A back office that keeps time with ARC
Client accounts and how each one settles, the ARC sales-report calendar and the void deadline, all kept in US Eastern time. On sales that TripDesk365 prices and tickets, it also keeps the records your accountant works from: numbered invoices, credit and debit notes, commission and payouts to sub-agencies.
The table below shows which parts work on bookings you bring in from your GDS or by email.
Which bookings each part runs on
| Part of the back office | Bookings you import or forward | Sales priced and ticketed in TripDesk365 |
|---|---|---|
| Client accounts, client codes and settlement terms | Yes | Yes |
| Void deadline on the booking page | Yes, when the ticket issue date was read | Yes |
| A record of every change, with who made it | Yes | Yes |
| The sale's price: fare, taxes, your fee, its cost and your margin | Yes, recorded by a consultant | Yes, priced automatically |
| Invoices and credit notes | Yes, once the price is recorded | Yes, plus debit notes |
| Receipts for what the client paid | Yes, numbered, against the invoice | No: payment is taken when it is ticketed |
| Commission records and corrections | No: the commission you earned is noted with the price | Yes |
| Payouts to sub-agencies | No | Yes, on card sales |
Today: TripDesk365 does not search fares or issue tickets with airlines, so bookings reach it by import and email forwarding. A consultant records what each one was sold for and what it cost, and an accountant can then issue the client's invoice, record each payment against it as a numbered receipt, or credit it in full to correct the price. The price an imported document printed is shown beside that form and is never added to the booking's accounts by itself. Commission records and payouts still run only on sales priced and ticketed here.
An account for every client, and how it settles
Every booking belongs to a client account, and an account is one of three kinds: a sub-agency, a corporate account or a direct traveller. It holds the legal name, address, contacts, tax country, the person who owns the relationship, and a short client code.
The code is the handle your team and your inbox use. Forward a confirmation to your agency's address with +CODE before the @ and it is matched only against that client's bookings. Rename a code and the old one keeps routing, so mail sent to last year's code still arrives.
Settlement terms for sub-agencies
For a sub-agency, the account also records which way the money moves:
- The sub-agency collects from its own client and owes you the net fare, so you invoice it.
- The traveller pays by card, to you or to the airline, so the sub-agency owes you nothing for the sale and you owe it its margin as a payout.
Because this decides who owes whom, opening an account and setting its terms are separate permissions: a travel consultant can open the account, and setting the terms needs a billing administrator. A change applies to sales from then on. Each booking keeps the terms it was sold under.
ARC's calendar, on ARC's clock
Every ARC deadline is kept in US Eastern time with daylight saving, as ARC keeps it, never as a fixed offset.
Sales-report weeks run Monday to Sunday, and a report is normally due by 13:59 ET on the Tuesday after the week closes. Holidays move that. Once a year your accountant loads ARC's published holiday schedule: TripDesk365 reads ARC's table, shows what it found, and writes nothing until they confirm. If the table has changed shape, it refuses rather than guess. Weeks taken from ARC's table are marked confirmed, and any other week stays marked unconfirmed until an accountant checks it.
The void deadline is 23:59 ET on the next business day after the ticket was issued, skipping weekends and ARC holidays. The booking page counts down to a cut-off three hours earlier, which leaves time to process the void before ARC's deadline.
The same rules run on this site. See the 2026 ARC calendar, or work out a deadline with the void deadline calculator.
Invoices, commission and payouts
Built for sales priced and ticketed here. A booking imported from elsewhere gets its client's invoice once its price is recorded, and none of the rest.
Invoices numbered without gaps
A document takes the next number in its series when it is issued, never when it is drafted, so an abandoned draft uses no number. Invoices, credit notes and debit notes each have their own series under your agency prefix.
Corrections are notes, not edits
An issued invoice is never changed. When what is owed moves, TripDesk365 compares the invoice with what is owed now, counts the notes already raised, and issues a credit or debit note for the rest. A voided document stays listed with its number.
Commission per fare component
Load an airline commission contract as the airline writes it: origin, destination, booking class and rate. Commission is worked out on the base fare for each direction of the trip, so a round trip that earns two rates gets both.
Three figures, side by side
What the rules estimated at the sale, what you reported to ARC and what ARC paid are kept separately. A correction never overwrites the estimate, and each one records its reason.
Amend while the report is open
A commission can be amended only while the ARC sales report it belongs to is open. After that the fix is a memo, and TripDesk365 refuses the edit. On a consolidator ticket the change is held as a request until they confirm it.
Payouts as a reconciliation
On card sales, a payout run pays a sub-agency its own markup and its share of commission, and commission only once ARC has actually paid it. Each run works out what is owed now minus everything already paid, so running it twice pays nothing twice. A void or refund takes back the commission the sale no longer earns.
Separate jobs, separate permissions
- Travel consultants open client accounts and keep them up to date.
- Billing administrators set a sub-agency's settlement terms.
- Accountants load the ARC calendar, confirm weeks, amend commission while a report is open, record what ARC paid and draft payout runs.
- Payments approvers release a payout. Drafting a run and releasing it are permissions TripDesk365 will not give to the same person.
What agency owners ask
Does TripDesk365 replace our accounting system?
No. It does not connect to an accounting package. It keeps the travel records an accountant works from: client accounts, the ARC calendar and, on sales ticketed here, invoices, commission and payouts.
Can we record what ARC actually paid?
Yes, for sales ticketed here. Your accountant pastes the ticket numbers and amounts for a settled week. Each line is matched to its sale, and any line that matches nothing is listed for a person to resolve.
Does the void deadline work for tickets issued in our own GDS?
Yes. When an imported e-ticket or GDS screen shows the date the ticket was issued, the booking page shows the void cut-off for it while the window is open, with ARC holidays taken into account.
Walk through your back office with us
Bring your client list and a recent ARC week. We will set up your accounts and show you the calendar, the void deadline and where each record lives.