Scoutbook provides a way to record financial records for Scouts, Adults, and the Unit via Payment Logs. Keep track of dues, activity costs, down payments for summer camps or high adventures and more. See what is owed and what has been paid. Keep track of unit costs and payments, and balance your books to the Financial Summary. Only Admins and Treasurers are able to add or modify the payments log.
Both Adult and Scout payment logs can be accessed from their account page in Scoutbook. Parent logs can be accessed on the connection page by treasurers and admins.
Here is an example input screen for an individual Scout or Adult:
If a Scout/Adult is charged for an activity or outing, Record a Charge can be used to place a charge against the payment log, decrease its balance, but not affect the cash holdings of the overall unit. Similarly, Record a Withdrawal will reduce the payment log balance, but since that cash is removed from the system, reduces overall cash holdings of the unit.
If a Scout/Adult provides a payment to the unit, the Record a Payment from the Scout/Adult increases the payment log balance, and increases the overall cash holdings of the unit. Record a Credit from Unit can be used for a refund by the unit or a profit share to the Scout/Adult payment log, by increasing the payment log balance, but not affecting the overall cash balance held by the unit.
The Unit Payment log is similar:
Unit options are for the transactions that occur to and from the unit from non-Scout/non-Adults. These would be Record a payment received by the unit, which increases the overall cash holdings of the unit, but does not affect and Scout/Adult balances. Record a Payment made by unit would decrease the overall cash holdings of the unit, and not affect the balances of any Scout/Adult payment logs.
Quick Entry is available for Scouts and Adults as well.
You can view any individual payment log,
or obtain a report at a den, patrol, or unit level (see the Reports Menu on the unit, den or patrol page.) The Payment Log Report can be viewed on screen or saved as a PDF or .CSV file.
You can also review the Unit payment log and the overall unit’s Financial Summary:
The Financial Information categories are:
- Total Cash: How much cash is in the system. This is typically a bank balance plus any petty cash.
- Fees Receivable (Amount due by Youth/Adult): How much is owed by youth/adult (sum of the negative youth/adult payment log balances)
- Total Liabilities (Payables): How much is being held for youth/adult (sum of the positive youth/adult payment log balances)
- Total Assets: How much cash the unit would have if all the youth/adult paid their debts
- Net Assets: How much cash the merchant system would have if all the youth/adult paid their debts, and the unit refunded any balances held by the youth/adult.
- Cash Available (Conservative): How much the unit could spend without touching youth/adult Cash
For the accountants out there, the accounting equation that summarizes this information is:
Total Assets (or total cash + Fees Receivable) – Liabilities = Net Assets.
Setting up your Initial Balances
First, determine how much total cash you are holding for your unit and your scouts. This is your “Bank Balance”. On your unit page in Scoutbook, click on the Unit Payments Log link, which provides the Financial Information summary shown above.
Using the numbers provided, calculate this Adjustment:
Adjustment = Bank Balance – Total Cash
Now, click on the
button. If your Adjustment is positive, click the Record a Payment received by unit radio button. If it is negative, click the Record a Payment made by unit button. Enter a description, and put Adjustment in the Amount field. Note, if your Adjustment is negative, enter it as a positive number here.
Click Update.
If you’ve used the payment logs before and have scout transactions recorded, you are finished setting up. If you never entered scout transactions before, you can start enter them at any time.
If you’ve used the Feature Assistant extension to manage unit payment logs before, then follow this link to see how to convert your logs.
More Information
Please also see more information here on recent changes to the logs.
Other Features
Information on PayPal integration can be found here.
There is a Chrome / Firefox extension that supports a number of other features, for example:
- Payment Log Balance Report — You can view a Payment Log Balances Report for Scouts, the unit, and send balance due emails
- Payment Log Unit Accounting — You can set up a Unit Level payment log account that treats Scout accounts as sub-accounts.
- For more information follow this link.
Important Information Concerning Scouts Moving to Other Units
PLEASE NOTE: This information is retained in the unit if the Scout moves to another unit, but the new unit does not have access to those records. Please make sure that you record financial information for the Scout someplace outside of Scoutbook prior to moving the Scout to another unit.