On Fri, Jul 20, 2001 at 09:48:26AM -0700, Kurt Albershardt wrote:
> What about simply keeping a running account for each member, prepaid
> such that the balance is always positive? SImilar to below, except
> checks go directly to the club bank account (if there is one?) You
> can't place an order unless you have enough available balance in
> your account.
This is actually how I have envisioned things working ideally as well,
and is very similar to Carol's proposal, except that it's better for
members because they can simply add to their accounts when ordering,
(instead of further in advance).
No the buying club doesn't yet have a bank account... just PayPal ;-)
Although, that might have to change at some point. (We also need to
figure out how to setup a legit non-profit legal structure for this
organization, ASAP.)
> Also, why not deduct the PayPal fees from the users as well?
That's what the 5% is for. When I first joined PayPal, they charged a
flat 1.9% on all business account transactions. I reasoned that the
buying club didn't need to operate at a high margin, and the left over
3.1% would build up the capital fund reasonably. Since then, PayPal
has changed their fees several times, and now charges 2.9% + 30 cents
per transaction. This structure *exceeds* 5% for small transactions;
so I'm thinking that the buying club will have to begin charging $1 on
transactions under $20, and 5% over. I would also like to start
charging 10% to those who have not done the minimum volunteer work for
the current order, (ie. call a non-email member).
> Of course, this gets into a little more accounting. I'd be willing
> to help pay for a copy of QuickBooks and help set it up, and
> possibly train user(s).
Yes that is the main problem. It requires an accounting system that
can track a separate account for each member. I want to setup a
web-based accounting system for this, (of which there are several),
and really don't want to use anything like QuickBooks... I'm
currently testing PhpGroupWare, which is still under development, but
may allows us to integrate accounting and ordering data, with a shared
address book, web based email, and more... http://www.phpgroupware.org
> On Fri, 20 Jul 2001 09:47:13 -0700
> "Sheila O'Brien" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Or, how about paying 100% of the order up front when it is placed?
> > Then deal with any discrepancies through paypal when the order
> > arrives? sheila
That's how we did it with previous orders, but there were lots of
discrepancies and things to fix later. Just ask Karinn how excited
she was about trying to figure out everything from the previous order
to get the correct amounts to invoice last time ;-)
-jeb
--
Jeb Bateman...
http://jeb.ocha.net
