Finish setting up books

[kaguillera]

We need professional help setting up our books and answering questions about how to structure certain transactions (like Mass Pay). If we continue trying to do this ourselves we will take lots of time and do it wrong.

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IRL me and @whit537 are trying to figure out the account for masspay Here are some notes I made that @whit537 suggested I post from my evernote

Note:

• The new structure of the assets accounts are such that
  • ::
  • e.g. Assets:New-Alliance:Escrow
• All expenses should fall under one of these accounts
  • Expenses:Other:Fees - Fees for transferring money in and out of the system.
  • Expenses:Other:Hosting - Fees for hosting the system e.g. Travis, Heruko, etc
  • Expenses:Other:Misc - Fees that don’t fall under any other category.
  • Expenses:Advertisings - e.g. Business Cards, internet, radio, and TV ads
  • Expenses:Equipment - Equipment Rental e.g. Van or Truck rental or office equipment
  • Expenses:Services - Legal or Professional e.g. Fees paid to an attorney or other professional
  • Expenses:Transport - Local Transportation e.g. Parking, tolls, or taxis
  • Expenses:Meals - Meals and Entertainment e.g. Meals while traveling, lunch with client.
  • Expenses:Travel - Overnight Travel Expense e.g. Transportation costs, internet, phone or fax charges, and tips
  • Expenses:Supplies - Supplies e.g. printer ink and printer paper

[chadwhitacre]

@kaguillera also reports that he did some research on the chart of accounts that validates what @JessWhit came up with at https://github.com/gratipay/inside.gratipay.com/issues/1027#issue-217922165, which iirc was from the H&R Block website(?). No link though, @kaguillera?

[chadwhitacre]

Moved some items to https://github.com/gratipay/finances/pull/38#issuecomment-297480403.

[chadwhitacre]

I think we need to separate out cost of goods sold from operating expenses?

Looking at:

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p334/ch06.html https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/deducting-business-expenses

[chadwhitacre]

Picking up from https://github.com/gratipay/finances/pull/38#issuecomment-297467521:

Would it be good to consult our CPA on the chart of accounts to use for operating expenses?

Talking to @kaguillera, pretty sure the answer is yes. Eventually we want to pay our CPA to prepare our taxes for us, we want to get out of that business. If we come up with some gnarly chart of accounts they're going to look at it and be like wtf? We should have them advise us on the chart of accounts here at the outset (still at the outset! 😩 ) so that come tax time they are good to go.

I will schedule an appointment.

[chadwhitacre]

To: CPA Subject: finish setting up chart of accounts?

Still wrestling our books ... eventually we want Wilke to help us with both taxes and audit. We have our chart of accounts in place at a high level (operations vs. escrow). Can you help us finish setting up our chart of accounts so we record things in a way that will give you what you need at tax time?

Is this as simple as providing us a template chart of accounts to use? Should we schedule another on-site meeting? What's the best way to proceed? Cost?

Thank you.

[chadwhitacre]

I can certainly help you finish this. It might be easiest to send me an Excel file or something editable of the chart of accounts you currently have in place. I can then add suggested accounts in there for your use and need. This would be in line with tax assistance as well as help you in constructing your financial statements.

Cost for this would be my time at $175/hour. Such an activity on the chart of accounts would be minimal – much less than an hour.

[chadwhitacre]

I told him we'd put something together and get back to him.

Per IRL convo w/ @kaguillera and @JessWhit there are a few things going on here.

In terms of a chart of accounts I think the Trial Balance from beancount is our best bet. If we had that hosted publicly (https://github.com/gratipay/finances/issues/46) then we could just link him to that I think?

Bringing on a second owner will change our tax situation significantly, and in particular how I relate to Gratipay, LLC.