club_cafe: individual paying fees

iras1 on

In a message dated 9/4/2006 8:35:30 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, lmicpartner@bivio.com writes:

Our club has an agreement that any fees incurred from
bouncing checks are to be paid by the member who caused the
fee in the first place.

Does everyone get credit for the expense of the fee? How do
we allocate the payment of the fee by the 'bad' member?

You enter the fee charged by the bank/broker as an expense. You enter the reimbursement as a fee from the member who caused the problem. Everyone will get some credit for the reimbursement.

Ira Smilovitz

Robert Mann on

The returned check fee also caused an NSF to occur. This
made our balance negative. The Treasurer made a deposit to
make our balance positive (the offending member was on
vacation out of state and wouldn't be back for a week).

1) was this the proper response by the Treasurer?
2) how do we record this deposit by the Treasurer, as an
investment using the previous valuation date? Or other?

Rip West on

<<1) was this the proper response by the Treasurer?>>

Well, yeah, I can't see anything wrong with it.

2) how do we record this deposit by the Treasurer, as an investment using the previous valuation date? Or other?

You have a couple of choices. You could do as you suggest. My preference would be to record it as a transfer from Suspense to your checking account. When you receive the reimbursement from the member, make out a check to the treasurer for the amount, and record it as a transfer from checking to suspense. In this way, your accounts stay in balance and no additional units are awarded.

Rip West
Saint Paul, MN

Robert Mann on

Rip West wrote:

> You have a couple of choices. You could do as you suggest.

If we do it as an investment by the Treasurer, would we be
better off using the actual date of deposit for valuation
vs. using the previous valuation?

Lynn Ostrem on

I was trying to follow this, but somehow missed a message. Was Bob implying
that he covered the NSF?

This past month our treasurer mistakenly transferred too much money to the
broker. The bank covered it, then charged us for the overdraft. I ran to
the bank to cover the overdraft ($87). The treasurer sent me his dues to
cover the NSF. We booked the $29 NSF as a bank charge, booked $29 of the
treasurer's money as a fee, and booked the rest toward his dues for this
month. The $87 I spent to cover the overdraft was booked to my own account
as dues.

It's crappy when that happens, but it DOES happen. People make mistakes.

Lynn Ostrem, Minneapolis
garbagecop@earthlink.net

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Mann" <lmicpartner@bivio.com>
To: <club_cafe@bivio.com>
Sent: Monday, September 04, 2006 10:31 AM
Subject: club_cafe: Re: Re: individual paying fees

> Rip West wrote:
>
>> You have a couple of choices. You could do as you suggest.
>
> If we do it as an investment by the Treasurer, would we be
> better off using the actual date of deposit for valuation
> vs. using the previous valuation?

Robert Mann on

Lynn Ostrem wrote:
> I was trying to follow this, but somehow missed a message. Was Bob implying
> that he covered the NSF?

Hi Lynn

Not me, I'm only the VP <G>. Yes, the Treasurer covered the
NSF. The same as, I believe, you did for your club.

Bob

Rip West on

I agree with Ira. If you record it as an investment from the treasurer, I would use the old valuation. But, again, I much prefer to keep units out of this transaction. The treasurer was just covering a deficit in the account. Pay him back through the suspense account, and keep the units out of it.

Rip West
Saint Paul, MN

Rip West on

Hi Lynn,

It's crappy when that happens, but it DOES happen. People make mistakes.
>>

Yes, people make mistakes, but I don't think the treasurer should have to pay for an honest error. If he was working for a company and inadvertently caused an overdraft, I don't think anyone would expect him to pay for it. Likewise, he does a lot of work for the club, and I don't think he should be made to pay for this. Even if he wants to, and feels better about it, I don't think the club should let him do it. He does a lot of good stuff for which he doesn't get paid, so why should he have to pay for some bad stuff. If a member makes a mistake on an ssg, and the club buys, only to suffer a loss because of the fautly ssg, would that member be expected to pay?

Rip West
Saint Paul, MN

Robert Mann on

Robert Mann wrote:
> Lynn Ostrem wrote:
> > I was trying to follow this, but somehow missed a message. Was Bob implying
> > that he covered the NSF?
>
> Hi Lynn
>
> Not me, I'm only the VP <G>. Yes, the Treasurer covered the
> NSF. The same as, I believe, you did for your club.
>
> Bob
Just to be clear, the Treasurer TEMPORARILY covered the
NSF. He was repaid by the errant partner, which is half of
this discussion.

Bob

Bob

Lynn Ostrem on

Rip,

I wasn't going to get into this but...!

The treasurer made the transaction off the top of his head, rather than checking our account status before making that transfer. For a year I've been prodding him to enter all transactions into Bivio accounting the MOMENT he completes them, rather than waiting until the day before the meeting. We had 5 days between the time he initiated the transfer and the time the NSF was assessed to our account. Had he updated the books in a timely manner, he had plenty of time to catch the mistake and cover the shortfall.

I suggested that we pick up the NSF charge, but he insisted that he wanted to cover it, since it was an error that could have been caught if he had done what he was suppose to do. He's an upstanding guy and I appreciated that. I don't think it will happen again.

Lynn

Rip West on

<<I wasn't going to get into this but...!>>

Right. He made a mistake. I think it's a bad policy to expect, or even allow, the treasurer to pay for such mistakes. But, that's just my personal opinion.

Rip West
Saint Paul, MN

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