What is the best way to set up money accounts for scouts that may be paying for something in a variety of ways i.e. we would like to give scouts the option to pay via scoutbucks, and then also outside of TT via Zelle, cash or check. We aren’t sure if we will be using Paypal going forward as we don’t want the scouts to have to pay additional fees all the time.
Does it make sense to set up two accounts for each scout, one for “Scoutbucks” that scouts earn that has a positive balance for each scout that will be debited with each transaction, and one called “Zelle, Cash, Check” that will start at $0 go into the negative so our Treasurer will know that there is a balance that needs to be paid outside of TT?
Also, do most clients typically create a new account for each event vs. just using one general pack account to reconcile against?
We have found the best way to setup Money Accounts is to do it by Household typically and owned by the parent that is the most involved. We do not use either of the TT available online payment processors so the Money account is just a ledger for tracking expenses, all actual payments are handled outside TT and then recorded by the Treasurer into TT. When a scout earns Scoutbucks they can just be entered into the family money account as a deposit and give them a positive balance, as they RSVP for Events with fees and debit against the account then once the account is negative the parent can make a payment to bring the account to zero or even leave a balance for future events. You could do individual accounts owned by the Scout rather than Household if you would want more specific tracking of which scouts earns and uses scoutbucks, but since it is typically the parents paying for multiple scouts it is really the same and using a single account is easier for them.
For events we have a generic Events money account that the regular monthly events are tied to and then we create money accounts for big events like Summer Camp to track that separately.
What do parents do when they check out for an event that requires payment? I see they can choose PayPal. I know how to set up a Scoutbucks account with their balances so they can choose to pay using Scoutbucks, but what action should they take during checkout if they want to use another payment method i.e. Zelle, check or cash?
They just “pay” from their Money Account, which creates a debit, possibly making their account negative, then they pay in person cash or check or electronically via Zelle, then the Treasurer has to go into their money account and input that credit to balance out the debit. The payment in TT is not an actual payment transaction just a line on a ledger that must be balanced by an actual payment. So in that case even though the event requires payment there is no way for TT to verify that payment has taken place. The only way for that to happen is if you use one of the payment processors, however like you said that then charges fees to the participant. So a bit more work for people in the unit or connivence for those running the unit but fees for the participants. You have to weight the positives and negatives and decide which way is better for your unit.
In our case we choose to go the manual route and it does mean the treasurer has to periodically ask people to pay their balances but like most things the vast majority pay right away and without being asked, it is just a couple we have to chase down. If it becomes chronic then that is where a conversation happens with the parent letting them know their scout will not be allowed on an event if they do not make the payment for the event ahead of time.
This all makes sense. Here is how we would like to do it: We would like to set up two money accounts per scout. One account would have the Scoutbucks balance, we like to keep track of those balances separately. The parents would also have the option to select a second account titled “Zelle, check, cash” with a $0 balance that would put them in the negative if selected and the treasurer would have to go in there and indicate that they paid in this case. What is the process from start to finish for checking out if let’s say, a parent wants to attend the event and there are two scouts in the household that are both attending? Here is what I see and I have one scout…if I had two scouts, would I have to check out twice if each scout had their own accounts, correct, because you can only select one payment method per transaction?
Honestly I have no idea if they could complete one Cart transaction from two different accounts. Perhaps someone else who has Money accounts per Scout rather than Family could chime in and let you know if they can check out from one Cart transaction.
