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Thread: LH Financials

  1. #1
    Senior Member porschedpm's Avatar
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    Donation Towards the Maintenance of the Lansing Heritage Website

    December 31st is the last day to make a charitable contribution and be able to deduct it for 2004 . If you haven't decided who to endow your millions to yet, might I suggest you donate just a small portion towards the maintenance of this site. $5, $10, $20, $25, $30.....or whatever. Every little bit helps. It's easy. Just click the 'Donate' icon in the upper right corner.

  2. #2
    Senior Seņor boputnam's Avatar
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    LH Financials - Q1 2006

    LH Financials - Q1 2006
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    bo

    "Indeed, not!!"

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    Smile Thank you.

    Thanks for doing this Bo, and for posting it.
    Out.

  4. #4
    Senior Member louped garouv's Avatar
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    yep good to see... and fast too... thanks for keeping up with this stuff Bo!

    and i am no CPA either (still studying),
    without researching, I think that the donations go under operations and not financing -- typically the financing section will include such things as stocks/bonds (Issuance, repurchases, redemptions, dividends, yada yada yada)

    I submit that the receipt of donation income here on LHS is more of a day to day operations type activity.

    Investment section is typically things like major equipment, buildings etc....

    again, this is without research, so proceed with caution...

    I can look into this in a few weeks if anyone really wants me to...


    here is a brief outline... taken from here... http://www.investopedia.com/articles/01/110701.asp

    The following is a list of the various areas of the cash flow statement and what they mean:
    • Cash flow from operating activities - This section measures the cash used or provided by a company's normal operations. It shows the company's ability to generate consistently positive cash flow from operations. Think of "normal operations" as the core business of the company. For example, Microsoft's normal operating activity is selling software.
    • Cash flows from investing activities - This area lists all the cash used or provided by the purchase and sale of income-producing assets. If Microsoft, again our example, bought or sold companies for a profit or loss, the resulting figures would be included in this section of the cash flow statement.
    • Cash flows from financing activities - This section measures the flow of cash between a firm and its owners and creditors. Negative numbers can mean the company is servicing debt but can also mean the company is making dividend payments and stock repurchases, which investors might be glad to see.

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    Senior Member spkrman57's Avatar
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    Big Thanks for helping the cause!

    I appreciate your efforts and those from other folks that make this site possible!

    Ron


  6. #6
    Senior Seņor boputnam's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by louped garouv
    and i am no CPA either (still studying),
    I expected this to (de..)generate some discussion.

    This "business" isn't really one, so normal treatment is confusing (to me )

    wrt donations, I believe you are right and had debated so with myself. You can check the financials of other non-profits - Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, etc. - they put these on the P&L as ""Public Support" (US GAAP). But, until I get some details from Don and how he wants things done I chose to not show them on the P&L, for now. These are not revenues, and this is not an operating company. So, awaiting guidance I tried to at least show the (limited) flows of cash - we can argue about where they properly go. For now, I chose to show donations as sources of financing. We have never before gotten anything but a Balance Sheet (and those were rare...), and maybe that's all that is relevant. The rest is just armchair accounting of Don's hobby!!

    On your argument about Investing Cash Flows - the expenses were for a capital project (Project May), and not for operations, per se. I think they are correct where they are. And, that investment will be amortized when the "build" goes into service.

    We have no operating costs (thanks to John Nebel) and the only other expenses are software, which I await receipts / accounting for, and for John Nebel to give me a depreciation schedule (I'm guessing 6-months is about normal for software... ). When those inputs come in, we can build better financials.

    Up to recently - certainly before Project May - this was bootstrap funding to re-imburse Don for webhosting and software costs. With Project May and perhaps other endeavors, it might serve to detail where the funds are going. That is what I'm trying...

    When I get detailed instructions from Don I'll revise the statements, accordingly.
    bo

    "Indeed, not!!"

  7. #7
    Senior Member porschedpm's Avatar
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    Hi, Bo. I applaud you in your efforts to be as detailed and accurate as possible. But IMHO, The only information you really need to convey to us members through financial statements is:

    Beginning Cash Balance
    +How much money did the Forum take in and from what source
    -any collection fees
    -How much the LH Forum spent and on what
    =Ending Cash Balance (should equal the bank balance)

    Which is basically your Cash Flow Statement. You could do a similar statement showing the change in the Net Assets for the Project May if someone needed to know what the value of those assets are. Of course to comply with GAAP, you'd have to show a Balance Sheet, Statement of Operations, Statement of Changes in Net Assets, and a Statement of Cash Flows. And we'd probably have to have a separate fund for the operations of the Forum and separate fund for capital projects such as Project May. But unless we are borrowing money from a bank, have sold stock in this Forum and are reporting to shareholders, or need Financial Statements to include in a return to the IRS, I don't think we should overly complicate what is basically reporting the cash position of the Forum. For all intents and purposes we're just a simple club whose contributions are used to keep the website going. With maybe a side project or two going.

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    Senior Seņor boputnam's Avatar
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    Yea, I agree.

    I had gone around-and-around on the options and decisions that could be made. But, I think it's all quite moot.

    IMO, all that is needed is a very simple cash-flow statement (non parsed), and the resultant impact to the cash balance.

    Don's relationships, and the incredible support of John Nebel (do we really realize the constancy and magnitude of this? Pinch me...) make this a very simple case. So long as this endures, we have no need for a P&L, or OpCF, or FinCF, or anything other than what I consider a modified InvCF, which is what I posted.

    Thanks for the input.
    bo

    "Indeed, not!!"

  9. #9
    Senior Member louped garouv's Avatar
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    i agree too.... best to keep it as simple as possible, and complex as necessary

    complexity does not really seem necessary for LHS purposes...

    when i first started studying accounting i used to think more things were black and white.... its amazing how many 'clear-cut' issues generate so much discussion WRT accounting treatment....

    again, i thank you for your volunteer time and efforts, anything is better than nothing -- and it is prety easy to see what is going on by what you presented

    (THAT is what's most important!)



  10. #10
    Senior Seņor boputnam's Avatar
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    So then, maybe this is sufficient?

    This also incorporates a needed edit to adjust for a timing issue - that is of showing the prior period cash balance (rather than a "transfer of funds from D. Leisz").
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    bo

    "Indeed, not!!"

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    Wow! I'm surprised that there was $950 in site donations this past quarter. Speaking of quarters, that's nearly a quarter per member.

  12. #12
    Senior Seņor boputnam's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Giskard
    Wow! I'm surprised that there was $950 in site donations this past quarter.
    Fantastic.

    And, the donations have continued into Q2 - even after we curbed the softporn...

    We will reimburse Don for the current version of vBulletin - and await him submitting the bill - and some other lingering "payables" that are just now coming through.
    bo

    "Indeed, not!!"

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by boputnam
    And, the donations have continued into Q2 - even after we curbed the softporn...
    No way dude! Seriously?

  14. #14
    Senior Member porschedpm's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by boputnam
    So then, maybe this is sufficient?
    Now you're getting the hang of it. Concise and informative. You're a natural at this. Polish up you Excel spreadsheet skills, buy a copy of Turbo Tax, and next thing you know you're damn-near an accountant.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Giskard
    No way dude! Seriously?
    See, we're not totally useless.
    Out.

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