The screen you open is never the whole list

Every OTA extranet opens its screens on a default: this year's invoices, the payouts already settled, the next few months, page one. The default is sensible for a quick look. It is a trap for anyone who copies what they see into a spreadsheet and treats it as the full record.

These are the ones that have caught us, and that catch hotels reconciling by hand.

A filter makes things look missing

Booking.com's invoice list opens on the current year. Look at it in a new year and last year appears to have no invoices at all.

We once took that at face value and concluded that a large amount of commission had been charged with no invoice behind it. It hadn't. Every invoice existed — in the year the filter wasn't showing. There was even a small credit note nobody had seen.

The lesson we took: "I didn't see it" is not the same as "it isn't there." Before you conclude that something is missing, change every filter on the screen.

A tab only shows a window

An OTA's pending payouts tab can quietly show only the coming months — on one, about six months ahead. A booking payable later than that is simply not listed. There is no count, no date range on screen and no "showing 20 of 31". The list looks complete.

Another OTA's earnings screen opens on the money already available, with what is still owed on a second tab. Read the first tab and the hotel appears to be owed less than it is.

The same booking on two tabs

While a stay moves from one state to the next, it can be listed on two tabs at once — available and pending. Add the two tabs together and you count it twice.

At one property, double-counted bookings made up about a quarter of an "owed to you" total. Before adding up two tabs, check whether any booking appears on both.

A page that keeps its place

Some statements show twenty bookings a page and remember which page you were on. Switch to a new period while on page three and you see page three of the new period — which looks like a short month. A partial table read that way once had us concluding that a couple of dozen bookings had never been invoiced. They all had.

A screen still loading looks finished

A list that hasn't finished loading can show a single row that reads "Finding your transactions…" — or nothing at all. A blank page looks exactly like a month with no bookings. Copy it at the wrong moment and the spreadsheet says the OTA owes you nothing.

How to read an extranet safely

• Assume every list is partial until you have checked its filters, its tabs and its paging.
• Write down what the screen was showing — the year, the tab, the date range — next to every figure you copy.
• Check for bookings that appear twice before adding lists together.
• Wait for the page, then check the count against last time. A sudden drop to zero is more likely the screen than the business.