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Out Of Pocket Expenses

You can handle club expenses without having a club checking account. Members can pay for expenses directly with their personal credit cards. You can reimburse them with units of ownership in your club instead of cash.

Here's an example. Let's say John spends $34 for postage stamps on 11/11 for his club. Enter this in bivio in two steps:

  1. Make a $34 Expense entry for "Envelopes and Stamps" on 11/11.
  2. Enter a $34 Member Payment for John on 11/11 using an 11/11 valuation date.

This records the expense and gives John credit for the $34 he spent. He is, in effect, making an investment in the club. If he doesn't want to make that investment, he just skips his next payment or reduces his next payment by $34. Either way, the accounting is straightforward.

The above transactions should be recorded in a special, dummy account which you could call "Out of Pocket Expenses". This account will always be zero, because the expense and compensating payment occur on the same day.

If you haven't set it up previously, go to Accounting>Accounts and click on the yellow button labeled "Create". Create an account called "Out of Pocket Expenses". Since it is a dummy account, you can leave the fields requesting login information blank.

The "Out of Pocket Expenses" account will contain all the transactions which were "reimbursed". You'll be able to record them without affecting the cash balances in your other accounts. Using it gives you a simple and clear way to reimburse someone. No actual cash has to be exchanged and you've saved the added expense and complication of tracking a checking account.

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