Accounting for a campout can involve these steps:

• Estimate the cost per participant and post it to the event in advance
• Enter the expenses associated with the event
• Charge the cost to the participants

Some troops wait until after the event to determine the total expenses that were incurred, and then charge the actual cost back to the participants.

Other troops estimate the cost in advance and charge that amount to everyone who signed up.

TroopWebHost can support either approach.

Post Estimated Cost

If it is possible to estimate the cost of an activity in advance, you can include that information on the Event record.  Your troop will appreciate knowing the cost when they sign up.

Go to Calendar → Maintain Events.  If you do not have access to this function, ask your site administrator to post this information for you.

Select the event you wish to update.  You should see a page like the one shown at left.

Enter the estimated cost into into the Estimated Cost field and click Save & Exit to save your work.

The estimated cost does not have any impact on any accounts.  It is for informational purposes only.

Enter Expenses

Some troop expenses will be paid directly out of your troop checking account, either by check or debit card.  This includes items purchased by troop members who were reimbursed directly by check.

To enter these transactions, go to Money → Individual Transactions and click Add an Item.

Select "Troop Expense Paid From Troop Account For Event" as your transaction type, as shown at right.

The Transaction Date should be the date the purchase occurred, not the date of the event.

Select the appropriate troop account as the Debit Troop Account, and select the campout from the Debit Event selection box.

Click Save & Exit to save your work, or Save & Add Another to keep on going.

Expenses can also be incurred by troop members who would like the amount to be credited to their member account.

This sample shows how to create this type of transaction.

Select "Troop Expense Paid By Troop Member For Event" as your transaction type.

Select the person who incurred the expense in Credit To Person, and select the campout from the Debit Event selection box.

Charge The Participants

If your troop charges back the actual cost of the campout to the participants, you need to start by determining the total expenses incurred.

Go to Money → Account Balances → Event Balances to view a list of all events.  Click View Details to see a page like the one shown below.

Verify that all of the expenses are accounted for, and then use this information to calculate the cost per participant.

Once you know the charge per person, you need to create one transaction for each participant.

The easiest way to do this is by creating a Group Transaction.

From the Event Balances page (shown above), press the button Add Group Transaction to Charge Participants.

This will take you to a page like the one shown below.

Select "Charge Troop Member Account For Event" as your Transaction Type.

The Transaction Date should be the date of the campout.

The Description should include the name of the campout.

The Amount should be the amount to charge each participant.    You can override this value for an individual participant by filling in a different value in the Override Amount column next to his/her name.

Select the campout from the Credit Event selection box.

The troop members who attended should already be selected, but you may change the selections by clicking on the checkbox next to each name.

Click Save & Exit to create a transaction for each of the selected individuals.

If you now return to the Event Balances page you will see that these charges have been posted to the event as income.

The balance for the event should now be close to zero.