From kangaroohq at yahoo.com Tue Apr 10 12:44:38 2012 From: kangaroohq at yahoo.com (Joe Terry) Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2012 09:44:38 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Treasurers] link to Millstone Accounting tool In-Reply-To: <20120219232534.GA17195@nausicaa.cable.rcn.com> References: <20120219232534.GA17195@nausicaa.cable.rcn.com> Message-ID: <1334076278.85607.YahooMailNeo@web120501.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Hi Ivy and all, Here is the link to the software code for the accounting/bookkeeping tool used by Millstone: https://github.com/joeterry/finances? I apologize for the long delay. ?Questions, problems, or suggestions welcome. Joe ________________________________ From: Ivy Foster To: treasurers at lists.bostoncoop.net Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2012 6:25 PM Subject: [Treasurers] Meeting, 11th of February, 2012 Hey, folks, I apologize for the lateness of these notes. If anybody has any amendments or additions, I'd also be glad to send out a revised copy in a more timely manner. Also, given screenshots, I can integrate them into an HTML version. Sorry again for the delay! Enjoy! Ivy P.S.: Joe, what's the project Web page for your system? ? ? ? ? ? ? ================================== ? ? ? ? ? ? = Co-op Treasurers Meeting Notes = ? ? ? ? ? ? ================================== Scribe: Ivy Foster Date:? Saturday, 11th February, 2012 ============================================================ = Table of Contents = ===================== Intro BCC Millstone Financial management consulting project ============================================================ = Intro = ========= These are the notes taken at the Co-op Treasurers meeting on the 11th of February, 2012. The folks involved, in order of appearance, were: ? - Micha, from the Cooperative Fund Of New England (CFNE) ? - Natalie, from the Boston Community Co-ops (BCC) ? - Gabe, from Spirit Of '76 Co-op ? - Matt, from...(sorry, Matt, I totally forgot the name) ? - Ivy, from Whirlybird ? - Joe, from Millstone Micha ----- Today, we'll be looking at screenshots of the accounting systems used by Millstone and the BCC/Lucy Stone. We'll also talk about the possibility of standardizing across co-ops. ============================================================ = BCC = ======= Natalie ------- We use QuickBooks, as well as a few spreadsheets to keep track of lenders and the budget. ? - QuickBooks gives you a Chart of Accounts (an overview ? ? of all of your accounts) as the startup screen. ? - The BCC has a money market account, checking, and ? ? savings, plus the "Leroy" account (named for the street ? ? Lucy Stone is on). ? - Receipts may be categorized by vendor. ? - You can review individual accounts ? - You make entries by filling out a virtual check and ? ? categorizing it We use all our financial information for an annual budget every fiscal year (starting in September). We report back on the budget every three months; we're interested in what was budgeted, how much money we took in, what accounts were over or under our expectations, and so on. This is presented to the BCC board. Micha ----- BCC & Lucy Stone have two treasurers: one for the BCC and one for the house. BCC handles landlord issues such as rent, and the house handles food and anything that doesn't fall to the BCC. Gabe ---- How does the BCC set house rent? Natalie ------- It's $565 per room. Micha ----- The BCC started at Millstone, so at first this was based on Millstone's rent, but has since been adjusted as needed. Natalie ------- The house decides individual rents. It's done on a sliding scale based on the room's square footage, then adjusted on a sliding scale based on income. As long as the house pays BCC the correct grand total, the details of who pays how much is left to the house members to decide. Micha ----- ...and BCC is elected by Lucy Stone, so it's not like they're paying some oppressive landlord. Gabe ---- How many Allied Lender Loans do they have? Ivy --- What's an Allied Lender Loan? Matt ---- Somebody loans money (in this case a five-year loan) with a certain interest per year: 0-4% interest. People decided to pay 3%, mostly. They're /Allied/ because they believe in the cause; it's a social investment. That's why they're willing to accept low interest rates and a high risk (since there's no government backing). Natalie ------- On the BCC wiki, there's a finance manual. We also keep a finance log of everything we do. ============================================================ = Millstone = ============= Joe --- We use a homebrewed Web-based system I wrote. It uses fairly standard accounting language. ? - We have /cash accounts/, such as bulk foods, rainy day ? ? fund, etc. They represent slices of the big, single ? ? house account. We also have cash accounts to represent ? ? other parties, such as vendors, the landlord, house ? ? members, members of our bulk buying club, etc. ? - You can view each individual account with the date, ? ? type, relationship to the group, etc. Each member is ? ? assessed with how much they owe, transactions they were ? ? a part of, etc. Each member pays a lump sum into the ? ? house account, and it's automatically divvied up into ? ? the various cash accounts, as appropriate. ? - Individual members can enter receipts, which are ? ? organized by category. ? - There's also a budgeting screen. ? - Emails are periodically sent out with totals owed, ? ? reimbursements due, etc. ? - You can view balances by year, with budgets, etc. ? - You can also export the data. ============================================================ = Financial management consulting project = =========================================== Micha ----- If we standardize co-ops' accounts and financial procedures, we may be able to pool resources to pay for an outside accountant, who could support the treasurers. Since the treasurer's job is one which is potentially fraught with difficulty and even legal implications, professional support could be a big help---especially for co-op owned houses. I sent out a scope of work to seven accountants; I still need to talk to co-ops about what services they would want. Rental co-ops need less financial advice, for example. The CFNE is involved because we want to increase the co-op economy. Also bringing in an outside accountant allows for risk management of loans. _______________________________________________ Treasurers mailing list Treasurers at bostoncoop.net http://lists.bostoncoop.net/mailman/listinfo/treasurers -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: