Accounting cleanup in progress, I'm taking a break from the rest

The Reef
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This is to let people, especially @reef-finance, know that I have chosen FreeAgent as the accounting software for The Reef. I feel entitled to make the decision, since I am the only one volunteering to keep the books; the expense (90 EUR for the first year) was already budgeted for, so no need to go through an authorization procedure. Payment is via credit card, so I fronted it and will pay myself back from the bank account.

What I have already done:

  1. Created a FreeAgent account for The Reef. Credentials for the master user are in Nextcloud.
  2. Created a Python script that converts the CSV files downloaded from the Triodos online banking into the format that FreeAgent accepts.

What happens next:

  1. First, I will bring up to speed the accounting system. This means uploading all bank transactions (currently 65), all expenses fronted by various members, and reconciling the whole thing. To do this I will be stepping away from any other work in The Reef for a few weeks, this will be 10-20 hours of work.
  2. Next, I will create users of the accounting system for every Reefling. This will make it much easier to keep track of who fronted what, who is owed what etc. It will also be a great way to achieve full financial transparency: clean, well-presented accounting data to each person.
  3. At that point, I will give the group a presentation.
  4. After the summer, I will request the help of some of you (@RichardB comes to mind) to help me with our tax filing (more information).

Onward!

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Fantastic!!! Thank you!!

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Dear @reef-finance, I have completed phase 2 of my accounting cleanup process: the cleanup itself. I have 99% of the books entries of The Reef ASBL in a clean accounting software.

What happens next:

  1. I am going to verify that the expenses accounts of the people that have fronted money for expenses of The Reef are complete, and no expense went unrecognized. These are: @manuelpueyo, @Pieter , @ChrisM and @Sophie_Beese .
  2. I am going to create a user account to our FreeAgent instance for each member of the ASBL. This way, everyone has access to the accounting information.
  3. I am going to update the financial transparency policy to reflect the new system.
  4. If possible, I would like to present the system (and a reflection on the general financial health of The Reef) at the Reeflings’ weekend. Spoiler: we are good.

It took about 12 hours, I estimate maybe 3 more to get the last of my ducks in a row.

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Update: I have created user accounts for our shiny new accounting system, which lives at https://thereefasbl.freeagent.com.

User accounts go by household. So, I only have one for Ugné and Manuel, one for Chris and Sarah, etc. For households with more than one member, if each member wants their own user account let me know and I will create one.

You have full editing rights, but please do not edit anything unless you fully understand what you are doing. FreeAgent was built for hands-on accounting, not financial transparency, and does not have a read-only authorization option. The only way to guarantee transparency is to give people read-and-write access… and this comes with the possibility of breaking things, so please be careful.

Better documentation is coming.

Special request for @ChrisM and @Pieter. Could you please log in and choose from the top-level menu an item called “My money” or “Expenses”, and then check that all your expenses and paybacks have been included in the accounting? Thanks!

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awesome! we are so lucky to have you

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