Hi @domi,
thanks for the question.
The negative balance is coming from closed future revenue column. That means, you are most likely closing your bills prematurely (future revenue is already closed on a bill, while it only should be closed upon check out).
When a prepayment is received, there are two ways how to handle it, based on the legal environment you are in:
1. it should be either handled with a deposit - that is in case you are obligated to report the VAT at the time of payment. That means, a bill with payment needs to be closed at the time you collect a payment, and in such case, a positive deposit should be closed with the payment to avoid prematurely closing the accommodation. The negative deposit then balances the accommodation and this bill should be closed upon the guest’s departure
2. in case you are not obligated to report VAT at the time of payment (I believe this is the case of French LE), you shall leave the payment open an an open bill against the accommodation and close the bill upon departure
In your case, you are following the second option, except you are closing the bills before the guest’s departure. That causes the future revenue to be closed. That can cause multiple issues, such as restricted flexibility when updating reservations, but it also creates “debt” in the ledger. Technically speaking, you close revenue that is paid and not consumed yet, and therefore you “owe” the service to the customer. That is why your balance ends up being negative.
You can also check more details about deposits here, or understand more about the Accounting ledger here
Hope it helps!