How do folks deal with the cash issue?
We currently just have a metal cashbox in a desk drawer, and only
staff have access to it. But we've doubled our staff over the past
year, and have new ones coming on board. Our bookkeeper is a bit
concerned about so many people having unchecked access to the cash,
especially on busy nights when there can b a couple hundred dollars
in small bills. (The box is put away after each shift in a hiding
place, and excess cash removed on a nightly basis during the busy
season.)
Our transactions are currently just written into a book, but it's
looking like having a cash register is going to be the smart way to
go, both for security as well as tracking transactions. We currently
are cash-only, no Interac or Visa.
Mark Rehder - Director re-Cycles Bicycle Co-op http://re-cycles.ca
On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 12:03 PM, Mark Rehder mark@re-cycles.ca wrote:
How do folks deal with the cash issue?
We (Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen) have a paper log (ie a piece of paper with a log of each transaction) and cash drawer (bills only, no change). We are a 501c3 so we need to track donations ( >$250 requires a receipt ) as well as sales. We have one clerk per shift handle all of the money transactions. The sales tax is included in the price and we just work it all out later. The money is removed nightly and we leave a small bank ($25) in the drawer until the next shift. Luckily we haven't had any problems (yet). I'm working on getting a computerized system set up. Basically just a web form that dumps data into a spreadsheet or database. Then the daily totals are reconciled at the end of the shift. It'll be great to see exactly where most of our money comes from. I'd love to see a financial add-on to freehub[1]. We use freehub for tracking memberships/visitors. I might end up writing something for SBK if I can find some non-biking free time. :)
Scott
[1] http://sacbikekitchen.org [2] http://freehub.bikekitchen.org/
Our space, tries to record sales on project sheets, a volunteer files the project sheet for how many parts used, then we give an estimate and allow the user to drop how much cash they can on a PWYC basis.
We also have an official receipt book, we ask if they want one, but not mandatory.
We have been suffering due to money logistics, how we agree on expenditures for what projects. We try to create a consensus invovling committee meetings and general monthly meetings. But its still geared around the two people with the cheek book, and the ten people with keys to the lock box.
Bike Pirates Toronto, Canada
On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 3:19 PM, Scott Beardsley sc0ttbeardsley@gmail.comwrote:
On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 12:03 PM, Mark Rehder mark@re-cycles.ca wrote:
How do folks deal with the cash issue?
We (Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen) have a paper log (ie a piece of paper with a log of each transaction) and cash drawer (bills only, no change). We are a 501c3 so we need to track donations ( >$250 requires a receipt ) as well as sales. We have one clerk per shift handle all of the money transactions. The sales tax is included in the price and we just work it all out later. The money is removed nightly and we leave a small bank ($25) in the drawer until the next shift. Luckily we haven't had any problems (yet). I'm working on getting a computerized system set up. Basically just a web form that dumps data into a spreadsheet or database. Then the daily totals are reconciled at the end of the shift. It'll be great to see exactly where most of our money comes from. I'd love to see a financial add-on to freehub[1]. We use freehub for tracking memberships/visitors. I might end up writing something for SBK if I can find some non-biking free time. :)
Scott
[1] http://sacbikekitchen.org [2] http://freehub.bikekitchen.org/ _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org To manage your subscription, plase visit:
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At Free Ride we used a paper log for a long time, but it was never very accurate. We bought a used cash register, despite some concerns about how difficult it would be to learn to use and maintain. In retrospect, I think it was a really good decision for us - we do a much better job of tracking our cash flow now, and there's never been much of an issue learning to use it.
Stuart
at Community Cycles, we've had a cash register for a while, but no one ever knew how to use it except to hit the "cash" button, and use it as a glorified cash box. over the course of the 6 months after we bought the thing, several people read through the manual, took it home to play with, and no one could ever figure it out. one week, two people decided to take on the project of figuring it out. they worked on it for about 1 hour each day, and finally figured out how to enter sales, how to specify that some sales were taxed and others not, and most of the workings of the thing, so that we now run all transactions through the register. we even run sales reports at end of day, which zeroes out the drawer. we have yet to have a day where our sales number from the register matches the amount of cash in the drawer, but we're getting closer. the register we got also allows us to check during the day to see how much cash/check/charge we should have in the drawer. this is helpful for super busy days, or days when there's a lot of people in the office...if we find a lot of cash in the drawer, we'll take it out, just to make sure it doesn't walk away on it's own...
On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 1:48 PM, Stuart O Anderson soa@ri.cmu.edu wrote:
At Free Ride we used a paper log for a long time, but it was never very accurate. We bought a used cash register, despite some concerns about how difficult it would be to learn to use and maintain. In retrospect, I think it was a really good decision for us - we do a much better job of tracking our cash flow now, and there's never been much of an issue learning to use it.
Stuart
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We track money using computers. This mail is kind of long and rambling on that topic, so skip it if that doesn't sound interesting.
Caveat: I had a career as a software engineer. None of what I describe here involved writing code, but I did spend considerable time configuring hardware and software. Read on if that doesn't scare you off.
Last year Bici Centro acquired a departmentalized cash register, on our accountant's advice. I set it up and everybody pretty much dove right in and used it. Departments are:
- New Parts (taxable. We get from J&B, a distributer)
- Used Parts (taxable. We strip bikes for these. Some will argue
these are not taxable. Consult your accountant.)
- Bikes (taxable. Bikes could be "Used Parts", but we wanted to keep
more accurate statistics on them.)
- Cash donations (non-taxable)
About once a week, I would generate a Z report which totals sales by department since last report. I then would manually enter that info into QuickBooks (QB) accounting software and deposit the cash register money in the bank. Once a quarter, QB tells me how much sales tax to pay to the government. The hard part is setting up QB. I had help with that. You could forego QB and keep your books by some simpler and/or cheaper method of your choosing. We inherited QB because we're fiscally sponsored by the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group that already keeps its books that way.
I can recommend this approach to most community bike shops.
We would handle credit cards by PayPal. This requires a few hours of hacking to set up, and it is generally a pain to use. Customers who don't have a PayPal account (almost all of them) have to type in their detailed CC billing info into a web form on a PC. It takes a few minutes. This sucks, but some people will only buy stuff if they can charge it. As a minus, this system is separate from the cash register and requires separate accounting. PayPal does not make this easy, does not integrate well with QB or any popular accounting software, to my knowledge.
Then I recently replaced all that (except QB)...
I went off the deep end, and Bici Centro acquired the QuickBooks Point of Sale system. This basically turns a PC into a cash register on steroids, connecting to a cash drawer, receipt printer, credit card reader, and barcode scanner. This system keeps very detailed records of our sales, tracks inventory, handles credit cards simply, and automatically sends all the info to QB for accounting. I hope the time and money invested up front in this thing will lead to less drudgery later. I hope the level of sales detail recorded will allow us to manage our business better and write more persuasive grant applications. I hope it will be easy for our volunteers to use. Time will tell if I am overly hopeful. It is certainly possible.
How much does all of this cost?
Departmentalized cash register: ~$250. PayPal: ~3% transaction fees QuickBooks accounting software from TechSoup: $45 QuickBooks Point of Sale system:
- Donated PC & monitor: free
- QuickBooks POS 6.0 from TechSoup: $80
- QuickBooks POS hardware bundle (cash drawer, credit card reader,
etc) with 501(c)3 discount: ~$500
- credit card processing: ~$30/mo + ~1-2% transaction fees
I would have used open source software, but nothing I evaluated promised to do the trick as well as what we bought. I'd love to hear of your successes that prove me wrong.
If your nonprofit purchases software, consider joining TechSoup. They act as a low-cost middleman, connecting companies that donate software with nonprofits that receive it. The only trick is to place yourself carefully in a category, as we don't fit neatly into their existing ones, and registering in the wrong category will disqualify you from receiving useful donations. As a bike education and repair center, we are categorized as "Other Instructions and Training Activities".
I could provide more detail, if anybody is interested. I would also be happy to share data files if anybody wants to emulate our setup.
Dave Bourgeois Treasurer, Bici Centro of Santa Barbara
On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 2:55 PM, veganboyjosh@gmail.com wrote:
at Community Cycles, we've had a cash register for a while, but no one ever knew how to use it except to hit the "cash" button, and use it as a glorified cash box. over the course of the 6 months after we bought the thing, several people read through the manual, took it home to play with, and no one could ever figure it out. one week, two people decided to take on the project of figuring it out. they worked on it for about 1 hour each day, and finally figured out how to enter sales, how to specify that some sales were taxed and others not, and most of the workings of the thing, so that we now run all transactions through the register. we even run sales reports at end of day, which zeroes out the drawer. we have yet to have a day where our sales number from the register matches the amount of cash in the drawer, but we're getting closer. the register we got also allows us to check during the day to see how much cash/check/charge we should have in the drawer. this is helpful for super busy days, or days when there's a lot of people in the office...if we find a lot of cash in the drawer, we'll take it out, just to make sure it doesn't walk away on it's own...
On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 1:48 PM, Stuart O Anderson soa@ri.cmu.edu wrote:
At Free Ride we used a paper log for a long time, but it was never very accurate. We bought a used cash register, despite some concerns about how difficult it would be to learn to use and maintain. In retrospect, I think it was a really good decision for us - we do a much better job of tracking our cash flow now, and there's never been much of an issue learning to use it.
Stuart
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We moved from paper record to Quick Books POS. It makes things pretty easy, though isn't as easy to reconfigure and match to old hardware (like our receipt printer) as some POS systems. This is a problem especially when you're cobbling together hardware from various source. Our Departments match those of Bici Centro and work well.
My only comment is following up on the cost - the TechSoup cost for QB Point of Sale is currently $80. It does take a while to get approved by TechSoup if you're not already registered. As far as categories that will let you get the donation, keeping the "education" part and calling the "service" part "advocacy" or similar (which it is) would probably keep you in the clear. If your org has a fiscal sponsor, you can ask them about getting it through them. Our register drawer and receipt printer came from a shop that went out of business (sadly, there's probably something near you). And PC came from a volunteer. It was a pretty sad machine, but we stripped it of all extras, and since we only use it for the QuickBooks stuff, it does fine.
Also, on a security note, we don't actually use the the cash drawer to keep money in. The drawer has a switch in the back that opens the drawer. This led to some theft last summer. This put the shop in a pretty crappy spot. So, until we disable that switch, whoever is the shift leader at the shop keeps the cash envelope on person, and at the end of the day deposits it in a safe. (Volunteer/staff would be put at risk if it's widely known that each Friday after bike sales day they are carrying a bunch of cash down a dark path, late at night, on their bike). We have a volunteer pick up the cash from the safe in the daytime and deposit to the bank. We don't do the safe-drop quite as consistently in the winter when there aren't large-ish amounts of bike-sale money.
Working pretty well so far. We have our youth mechanics (ages 12 and up), use the cash register to make sales and input donated bikes. (we individually input the donated bikes when they come in, as 'inventory', but not the used parts). Its easy and fun - but you do need someone supervising to make sure its done correctly (hard to modify transaction after the fact with QB POS), and setting it up so it exports into QuickBooks takes a little accounting knowledge.
That's it.
- Colin
We have just purchased a POS (Point-Of-Sale) register system and are looking for a touchscreen to go with it (won't get too greasy, I hope!). It will have a locked drawer, and the very few who have access will have to log in. This should take care of the accountability issue. Should have it up and running shortly.
On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 1:03 PM, Mark Rehder mark@re-cycles.ca wrote:
How do folks deal with the cash issue?
We currently just have a metal cashbox in a desk drawer, and only staff have access to it. But we've doubled our staff over the past year, and have new ones coming on board. Our bookkeeper is a bit concerned about so many people having unchecked access to the cash, especially on busy nights when there can b a couple hundred dollars in small bills. (The box is put away after each shift in a hiding place, and excess cash removed on a nightly basis during the busy season.)
Our transactions are currently just written into a book, but it's looking like having a cash register is going to be the smart way to go, both for security as well as tracking transactions. We currently are cash-only, no Interac or Visa.
Mark Rehder - Director re-Cycles Bicycle Co-op http://re-cycles.ca
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Right now Bike City has evolved a pretty slick and accurate paper register log (departmentalized, which lines up with the general ledger), with a locked cash drawer, and "daily drop sheets" which total everything up and zero the drawer. We do sell new stuff (with sales tax), so there's coins to deal with.
Anyway, it's designed based on years of exerience in cashiering/food service, so adapting it wasn't too hard (damn high-school-dropout burger-flippers, I'm too stupid to do anything without the middle class holding my hand, haha).
But. It does take a long time to write everything down with painstaking detail. So this year we've got somebody coding up a very basic Linux PoS to suit our recylery's specific needs. It'll be keyboard-based, editable, Gnu-licensed, export data into GnuCash software, keep an inventory, etc. etc., so if anybody is thinking of entering the digital age, hang on a few months and you can do free (or cheap if you need a machine) and non-proprietary.
andrea Bike City Fayetteville
On 3/9/09, Krista Bowers bowers.krista@gmail.com wrote:
We have just purchased a POS (Point-Of-Sale) register system and are looking for a touchscreen to go with it (won't get too greasy, I hope!). It will have a locked drawer, and the very few who have access will have to log in. This should take care of the accountability issue. Should have it up and running shortly.
On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 1:03 PM, Mark Rehder mark@re-cycles.ca wrote:
How do folks deal with the cash issue?
We currently just have a metal cashbox in a desk drawer, and only staff have access to it. But we've doubled our staff over the past year, and have new ones coming on board. Our bookkeeper is a bit concerned about so many people having unchecked access to the cash, especially on busy nights when there can b a couple hundred dollars in small bills. (The box is put away after each shift in a hiding place, and excess cash removed on a nightly basis during the busy season.)
Our transactions are currently just written into a book, but it's looking like having a cash register is going to be the smart way to go, both for security as well as tracking transactions. We currently are cash-only, no Interac or Visa.
Mark Rehder - Director re-Cycles Bicycle Co-op http://re-cycles.ca
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-- Sincerely,
Krista Bowers Volunteer Coordinator Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115 w: 801-328-2453 c: 801-688-9379 f: 801-466-3856 krista@slcbikecollective.org www.slcbikecollective.org
Get Addicted to Crank! http://www.slcbikecollective.org/crank/
participants (9)
-
Bike City -
Colin Dixon, Phoenix Bikes -
Dave Bourgeois -
Geoffrey B -
Krista Bowers -
Mark Rehder -
Scott Beardsley -
Stuart O Anderson -
veganboyjosh＠gmail.com