[GNC] Dealing with discounts when not using Business Features

[Michael Hendry]

Thanks, Michael.

IIRC, we exchanged some posts on the list some years ago, when I created Liability accounts for donations that were earmarked by the donors for particular purposes and later had to backtrack, following the advice of the accountant who examines our books. Indeed, I think you may have suggested this method.

See interpolations below.

Regards,

Michael
> On 1 Jun 2023, at 15:14, Michael or Penny Novack <stepbystepfarm at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> 
>> 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.

Neither. The student pays the net course fee, usually with a deposit and one or more additional tranches, before attending the course. What I wanted was to be able to report the net course fees as an income account, but be able to report the gross amount by student including the net course fee along with any discounts and bursaries so that we can easily detect over- or under-payments and take appropriate action. Sometimes a student will pay the full amount and subsequently qualify for a discount because another member of the family has signed up, for example.At present, there isn’t a simple way of determining how much we’re “spending” on discounts and bursaries from the books.

> 
> 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.

We haven’t had donations for bursaries recently, and applications are rare in any case. In essence, we forgo the income that would have come from the student with a bursary, in the same way as we forgo income when granting discounts.

> 
> 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.

Regards,

Michael