Finances
By default PASS will collect monies for you (sponsor/lunch fees). You have the option to send to your own PayPal account (business account only). If PASS collects, you can get up to three dispersed payments. For instance first check might be for venue and other early expenses. Second check can be week before. Final payment after event to cover unforseen costs (i.e. lunches not paid)
Responsibilities
The event is responsible for managing its own finances. PASS will hold funds in trust if the event requests that. This is the default configuration. This means PASS does not pay taxes and has no responsibility for reporting any of that money to the IRS on your behalf. PASS charges no fee for this trust service. If a vendor pays via PayPal the event receives the NET amount of the payment. If paid by check then event gets 100% of the amount. You are not obligated to spend all of the money you collect through sponsorship dollars. If after the event you find funds remaining it is recommended you use these funds to support other chapter efforts or just save it towards the next annual event. After the event PASS distributes 100% of your event's funds to the respective event leader. It is the responsbility of this person to manage the funds.
PayPal/Online Payment
When sponsors sign up they automatically get an invoice sent to them with PayPal link and check mailing address. Check mailing address can either be PASS or event organizer. The event is responsible for taxes on funds collected. We cannot give direct tax advice so we highly recommend hiring a tax professional to handle these matters. As an overview of possibilites, treat it as personal income and hold back a percentage of the funds to pay the taxes on that money. Another option is to work with a local business and ask them to pay the expenses for you so that they can expense it and this reduces tax implications on your end.
Pass does not earn revenue or incur expenses for SQLSaturday Events. PASS has a separate bank account set up for SQLSaturday funds held in trust. All checks received for SQLSaturday sponsorship are deposited to this account, and all funds received in the SQLSaturday PayPal account (only used for SQLSaturday events) are transferred to this account. As per event leader request, disbursement checks are withdrawn from this account and issued to whomever the event leader has requested, himself, co-event leader or a business. PASS completes a monthly reconciliation which includes all transactions from teh PayPal account, the bank account and the SQLSaturday super admin site. PASS also sends a final reconciliation to the event leader summarizing sponsorship dollars, lunch dollars and event leader disbursements. PayPal transactions are tracked and posted automatically. Be aware that PayPal does charge a fee of 2.9%+$0.30 on payments received up to $3000 (the percentage goes down as the amount goes up and over $3K). As an example, a lunch fee of $10 the event will receieve $9.41 if paid via PayPal. Another incentive of using online payment method you avoid the hassle of providing vendors with W-9 paperwork in order to clear funds. International transactions (cross-border payments from outside the United States) have an additional 1% cross boarder fee charged by PayPal. Event leaders can request up to 3 draws, 2 pre-event, 1 post-event. Any refunds of paid lunch fees are the responsibility of the Event Leader. For paid sponsorships by vendors, PASS can refund a sponsorship within the 60 days with no fees and after the 60 days the fee is charged automatically.
Check/Manual Payment
If vendor chooses to pay via check or other non-online means, you will have to provide them a W-9 tax form before you receieve funds.
Dispursement
We will only disperse funds to the primary event leader. This is noted in the event contract. Please allow at least 30 days lead time for any checks that need to be distributed. This lead time is needed to allow for things such as lost mail and also the fact that mail is coming from Canada. To request a check from PASS for disbursement, the event leader should login to http://admin.sqlsaturday.com, go to Misc -> Request a Check and follow the instructions to send a request.
Tracking Expenses
On the SQLSaturday site there is a basic expense collection page. This page is visibility only to other SQLSaturday admins. This can be used for committed and planned expenses. Using this tool is optional but recommended to keep track of these expenses.
Refunds
Lunch refunds are the responsibility of the event leaders. Sponsorships paid by credit card (via PayPal) will be refunded on the same card used for the transaction by PASS. All credit card refunds must be completed within 60 days from the original transaction date. All check refunds will be the responsibility of the event leader.