At TBR we've operated for a long time with a plastic opaque jar with "TBR Donation Jar" written on it in big letters. The top has a slit for money at the top of it. We keep a receipt book inside of it, in case any one asks for one. The system has worked pretty well for the past few years.
If someone makes a petty cash purchase with money from the jar during the night, we would toss the receipt in with the petty cash.
I would recommend figuring out what should be the base level of cash to have on hand for change, petty cash purposes etc...
Carolyn
www.troybikerescue.org "When shall we live if not now?" - M.F.K. Fisher
From: Geoffrey B vous.je@gmail.com To: james bledsoe jamesbleds0e@yahoo.com; The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Sent: Wednesday, August 3, 2011 4:09 PM Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] No cash register; how can we accept cash payments without coming off as shady?
donation slips. give people there own recite to fill out and ask them to give a donation on top of the parts they acquire.
Bike Pirates operates without a cash register and the write your own recite has gotten us allot of lost revenue.
Ask to give?
On Wed, Aug 3, 2011 at 3:51 PM, james bledsoe jamesbleds0e@yahoo.com wrote:
put the money in a locked box
like a mail box
file a dba as a not for profit (different than a non-profit) You can get a bank account that way, Then you can take checks, buy parts and feel a lot more legiti.
The not for profit option is a simple filing you will still be required to pay tax on profit but in the beginning you wont need to worry about profit. Also the not for profit status leaves the door open to becoming a co-op, a 501(c)3, or even a regular bike shop. The bikerowave in Los Angeles is organized this way and has paid taxes but less that the additional accounting cost of being a 501(c)3. Once you go under the non profit umbrella you can't get out. Maybe someone on this list could speak directly to how the bikerowave is set up.
From: Ryan Feller ryan@bikebroward.org To: thethinktank@bikecollectives.org Sent: Wednesday, August 3, 2011 12:24 PM Subject: [TheThinkTank] No cash register; how can we accept cash payments without coming off as shady?
Hi all! We're a new bike collective operating out of a 10x10 storage unit. To raise funds, we're selling a few of our nicer bikes on Craigslist at market value, but when someone pays us, I think it looks unprofessional (and perhaps even shady) to just stick the money in one of our pockets.
We
don't have the space, money or need for a "proper" electronic cash register.
In all honesty, after the customer leaves we'll just put it in an envelope and stick it in our pocket until we get to the bank, so this is just a matter of what the customer sees.
Here are a few options:
- I have a little metal cash box. We could mount it to our tool pegboard
and put the money in there, but then again, putting a customer's $100-$300 in a tiny metal cash box in an open space with lots of teenaged volunteers around could look just as bad.
- Maybe we'd be best off pulling out an envelope, writing "Bike Broward
customer name $100" on it, putting the money inside the envelope and into our pocket, then writing them a receipt on carbon paper?
- We could also request payment by check for bikes over, say, $100, but we
don't have our 501(c)(3) yet, so it'd have to be in my own name, which isn't a much
better option.
Am I just overreacting? We're all 18 or younger and won't have our 501(c)(3) for a couple of months, so I've been putting a lot of work into having a reasonably professional appearance.
Thanks so much!
Ryan Feller, Co-Director Bike Broward (954) 232-3790 www.bikebroward.org
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