Keeping tab of Reef-related expenses in the early days

The Reef
#1

Hello @reeflings, activities are picking up, and so does our need to get organized. Problem of the day is: we do not have a bank account yet, so we cannot have a proper fond de roulement. This problem cannot be solved until we get our new statute-and-board published in the Moniteur belge.

Meanwhile:

  1. I created a Team Finance group of users in the workspace. I volunteer to be in Team Finance. Let me know who else wants to be in it.
  2. I created a Team Finance shared folder in the workspace and shared it with the Team Finance group of users. Maybe we should give reading privileges to the Everybody group?
  3. I created a folder to file away the invoices and receipts to The Reef.
  4. I created a little process to be able to make these payments while we still do not have proper infrastructure. This lives in a subfolder of Team Finance, called Early days tabkeeping.
  5. I used this process to pay the IC Printing invoice for the leaflet (so, @manuelpueyo, this is done).

The process works like this:

  1. We receive invoices addressed to The Reef ASBL.
  2. One of us pays with her own money.
  3. The invoice is uploaded to a folder and renamed so we understand what is it about (something like ICPrinting_leaflet instead of 101123422). Next, its main data (filename, amount, who fronted for it) is added to a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet keeps track of how much money each of us has fronted.
  4. When we finally get our own bank account and make our contributions to the fond de roulement, we offset the amounts disbursed against the contributions due.

Please remember that there is no Reef bank account, so it does not make sense to ā€œgive Alberto the invoice for paymentā€. I can indeed pay an invoice, but I can only do so with my own money, just like any of us. However, if you do pay front a Reef-related expense, do tell me so that it gets in the right folder and spreadsheet.

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#2

Thanks a lot @alberto! Much appreciated!

This Iā€™m not sure I understand. Isnā€™t this the default as per our commitment to transparency?

#3

Indeed, and I have done so.

#4

you need to give permissions to everyone to upload or create files there

#5

thank you for this process setup! i passed you the ic printing/flyer invoice because I thought that there is some common pot with money that you guys have put up front, and that you are paying mark with that money.

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#6

Not sure. Finance is one ot the areas where I think permissioning should be tighter, and collaboration less spontaneous. Permission to edit/upload is allocated to Team Finance; the Everybody group has only permission to read (for transparency). Is this acceptable?

It is there, but virtually: we agree to pay up. But, since there is no bank account, the pot of money lives as a promise to pay from Lie and me.

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#7

yes. but the folder to upload the invoices needs to be open to everyone so that you can follow the process )point 3?

#8

No, the idea is that uploading is done by Team Finance only. This can be changed of course: but, if TF is the sole custodian of the process, there are fewer chances that someone uploads something with an obscure filename, and no one in TF sees it, so it does not get paid, and that creates a mess. I would start with a relatively closed system, then revise as we go.

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#9

hello alberto!

ok. letā€™s try that. could i ask you to encode 3 invoices from our unit

  • 9 euros on FB ads
  • 25 euros. sandwiches public event
  • 17.52 drinks public event

2 of them have invoices i put them in a temp folder. you can move them

thank you!

#10

Can you share them with Team Finance? Right now I cannot move or rename them, only download them.

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#11

done!

#12

For the public meeting on 21/04 I brought 64.50 euro in change that I would like to get back.

Right now there is 94.5 euro in the cash box (so 31 euro collected to pay for the drinks).

@alberto, shall I keep the box, bring it for the event on 02/06 and then we settle the bills for drink and change related expenses after that?

#13

@reeflings, would you agree to keep expenses for food and drinks out of The Reefā€™s accounting? Iā€™m afraid this could get very messy. We can split the bill and pay you back next time we see you?

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#14

Keep it. After the second event, you get your 64 back, and whatever is left we can use to pay some expenses (for example the beers we offer). Iā€™ll adjust the spreadsheet accordingly.

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#15

@alberto I added the invoice for the rental of the room for the presentation on 2 June and transferred the money. I did not make an entry in your Excel sheet though.

Note for taxes and precision: the previous bill was paid by Mark, who will charge us 21% VAT to make it cost neutral for him (he didnā€™t know at the time that invoices could be made directly to us). This invoice didnā€™t seem to include VAT, so the cost of the room will be different for both public presentations.

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#16

There is now 122 euro in the cash box, so we collected 27.50 euro for the drinks yesterday (selling beer at 1.50 euro and juice at 1 euro).

Of these 122 euro I would like to recover 64.50 (coins that I gathered to be able to give change) and 3.58 euro for the juice for yesterday. @alberto do I need to keep the ticket for the juice?

For the cash box I propose we keep it as it is until after the workshop, cause weā€™ll still need change there.

#17

After the get-to-know-each-other workshop yesterday there is now 231.40 euro in the money box. This is based on 18 guests who were invited to pay a contribution of 6 euro plus 1.5 euro for a beer. Two people told me they were going to pay to @manuelpueyo via one or the other app (15 + 6 euro?). So in total we collected about 130 euro to cover the costs.

@alberto: I propose that I take out 140 euro (7 x 20), because I donā€™t think weā€™ll ever need so much cash. Can you please help with the registration of these cash flows in the disbursements file?

Many thanks!

#18

This is what I would do:

  1. Pay yourself back for the change money you advanced (64.50 EUR). After that, any remaining is a balance attributable to The Reef.
  2. Take out whatever else is never going top be needed (about 80 EUR). We will record it as a reimbursement from The Reef to you in the tabs spreadsheet. When the bank comes through and we pay our dues to the ASBL, you (like the rest of us full members) will pay 2,125 EUR - whatever your tab is.
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#19

I think we are proposing the same more or less. So I took out 140, which is the amount that The Reef is never going to need in cash, and which more or less equals the 64.50 (my coins) + the 80 that you propose. So my resulting debt to The Reef would be 140 - 64.50 = 75.50. Works?