Ledger Frequently Asked Questions

Ledger allows you to customize the available list of accounts based on your unit's specific needs. You can add Physical Accounts (e.g., Bank or Cash accounts), Income Accounts, Expense Accounts, and Reserve Accounts (to earmark funds for a specific purpose).

Accounts can be added through the Account Management option in the system. Click Add to add specific accounts to meet your needs.

For physical accounts, the first time you view the Account Register, you will be prompted to enter the Opening Balance for that account. If individual members should also have funds listed in their passbooks, you can perform a Passbook Split as part of the opening balance transaction to credit the appropriate members.

Passbooks are used to track individual member funds within your database. As scouts acquire and spend funds, these will be tracked in their account through a Passbook Split transaction. This creates a detailed listing for all transactions that affect each scout's balance so they can see where their funds have come from and where they have been spent. For more information on Passbook Splits, please see the Transactions section of the FAQ's.

Yes. Highlight the specific account and then click Budget to view/set these amounts for each month.

If you are using the desktop version of TroopMaster, you can select the starting month through the File>Preferences screen. On the Web 2.0 site, you can set this through the Ledger>Settings option.

Profit Centers allow you to group specific Income and Expense Accounts that are all part of the same event. The PProfit Center report then allows you to compare various Income Accounts with corresponding Expense Accounts. For example, let's suppose you are planning a special tour to Washington D.C. You would create an Income Account (e.g., Income - Washington DC Prepayments) and a corresponding Expense Account (e.g., Expense - Washington DC Expense).

When the scouts/adults give you prepayments for this trip, deposit them to your checking account using the Income Account as the support account. Do a Passbook Split and credit each person who paid. After the trip, enter a withdrawal from checking using the Expense Account as the support account, and do a Passbook Split to debit each person who went. (NOTE: this might be a good time to use the 'zero amount' transaction--see Miscellaneous FAQ's).

To see how the unit as well as each scout/adult fared, create a Profit Center and select the appropriate Income/Expense Accounts. The Profit Center report will then show how much each person paid, how much their accounts were charged, and any variance. A 'Unit' column toward the right side of the report will show you whether the unit made a profit or lost money.

NOTE: If desired, you could also create a reserve account for the special tour--this would reduce the likelihood of the funds being spent for another purpose. The reserve account would be entered on both the deposits and the withdrawal

NOTE: If there is more than one scheduled payment, we recommend that you also create a payment schedule for the tour.

Suppose you need to change the scout/adult individual accounts without having to change your checking account balance. A 'zero amount' transaction allows you to do this.

A practical example might be if you wrote several checks to cover a campout or outing, and you do not want to have to do a member split on each check. Instead, you simply want to charge each scout and adult who went a fixed amount for the event.

To do that, you just enter one final transaction in your checking account register with a Transaction Type of 'Withdrawal', a Transaction Amount of $0.00, and an appropriate Expense Account as the Support Account. Then, do a 'Passbook Split' and enter the chosen amount in the 'Account' column next to the names of the members who went. Click 'Close' to return to the account register.

Mark the transaction as cleared (since it will not appear on your bank statement) and then click 'Save'. The result is that all designated members will be charged for attending the event, but your checking account balance will not change.

NOTE: This same method can be used to put money into the member's accounts without changing your checking account balance. Simply change the Transaction Type to 'Deposit' and use an appropriate Income Account as the Support Account. A practical example might be a unit Committee decision to allocate excess funds to the scouts.

To set a member's opening balance, enter a deposit transaction into your check register and select an appropriate Income Account (e.g., Credit To Member or something similar). Enter the amount of the transaction (if any) and then do a Passbook Split to credit the scout with this balance. Adjustments to that balance are also handled through the transaction process. That is, you must enter a deposit or a withdrawal through one of your asset accounts (usually, your checking account) and then perform a Passbook Split. Ledger makes it easy to debit or credit multiple members with a single transaction. Please DO NOT enter a separate transaction for each scout or adult; doing so not only creates more work for yourself but may also slow down the system with the number of additional transactions added to the database.

The manner in which the member's individual balance is adjusted is based on the type of transaction. A deposit transaction increases a member's balance while a withdrawal reduces it.

Enter the transaction as you would any standard deposit/withdrawal.

Then, click the passbook split button to display the Member Split dialog. Enter the appropriate amount next to each member's name.

If you are making a deposit, the default column on the Member Split will be the 'Cash' column because normally you are depositing cash. On the other hand, the default column on a withdrawal is the 'Account' column because you are normally withdrawing funds from your members' accounts.

You can click the corresponding radio button at the top of the dialog to activate the non-default column. However, it is VERY important for you to understand that entries in the non-default column ONLY affect payment schedules and reserve accounts. Amounts included in the non-default column should therefore never be included in the support account amount.

NOTE: To debit or credit member balances without changing your asset account balance, use a 'zero amount' transaction. See the 'Miscellaneous' FAQ's for a discussion of zero amount transactions.

Because the member accounts are not 'real' accounts with their own account numbers, you cannot accomplish this with just one transaction.

First, enter a transaction to withdraw the funds from the member's account, using an appropriate Expense Account. You may want to create an account (e.g., 'Close out Member' or 'Transfer Funds') specifically for this purpose. Add a new transaction to your checking account withdrawing the funds using the Expense Account as the Support Account. Enter the desired amount as the transaction amount and also on the Passbook Split next to the member's name in the 'Account' column. Mark the transaction as 'Cleared' before posting it since it will not appear on you bank statement.

Then, enter a deposit for the same amount using the desired Income Account as the Support Account. If you want the funds credited to another scout or adult, do a Passbook Split and enter the amount next to the member's name in the 'Cash' column. You should also mark this transaction as 'Cleared' before posting it.

If the member was not involved in any transactions and has a current balance of zero, you simply delete the member. THIS IS VERY RARE. Normally, when you delete a member, they will be moved to the Archive files so they will still be in your system, just no longer included on your regular lists and reports. However, before you can do that, you must zero out the member's personal account balance and reserve amounts, if any.

Most troops use a special Expense Account for this purpose (e.g., Expense - Member Close Out). For example, let's suppose a member is leaving and the member's current balance is $24.80:

Enter a withdrawal from checking of $0.00 (zero).

Select Expense - Member Close Out as the Support Account.

Click the passbook split button and enter $24.80 next to the name of the member who is leaving.

Before saving the transaction, mark it as cleared (since it will not appear on your bank statement).

If the member has any reserved funds, you can adjust these reserve amounts through the appropriate Reserve Account registers in your system. Enter a negative number next to the member's name equal to the amount reserved. For example, if the member has $30 reserved, enter $ -30.00 next to the member's name. Repeat this process for each reserve account that contains this member's funds

You can then Delete/Archive the member

NOTE: If you want to transfer the member's funds to another account, you must enter two transactions. In the example above, you would first withdraw the funds from the member's account, but in this case you would also enter $24.80 as the transaction amount. Then, enter a deposit transaction and deposit the funds to the desired account.

You must first have defined your checking account and at least one Income Account through the Account Management dialog. For example, your checking account might be '1st National Checking' and the Income Account might be 'Income - Fundraisers.' Let's suppose that on 10/22/18 you deposited $150 the unit raised at a car wash and you want to allocate $75 of the funds to your scouts ($15/each to 5 scouts).

Highlight your checking account on the Account Management dialog and click the 'Register' button:

Transaction number - any number unique to the Primary Account for this fiscal year; for deposits, you may want to enter 'Dep'.

• Date: 10/22/18
• Description: Car Wash
• Transaction Type: Deposit
• Amount: $150.00
• Support Account: Income - Fundraisers

Click the Passbook Split button to display a list of your unit members. Enter $15.00 in the 'Cash' column next to each of the applicable scout's names. Click 'Close' to return to the main transaction dialog, and click 'Save' to save the transaction.

These columns work differently depending on the type of transaction entered. When you go to the Passbook Split dialog, Ledger will automatically activate either the 'Cash' or the 'Account' column based on the Transaction Type.

Normally, when you are depositing money to your checking (or other asset) account, you have received cash from the members. Therefore, Ledger will activate the 'Cash' column as the default column.

Likewise, if you are withdrawing funds (e.g., writing a check), you are spending money that is already in the members' accounts. Therefore, Ledger will activate the 'Account' column as the default column.

You can switch from the default column to the other column but ONLY those entries in the default column will be added to the Support Account totals for the members (the Support Account total for the unit is adjusted by the transaction amount). The reason is that the amounts in the non-default column are either already in the system (recording a deposit from a member's account) or were never in the system (recording an expense from a member's cash). Similarly, only entries in the default column are included in the 'Passbooks' Share' total at the bottom of the Passbook Split dialog.

Let's look at the deposit transaction. Money that is already in a member's account has already been recorded against some other Income Account. If Ledger were to credit the same dollars again toward a different Income Account, the program would be counting the same money twice. The result would be that the total unit income printed on reports would be greater than the amount the unit actually received.

So, if Ledger doesn't apply entries in the non-default column toward the Support Account, what does it do with them? The answer is that these entries are applied toward payment schedules (if the Support Account has an associated Payment Schedule) and/or reserve accounts (if a Reserve Account is entered on the transaction). Ledger applies entries in BOTH columns toward reserves and payment schedules.

A good example is the case where some of your scouts make a summer camp prepayment in cash and others ask you to take it out of their personal accounts. In this case, you would record a deposit to checking for the total amount of cash received, using 'Income - Summer Camp Prepayments' as the Support Account. Do a Passbook Split and enter cash payments in the 'Cash' (default) column. Enter account payments in the 'Account' column. All of the members will get credit for making summer camp prepayments, but the 'Income - Summer Camp Prepayments' account will only increase by the cash total. If you also entered a reserve account, all of the entries in both the 'Cash' and the 'Account' columns will be reserved.

NOTE: The amounts entered in the 'Account' column are not subtracted from the members' accounts at this time. These entries merely indicate that those members PLAN to use money from their accounts. The funds will be subtracted later when you actually charge all of the scouts who went to summer camp.

NOTE: Dues are always a special case. When adding your dues deposit transation, enter the total amount of cash collected as the transaction amount and credit the individual payments under the 'Cash' column for the Passbook Split. For scouts who wish to pay from their passbook account, shift to the 'Account' (non-default) column to enter the payment amounts here. Dues paid through either the Cash or Account colunn will credit scouts on the dues payment schedule, but amounts paid in the Account column will also be deducted from each scout's passbook to cover the payment.

When you Delete/Archive a scout/adult, this member will no longer appear on your regular screens within the system. If they still have a balance in their account, any reserved funds, or equipement currently checked out, you should correct this before removing the member.

You should first generate both the Member Passbook Balances and Member Reserve Totals reports to view details on these account balances.

To clear out their account balance, you should add a transaction to your Checking (or other physical account register). To clear a positive balance, you will be adding a withdrawal and, to clear a negative balance, you will be adding a deposit. Choose the appropriate Expense or Income account to apply for this transaction and enter a dollar amount to clear the member's current balance.

If the member also has reserved funds, these can be cleared through the individual Reserve Account Register(s) on your Account Management screen. Add an appropriate transaction for each reserve and perform a Passbook Split to clear their reserves for that account. To clear a positive reserve, enter a negative adjust amount. To clear a negative reserve enter a positive amount for the adjustment.

To view a list of equipement currently checked out, generate the Equipment Checked Out report and select the Sort By Member option. You can then view these individual pieces of equipment through the Equipment Management screen to check each of them back into the system and clear them from the member's record.

Once you have finished, you can then Delete/Archive this member normally.

You must first have defined your checking account and at least one Expense Account through the Account Management dialog. For example, your checking account might be '1st National Checking' and the Expense Account might be 'Expense - Camping'. Let's suppose that on 9/27/18 you wrote a check (#457) for $55.00 to pay a camp registration expense.

Go to the Account Management dialog, highlight your checking account, click 'Register' and make the following entries:

• Transaction number: 457
• Date: 09/27/18
• Payee: Camp Muddymess
• Transaction Type: Withdrawal
• Amount: $55.00
• Support Account: 'Expense - Camping'

Click 'Save' to save the transaction.

But what do you do if the money was spent for more than one purpose? Let's suppose you wrote the check for $75, but $55 was a campout expense (Expense - Camping) and the other $20 was for food (Expense - Food). This can still be entered as a single transaction. Use the same approach as above, but instead of selecting a Support Account fom the dropdown, click the 'Support Split' button to display the Support Account Split dialog. This dialog let's you enter multiple support accounts on the same transaction. In this case, make one line entry of $55 with a Support Account of Expense - Camping, and a second line entry of $20 with a Support Account of Expense - Food.

Let's suppose your checking account is '1st National Checking' and that on 10/27/18 you write a check (#457) for $55.00 to cover campout expenses. You want to charge this against your 'Expense - Camping' and you want to charge the 11 scouts who went $5 each.

Go to the Account Management dialog, highlight your checking account, click 'Register', and make the following entries:

• Transaction number: 457 (i.e., the check number)
• Date: 10/27/18
• Payee: Camp Muddymess
• Transaction Type: Withdrawal
• Amount: $55.00
• Support Account: Expense - Camping

Click the 'Passbook' button to display a list of your members. Enter $5.00 in the 'Account' column next to the names of the scouts who went on the campout.

Click 'Close' to return to the main transaction dialog, and then click 'Save' to save the transaction.

NOTE: If you are tracking adult leaders, their names follow the scout names on the 'Passbook Split' dialog; you could just as easily charge one or more of them for this expense. Adult leader names are always prefaced with an asterisk (*) on the members dialog.

NOTE: If you wrote several checks for the campout and do not want to have to do a passbook split on each check, you can enter a 'zero amount' transaction--see 'Miscellaneous' FAQ's.

You must first have defined your checking account and at least one Income Account through the Account Management dialog. For example, your checking account might be '1st National Checking' and the Income Account might be 'Income - Fundraisers'. Let's suppose that on 9/22/18 you deposited $150 the unit raised at a car wash.

Go to the Account Management dialog, highlight the checking account, click the 'Register' button and enter the following information on the transaction dialog:

Transaction number: Optionally enter any number unique to the primary account or just enter 'Dep' for 'Deposit'.

• Date: 09/22/18
• Description: Car Wash
• Transaction Type: Deposit
• Amount: $150.00
• Support Account: Income - Fundraisers

Click 'Save' to save the transaction.

But what do you do if the money collected came from more than one source? Let's suppose you are depositing $200 of which $150 came from the car wash (Income - Fundraisers) and the other $50 was a donation (Income - Donations). This can still be entered as a single transaction. Use the same approach as above, but instead of selectiong a Support Account from the dropdown, click the 'Support Split' button to display the Support Account Split dialog. This dialog let's you enter multiple Support Accounts for the same transaction. In this case, make one line entry of $150 with a Support Account of 'Income - Fundraisers', and a second line entry of $50 with a Support Account of 'Income - Donations'.

You must first have defined your checking account and at least one Income Account through the Account Management dialog. For example, your checking account might be '1st National Checking' and the Income Account might be 'Income - Fundraisers'. Let's suppose that on 10/22/18 you deposited $150 the unit raised at a car wash and you want to allocate $75 of the funds to your scouts ($15/each to 5 scouts).

Go to the Account Management dialog, highlight your checking account, click 'Register' and make the following entries:

Transaction number: Optionally enter any number unique to the Primary Account or enter 'Dep' for 'Deposit'.

• Date: 10/22/18
• Description: Car Wash
• Transaction Type: Deposit
• Amount: $150.00
• Support Account: Income - Fundraisers

Click the 'Passbook' button to display a list of your unit members. Enter $15.00 in the 'Cash' column next to each of the applicable scout's names.

Click 'Close' to return to the main transaction dialog, and click 'Save' to save the transaction.

You must first have defined your checking and savings accounts through the Account Management dialog. For example, your checking account might be '1st National Checking' and your savings account '1st National Savings'. Let's suppose that on 10/05/18 you transferred $100 from savings to checking. Because this example involves two asset accounts, you could consider this either a deposit to checking or a withdrawal from savings.

Go to the Account Management dialog, highlight your checking account, click 'Register' and make the following entries:

Transaction number: Optionally enter any number unique to the primary account for the fiscal year or enter 'Xfr' for 'Transfer'.

• Date: 10/05/18
• Description: Transfer from savings
• Transaction Type: Deposit
• Amount: $100.00
• Support Account: 1st National Savings

Click 'Save' to save the transaction.

NOTE: You can also get exactly the same results by doing a withdrawl from Savings with a Support Account of Checking.

Yes. Simply create a separate dues Payment Schedule for each patrol and select the appropriate scouts for each schedule. The Income Account for all of the schedules will be 'Income - Dues'. Other Dues FAQ's provide guidance on how to create a dues schedule.

NOTE: If you add a new scout to the unit and you have more than one dues schedule, Ledger does not automatically make the new scout a participant on any of the schedules.

NOTE: You cannot assign the same scout to more than one dues schedule.

Ledger makes it easy for you to create payment schedules for any purpose (such as dues) and print reports showing the payment status of the scouts and adults involved.

Select the Ledger>Schedule Management option, click the 'Add' button, enter a name of 'Dues Schedule', and enter 'Income - Dues' as the support account. If you plan to collect weekly or monthly, Ledger can generate the dates for you. Enter the first and last collection dates, specify the amount due, and then click 'Generate'. If the schedule is not weekly or monthly, you can also add the specific dates/amounts manually.

When all dates and amounts have been entered, select the specific scouts/adults who should be on this schedule. If all of the listed members must pay, click the 'Select All' button.

You can optionally enter 'Initial Owed/Paid' amounts for any of the members. These amounts normally reflect each member's final dues status at the end of the previous fiscal year. For example, a scout who was neither ahead nor behind on dues at the end of the previous fiscal year would have an amount of zero. A scout who was $5 behind would have an 'Initial Owed' amount of $5.00, while a scout who was ahead on dues may have an Initial Paid of $5.00.

NOTE: Do not include scheduled payments for the current fiscal year in the 'Initial Owed' column. Ledger will automatically compute that from the entries you made on the 'Dates' tab.

Whenever you deposit money against the 'Income - Dues' account and do a Passbook Split, Ledger will credit the scouts and adults with the amounts entered. The associated Dues Report will show the payment status of all participants.

Let's suppose that on 09/14/18 you deposited $50 that you received from 10 scouts paying their dues ($5/each) in cash, but that two other scouts asked you to take the $5 from their personal accounts.

Highlight your checking account, and click the 'Register' button. Make the following entries:

• Num: Any number unique to the Primary Account for this fiscal year or enter 'Dep'.
• Date: 09/14/18
• Description: Dues Collection
• Transaction Type: Deposit
• Amount: $50.00 (includes cash payments ONLY)
• Support Account: 'Income - Dues'

Click the passbook split button to display a list of your unit members. Enter $5.00 in the 'Cash' column next to each of the applicable scouts who paid cash. Click the 'Account' radio button and enter $5.00 next to the names of the two scouts paying from funds in their accounts.

Click 'Close' to return to the main transaction dialog, and click 'Save' to save the transaction. All 12 scouts will be credited with paying dues, but the individual accounts for two of the scouts will be reduced by $5 to cover their dues payments.

Scouts can be prorated through the dues schedule dialog. Select the current Dues schedule and click Edit. Enter the appropriate amount in the 'Initial Paid' field next to the scout you want to prorate.

If the scout owes a partial payment prior to the next scheduled dues collection date, enter that amount under Initial Owed. If you want to reduce the amount that the scout will owe on the next scheduled dues collection date, enter this amount under Initial Paid.

To track dues status, you must first create a dues schedule. The procedure for doing that is described in a separate FAQ.

Ledger uses five things to compute a scout's dues status:

• Schedule of collection dates and amounts to be collected
• Today's Date
• Date scout joined the unit
• His 'Initial Owed' amount from the schedule definition dialog
• Transactions for which the support account was 'Income - Dues'

Ledger uses 'Today's Date' and the date the scout joined your unit to determine which specific payments should apply for this scout. This figure is then adjusted by the 'Initial Owed/Paid' amounts to compute the scout's 'Scheduled Amount' on the Scheduled Payment Status report.

Ledger then examines all of the 'Income - Dues' transactions from the database prior to 'Today's Date' to calculate the amount the scout has paid. This becomes the 'Amount Paid' on the report. Please note that future transactions (i.e., those after 'Today's Date') are not considered.

The difference between the scout's 'Scheduled Amount' and the 'Amount Paid' is labeled as the 'Amount Due'. This is the amount the scout owes.

If you generate the Schedule Status report and the scheduled amount for a scout is not what you expect, the most frequent cause is that the 'Date Joined unit' is incorrect.

Ledger will automatically add new scouts as participants on your dues schedule unless you have more than one dues schedule. If you have two or more dues schedules, you must manually add the new scout to the appropriate schedule.

Ledger provides a special method of changing or zeroing out amounts you have reserved. The Reserve Account Register allows you to change the amounts you have reserved without affecting any of your other accounts. You can also use this account to transfer money from one reserve account to another.

If you simply want to reduce or increase the amount your unit or any of your scouts/adults has reserved, go to the Account Management dialog, highlight the specific Reserve Account, and click the 'Register' button. To increase the amount reserved, enter a positive amount in the 'Amount' column; to reduce the reserved amount enter a negative number. To adjust scout or adult reserves, do a Passbook Split and enter positive or negative amounts, as appropriate, next to the members' names.

You do this the same way that you reserve funds for your unit. First, create a Reserve Account for the desired purpose, such as a special trip to the Smithsonian. If any scouts or adults already have amounts reserved for the trip, use the Reserve Account Register and enter a Passbook Split to list the appropriate amounts next to their names.

Thereafter, you can increase the amounts each member has reserved any time that you record a deposit. Simply enter the Reserve Account number after the Support Account number on the account register. Then, do a Passbook Split and enter the amounts to be reserved next to the members' names.

When you are ready to charge the scouts and adults for going on the trip, enter a withdrawal from checking and again enter the Reserve Account number below the Support Account number. Do a Passbook Split. This time, any amounts entered next to the members' names will reduce the amounts they have reserved.

IMPORTANT: Reserve accounts never actually contain any money. They are just a way for you to indicate how much of the money in your asset accounts is earmarked for specific purposes.

Reserve accounts never actually contain any money. They are just a way for you to indicate how much of the money in your asset accounts is earmarked for specific purposes. For example, if you want to reserve funds for a unit trip to the Smithsonian, you should create a special Reserve Account (e.g., Reserve - Smithsonian) for that purpose.

If you already have money earmarked for this trip, use the Reserve Account Register to reflect this amount and enter a Passbook Split to list the appropriate amounts next to any members' names where appropriate.

Thereafter, when you deposit funds to your checking or other asset account, you can reserve some or all of the money for the Smithsonian trip. For example, let's suppose you are depositing $220 to your checking account (1st National Checking). The money was raised at a fundraiser (Income - Fundraiser) and you want to reserve all of it for the Smithsonian Trip (Reserve - Smithsonian).

Enter this transaction as a deposit to your checking account register using Support Account of 'Income - Fundraiser' and a reserve of 'Reserve - Smithsonian'. If you want to share some of the money with the scouts who worked at the fundraiser, do a Passbook Split and put the appropriate amount next to each scout's name. In this case, all $220 would be reserved for this trip.

But what do you do if you only want to reserve $100 of the money for the museum trip and you want the rest to be available for general use? This can still be done with a single transaction. In this case, enter a deposit to checking of $220 but when you get to the Support Account field, click the Support Split button to split the transaction. Make two line entries, one for $100 and the other for $120. On both entries, the Support Account will be 'Income - Fundraiser', but only one entry (the one for $100) would have 'Reserve - Smithsonian' as the reserve account. You can optionally do a Passbook Split on either or both line entries. If you split the $100 entry, the amounts allocated to the scouts would automatically be reserved for the museum trip. Amounts split on the other line entry would be available to the scouts for general use.

Optionally, you could also create a Payment Schedule for the trip. To do that, you must first create an Income Account (Income - Smithsonian) to record member prepayments. You can then create a Payment Schedule showing who is going, when the payments are due, and how much will be due. Use the 'Income - Smithsonian' account as the associated Income Account for scout prepayments.

To reduce the amount of funds reserved for a specific purpose, you simply enter the appropriate Reserve Account number on the transaction when you record a check or other withdrawal. If you do a Passbook Split, the amounts you enter next to members' names will also reduce the individual amounts they have reserved for that purpose.

If you withdraw funds from your checking account and you only want part of the withdrawal to reduce reserved amounts, use the Support Account Split dialog (click the Support Split button instead of entering a support account) and split the withdrawal into two or more line entries. Select the Reserve Account from the dropdown--the Reserve Account will only be reduced by the amount on that line. Similarly, you can do Passbook Splits on any of the line entries, and the member balances will only be affected by the amounts you enter on each split.

Ledger makes it easy for you to create payment schedules for any purpose and print reports showing the payment status of the scouts and adults involved.

You first must have an Income Account for the prepayments. Then, click Add on the Schedule Management dialog. Enter a unique name for the schedule, and enter the Income Account. Generate/enter the appropriate dates/amounts for the schedule and then select the specific members to include.

If necessary, you can enter Initial Owed/Paid amounts for each member. These amounts normally indicate the final status of each member at the end of the previous fiscal year (i.e., the total amount that should have been paid last year and the amount that was paid).

Whenever you deposit money against the specified Income Account and do a Passbook Split, Ledger will credit the scouts and adults with the amounts entered. The associated Payment Schedule reports will show the payment status of all participants.

Payment schedules show who is expected to make payments for a specific purpose (e.g., Dues, Grand Canyon trip, etc.), when the payments are due, and the amounts to be paid. Associated reports will show you how much each scout or adult should have paid, how much they have paid, and the difference. Creating a payment schedule by itself DOES NOT mean that payments will automatically be reserved for the specified purpose.

Reserve Accounts are used to reserve funds for specific purposes. In other words, Reserve Accounts indicate how unit and member funds are planned to be spent. If you want scheduled payments for things like a Grand Canyon trip to be automatically earmarked (i.e., reserved) for that purpose, you must create a Reserve Account.

For example, suppose your unit is planning a special trip to the Grand Canyon for 30 scouts and 5 adults. You could create three accounts:

• Income - Grand Canyon
• Expense - Grand Canyon
• Reserve - Grand Canyon

You might also create a Payment Schedule for the trip showing who is going, when the payments are due, and how much will be due. In this case, you should use 'Income - Grand Canyon' as the associated Income Account.

Then, whenever you deposit member prepayments, you would enter a deposit to checking with 'Income - Grand Canyon' as the support account and 'Reserve - Grand Canyon' as the reserve account. Do a Passbook Split and show how much each person paid. Ledger will automatically credit each person with a payment AND reserve that money for the Grand Canyon Trip. When you look an an individual member's available funds, the reserved amounts will not be included. Reserved funds are treated as liabilities for the unit.

IMPORTANT: Reserve accounts never actually contain any money. They are just a way for you to indicate how much of the money in your asset accounts is earmarked for specific purposes.

Yes. You can enter equipment through the Equipment Management option in the program.

Yes. On the Equipment details screen, there is a section where you can select the specific member who is checking out the item. You can also show the date and current condition of the item at the time of checkout. When the item is later returned, you can check it back in to remove the member's name from the item. Many units maintain a library of current Merit Badge booklets and this feature makes it very easy to track which members currently have specific books for badges they are taking.

Go to the Account Management dialog, click the 'Add' button, and create a Cash Account (e.g., Scoutmaster Petty Cash) for your council account. View the Account Register to set the Opening Balance.

Each time you spend money from the account for things like rank badges, add a new transaction into the council account register. Eenter the amount in the 'Withdrawal' column, and use an appropriate Expense Account as the support account.

When the council account gets low, send them another check and enter that as you would any other check, but use the council petty cash account as the support account.

Using this approach, remaining unit funds at the council office will be included in your unit assets on the Financial Statement.

Amounts listed on report should be correct based on transactions currently in the system. It's possible that you do not fully understand what the reports are trying to show you.

If you continue to have difficulty, contact Troopmaster Software for further assistance.

Suppose you need to debit or credit the scout/adult individual accounts without having to change your checking account balance. A 'zero amount' transaction allows you to do this.

A practical example might be if you wrote several checks to cover a campout or outing, and you do not want to have to do a passbook split on each check. Instead, you simply want to debit each scout and adult a fixed amount for the event.

To do that, you simply enter one final transaction into your checking register with a withdrawal amount of $0.00, using an appropriate Expense Account as the Support Account. Then, do a Passbook Split and enter the chosen amount in the Account column next to the names of the members who went.

Mark the transaction as cleared (since it will not appear on your bank statement) and click 'Save'. The result is that all designated members will be charged for attending the event, but your checking account balance will not change.

NOTE: This same method can be used to put money into the members' accounts without changing your checking account balance. Simply change the transaction type to 'Deposit' and use an appropriate Income Account as the Support Account. A practical example might be a unit committee decision to allocate excess funds to the scouts.

Unfortunately, we do not have a way to convert data from the old version of the software. That program was written by a colleague of ours so we don't have access to any of the original source code or file specifications for the database. He is no longer involved in software and we have been unable to reach him for quite some time so there was no way for us to create any sort of data transfer process to handle this.

We would recommend keeping the old version installed for historical reference if you need to look up old finance details or print any of the associated reports.

To get started with the new version:

1. Define your Bank, Income, Expense, and Reserve accounts through the Ledger>Define option on the main menu.
   
   
2. Once you have your accounts defined, you can enter data through the Ledger>Account Management option. The first time you edit the Register for a Bank or Cash account, you will be prompted to enter an Opening Balance.
   
   
3. Through your Opening Balance transaction, you can do a Passbook Split to enter the starting passbook balances for each of your members. Positive or negative numbers can be added here based on their actual balance.
   
   
4. If you currently have reserved funds for various accounts, these can be set through the Register on each Reserve Account. The Passbook Split option on this transaction will allow you to set the individual member reserves as well.
   
   
5. Going forward, you will enter all of your new transactions in the system to track your finances using the new version.
   
   

Yes. You can view and print a complete list of these FAQ's here:

Printable Ledger FAQ's