Financial Report

[Christina]

This is our current financial status. I'll update this post at least once a month.

As of 5/21/08

Revenue (Donor List) (http://talkrational.org/misc.php?do=donlist)

Donation.............$254.35
Donation.............$103.22
Donation................$5.00
Donation...............$10.00
Donation...............$50.00
Paypal refund .........$1.95
Donation.............. ..$5.00
Donation.............. $20.00
Donation............. $100.00
Donation..............$100.00
Donation...............$10.00

Total Revenue.............$659.52


Expenses

Domain Name.........$94.35
vBulletin License...$160.00
PayPal Fees...........$12.76

Total Expenses............$267.11


Balance......................$392.41

[Christina]

Would anyone object if I attached the Excel spreadsheet after the end of this quarter instead of editing this layout? I want to start tracking it by month and YTD and this format is a pain to edit already.

[ravenscape]

Spreadsheet sounds great!

[Deadlokd]

Do you guys know that the link goes to a smilie list?:)

[Comfortably Numb]

Do you guys know that the link goes to a smilie list?:)

The link goes to the Donations page for me.

[The 800# Gorilla]

Do you guys know that the link goes to a smilie list?:)

The link goes to the Donations page for me.I get smilie's also. :dunno:

[crazyfingers]

I get the donations page. Odd.

It may be a staff/non-staff thing. But I have no idea why.

[nygreenguy]

Its nice to see those damn smileys finally contribute something.

Its funny, someone contributed the full exact amt for the domain and license.

[JamesBannon]

I get the smilie list as well.

[The 800# Gorilla]

We're just not special Jim.

[JamesBannon]

Seems like. :)

[dug_down_deep]

One of those 10s should be a 20.

/nitpick

[Bartender]

I got smilies...

[epepke]

Would anyone object if I attached the Excel spreadsheet after the end of this quarter instead of editing this layout? I want to start tracking it by month and YTD and this format is a pain to edit already.

I'll gladly write a Perl script to format it however you like.

[hecaterin]

Christina hasn't posted since May. Is anyone in touch with her?

[dug_down_deep]

I think ravenscape emails her. I've been wondering about her myself.

[Freethinker]

I get the smilies, too.

Out of curiosity, does the $94 for "domain name" include hosting? I ask because a domain name is about $10/year, and I didn't see hosting listed.

[ravenscape]

I get the smilies, too.

Out of curiosity, does the $94 for "domain name" include hosting? I ask because a domain name is about $10/year, and I didn't see hosting listed.

That was the cost for a multi-year domain name contract. I forget how many years off-hand, but I think it's five. Right now, TR is hosted on the same server Matt rents for RnR and Nontheist Nexus. We've begun paying what we estimate is our fair share of the monthly server costs, based on the active users on the 3 forums currently using that server.

[Freethinker]

I see. That's a good idea to get a longer contract. And that's a very cool hosting arrangement!

[laughing dog]

I think ravenscape emails her. I've been wondering about her myself. Christina is busy with her life. I exchange emails with her on a regular basis.

[hecaterin]

I'm glad she is OK. Who's doing the financials now?

[retrow]

If you unfocus your eyes on the smiley page , you can see them convert to numbers in double precision format :D

[ravenscape]

I'm glad she is OK. Who's doing the financials now?
lpetrich will be. But it's still in transition, I think.

[Pendaric]

Since we have started paying Matt, how are the financials looking?

We've never really had a donations drive - do we need to look at one at all?

[Jobar]

So lpetrich is both treasurer and owner of record?

I trust l. to do this, but I really think that the two positions should be separate.

[Nialler]

It looks like Matt needs a hand with the server expenses. He'll shortly be paying them from his own pocket, and they're a significant amount.

[Octavia]

He shouldn't be having to pay for it himself - we need to get organised and hand more money over.

[ravenscape]

He shouldn't be having to pay for it himself - we need to get organised and hand more money over.
Yup. That was our intent before we hit some bumps in the road with the treasurer function. Now that we're getting the issues ironed out, we'll be able to help with the server expenses regularly. I PMed him last night that regular contributions was and is our plan.

[Octavia]

Heh - I PM'd him too, and it looks like we need to hand over $75-85/month.

[Jobar]

How are we fixed for cash? Do we need to ask for donations right away? I was going to wait until we had an official Treasurer, but I can donate anytime. Just let me know.

[Lisa0315]

If anyone needs an assistant, I would be glad to help in a non-staff capacity. I have ten years of Accounting experience. I will also offer to help with any kind of statistical data maintenance or analysis.

Lisa

[ravenscape]

How are we fixed for cash? Do we need to ask for donations right away? I was going to wait until we had an official Treasurer, but I can donate anytime. Just let me know.

We're ok in the short-to-mid-term. But we do need to start thinking about fundraising, amazon links, etc.

[ravenscape]

If anyone needs an assistant, I would be glad to help in a non-staff capacity. I have ten years of Accounting experience. I will also offer to help with any kind of statistical data maintenance or analysis.

Lisa
Lisa, thank you for offering! Right now, it's hard to say what help we may need. We're hoping to keep the finances simple, but that may not be realistic. Anyway, your offer is generous, and believe me, we'll if nothing else ask for advice when we get stuck!

[Jobar]

Yes, thanks a bunch, Lisa. I personally haven't known you long enough to ask you to volunteer to be our Treasurer, but would you consider being the Secretary, if and when the Charter gets ratified, and the Finances section goes into effect?

(And do you see anything that should be changed about that section? If I'd known you were an experienced accountant, I'd have been begging you to critique that part of the Charter before now!)

[Lisa0315]

Yes, thanks a bunch, Lisa. I personally haven't known you long enough to ask you to volunteer to be our Treasurer, but would you consider being the Secretary, if and when the Charter gets ratified, and the Finances section goes into effect?

(And do you see anything that should be changed about that section? If I'd known you were an experienced accountant, I'd have been begging you to critique that part of the Charter before now!)

Can you tell me what that job would entail?

I will gladly look over the financial section of the charter. Let me go find it.

Lisa

[Lisa0315]

Found it and answered my own question, LOL.

Yeah, if you need me, I will be glad to take that role. I have not been a long-time member, but I think Raven can vouch for me since she has known me on other boards for years.

I did not see anything in the charter that should be added or changed, but I will print a copy and review it some more. I also would like access to the spreadsheet that the previous treasurer referred to. That would give me some insight regarding the kinds of expenses there have been in the past and if anything should be added to the charter from that.

Lisa

[Jobar]

I wrote that section, after considerable bitching and moaning about how someone with more financial experience than I have should do it. I mean, I can balance my own checkbook, but I normally have my income taxes from my small business done professionally; I cribbed that section from e-mails that Christina, the original treasurer, sent to me. No one has criticized it, despite regular pleas from me that it ought to have a professional look it over!

[Lisa0315]

I wrote that section, after considerable bitching and moaning about how someone with more financial experience than I have should do it. I mean, I can balance my own checkbook, but I normally have my income taxes from my small business done professionally; I cribbed that section from e-mails that Christina, the original treasurer, sent to me. No one has criticized it, despite regular pleas from me that it ought to have a professional look it over!

You did a fine job. If we encounter any problems, we can ratify that section of the charter later. The main thing that needed to be covered were the controls. Segregation of duties was an excellent idea, and a standard practice in the world of Accounting. If I were to change anything, it would be in that area. Let me think on that "out loud" for a moment.

The Treasurer does the actual collection and spending. Transactions are recorded and sent to the Secretary who verifies that the monies collected and spent are accurate. A report is written monthly or quarterly which states the actual dollars incoming and outgoing.

Now, in the world of accounting, you would not have the same person doing both receivables and payables. That is a bit of a control issue. However, since the payments are automated into one account, I don't think this is a problem as long as you have the second person verifying the accuracy.

Yeah, I think it works just fine.

Lisa

[Flying Buttress]

I made a donation via paypal 2 days ago, and it's still unclaimed.

Shall I cancel it?

[ravenscape]

I think it would be best to cancel it until we have the new account tested with Paypal.

[Worldtraveller]

The new Paypal account is up and running. I just sent a payment for this month ($80) to Matt. At some point we will have an actual elected treasurer, but until then, I'm it.

Is this where I post the balance? I still haven't figured out all the ins and outs of Paypal (the money seems to stay in the 'Paypal' account, and not go into the checking account I set up), and I need to figure out how to set up automatic payments and things like that, so if anyone has more experience with Paypal, drop me a PM, or just start a thread in TH.

Thanks.

[Octavia]

Thanks WT. :)

Yes, I'd go ahead and post the balance in here, where people can easily see it/find it. An update once a month of how much we have would be good too. Are you willing to do that?

Also, IIRC we discussed paying Matt "back rent" of about $240 for July/August/September. If you've paid him $80 for September then we still owe him about $160 for J/A. Could you put that through, please? We don't want him paying it out of his own pocket...

And from October, we should pay him $80/month. That's our share of the server costs, acocrding to Matt. If we pay at the end of each month, would anyone have any objections?

[Worldtraveller]

Ok, paid the other $160.

Current balance in the Paypal account is $77.40. There is an additional $50 in the TalkRat checking account associated with the Paypal.

[Octavia]

Cool. Thank-you very much, WT. :)

Can we use PayPal now to donate some cash, so we're able to cover next month?

[rigorist]

Has there been any progress on getting a financial system up and running?

[ravenscape]

Has there been any progress on getting a financial system up and running?
Working on it.

There's some sort of config issue or bug with the paypal plug-in.

The finance section of the charter was ratified, and there's some preliminary discusson of the implimentation here (http://talkrational.org/showthread.php?t=7582).

Not sure if I've answered your question...

[Worldtraveller]

See if I can get the table to work....
Date| Transaction| Status | Amount | Fee | Balance
Oct. 28, 2008|Payment To Matt| Completed |-$80.00 USD | $0.00 USD | $16.33 USD
Oct. 27, 2008 |Donation | Completed | $20.00 USD | -$1.08 USD | $96.33 USD
Sep. 27, 2008 | Payment To Matt| Completed | -$160.00 USD | $0.00 USD | $77.41 USD
Sep. 25, 2008 | Payment To Matt | Completed | -$80.00 USD | $0.00 USD | $237.41 USD
Sep. 20, 2008 | From TalkRational | Completed | $317.41 USD | $0.00 USD | $317.41 USD |
The $317.41 was the initial balance from the old TR account.

[Pendaric]

We look to be running short of funds. Do we need to start a funding drive?

[Lisa0315]

We look to be running short of funds. Do we need to start a funding drive?

I would like to contribute a very small amount. How would I do that?

Lisa

[Pendaric]

Anybody on this? According to the above we don't have enough funds to pay Matt at the end of the month. We need to get something organised in the way of fund raising. The board is more than big enough to be self suficient.

[BWE]

Um, did you just get off stand down?

Is there a paypal link yet?

[Worldtraveller]

The Donation button seems to be working (the person who made the donation said they used the link).

I'd love for a few others to confirm it...and not just for the donations. I would like to make sure the donate link is working properly.

Thanks,
Lane

[Lisa0315]

The link worked for me.

[Stout Drinker]

The link worked for me as well.

Are you the treasurer Lane?

[Worldtraveller]

The link worked for me as well.

Are you the treasurer Lane?
Not officially. But I set up the bank account and paypal account that is currently being used.

[Worldtraveller]

As of Nov 20, 2008
Date | Transaction | Status | Amount | Fee | Net | Balance
Oct. 29, 2008 | Donation | Completed | $10.00 USD | -$0.59 USD | $9.41 USD | $25.74 USD
Oct. 30, 2008 | Donation | Completed | $10.00 USD | -$0.59 USD | $9.41 USD | $35.15 USD
Oct. 31, 2008 | Donation | Completed | $10.00 USD | -$0.59 USD | $9.41 USD | $44.56 USD
Nov. 10, 2008 | Donation | Completed | $35.00 USD | -$1.32 USD | $33.68 USD | $78.24 USD
Nov. 10, 2008 | Donation | Completed | $20.00 USD | -$1.08 USD | $18.92 USD | $97.16 USD
Nov. 10, 2008 | Donation | Completed | $10.00 USD | -$0.59 USD | $9.41 USD | $106.57 USD
Nov. 13, 2008 | Donation | Completed | $100.00 USD | -$4.20 USD | $95.80 USD | $202.37 USD
Nov. 13, 2008 | Donation | Completed | $100.00 USD | -$4.20 USD | $95.80 USD | $298.17 USD
Nov. 19, 2008 | Donation | Completed | $10.00 USD | -$0.59 USD | $9.41 USD | $307.58 USD
Nov. 20, 2008 | Donation | Completed | $10.00 USD | -$0.69 USD | $9.31 USD | $316.89 USD
Nov. 20, 2008 | Donation | Completed | $10.00 USD | -$0.59 USD | $9.41 USD | $326.30 USD
Nov. 20, 2008 | Payment | Completed | -$80.00 USD | $0.00 USD | -$80.00 USD | $246.30 USD
Nov. 20, 2008 | Donation | Pending | $100.00 USD | $0.00 USD | $100.00 USD | $346.30 USD