[GNC] Dealing with discounts when not using Business Features

[Michael or Penny Novack]

> As I said, I haven’t been using the Business Features because they’re an added complication, and because our accounts are kept on a cash basis.
>
> A Bursary is a grant made to assist a talented student who might otherwise be unable to afford a course. It’s doesn’t usually involve competition (like a scholarship), and is intended to encourage a talented individual to take up a course s/he couldn’t otherwise afford.


I knew what a "bursary" was --- but this more a difference in the  usage 
of the term "scholarship" across the pond. American English not always 
the same as yours. Long ago we ceased distinguishing "scholarship" that 
way, taking the meaning to be just "grant for the purpose of study".

How to treat this (with reference to accounting, not really a gnucash 
question) depends on:

a) Do you want to inflate income/expense of not? Same net done either way.

b) How independent (in a legal sense) is the source of these bursary 
funds? In a moral sense? << thus here, a quasi independent fund might be 
legally under the umbrella of a 501(c)3 << not its own 501(c)3 >> . Thus 
I am on the boards of a pair like that, the quasi independent fund << 
used to be legally under a different 501(3)3 >> and the 501(c)3 it is 
now under (moved there when that organization became 501(c)3. The 
purpose of the quasi-independent fund being to subsidize the attendance 
of children at events put on by the now parent organization at a site 
that does not have lower rates for children.

So very much like your "bursary" fund. But because the special purpose 
org was once legally independent (and de facto still is) this is handled 
by negotiated settlement between the boards, one agreeing to subsidize X 
amount of the children's rate and the organization just sends out 
registration forms with the resulting lower rate per child. I am giving 
this particular example because IN ADDITION parents who still could not 
afford that could apply for "scholarship" help << US usage* >>

Michael D Novack

* The split in usage goes back a ways. In the very beginning 
"scholarships" meant the same both sides of the pond. But then over here 
we began getting things like benefactors setting up funds with special 
terms (eg: descendants of so and so: needy students form the town of X, 
etc.) and in some cases the legislators had funds in their "gift and 
favor". Institutions might offer "scholarships" to applicants with 
athletic prowess. Or just need**. So we now no longer associate 
"scholarship" as being won by competitive academic exam.

** In some cases this is closer to the UK sense in that there are some 
top academic unis that are well endowed and consider "you made the cut 
to get in" as winning the exam and will then offer aid toward the 
tuition of students who need it.