Go-live runbook: switch on one night

This runbook moves a hotel from its old PMS to Kamra in one night. You bring over the bookings, the companies, and the money that is still open at the old system's last close. Then you check that everything ties out before the desk starts on Kamra.

It works with any old system. You fill in Kamra's own CSV templates from the old system's reports. You do not need an export in a special format.

Do the go-live checklist first: property, rooms, rates, staff, and a dress rehearsal. This page covers only the night of the switch.

What you need

• A login with the Finance or Hotel Admin role. Opening balances and companies are Finance work. The screen refuses other roles.
• Admin → Go-live Import in Kamra (/kamra/go-live). A new property also gets it as the last step of the setup wizard.
• The three templates. Download each one from its tab (Download template):

File	One row per	Columns
Bookings	reservation (future, in-house and past)	Reservation No, Guest Name, Phone, Email, Room Type, Room, Check In, Check Out, Adults, Children, Total Amount, Status, Source
Companies	corporate account	Company Name, Tax ID, Contact Name, Contact Phone, Contact Email, Credit Allowed, Credit Limit, Credit Days, Account No
Opening balances	open balance	Type, Reservation No, Guest Name, Room, Check In, Check Out, Room Type, Company, Invoice No, Invoice Date, Amount, Mode

Column names are matched loosely ("Arrival" or "Check-in Date" both work). The preview shows how each column was read. Dates can be DD/MM/YYYY, MM/DD/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD; the preview tells you which order it found.

The night

1. Freeze the old system

Pick a quiet night. Tell the team the time after which nothing is entered in the old system.

Run the old system's last night audit. Every figure you export must come from after that close. Kamra starts billing from its own business date. Every night before it belongs to the old system.

Check Kamra's business date: it must be the first day Kamra runs. End of Day shows it.

2. Export

From the old system, fill in the templates:

1. Bookings. Take every future booking and every guest in house. Optionally add past stays, so returning guests are recognised.

   • Keep the old Reservation No. A re-run uses it to skip rows that are already in. The opening-balance file uses it to find the stay.
   • In-house guests need their Room. Status In House or Checked In.

2. Companies. Take every corporate account that is billed on credit or has a balance. Credit Allowed is Yes or No. A credit limit on its own means Yes. Credit Days is the company's payment terms (30, 30 days, Net 30, or 0 / On receipt for due on the invoice date); a value turns off Use property default for that company. Leave it blank to follow the property default. Each city ledger bill is then due on its invoice date + the credit days, so the aging matches the old system's.

3. Opening balances. Take the closing balances of the last night audit. Use one row per balance. The Type column is one of:

   Type	Amount is	How Kamra posts it
   In-house	what the guest owes on the old folio. Use a negative amount if the guest is in credit. Use 0 if the guest is settled.	One Opening Balance line on the guest folio (Guest ledger).
   City ledger	one unpaid company invoice, with Company, Invoice No and Invoice Date. Use a negative amount for money a company paid ahead.	Billed to the company's city ledger, dated on the original invoice, so aging stays correct. A credit becomes an unapplied payment.
   Deposit	an advance a future booking has already paid, with Mode (Cash, Card, UPI, Bank Transfer).	An Advance payment on the booking (Deposit ledger). The booking's advance paid goes up.

   Include every in-house guest, even at 0. The row also tells Kamra that the nights before go-live were billed by the old system. At checkout Kamra bills only the nights from go-live on.

Example:

Type,Reservation No,Guest Name,Company,Invoice No,Invoice Date,Amount,Mode
In-house,R-1042,,,,,12600,
In-house,R-1051,,,,,0,
City ledger,,,Acme Travels,INV-881,10/09/2026,18000,
City ledger,,,Acme Travels,INV-902,14/10/2026,4500.50,
City ledger,,,Northwind Ltd,,,(2000),
Deposit,R-1077,,,,,3000,UPI

3. Preview

Work through the tabs in order. Bookings come first, because the opening balances point at them. Companies come before the city ledger.

On each tab, upload the file (or paste it) and press Preview. Nothing is written yet. Read what the preview shows:

• how each column was read, and any column it ignored
• the rows it will skip, and why (an unknown room, a company that is not on credit, a stay it cannot find)
• for opening balances: rows and total per category, and the business date the postings will carry

Fix the file and preview again until no row is skipped.

4. Import

Press Import on each tab, in order: Bookings, Companies, Opening balances.

Re-running a file is safe. A row that is already in Kamra is skipped and counted as "already posted", so a file that half-failed can be fixed and run again. To change an amount that is already posted, do not edit the file and re-import. Correct it on the folio or city ledger with an allowance or credit note. Every correction stays on the record.

What the import does not do:

• It puts no money in today's till. That money moved in the old system, before go-live.
• It counts no revenue. Opening balances use their own charge type, Opening Balance (transaction code 8900). The day's revenue reports leave them out. They carry no tax, because the old system already taxed them.
• It does not let anyone post an opening balance by hand. The folio screens refuse the Opening Balance charge type.

5. Reconcile

Open Reconcile and press the button. Kamra compares each file loaded in steps 1 to 3 with what is now in Kamra:

Category	Compared
Bookings	rows in the file and reservations in Kamra
Companies	companies, credit allowed, credit limit and credit days
In-house guest balances	stays and total, guest by guest
Advance deposits	bookings and total, booking by booking
City ledger (AR)	invoices and total, plus a per-company table with each account's balance

Ready for go-live shows only when every category matches and no row of any file was left out. It also stays off while an imported in-house guest has no opening-balance row.

Tie the per-company city ledger table to the old system's AR aging report, and the in-house total to its guest ledger. If something differs, the list under the table says which guest, booking or invoice. Fix it, re-import (posted rows are skipped) and reconcile again.

6. Go live

• Switch the channel manager to Kamra and retire the old system's OTA connections in the same hour. See the channel manager guide.
• Keep the old system read-only for reference.
• The desk works in Kamra from now on. Run the first End of Day on Kamra tonight. It bills tonight's room nights for the in-house guests you carried over.

How it is posted (for auditors)

Every amount goes through Kamra's normal folio and ledger writers. No row is written past them.

• In-house: one Opening Balance folio line, dated on the go-live business date, debit (or credit) on the Guest ledger.
• City ledger: each invoice is kept as a past-stay record with a Company folio. It carries the amount as an Opening Balance line and is moved to the company's AR by the same transfer a checkout uses. The AR invoice carries the old invoice number and date. The folio is then closed. A company credit is a city ledger payment with reference opening-ar:…. It settles the oldest open bills first.
• Deposit: an Advance folio payment with reference opening-deposit:<reservation>, credit on the Deposit ledger. It moves to the Guest ledger at check-in like any advance.

The import is recorded in the activity log with counts and totals.

Endpoints: kamra.golive.* in the REST API reference (preview_companies, run_companies, preview_opening, run_opening, reconcile, csv_template) and kamra.migrate.preview_import / run_import for bookings.