club_cafe: Individual member expenses on bivio

iras1 on

In a message dated 2/11/2005 12:15:47 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, garbagecop@foxinternet.net writes:

> How do I allocate an expense (not a fee) to an individual member?

You estimate the average annual cost of postage and envelopes and have each
out-state member pay into "the kitty." Bivio has a Suspense account. Just
credit the money there, and charge the account for the supplies. Since the
Suspense account shows up on every valuation statement, along with the
broker and bank accounts, you'll know when it's time for them to pay in
again.

This won't work. It will look like it's working, but if you watch the numbers carefully, you'll see that you are not isolating the expenses to the affected members.

Ira Smilovitz

Rip West on

This won't work. It will look like it's working, but if you watch the numbers carefully, you'll see that you are not isolating the expenses to the affected members.

I disagree. The 'affected members' are bearing the burden of these expenses. What is missing is that the expenses are not being deducted. That's ok, too, just tell the affected members to take a deduction on their individual return for the expenses involved.

Another alternative would be to have the affected members contribute their payments as fees, and then just charge off all the expenses proportionate to units. Again the affected members will be bearing the burden of the expenses, but now everyone in the club gets an allocation for the deductible fees. Probably the deductibility of these small fees will not be a material factor.

Rip West
Saint Paul, MN

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