Minutes:27 MAR 2024 Financial Planning

Meeting begins:

Meeting ends:

Meeting attendees: Nate Y., James K., Joe D.

• Quickbooks progress
  • Financial items were imported with differing start dates, making it hard to get true year's worth of data.
  • Existing data there is of limited value because of the above -- would be easier to start fresh for 1/1/2023 instead of trying to fix things all the way back to August.
  • Freshbooks data is still good, will use that for the 2022 financial report.
  • Some difficulties could arise from the wide range of Quickbooks categories for transactions, and based on the person who decides which one to use. A pared-down list of categories should be created to avoid issues with Quickbooks.
  • Be sure to put any debit card purchase totals in #Finances.

• Budget updates
  • Exclude upgrades that "pay for themselves" from the tool/upgrades budget, i.e. laser cutter/3d printer/CNC router.

• Loan updates/issues/concerns?
• Donations tracking/distinguishing from cash class fees
  • Anytime money is taken from the donation box/jar for deposit, make sure to let #Finances know about how much is for what thing.

• Other Budget notes:
  • After 6 months, we are looking good in terms of projected costs
  • We see a need to add an item for outreach/events at $150/quarter (e.g. Art Fair, Tech Trek fees), bringing the total budget to $450/quarter.

• Action items:
  • Get smaller envelopes for cash donations/class fees - Nate
  • Make it easier to pay for things! E.g. put links to laser time/3d printer filament payment on the machines. - Nate will implement the buttons
  • Payment categories on Paypal -- come up with list of Paypal buttons/links for each type of thing people tend to pay for.
  • Go over previous years of finances to come up with the pared-down Quickbooks categories.
  • Membership rates/requirements - James (DONE)
  • Quickbook training session - Joe (February books)
  • Update rent auto-payments - Nate (DONE)
  • Add a new budget bucket: $150/quarter for outreach-related stuff (will be added with the categories work)

• Separate/out of scope from this meeting, but good topics to discuss later:
  • Ideas on how to spend our $25k loan (ongoing)
    • Some ideas from this meeting:
      • Hiring Adwords/SEO help (e.g. $500)?
      • Setting a solid budget to get signage stuff done (e.g. $250)?