Finance and Inventory

[hhsfinance]

To Robotics Team Finance Dept's;

Does any school have an organized system of keeping an inventory or money count? If you do, please reply with any methods you feel are useful.

Thanks,
hhsfinance

[AndyB]

Microsoft Excel

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by sparksandtabs

Our sponsor give us a credit card. No limit on it that I know of. So everything is on one big bill.

Well, for the teams without that kind of luxury, our money is handled by the "money person" at the school who handles all the money for all the clubs. The system is too inefficient for the build season however, so our main teacher usually buys everything on his personal credit card (or by cash), then gets reimbursed by the school when we are done building.

For keeping track of parts and their costs (like I believe FIRST requires at time of inspection) we make a very detailed Excel spreadsheet of the part number, description, supplier, quantity, and cost.

[prettyyinpinkk9]

We keep a ledger and our treasurer records every time we receive a donation or whenever we have to take money out of our account to buy necessary equipment or what not. It is very efficient because he does a very good job. Any time we need to know how much money we have available, we simply look at the balance in the ledger!

[RoboMom]

Get in the habit of keeping track of all your expenses. Have a business manager. Keep an excel file. You will need to present at inspection.

This document can then be used to help with sponsorship. Most sponsors want to know that your team can manage a budget. Some grants will require this. I just met with a group yesterday who is giving some funding to all the Baltimore City teams. But in return, they are requiring detailed accounting. That's how it works.

***scratching head*** I'm not sure what team 340 is learning with their system. It's not the real world.

[rees2001]

Originally Posted by sparksandtabs

Our sponsor give us a credit card. No limit on it that I know of. So everything is on one big bill.

I can assure you we have a budget. As the team leader, I know. I work with the team treasurer to keep track of spending. We set up a budget during the summer and then use excel to track spending. We have monthly targets for spending, and a yearlong budget. Each is broken down into categories; travel (transportation, hotel, food), registrations, pr/media (team shirts, printing, buttons, etc.), r&d, team room improvements, and a miscellaneous category for things like shipping overages and the like. We also do fundraisers to help offset costs (we have raised over $8,000 since September). It's not just a free for all.

I almost forgot, we have an excel requisition form we use for sub-teams to fill out for any part they want to order. This way we can keep track of orders we have placed, that way when the receipts don't match the spending, we can see where we have purchased items. If you want I can post it to the white papers. It's nothing special but it helps.

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by RoboMom

Get in the habit of keeping track of all your expenses. Have a business manager. Keep an excel file. You will need to present at inspection.

This document can then be used to help with sponsorship. Most sponsors want to know that your team can manage a budget. Some grants will require this. I just met with a group yesterday who is giving some funding to all the Baltimore City teams. But in return, they are requiring detailed accounting. That's how it works.

Well said, RoboMom! This needs to be spotlighted!

Designing and building a robot with unlimited budget is not realistic. That is why FIRST has cost accounting rules, found in sections 5.3.4.3 and 5.3.4.4 on pages 15 and 16 of the Robot Rules.

Teams should be aware that the accounting sheet required at inspection covers the cost of items used to build your robot (beyond what was in the KOP) using the methods detailed in the rules referenced above. This is generally not the same as the actual expenses your team incurred. It is a good practice to keep track of both. You need the robot cost accounting sheet at inspection, to show that you complied with the rules. You need to account for your actual costs for many other reasons, including demonstrating to sponsors, judges, mentors, and others that your team can operate within a budget.

[lukevanoort]

We don't need a money tracking method. If you round to the nearest $5.00 our season budget is 0. No exaggeration.

[sciencenerd]

Originally Posted by lukevanoort

We don't need a money tracking method. If you round to the nearest $5.00 our season budget is 0. No exaggeration.

By this you mean... you use only KOP parts? Wow, I didn't think you could get a robot capable of doing the task effectively out of that.

Or maybe you have sponsors that donate all your materials? This seems more likely, if it is legal. But those would still have to be accounted for to FIRST, at the price other teams would get them at, if I read the rules correctly.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by RoboMom

Get in the habit of keeping track of all your expenses. Have a business manager. Keep an excel file. You will need to present at inspection.

Speaking of inspection, make sure you actually BRING the spreadsheet with you. Send it with two or three different people, and stick it in a binder to boot.

[RoboMom]

Originally Posted by lukevanoort

We don't need a money tracking method. If you round to the nearest $5.00 our season budget is 0. No exaggeration.

Interesting. Maybe I am misunderstanding.
So nobody on your team ever travels anywhere, you don't have team spirit items like shirts and buttons, you don't spend any money on anything to do with raising money?

Lots of great resources in the white papers, with examples of business plans, fundraising, etc.

[aaeamdar]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Well, for the teams without that kind of luxury, our money is handled by the "money person" at the school who handles all the money for all the clubs. The system is too inefficient for the build season however, so our main teacher usually buys everything on his personal credit card (or by cash), then gets reimbursed by the school when we are done building.

For keeping track of parts and their costs (like I believe FIRST requires at time of inspection) we make a very detailed Excel spreadsheet of the part number, description, supplier, quantity, and cost.

Darn, that would be a luxury. We do a similar thing. Our finance person at the school has been really helpful.

[lukevanoort]

Just to clarify, we lost a lot of sponsor money last year and we started this year with $11,000. $5,000 went to paying debts from last year and $6,000 went to this year's KOP and registration. I would say more, but it could be interpreted as being disparaging to team members. But, don't give up on us, as a sixth year team we might have enough spare parts to make something halfway decent. We might be forced to simplify a lot, which is a good strategy for us. (The only year we won anything was 2003 with a literal box on wheels)

[Justin M.]

We mostly use excel, etc to keep track of our funds. I would suggest appointing a tresurer maybe?