[OSGeo Finance] Quickbooks, reserve funds...

[Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)]

Frank said it all, but to toss in a few more terms, I'm wondering if  
these should be falling under Retained Earnings in the balance sheet.

Tyler

On 15-Oct-08, at 4:43 PM, Frank Warmerdam wrote:

> Ken Tamura wrote:
>> I will reply on this tonight when i have time to read the whole  
>> thread.
>> Quick question first:   the funds contributed that you want to  
>> capture as
>> detail, what is the obligation or restriction that deems it  
>> necessary to
>> track over time?
>
> Ken,
>
> 75% of project sponsorships funds received for projects like GDAL are
> held in trust by OSGeo on behalf of the project to be dispursed by the
> project steering committee as they see fit.  We (as OSGeo) have an
> obligation to be able to report on the funds available and the  
> transactions
> made on behalf of the project when requested.
>
> We also need to distinguish between general funds that the OSGeo board
> can spend freely and those we are holding for the projects and that  
> we should
> not normally be touching.  Currently the balance sheet reports  
> don't make this
> clear and we can get an inflated sense of the funds available for  
> general use.
>
> BTW - I say held in trust, but I mean that in a general sense  
> rather than a
> legal sense.  The projects are not separate legal entities - they are
> essentially just parts of OSGeo.
>
> Some additional detail is available in the "OSGeo Finance  
> Management" section
> of the project sponsorship document:
>
>   http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Project_Sponsorship
>
> Best regards,
> -- 
> --------------------------------------- 
> +--------------------------------------
> I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam,  
> warmerdam at pobox.com
> light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
> and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for  
> Rent
>