Budgets Spending and Administration

Presenter: Richard Seymour Date: Tue Feb 21 2012

Beancounters don't make strategic decisions. They simply record the numbers and draft reports to decision-making bodies.


 * Accounting
 * Cash Accounting
 * Money comes in, Money goes out. Pretty rudimentary
 * Income & Expenses
 * Accrual Accounting
 * Records expected transactions, rather than daily totals
 * Assets & Liabilities


 * Balance Sheet
 * Assets (What we have, or are owed)
 * Liabilities (What we owe, debts, etc)
 * Assets - Liabilities = Overall Financial Health


 * The Big Three Revenue Streams as of 1st Q 2012
 * 1) Thrift Store
 * 2) Recycling
 * 3) Donations


 * The Big Three Expenses
 * 1) Staffing, Payroll, etc
 * 2) Occupancy, Rent, etc
 * 3) Everything else


 * Since 2010, Free Geek's Annual Budget has been around $1.2 million
 * Normally, an annual budget is drafted every quarter. That is to say, every 3 months, a budget is drafted to account for the following 12 months.


 * Transactions
 * Money comes in, stuff goes out (w/ receipt)
 * End of the day, till counting
 * The next day, till counts are checked and submitted to the books
 * Divisions of labor/redundancy to lessen chance of embezzlement, etc.


 * Classroom Renovation Example
 * $10,000 grant
 * Costs:
 * Staffing (Darryl, contractors)
 * Materials
 * Budgets
 * Areas are without dedicated budgets, currently. Categories reflect nature of expenses but don't cover where they're coming from.  Most of the budget is dedicated to staffing expenses.  Beancounter goal is to devise a new system to better track expenses and project budgets for committees and areas.
 * Areas are without dedicated budgets, currently. Categories reflect nature of expenses but don't cover where they're coming from.  Most of the budget is dedicated to staffing expenses.  Beancounter goal is to devise a new system to better track expenses and project budgets for committees and areas.


 * Software
 * Currently, we're using GNUCash

$   0 -  100   - Just do it! (All staff) $ 100 -  500   - Ask DPP $ 500 - 1000   - Ask Collective $ 1000 - ...   - Ask Board of Directors
 * Staff Spending Policy


 * Budget Projections
 * At present, to determine an appropriate budget for events and projects, try to ask other staff members who've done it before. There's no easy answer, unfortunately, so critically analyze the project, the expenses, and so on.