Individual Scout accounts spreadsheet?

[janssenil]

Any suggestions for keeping track of individual accounts for each boy? Is there a downloadable spreadsheet already setup for this kind of thing. I don't want to reinvent the wheel if I don't have to (especially since I'm a beginner at Excel).

 

I'd like to keep good records as we initiate this kind of thing, but don't know where to begin.

 

[AwHeck]

I don't know how complex the rest of your troop's financial record-keeping is but our troop recently (within the past 3-5 years) purchased TroopLedger from the same people who do TroopMaster. TroopLedger has the capability to track individual scout accounts and our treasurer seems to love it.

[StewScouts]

AwHeck,

 

I see your point that TroopLedger software does everything you'll probably need.

But as a professional programmer for 30 years, the look and feel of TroopLedger is SO clunky that it HURTS me to use it! It looks like it was written in the 90's and minimally updated. The fact that the full name is TroopLedger Millenium Edition, tells me they haven't updated this in 12+ years! And the Help documentation matches, with the old-school ways of teaching you how to use it. We've come a long way since 1990, but TroopLedger is stuck in the past.

 

I came to this forum looking for accounting help because I'm about to take over as Treasurer. The previous guy used an Excel spreadsheet, which it's customized to troop needs like TL, but it's a darn-site easier better looking!

[Fehler]

With respect, TroopLedger was probably fairly decent back in 2005 when he wrote his post about it.

[Pack18Alex]

We use Quickbooks for tracking our Pack finances.

 

Each Scout Family is setup as a Customer Account, when they have multiple sons, we create a Job within the Customer Account for each one. (This works for us so that when a Parent wants to pay dues via one check, we can handle it). If Scout Accounts are a bigger deal for you than family payments, track each Scout as a Customer and ask the parents to pay separately when needed. You can process a joint payment if need be, receive the check as a deposit and create a Suspense Account, then use it's register to split it across Accounts Receivable for the separate Accounts, then receive payment and apply the credits. Cumbersome but doable.

 

For Scout Accounts, we have a Expense Account for "Scout Accounts" so the Pack doesn't see that as Pack money (if you want it off the P&L, just create it as a revenue account and it will be recorded as negative revenue to not book their share). When a Scout earns money in their Scout Account, we just create a Credit Memo for that Customer or Customer:Job and record it with an Item (Camp Card Sales, etc) that tracks to the Scout Account. If they owe money, we apply it to the invoice, otherwise, we retain it as an available credit.

 

Next time the Scout owes money, we create the invoice, apply any outstanding credits, and email the invoice to the parents, so they see what they are charged and what is due.

 

For parental reimbursements, I have "Credit Card Accounts" for any parents that routinely cover Pack expenses personally. We simply collect the receipts, create a Credit Card Charge for the amount and who its too (generally the Scout Store and/or Home Depot, etc.). When we do reimbursements, the parent gets a check against the reimbursement accounts.

 

If the Parent is owed money when dues roll around, we'll go into the Credit Card Account, and enter a decrease for the amount applied to dues, with the Account as Accounts Receivable and the Name as the Scout's name. Then when the invoice is created for the Scout with dues, we just apply the new credit and the parent pays the balance.

 

Sounds more complicated than it is, and it's not exactly GAAP accounting (the Scout Accounts are recorded as a negative Account's Receivable, while technically they should be a positive Current Liability instead of a negative Current Asset), but it means that everything is tracked in the system.

 

I use Quickbooks for my business, and my treasurer is a Quickbooks Pro Advisor and Accountant, so we both can go in and do what needs to be done.

 

Alex