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Using Traces
Traces are similar to Messages in that they allow you to attach communications to the guest reservation.
However, rather than providing information for the guest, traces are intended to notify your colleagues in
your own or other departments at the property about actions that they must take relative to the reservation
or on the guest's behalf. Traces allow you to specify the responsible department and the date and time when
the action must be completed (the maximum period is 90 days). Traces also provide features for ensuring
that the trace has been resolved — that is, that the required action has been taken. When traces are attached
to a reservation, the Traces lamp appears on various screens including the Reservation screen, the
Reservation Search screen, and the Telephone Operator screen (See Indicator Lamps for complete list and
details).
Here is an example. Suppose you are making a reservation for a guest who will need a rollaway bed. The
reservation is for a stay that will begin sometime next month, so you cannot just pick up the phone and call
Housekeeping. By attaching a trace to the guest's reservation, you can ensure that a notification will be
delivered to Housekeeping automatically, at the correct time, via the Trace Report. In addition, you will be
able to positively confirm that the action has been taken —that is, that the rollaway bed has been delivered to
the guest's room — by accessing the Traces screen and checking that the trace has been resolved.
You may access the Traces screen in any of the following ways:

From the Front Desk menu (Front Desk>Traces)

From the Reservation Options menu, select the Traces option. (The Reservation Options menu is
accessible from the Reservation screen or from the Reservation Search screen.) The Traces screen
shows all (resolved and unresolved) traces attached to the current reservation.

Note: When you access traces from the Reservation Options menu, and no existing
traces are already attached to the reservation, the Traces New screen displays.
Otherwise, the Traces for Guest Name screen appears.

By clicking the Traces lamp in the lower part of the guest's Reservation screen, or the Reservation
Search screen when the guest's record is highlighted. The Traces screen shows all (resolved and
unresolved) traces attached to the current reservation.

From the Operator screen (CTRL-F7 Quick Key).

Traces Screen
The Traces screen may have slightly different features (e.g., search options) depending on how it is accessed.
The example shown here appears when you select the Traces option from the Reservation screen Options
menu.

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The Traces screen has two areas. The grid is a list of the reservations that have traces attached to them.
Reservations that have multiple traces have multiple entries in the grid. Highlight a reservation in the upper
grid to display the related trace text in the lower text area.

Search Options
Date. Select a date that corresponds to a date when the traces you wish to find are effective (that is, a date
that is between the From Date and To Date set up for the trace).
Department. Select the down arrow to choose the department(s) attached to the traces you wish to find.
Resolved/Unresolved. Select the check box(es) that correspond to the type(s) of traces you wish to
display. The default is both resolved and unresolved traces.
The following information is available in the grid.
X. An X in this column indicates that the trace has been selected for an activity such as Resolve/Unresolve
traces, create New traces, or Delete traces. Use the All and None buttons to mark or unmark all entries.
Name. The name of the guest whose reservation has a trace attached.

Trace On. Date when action needs to be taken on the trace. If a trace is effective for several days, there will
be an entry for each of those days.
Trace Time. Time when action needs to be taken.
Department. Department responsible for action on the trace.
Resolved On. The date and time when the trace was resolved. Not Resolved appears in this field if the trace
has not yet been resolved.
Resolved By. The user ID of the person who resolved the trace (if the trace was resolved).

Arrival. The arrival date of the reservation.

Departure. The departure date of the reservation.
Room. The room number assigned to the guest.
Status. The status of the reservation.

Traces Screen Functions

Resolve/Unresolve. Change the status of the highlighted trace or the trace(s) marked with an X. The
button that appears depends on whether the highlighted trace is resolved or not resolved.

If the trace is not resolved, change the trace status to resolved by selecting the Resolve button.
The current system date and time appear in the Resolved On field to indicate that the trace has been
resolved. In addition, the user ID of the person who changed the status appears in the Resolved By
field.

If the trace has been resolved (a date and time appear in the Resolved On field), select the
Unresolve button to change the status in the Resolved On field back to Not Resolved. In addition,
the user ID is removed from the Resolved By field.
New. Create a new trace.
Resv. Display the reservation for the highlighted trace.
Edit. Edit the currently highlighted trace.

Adding New Traces

To create a new trace, select the New button from the Traces screen. The Traces - New screen appears.

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The grid shows the reservation(s) for which you are creating the new trace. By default, this is the reservation
that was highlighted on the Traces screen. If you wish to attach the trace to a different reservation, select
the Search button. See Selecting the Reservation to Which the Trace Will Be Attached, below.

The following information is displayed in this grid:

Name. The name of the guest.

Room No. The room number assigned to the reservation.

Arrival. The guest's arrival date.
Departure. The guest's departure date.
Status. The reservation status.
Next, define the trace period and time, and select the responsible departments.
From Date/To Date. Use the calendar tools (or manually enter dates) to define the period during which the
trace is to be active. The From Date cannot be earlier than the current business date. This period determines
the dates when the trace action must take place. By default, the current business date appears in both fields.
A trace record will appear in the lower grid of the Traces screen for every day in this period. You may edit the
individual traces if you need to change the trace text information or other details for a specific date. (See
Editing Traces, below.)

Note: The trace period may not exceed 90 days. If a trace activity must extend beyond 90 days, a
separate trace may be entered to cover the additional period.

Trace Time. Enter the time when the trace action is to be taken. You may change the default (the current
system time) by over-typing.
Dept. Code. Select the down arrow to display a list of departments. Choose the department(s) responsible
for taking action on this trace. A department must be selected. A separate trace is created for each
department.
Text Area. In the text area, enter an explanation of the trace. Select the ellipsis button to choose from any
pre-defined trace texts for the department(s) you selected.

Note: Trace messages are predefined and associated with departments in Trace Texts
Configuration (System Configuration>Reservations>Codes>Trace Texts).

You may edit the predefined message, and/or add other information in this field. For example, you may wish
to give specific details or directions on how the trace should be resolved. This field may not be left empty.
Select the Save button to attach the trace to the reservation selected in the upper grid. You may continue
attaching additional traces to the reservation, or you may select another reservation and attach new traces to
it. When you are done, select OK to save and close this screen. Or select Close to exit this screen without
saving any unsaved traces.

Selecting the Reservation to Which the Trace Will Be Attached

If you do not wish to attach the trace to the reservation highlighted in the upper grid, you can create a trace
for a different reservation by selecting the Search button on the New Trace screen. The Select Guest screen
appears.

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This screen lists the reservations to which you may attach traces. By default, only reservations having a
Checked In status are displayed. Use the search criteria to refine your search.

Search Criteria
Enter your search criteria and select the Search button.
Arrival. Enter an arrival date to find reservations arriving on that date.
Departure. Enter a departure date to find reservations departing on that date.
Stay Date. Enter a date during which the guest will be in-house to find reservations that will be in-house on
that date.
Name. Enter the last name or first part of the last name of the guest to whose reservation you wish to attach
a trace.
Room. Enter the room number assigned to the reservation to which you wish to attach a trace.
Block. Enter the block ID of the block attached to the reservation to which you wish to attach a trace.

Company. Enter the name or first part of the name of the company attached to the reservation to which you
wish to attach a trace.
Group. Enter the name or first part of the name of the group attached to the reservation to which you wish
to attach a trace.
Agent. Enter the name or first part of the name of the agent attached to the reservation to which you wish to
attach a trace.
Reservations. Select this check box to include reservations having a Reserved status.
Checked Out. Select this check box to include reservations having a Checked Out status.

Search Results
Highlight the reservation to which you wish to attach the new trace and select the OK button. Or, to attach a
trace to multiple reservations, mark an X in the X column of the reservations to which you wish to attach the
trace. When you return to the Trace - New screen, the reservation(s) you selected appears in the grid.
The following information is displayed for each reservation. (Click on a column heading to sort the list by that
field.)
Name. The guest's last name and first name.
Room. The room number assigned to this reservation.
Arrival. The guest's arrival date.
Departure. The guest's departure date.
Status. Reservation status. By default, checked in reservations are displayed. Use the search criteria
Reserved and Checked Out check boxes to display reservations having these other statuses.

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Company. The company associated with this reservation.

Agent. The agent associated with this reservation.
Group. The group associated with this reservation.

Editing Traces
To view and/or edit a trace, highlight the trace in the grid on the Traces screen and select the Edit button.
The Traces - Edit screen appears.

Edit the fields as necessary and select the OK button to accept your changes. The following information
appears on this screen:
Date. The date when action needs to be taken on the trace. Use the calendar tool to select a date, or
manually enter the date.
Time. The time when the action needs to be taken.
Entered On. Date when the trace was created. (View-only.)
Entered By. User ID of the user entering the trace. (View only.)

Department. Select the down arrow to choose the department that is responsible for action on the trace.
Text. Enter an explanation of the trace.

Automatically Generated Item Inventory Traces

When you attach inventory items to a reservation (for example, when you select item(s) by using the Item
Inv. field on the Reservation screen, or when you attach a package containing inventory items to the
reservation) Opera checks item availability of the item(s) for the dates of the stay. A message will advise you
if there is insufficient inventory for the selected dates: "Insufficient quantity for some item(s). Please check
Traces." A system generated trace is created for each day of the reservation when inventory is insufficient.
(The department associated with the trace is the department assigned to the inventory item in Item
configuration.) The trace message reads: "Insufficient quantity available for item <item code>".

See Also

Reservation Screen

Indicator Lamps

Trace Texts Configuration

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