TroopWebHost can track five types of balances:

• Troop Accounts
• Member Acounts
• Events
• Budget Items (optional)
• Funds (optional)

Troop Accounts represent the places your troop keeps money, such as your troop checking account, PayPal account, petty cash drawer, or scout shop account.

Many troops only need one Troop Account, which represents the troop checking account.  The balance in this account should always match the current balance in the checking account.

This balance may include funds that belong to troop members who have positive balances in their accounts.  The portion that does not belong to troop members belongs to the troop.

Member Accounts, often referred to as "Scout Accounts", track the current balance for each scout and adult member of the troop.  The balance in a member account will reflect all of the payments received from that member and charges for participating in troop activities.  A member account is automatically created for each scout and adult when you enter them into your roster.

Think of a Member Account as being like a credit card.  You can charge the account for expenses like dues and camping trips.  You will credit the account when you receive money from that member.

With this system, expenses and payments are completely independent.  There is no explicit connection between the transaction that charges a member for a campout and the payment they submit for that expense.

To return to the credit card analogy, when you pay your Visa bill you don't pay for a specific item on your bill; your payment is simply applied to your total balance.  Your TroopWebHost member accounts work the same way.

In theory a troop member could deposit $1,000 to his account at the beginning of the year, and then let that balance be used for his expenses as the year goes by.

Another troop member might end up with a negative balance after attending several campouts, and then pay off that balance with one payment.

As we'll see on the next page of this User Guide, a member account can have multiple personal subaccounts.  This allows you to create reserve accounts for major expenses like summer camp or Philmont.

Event Balances reflect the expenses for an event, which are subtracted from the income for that event.  The income from most campouts comes from the charges to the scouts who attended the event.  Fundraisers can also be set up as events, so you can track the income from sales against the cost of the merchandise being sold.

Budget Items are an optional way to track income and expenses against a budget.  If you implement budgeting, you will be able to track the balance of each budget item in each fiscal year.

Funds are an optional way to track additional financial information.  Funds are not recommended for troops who simply wish to track their checking account and individual member account balances.

You can change the balance of one or more accounts by entering Transactions.

Each transaction has a Transaction Type which determines the types of accounts it affects.  For example, a Deposit To Member Account transaction will add to both the troop checking account and the member account.

You will select a transaction type when you enter a transaction.  You will then be prompted for the specific accounts to be affected by this transaction.