actions that follow from this action.
Important to realise is that in a linear agreement there are three different types of reservations that play an important role:
linear contracted rate reservation; this type of reservation is used to store the financial agreement, the amount that the channel will pay for keeping the inventory available to the channel (regardless the usage of these periods). It is also the starting point for the invoice generation. It does not hold availability and does overlap with the allotment reservation or guest reservation. It will not show in the planning chart.
Allotment reservation; this type of reservation is used to allocate the actual units/types for the distribution channel. An allotment reservation is visible in the planning chart but does not hold any financial information. It is holding the availability until a guest reservation is made, then it will go away (partially).
(guest) reservation; this is actually a normal reservation that holds the guest stay. Important for guest registration, arrivals, departure and housekeeping. Could also be used to charge the additional costs to the customer (if any, like linen). It will show on the planning chart and will replace the allotment reservation.
Creating a new agreement from start
Configuring the allotment
Configuring a new linear agreement in Maxxton Software starts in the Channel manager from the details page of a distribution channel.
So to get started:
Maxxton Software home screen → Channel Manager → Distribution Channels → Select the distribution channel you want to add an agreement to.
From there you will need to take the following steps:
Scroll to the card ‘Allotments', this is the place where you will start with the configuration of the new agreement.
Press the ‘Add allotment’ button in the lower right corner of the card
Follow the steps in the wizard
Enter the name of the allotment or agreement
This is used as the names of the individual allotment pieces that will be created depending on your selection. This makes it easier to find them if you would need to change something in the future.Choose if you want to specify the contract on accommodation type level or on unit level
Important note: both options are supported for a linear distribution channel, however, if you combine this together with individual owners of the units and you would choose for type level, then it is not possible to use the value of the linear agreement to decide the pay-out to the owner. You should either use a purchase/sell setup (where there is no direct relation of the linear agreement and the amount the owner gets and you would configure the owner amount in the contract rules) or you should choose to use unit level.Press ‘Next step'
Select the accommodation types that should be part of the linear agreement
Please note: you can use the filter options on top of the page to find the accommodation types of your liking. For example, use the location, accommodation kind, quality level or (if applicable) accommodation type groups to find the right accommodation types.
Important; it is not possible to link accommodation types that are linked to an accommodation kind that is configured for the use case of work orders. Those accommodation types won’t
It is possible to configure the linear agreement in one go for multiple locations, it will automatically create multiple linear contracted rate reservations of it.Press ‘Next step'
Select the date range that you want to add to the agreement
Now select the units of the selected types that you want to include.
You can use the filters again to find the right units for the agreement. Please note that there are two tabs available, by default you are looking at the fully available units and it makes sense to use those. However, if you need more or some specific units, don’t forget to look at the second tab that contains the units that are partially available for the selected period.Press ‘Next step'
Add the contract amount per type/unit
If you have chosen for a linear agreement at unit level, it is mandatory to set the contracted amount per unit too. However, the wizard gives you the option to set the value for all the selected units of the same accommodation type at once. After that, you can still choose to override a single units contracted amount. These amount will be used to create the linear contracted rate reservation(s) and eventually the invoices.Press ‘Next step'
You will now see a summary of your full configuration for you to review. Once you are sure this is as expected, then you can press the 'Add allotment' button to generate the linear contracted rate reservations (one per location, combining all accommodation types and units) and the required allotment reservations (one per accommodation type, combining the units if applicable) to allocate the units (or types) for this agreement.
Press ‘Add allotments’ to complete this part of the flow
Please note: if you did configure the notification manager to actually sent a
Viewing the linear contracted rate reservation
Once you have configured the allotment, Maxxton Software will, at the same time, generate the linear contracted rate reservations. The purpose of the reservations is to be able to invoice the channel for the contracted amounts.
It is a new type of reservation, but still it is a reservation. That means that it is possible to open the linear contracted rate reservation in the reservation manager.
Please note that opening a linear contracted rate reservation requires the user to have permission to be allowed to view linear reservations. This can be configured using the following two permissions:
With these permissions, you can manage if a user is still allowed to make changes after it is invoiced (which uses the checked_out status).
There are two possible ways to view a linear contracted rate reservation in the reservation manager:
The first and most logical way from the current flow, is to open the reservation directly from the Channel Manager.
Go to the allotments section of the distribution channel
Select the allotment that you want to view the linear contracted reservation of
The side panel with the details opens, showing details of the linear contracted rate reservation linked to the selected allotment
By clicking on the reservation number, it will open the linear contracted rate reservation in the reservation manager
Please note; since a linear contracted rate reservation is created per location and the allotments are created per accommodation type, you may notice that allotments of different types at the same location will refer to the same single linear contracted rate reservation.You can now see all the details of the linear contracted rate reservations
Please note; as you can see, there are some changes made to the view of a reservation for the linear contracted rate reservation. There are less options available to avoid confusion from the user. An important difference to be mentioned is that there is no customer for a linear contracted rate reservation. Instead, you’ll find a distribution channel tab with the details of the distribution channel. These details will be used to invoice the channel.
The other way to open a linear contracted rate reservation is to be search it in the reservation manager. If the user has the mentioned permissions above, it will be able to find the linear contracted rate reservations as any other reservation, for example by reservation number. A suggested flow (but you can use the filters that you prefer or know at the time);
Go to ‘Search Reservation’ in the Reservation Manager
In the section ‘Reservation’ there is a filter ‘Type of reservation’, the option ‘Linear’ is added to only show the linear reservations.
Please note: If you don’t see this permission, either the whole linear feature flag might be disabled or you don’t have the correct permissions to search for them.In the same section, you can find the ‘Distribution channel’ filter, that can be very useful for finding the linear contracted rate reservations for a specific channel.
If you still have (too) many results, it can be useful to go to the ‘Dates’ section and apply some date filers, like stay dates
In the result sections, select the reservation that you are looking for.
While looking around in a reservation, you’ll notice that there are less options available compared to a regular guest stay reservation. These are the things that are supported for a linear contracted rate reservation.
Overview page
It shows all the accommodation types / units part of the agreement
It shows all the reservation memos and gives to option to add a memo
It shows all the instalments generated for this reservation
At the right it shows the (agent) bill with details about the contracted amount
It is possible to process a payment from here, for example if it was done with an offline payment method that is not automatically processed
Distribution channel page
It shows the contact details of the distribution channel
This is useful to know how to contact the channel in case of questions and to validate the details for invoicing.An option to go to the details directly in the Channel Manager
This would require the user to have permission to open a distribution channel in the Channel Manager
It shows an overview of the distribution channel memos
Plus an option to create a new distribution channel memo
Communication page
It shows all the communication sent to the distribution channel for this reservation
Please note: if you have configured the notification manager to send a ‘confirmation’ of the linear agreement automatically, it will show here once it is sent.It gives the option to send an email to the distribution channel using reports
Please note: if you do not want to sent a confirmation of the agreement automatically, this would be the way to manual inform them about the details.Press the ‘Send email’ button
Find the report that you would like to use in the wizard
Please note; since a linear contracted rate reservation doesn’t have a customer, the report should use the distribution channel detailsIf it is a test, you can optionally use the ‘Send report to custom email address’ checkbox
Press ‘Email’ to actually send it
Finance page
It shows the full (agent) bill details
It shows the instalments
It is possible to change the instalments, for this see https://maxxton.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/TP/pages/edit-v2/1210482714#Changing-the-payment-terms
It shows the payments
It shows the reminders
It shows the invoices
It is possible to Create credit/new invoices from here. This is useful when the reservation has already been invoiced but a change has been made in the reservation. It will not change the original invoice, instead it will create a credit invoice for the same amount to be credited and a new invoice with all the details of the changed reservation.
Documents page
It will show all the linked documents to the reservation
This will include all the generated invoices tooIt is possible to upload a document if required
History page
It shows all the changes made in the reservation
Changing the payment terms
When you are in the middle of the process of creating the invoice, you might want to decide to change the default payment terms. That is possible too and can be done from the linear contracted rate reservation in the Reservation Manager.
Find and open the reservation
See https://maxxton.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/TP/pages/edit-v2/1210482714#Viewing-the-linear-contracted-rate-reservation for details on how to do thisGo to the ‘Finance’ tab/page
Scroll down to the ‘Instalments’ section
Press the button ‘Change payment terms’ if you want to manually decide the new terms
You can freely add or remove payment terms and decide each value as long as the total is equal to the total of the reservation
Select another payment term set from the drop down in the top left corner if you want to use an existing payment term set
Adding (a) new unit(s) to the agreement
Once you have a linear agreement in the system, it will be stored as a combination of linear contracted rate reservation(s) and allotment(s) (depending on the number of accommodation types and locations).
By going to the list of the allotments, you can select one and add a unit to that agreement. This can be done by following these steps:
Go to the ‘Channel Manager’
Go to the module ‘Distribution channels’
Find the distribution channel of the linear agreement that you want to add a unit to
Scroll down to the ‘Allotments’ card.
Find the correct allotment
To do so, please note that the default filter is only showing the current year, please change that if necessary. You can use the other filters to find your allotment.
In the table, you can see for what location and accommodation type an allotment is.Click on the row of the allotment that you want to add an unit to
A side panel will show with the details, to add a unit click on the ‘Add units’ button
First a summary of the allotment is shown, just to inform you that you are adding something to the correct allotment. Only thing required here is to validate that it is indeed the correct one.
Press ‘Next step’
Select the date range that you want to add to the agreement
It is not strictly necessary to use the exact same dates as the original agreement, you can use different dates if required.Now select the units of the selected types that you want to include.
You can use the filters again to find the right units for the agreement. Please note that there are two tabs available, by default you are looking at the fully available units and it makes sense to use those. However, if you need more or some specific units, don’t forget to look at the second tab that contains the units that are partially available for the selected period.Press ‘Next step'
Add the contract amount per type/unit
If you have chosen for a linear agreement at unit level, it is mandatory to set the contracted amount per unit too. However, the wizard gives you the option to set the value for all the selected units of the same accommodation type at once. After that, you can still choose to override a single units contracted amount. These amount will be used to create the linear contracted rate reservation(s) and eventually the invoices.Press ‘Next step'
You will now see a summary of your full configuration for you to review. Once you are sure this is as expected, then you can press the 'Add allotment' button to generate the linear contracted rate reservations (one per location, combining all accommodation types and units) and the required allotment reservations (one per accommodation type, combining the units if applicable) to allocate the units (or types) for this agreement. Removing an existing unit from the agreement
Changing the period of an agreement
Once you have a linear agreement in the system, it will be stored as a combination of linear contracted rate reservation(s) and allotment(s) (depending on the number of accommodation types and locations).
By going to the list of the allotments, you can select one and shorten the period of that unit in the agreement. This can be done by following these steps:
Go to the ‘Channel Manager’
Go to the module ‘Distribution channels’
Find the distribution channel of the linear agreement that you want to add a unit to
Scroll down to the ‘Allotments’ card.
Find the correct allotment
To do so, please note that the default filter is only showing the current year, please change that if necessary. You can use the other filters to find your allotment.
In the table, you can see for what location and accommodation type an allotment is.Click on the row of the allotment that you want to add an unit to
A side panel will show with the details, to add a unit click on the pencil icon (
)You will now be guided through a (short) wizard
You can see the current start and end date and can use the date picker to choose a new start and/or end date.
Please note: when you’re shortening the period it is always possible to do so, please keep in mind that it is also possible to extend the period. This is not always possible due to other reservations or allotments. If it is possible or not, can be seen by the status badge. This indicates if the unit is available for the newly selected periodSince the linear agreement is always a unique agreement and it is likely that with a change of the period, the contracted amount will change too, there is the possibility to directly change the amount. The current amount is visible and it is up to the user to select the new value.
Press the ‘Save changes’ button to confirm your changes
Important note; this change in the allotment will automatically be reflected in the linear contracted rate reservations. In case the linear contracted rate reservation is already invoiced, then you would be able to generate a credit/new invoice from there or else this will be done at night automatically. This is done to avoid many new invoices when you are making several changes.
Changing the amount of a linear agreement
Changing the agreed upon amount of an agreement after it is configured is still possible, this can be done by following the steps from https://maxxton.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/TP/pages/edit-v2/1210482714#Changing-the-period-of-an-agreement where you would only change the amount and not the start or end date.
Generating the invoice
The idea behind the linear agreements is that the phase of configuring the allotment and actually invoicing the allotment will be two different flows with the main reason that this will typically happen at different times as well.
For example, if you would configure the linear agreement in Sept 2024, for stays in July / August 2025, then the expectation is that invoicing is typically done in Jan 2025.
Important to know is that the invoice should be generated only in the same fiscal year as the stay.
Generating an invoice is using the implementation for the NF525 legislation and it is working based on the reservation status change, when the reservation goes to the status checked_out the invoice is generated.
Since this is typically done before departure of the stay (and even often before check in), the button has been renamed to ‘Confirm and generate invoices’.
This is separated from the flow of creating the agreement/allotments since usually this is done at a different time than it is done.
Dependencies & Impacts
Dependencies
Linear is depending on the NF525 feature flag