Finance & Legal minutes: 2013-11-11

Minutes:

Attending: Debbi, Becky G, Keith, Adi

On Mon, Nov 11, 2013 at 09:31:01AM -0500, R.P. Aditya wrote:
> Agenda:
>
> - any update on accounts receivable

most households have been paying, there are a couple that Debbi will
talk to soon -- on the whole the news is positive

> e) new annual 3rd-party *certified* review/audit requirement state
> Condo law or board opt-out

email was sent to talk@ and ballots will be printed out and placed in
cubbies tomorrow so we can gather the votes before the next budget
meeting

> - followup on meeting with Len:

Becky G, Keith, Elph and Adi met with Len Ptylak, CPA on Friday

> a) how to record "loans" and payments to the same from the reserve

As recommended by Len, we will have to amend our Workshop and CH Solar
PV agreements such that payments to the reserve will not be shown as
paying interest, but rather a total that exceeds what we borrowed so
that it is seen as an internal fund transfer, which it is, rather than
as a loan to a third party, on which interest is taxed -- we will still
track it as an obligation that has to be paid back to the reserve, we
will just not do it based on principal/interest monthly or annually.

Len also recommended that the payment back to the reserve not be part of
the "operating budget" lineitems, but rather be in a separate "Misc"
section -- Becky will work with Len/Susan to see what that looks like

We had a discussion between GO folks at the meeting on whether to
represent those obligations to the reserve on the individual member
statements or not to bring them to the attention of folks to point out
they are long-term obligations that cannot be changed annually in the
operating budget.

> b) how to record donations by GO to other non-profits

we will tackle when we donate money to work skills

> c) how to record tax credits from solar installation

it will be recorded as a credit against income taxes owed, but we can
represent it in our lineitems as a credit against the note for the CH
Solar PV amount borrowed

> d) why reimbursements only should be done by check

Len is going to lookup if QB can support setting members being setup as
vendors and crediting the vendor account with reimbursement and then
using that credit to offset the member balance -- maybe possible, but
might be to onerous, he will let us know

> matters arising

We talked about several other topics without any firm outcome

- job preassignments? will do before the allocation party

- how best to represent the currently confusing payment from CH to the
reserve for the Solar PV?

- should it be under CH budget items?

- should residential water/sewer be under grounds budget items even
though grounds doesn't have any direct control over it?

it was put there because the grounds mandate says grounds is responsible
for it -- we can move it elsewhere, but how do we make sure someone is
responsible for it?

- similarly, how best to represent the workshop loan on the operating
budget?

- Becky will start work on a proposal on how to deal with money left
over at year end in a better way than what we do currently; also will
try to address savings accounts with caps etc., probably in a
separate, related proposal

End.