Staff may become a customer and it is very important to establish a solid trading practice with them.
Our recommendations are:
- Add the staff member to the database
- Group under STAFF
- Set Trading Terms to suit
- Set as both a client and supplier
- When adding their surname, it is a good practice to add their surname as STAFF – MARY
- You can set a default discount (See billing process below)
- Adding an Opening Balance
If the staff member has an opening balance from another system, add the balance as follows:- Add the Staff member to the database as above
- Select the ‘Receipts’ tab
- Select the ‘Journal Entry’ button
- Enter the details and 'Add an opening balance'
- Editing/Deleting a Journal Entry
- Click on the entry with your mouse
- Click on the entry with your mouse
- Billing Staff
The problem for staff billing is that it can dramatically affect the overall profit calculation whilst increasing the sales values.
For example:
You make $5,000 sales for the week at a 30% margin (($1,500/$5,000) * 100% = 30% )
A staff member gets $1,000 work done at zero profit (($1,500/$6,000) * 100% = 25%)
What can be worse is that the staff member does not get billed and the costs are hidden in the weeks work as a reduction in profit/increase in costs ((($1,500-$1,000)/$5000) * 100% = 10%)
This type of scenario can be very common when the owner of a business uses their position in the company to get products/work done for themselves
The message is; be careful and use the following rules:- Bill all work/sales be it to customers, staff, or owners, in all cases
- Be very careful about discounting. The idea that staff work does not cost money is untrue. The total sales will be used as a key factor in financial analysis
- Work on personal projects should be done after hours
- Charge for all materials and offer cost + percentage or retail - percentage
- Always check staff invoices for accuracy of factors.
- Receiving payment
- All staff accounts must be settled by the 20th or each month due. Else it will affect your Debtors Recovery factors and important Ratio Analysis calculations
- Avoid becoming a bank for staff accounts
- Set up a weekly account payment/credit so that a method of payment it always in existence
- Staff can always have a credit balance as easily as a Debit Balance
- If it's complicated, it's wrong
- Receive payments as if the account were a regular customer account