We are shifting our troop financials from Troop Track to Scoutbook. Our troop keeps scout accounts by family instead of individual scout. How do people handle this with Scoutbook?
It looks like the payment logs and accounts are linked to individuals? Is it possible to have family accounts linked to individual scout accounts so that each member of the family can view the account balance? Thank you!
It doesnât support a âfamily roll upâ. We just use it as it is designed, for the most part. We have, at times, moved a balance from a parent to a Scout. This is usually when a family wants to use funds in a Scoutâs account OR they want just one total to pay.
A family can see the balance on their own of each person. The advantage to this, for us, it is allows us to âchargeâ who attended vs. rolling it up. That makes it cleaner when there is a question.
Thank you Matt! Does your troop keep $ with one member of each family (such as Parent #1)?
In our troop families will deposit funds in the family account to pay for Scout A and Scout B to participate in an event. In that case, it sounds like I would charge Parent #1 when either of their scouts incurs a charge.
Does anyone else have suggestions about how to handle one set of funds for a family?
I also noticed that adult troop leaders can view the youth payment logs, but no one other than myself (treasurer) and the adult can view an adultâs payment log. For transparency I would feel more comfortable if the troop adult leaders could view the payment logs⊠which makes me think that funds should be housed with the oldest scout in a family, instead of their adult.
Thoughts on this from other troops?
No. We charge and credit on individuals. We wouldnât charge a parent unless they attended.
We wouldnât do that. How would one tell if a Scout got a credit because they didnât go, but their sibling did? Very confusing.
@KarenMeezan - i am not sure of the advantage of working transactions on a family basis. Curious why that approach was taken. We base everything off of individuals as that is how registration is done.
Karen, your Key three (COR, CC & SM) can also see all the transactions in the payment log. The unit also has the ability to designate 3 more individuals (leaders or committee members) as âKey 3 Delegatesâ. That could make it a total of 7 who have visibility of the transaction records. I would caution about who you add as âKey 3 Delegatesâ as they will have admin access to the units full SB account and if they are unfamiliar with it, could inadvertently change things and create a nightmare.
If your unit would like to make these changes, below are the steps you need to accomplish it.
*Any of the Key 3 can add the delegates on my.scouting.org .
*They would log on and select the âMenuâ on the top left corner of the page.
*Go down to the bottom of the menu and select the Drop Down Menu under âOrganizationâ and select their Unit.
*That will create another submenu below the unit and they will select âOrganization Managerâ. That will bring up a new page. âOrganizational Manager Pageâ
*From there you select the Position Manager tab on the menu at the left side.
*Then select the âFunctional Rolesâ Tab in the middle of the page just below the Units Name.
*From there it is located just below the tab and labeled âKey 3 Delegatesâ
*Select âAddâ and search for the Adults Name you wish to add. They say it takes up to 24 hrs. for the permissions to update, however we have usually been able to access within a few hours.
We find this ability useful because the calendar is not editable by all leaders, so we add our Camping Chair & Fundraising Chair then it leaves one open as needed.
When I took over troop treasurer duties the accounts were kept by family. @Stephen_Hornak I am curious how you deal with funding accounts when you keep individual scout accounts. It seems that would create a nightmare for the troop treasurer. When Parent 1 and Scout A and Scout B all participate in an event I currently charge the family account x3 for the event. Then when the account needs to be funded I just add the funds to one place.
When you keep individual accounts, how do you handle funding them? Does Parent 1 write a check for $300 and say ''put $100 in each of our accounts"? Do you move funds between sibling accounts when Scout A has a surplus and Scout B has a deficit?
@Matt.Johnson I think I am missing something about the way that your troop model handles money. When Scout sibling A goes on a trip, but Scout sibling B does not, I put a note ââcamping for Scout Aââ in their charge. How do you handle things if Scout A has a deficit in their account and Scout B has a surplus? That seems like a logistical mess to constantly be moving funds between scout sibling accounts.
@KarenMeezan - we dont do individual scout accounts in the way you are describing. We use the income and expense categories from the unit budget spreadsheet. When funds are collected they are noted for the participants paying. If there is an expense that person is noted as well. We would only create a catagory for an eagle scout and thier project. Beyond that we do not use the scoutbook financial side.
We let the family know to add money to Scout Aâs account. Sometimes they wish to move money, and we do, but most of the time they just add money to A. No mess. Very simple.
I put all credits on the oldest scout. When the family used the $$ I would make a note of who and what the charge was for. Families knew to look at their balance on the oldest scout. You can make a note on any payment log entry so there is a info trail. Once the oldest aged out I would debit all their credit and transfer to the next oldest scout. SB was more of an FYI that parents can see than an accounting program the way I was using it.
Perhaps just stay with TroopTrack.
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