Scout Payment Log

[RookieScouter]

I am looking a better way to keep up with my scouts payments log for each trip we take. Does anyone have a template they use or tips on keeping payments made organize? 

[qwazse]

For my crew, I used google sheets (one document for each trip) which I would share with my co-advisor and crew officers. I would make an online-form to collect sign-ups and other info -- like if you were an adult how many could you transport, additional fees if renting gear, etc ... I would then use a column to note how much they paid and compute how much they owed. I would print that on the day of the trip.

I would then tally totals and log expenses on another sheet in the same document. That and any receipts and deposit/reimbursement requests would go to the treasurer.

In retrospect, I would just use BSA permission slips for most activities, but I would still track the sign-ups with a shared document.

[mrkstvns]

11 hours ago, RookieScouter said:

I am looking a better way to keep up with my scouts payments log for each trip we take. Does anyone have a template they use or tips on keeping payments made organize? 

Here's a tip:  If you adopt any kind of electronic log/template/app, *PLEASE* do not assume that anyone else in the troop will be willing to use it.  Due to an excess of professional experience with cyber security, I routinely refuse to: 1) download apps, 2) agree to terms & conditions of 3rd parties, 3) use anything associated with Facebook, 4) download anything onto my computer.

Soooo, while you might be gung-ho about your latest and greatest "helper app", be aware that others may find it a nuisance in even the best of circumstances.

Scouting is about scouting....not about Your Favorite App. Keep it simple. Keep it safe. Keep it fun.

[qwazse]

35 minutes ago, mrkstvns said:

Here's a tip:  If you adopt any kind of electronic log/template/app, *PLEASE* do not assume that anyone else in the troop will be willing to use it.  Due to an excess of professional experience with cyber security, I routinely refuse to: 1) download apps, 2) agree to terms & conditions of 3rd parties, 3) use anything associated with Facebook, 4) download anything onto my computer.

Agree. I chose my strategy because it is about as innocuous as it gets. On my sign-ups, I usually only ask for first name and initial.

I guess the real question is: "What are we trying to track?"

If you want to just track that you've collected enough to pay for an activity. And be able to go back and see what expenses were from for an activity, what I did worked. Paper isn't that much harder. But, when training youth to hold one another accountable, it was nice to have key leaders aware of what's happening.

If you want to figure out if a scout is always "skipping the turnstyle", my tool isn't that great. I kept personal info to a minimum, and simply didn't care about tracking a member across multiple activities. The only time I did that was collecting payments for super-activities (i.e. Seabase) and for each member, I had multiple columns for each month's payment. Again, we could have used paper, but I was training a youth to keep track of things (the checks got mailed to her), and it was a good way to know where we stood.

[Mom2Scout]

Our troop uses TeamApp for sign ups.  It's very popular at my children's school for sports also.  Any time my Scout uses the chat function, I get a notification. 

Our treasurer uses TeamApp to track on her end who is going so that if a fee is due, she can deduct it from their scout account and move money around on her end.

 

Hope this helps.

[DuctTape]

What can the scouts do to take ownership at the patrol level?

What can the troop Scribe do to fulfill his POR?

[qwazse]

35 minutes ago, DuctTape said:

What can the scouts do to take ownership at the patrol level?

What can the troop Scribe do to fulfill his POR?

Online accessibility is definitely a problem -- even if we have parents who would allow the patrol to have the tech. For example, my solution (or any of the other cloud related solutions that I've proposed) requires the scouts be at lest 13. Works great for a crew or ship, not so much for a young patrol in a troop.

In this case, I think Field Notes (it's actually a brand, but scouts could make their own) are a good idea. The youth would maintain the records required by their position, then at meetings have a responsible adult snap a picture and save it to the cloud. Actually, you don't even need to be net dependent. there are lot's of old scanners and workstations with a good many years of working life remaining. (Our Goodwill actually has a store dedicated to them.) Cloud storage is nice, but probably overkill for what most troops need.

I honestly think paper + digital image backup is the ideal mode of operations for 21st century groups.

[DuctTape]

1 hour ago, qwazse said:

 

I honestly think paper + digital image backup is the ideal mode of operations for 21st century groups.

Agreed. I posed the questions to have us remember to not steal an opportunity away from the scouts in an effort to be more efficient. What we do as adults should not replace the scouts' responsibilities.

[mrkstvns]

20 hours ago, qwazse said:

I honestly think paper + digital image backup is the ideal mode of operations for 21st century groups.

Quite right.

All these online apps are an unnecessary nuisance that creates far more problems than they solve.