Recording of, and payment of Honorariums

My Club consists of volunteer coaches who are not employees but are provided with an honorarium which is given at various time(s) throughout the year. I keep track of the hours volunteered and the activities. It is basically worked out on hours times $/hr. I see this as a liability as the hours accumulate. Is there a way to record this (I thought Billable expenses maybe) so I can enter the hours, rate and description etc like billable expenses and it show as a liability and then be able to pay it and it show then as expense. I see that billable expense is one that is due to me so was thinking that may be able to be utilised with a negative value to reflect the change of its status. I know I can create a new field in the liabilities area maybe called honorariums. again, all input greatly appreciated

Billable expenses wouldn’t be appropriate.

I think your best option would be to create each volunteer as a Supplier and then create a Purchase Invoice for the period - month, quarter, year - for which the honorarium will be paid.

Then on the one Purchase Invoice, enter the initial tracking record and then Edit to add each additional tracking record. This way the increasing liability will be shown and subsequently cleared when a payment is paid to them while also seeing the incurred expense in the P&L.

Also, you could create a BS - Liability control account called Honorariums made up of Suppliers and then allocate the volunteer suppliers to this control account and then you can have them highlighted on the BS separate from your standard suppliers

Does it matter then if I have no defined payment period. Payments are made spasmodically, no more than twice a year, may be 5 months and 7 or 6 and 6, whatever.

It doesn’t matter at all - check my added comment regarding using a control account which would be beneficial.

ok, I’ll have a go at that and see what happens. thanks

It works. Great. Is there a way to make it also appear in the summary? It only shows on the BS report.

Have you got the Summary - Set Period dates / accounting basis matching the BS Report dates / accounting basis ?

Haha. Fixed that one. I had it set to report on cash basis and not accrual.

While the liability control account outlined by @Brucanna works, why not create the coaches as employees and enter hours worked via payslips. Nothing says that an “employee” in Manager has to be a legal employee. All the same elements are there: hours and hourly rates, accumulated liability, eventual payoff, etc. This is possible even if you have other, legal employees. And nothing special is required; you just use the built-in modules exactly as designed.

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With the exception, that if there is also actual employees, one can’t segregate on the BS unpaid honorariums from unpaid employment - the Employee Clearing account can’t be subdivided whereas Accounts Payable can be subdivided via the control account. From a day to day management perspective, understanding the two separately could be beneficial.

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That is true, although the separate information would still be visible in the drill-down. Of course this is another example of how important design of the chart of accounts is, so information is presented according to management needs.

Few weeks ago I have have request the possibility to have Employees Customs Control Account. if we have it in the Customs Control then he will be able to use it as you state.

@lubos can you please kindly consider employees names to be in customs control, it will be helpful to segregate the employees like part time, hourly, and permiment or as @Tut Coaches

I paste these links because it will clearly explain the reason I asked for the Customs Control.

I’ve tried to set up my chart of accounts but seem to have an error. I have recorded the relevant amounts as a purchase invoice which shows as a liability. I have a total at assets/special accounts as well as liabilities/honorariums. When I make a part payment of that invoice, it shows the payment on the invoice and the adjusted balance. On the balance sheet I see assets/cash at bank adjusts correctly along with liabilities/honorariums showing the adjusted balance but no payment shown in expenses. Assets/special accounts total is unchanged. I did manage to make an alteration but reverted back, I could show the payment in expenses but liability total would not change. What am I doing wrong. I’ve missed an account link somewhere? I need to show current balances/totals in all areas.

And the account used in those Purchase Invoices should have been the P&L Expense account - Coach Honorarium.

Not sure where special accounts fit in or being required. The Liabilities - Honorariums Payable contains the supplier (coach) sub-accounts

Chart of Accounts

Supplier set up
0000000 Bug 2
0000000 Bug 2a

Thanks @Brucanna, I’d made an account error. Sorry, didn’t explain fully, I had the special account for other advance payment received. Is there any way of showing when reporting on a cash basis the total of pending payments for the coaches?

No. However, Manager is at its core an accrual basis accounting system with cash basis reporting optional. So you can change back and forth without affecting your records. Be aware, though, that some account balances will change.

Thank @Tut, it’s a good option to have, to be able to report on both.