Hall Booking Management System for Event Spaces & Banquets.

Booking is the easy half of running a hall. The hard half starts after the date is locked and comes due at month end: payments matched to events, GST split by rate, deposits settled, meter units billed, crew paid and an audit trail nobody can quietly edit. A hall booking management system earns its name in that close. Here is one month for a hall with 34 events, using the numbers in the workbook on this page.

The month has 22 hall-plus-food packages, 8 hall-only rentals where the client brings a caterer, and 4 corporate days. The packages are Rs 1,01,20,000 of taxable value at 5%, which is Rs 5,06,000 of GST. The hall-only and corporate bookings are Rs 10,00,000 at 18%, which is Rs 1,80,000. Together that is Rs 1,11,20,000 taxable, Rs 6,86,000 of GST split into Rs 3,43,000 CGST and Rs 3,43,000 SGST, and Rs 1,18,06,000 invoiced. A billing screen with one rate would be wrong for 22 of the 34 events, and charging 18% on the packages would add Rs 13,15,600 of tax that the clients should not pay.

Received against those invoices is Rs 1,11,06,800, which leaves Rs 6,99,200 outstanding across five events that paid 60% and owe the rest. A register shows that only if someone keeps the balance column current for every event. In a system the balance is the invoice total less the receipts on the booking, so the reminder list writes itself. The bank check proves the month. Receipts recorded, including advances, are Rs 1,20,51,800, deposits received are Rs 6,90,000, and a bank statement showing Rs 1,27,63,300 leaves Rs 21,500 to explain. Small gaps are normal, and interest and charges explain most of them. The aim is to list each item and clear it, not to force zero.

The trap in a service business is the advance. Six clients paid advances this month for events between November and February, Rs 9,45,000 in all. For a service, GST on an advance falls due when the advance is received, so Rs 45,000 of tax, worked out as Rs 9,45,000 times 5 over 105, belongs in this month's working even though none of those events has happened. Miss it and the month looks Rs 45,000 better than it is, and the final invoice later has to adjust advances nobody can find. Every advance needs a numbered receipt voucher, and the final invoice should show the adjustment. Your CA decides how this applies to your contracts.

Deposits are the second trap. The hall holds Rs 6,90,000 of refundable deposits this month, and none of it is income until a decision is made. Take one event that breaks four chairs at Rs 1,200 and runs two hours over at Rs 5,000 an hour. Overtime with 18% GST is Rs 11,800, deductions come to Rs 16,600 on a Rs 25,000 deposit, and Rs 8,400 goes back. The five sample settlements in the workbook hold Rs 1,00,000, deduct Rs 45,320 and refund Rs 54,680. The handover photos turn an argument into a subtraction. How a retained deposit or a damage recovery is taxed is a question for your CA, so the sheet keeps those lines apart.

Power and crew are smaller lines that leak. One event's AC meter goes from 48,210 to 48,690, which is 480 units at Rs 11, or Rs 5,280, and the generator burns 18 litres of diesel at Rs 92, or Rs 1,656, so the recovery is Rs 6,936. Across the month, 14,320 units at Rs 11 bring Rs 1,57,520. Casual crew of ten people at Rs 700 an event over 34 events costs Rs 2,38,000, which is 2.1% of taxable revenue. Neither figure is large. A hall that cannot see them per event cannot tell which kind of client costs more to serve.

Three controls decide whether the numbers can be trusted. Roles come first: the front desk takes bookings and receipts, the manager approves discounts and settles deposits, and only the owner changes a rate after a quote has gone out. The audit log comes second. When a date moves from 25 to 26 November, the log should say who moved it, when, and what the receipt said before. Kaliquid offers role-based access and an audit history, and the practical test is to change a rate as a front-desk user and see whether you are stopped. Cash is the third control. Section 269ST bars taking Rs 2 lakh or more in cash in a day, for one transaction or for one event, so the system should flag a cash receipt near that line before the money changes hands.

Be honest about the size of the problem. A hall with one owner and eight events a month can close its month in a good spreadsheet in an afternoon, and the workbook on this page may be all it needs. The case for a system grows with events, staff and halls. When two people touch the same booking, or a second hall opens, the register stops being the record. Kaliquid Pro is Rs 999 a month per hall, or Rs 750 a month billed yearly, which is Rs 9,000 a year, with Enterprise priced by quote for chains. Against a month with Rs 6,86,000 of GST to file correctly, the price is a small line. What you are buying is a close that is a review, not a rebuild.