Payments Log Feature Goes Live

How do we add a fee to an event so that it would show up for everyone going to that event?

It would be fan-flippin-tastic if you'd included the ability for the treasurer to post a bill to the entire unit at once (i.e., quick entry). As it is, not so much - I don't expect my treasurer to input dues for all 70 of our kids one by one. I realize this is a 1st draft beta, if you will, but I would have thought that would be one of the most important tools.

I do love the custom categories and the CSV export. When will those be coming to calendar and report modules?

What about accepting at least PayPal and better yet other forms of payment? I see some of your competitors are doing that already.

Does this provide the ability to show a balance of a scout's account to pull from?

I can't even find where to access this tool. Has there been a video tutorial posted?

Question....I can see payment log and scout connections on my profile, I am pack admin. I looked to see what my husband would see, as he is just a parent without full access like me and those times were NOT listed on our sons profiles!!' How are parents able to see what they owe without full access?

Also, I couldn't see where this thread was posted to follow it at.

@Scoutbook, I am trying to stay positive. I really am. I appreciate you releasing something.

<rant>
However, after all this time, I have to say that I am underwhelmed. I was hoping to replace our current accounting system (Quickbooks). Instead, I see something that is just in ADDITION to our accounting system. Reporting features? Quick add screens? Bank reconciliations? Troop expenses not charged to a boy? I submit to you that these are necessary parts of running the finances of a troop.

While you are at it, a good unit budgets its money. Where do we enter that budget. How about a report that compares how we are doing through the year in comparison to the budget? (Budget to Actual report)

While you are at it, this is an area where I feel that you need to include adults into the system. Adults going on a campout also eat food and use gas getting to and from, and that money needs to come from somewhere.

PLEASE release your plans for the future phases of this module. While you are at it, some communication with your users about your plans for getting the calendar system and the report builder out of beta and making them more useful would be highly appreciated.
</rant>

thoughts on good to haves
* bulk posting
* CVS import
* PayPal/Square/Swipe/Amazon payment receipt (one or more preferably)

I have been experimenting with the CVS export. I created a GL code in the "Category" field. for instance, I named it "410-2101 Membership Dues" After exporting to Excel, I was easily able to manipulate the data.

@Doug Moore @Greg Gotcher +1

Totally agree with comments above from Adrian, Carrie and Aaron...
... No documentation for a new feature (until the limited blog posting above)
... No reporting capabilities. having to check each individual scout for their 'payment status' will be very time consuming - even for a small unit.
... no published 'vision' for the feature. I suspect our unit will continue to use an external budgeting and payment tracking tool for the foreseeable future.
I would love to see a prioritized list of planned features and fixes for ScoutBook, along with some element of an deployment schedule. Right now, it feels like a lottery regarding when fixes to existing features and enhancements will be published, noting that since the BSA purchase of ScoutBook, updates appear to be far less frequent than before.

Agree with others.....really need a quick entry feature. Trying to enter dues and fees for 60+ scouts by the ones isn't feasible.

Another thing I noticed about the ability to add custom categories. Good idea - but need a place to do this outside of each scout's account so that we can do this as a global unit endeavor. I have seen that adding one in a scout's entry then allows it to show up in all other scouts as an option. This is nice. But I then deleted the test entry I created in the log and that action also then removed my new custom category as a possible option for ALL the scouts afterwards. I would prefer to simply have a way to create/manage a customized list I control of categories that populate always for all scouts - whether I delete payment log entries or not.

The biggest thing I think it needs is the ability to have a payment log for leaders. We have several leaders that no longer have scouts in the troop, but they still lead the troop on camping trips, long terms, etc. A payment log for leaders is a must. I can work around parents with scouts by including what they owe in their scout's payment log, but the leaders not assigned to a scout creates a bit of a problem.

So as far as seeing a positive balance, i.e. earned money from popcorn. You can add a payment, which would show a positive balance and as you add expenses it will subtract from the balance.

I'm a connected parent and can't see anything about payment log on my son's profile. It's not even an option.

I'm curious how you all vet these features. Seems like if you all spent a few minutes and used your app with more than five scouts the issues would be painfully obvious. Don't get me wrong I love the app but..,
Please, please. Let some large units be beta testers for new features or at least ask our opinion. I have 78 cub scouts, going scout by scout is something I'm not going to ask my VOLUNTEERS to do.

By the way like some others on here, I'm also a product manager and developer for a major network manufacturer.

Given prior beta releases from Scoutbook, I imagine we'll be seeing additional Payment Log features roll out soon.

That said, would be great to have payment log for everyone in your account - scouts, adults/parents, and leaders. For example, we're going to "Scouts Night" at the game, and we need to collect money from everyone going, scouts, kids, adults, siblings - to pay for tickets.

And a +100 for Quick Entry to multiple scouts/adults for logging charges owed!

Please, if there is some sort of beta group, sign me up!! As a web developer also, this feature should not have been released. My wife is the treasurer, I can't repeat the words she had when I showed her the feature. Luckily it is a non-issue, because as the Treasurer she can't even see the feature!

It seems like everything on Scoutbook is painfully laborious to use. It takes about 5 minutes to add each new Scout all their info and then their parents. Every entry requires a second round through the edit screens. And the calendar is a mess also, especially for attendance.

Great kon so far with all that I have seen. Pay no mind to all the negativity in the other comments. You have a robust product and are making improvements everyday. I for one love it, and so do the parents on my pack and troop. When you get the features, I know they will be released.

Before anyone else wants to go on a rant about the product, remember that a Scout is Kind and Courteous. If you don't like it, go find another product to complain about.

@Carrie Huot, this was posted to the Blog and not Forum.

For everybody else that can't find this tool. You have to get into each scouts account same as entering their advancements and such.

@Aaron Weissman excellently put.

@Scoutbook (now BSA) Get your act together. This is a paid service and you bought into it. Its a great service but at this pace you are going to start see Packs and Troops jump ship. When it was the scoutbook team working on this, their team was probably small but they communicated, they provided roadmaps, they gave paying customers something to look forward too. You are the BSA, we expect more.

@Rick Mead, well put.

Looks very promising. As others have suggested, a way to record fees for an Event would be fantastic, and/or Quick Entry would also be helpful.

How come BSA does not give out any responses? No communications on a new tool is useless!!!! Get you act together please. I'm already checking out other products.

I don't typically comment on much, but I have to give kudos where they are needed and deserved. I am a programmer as well, and I was glad to find Scout Book last year, as it greatly simplified advancement tracking and recording to National BSA much easier that what we were doing.

Adding in new features into a great application is never and easy feat or task. As a unit admin, I like the ability for electronic tracking of payments. What you have added into Scout Book is a good first step, and we all know that one must learn to crawl before we can walk...

Just a few key items from my initial observation on the new "Payments Log":

1) The "Committee Treasurer" does not have access to the "Secure Notepad" This should be a MUST as this person should be involved with payment issues. Seems that only users with "Full Control" has access. Maybe add in an additional permission control, or those users who have access to "Edit Profile" would be an option.
2) Unit "Quick Entry" for global items such as yearly dues or Boys Life fees would be helpful, especially for large units.
3) I understand this is the first release, but adding in an additional "Scout Account" dollar value within the payment tracker would be nice, along with a method to use "Scout Account" funds to pay for Scout's debits. (Maybe in "Payments Log v2.0"?)

Thanks for creating such a great product! Keep the upgrades coming.
YIS,
James Jarosz

It would be great if an event signup through calendar was integrated with an online payment option (paypal, etc.) in the payment log. A bulk entry for collecting memberships and event payments is a must.
Keep up the good work.

Here are a couple other "Payment Log" suggestions:

4) Add "Payment Logs" to adult leaders. We too have to pay for outings and our unit also passes on re-charter fees to adults.
5) Calendar Event/Payment Log Integration.
5a) For a given Calendar Event, allow a switch for "Event Fee". When turned on, provide input for amount and category. Name/Description make same as "Calendar Event" and auto-link Calendar Event.
5b) When a Scout/Parent RSVP's for the event, automatically trigger the "Amount Due" to the Scout.

There are many good suggestions so far, so I won't duplicate them, but I do have a couple comments.
1. For the person that basically said "Don't complain, go find another product", I have to disagree. Our Pack adopted and paid for Scoutbook because the BSA purchased it and announced it as the "official" app. When it was a small private venture, simply leaving made more sense. That is no longer the case and both development and communication with users needs to step up a notch. It was a lot of work to create and populate accounts, then get parents and leaders to confirm them and begin using them, only to find out that many of the features don't work, but there's no number to call for help.
2. Please provide a way to "like" or upvote comments to make this forum more useful in terms of crowd-sourcing.
3. How about an occasional answer or some feedback from someone official? It's rude to provide a forum that isn't monitored and participated in by the very team we're attempting to communicate with.

++ to each comment above. A bit premature. If this is being rolled out in stages, it should have been mentioned to avoid some of the negative comments above. What is the roadmap for this feature?

I can 'see' how much this product has matured in the last 8 months by reviewing comments of reviews from others at the start of this year. I know this product is quickly evolving, so I suspect that this is a stepping stone. This comes back around to communication to avoid frustration by the users and prospective users.

Same as above, I'm a Software Engineer by trade. Getting this in front of a group of us earlier to beta test this would be beneficial... especially when so many of us are willing to help. You should consider having a beta tester signup somewhere.

I would love to see the ability to integrate a payment platform (square, paypal, etc) into Scoutbook. If we have a trip planned, wouldn't it be nice to have the parents be able to click a link when they RSVP for the trip and pay for it online, with the payment being attributed to the scout's account?

This would enable leaders to print an RSVP list including who has paid for the event. As it is now we use a square dongle for swiped credit cards and paypal to accept payments electronically at the meetings prior to a trip, but keeping track of who has paid and when has become a nightmare. It's especially sticky during popcorn season when multiple parents with square dongles are taking electronic payments for popcorn on top of trip payments.

Integrating event payments into the payments platform through the RSVP function would be very nice. We could credit the scout's account with the payment, and then "bill" the account for the cost of the trip to bring the balance back to zero for the next event.

Do we have a time frame on CSV file uploads? If it is anytime soon I will hold off entering it for individual scouts.

A Road Map or an update to the Coming Soon would be an excellent way to address the questions here. I convinced my Pack to go with Scoutbook before the BSA purchase, it was an easy decision at the time. The open communication seems to have slowed since the BSA purchase, which is a deterrent for some...I highly encourage the Road Maps/Coming Soon threads, as these would slow down some of the negative comments. I look forward to seeing what comes next.

I, as well, convinced my Pack to go with Scoutbook before the BSA purchase, it was an easy decision at the time. Now that I have finally persuaded everyone to start using Scoutbook BSA seems to be regressing the site, this will make renewal in Oct a very hard sell. None of the new joiners from the pack will get to see the Scoutbook that made the purchase such an easy one. This site needs to go back to what worked and start communicating with its customers again.

The concept of this feature is great,but really needs to be worked over very thoroughly prior to release. it came as a complete surprise to me when a couple of new parents asked last week when the site would be updated with their son's dues. when rolling out new features/capabilities, it is a really good idea to clearly communicate with your user community beforehand.

Can you also add the option to allow a single payment to cover multiple fees.
Ditto on including fees in events- once someone rsvp's for an event, the fee is automatically incurred on the Scout's account.

Does anyone know if a parent is able to download their Payment Log CSV file for their own individual scout? I am making a couple of Excel files with "sum if" formulas that I may be able to share with families who are familiar with excel. I am also making a treasurer only version that lets me see who owes for what, not just the total balance due as shown on Scoutbook.

Haven't looked at it online but a feature that I haven't seen mentioned - Popcorn sales.
Our Pack has $T in Total Fees. The family Pays $x in dues and then has the option to sell $y in popcorn or do a buyout of $z or have a combo $T=$x+($y*.3) + $z with any positive balance being available for day/resident camp. Sorry for the algebra but the programmers will get it.
Paying online would be awesome. We adopted a Square card reader that is nice but still makes returning families show up for sign up night to swipe the card. Yes, online or CC payments cut into funds slightly but it is fully worth it by eliminating an ugly task for volunteers that doesn't involve working with the boys.

So far so good I have a small troop but it can only get better as it goes along. Bob I like your Idea and I hope to see that option.

We are new to this Scoutbook app, and I have a quick question, is there a way to add all scouts to an amount due...like they all owe X for registration, do I have to go in and add it individually to all scouts, or is there a group entry thing...obviously I am not one of your 'computer' people...we need some easy to follow directions, for non computer people...also having to double click constantly is kinda frustrating, to go from edit scout, to edit parent, to add payments...can't you make it so that it links back or forward, since we are already on the scouts page...

How come I cant see this feature? I dont see it in any of my pull down menus

"Unit leaders and committee treasurers can also export the Payments Log data for the entire pack or troop." I'm supposedly set up as the pack treasurer and I don't see where I can do this. To even see the scouts payment logs and record dues, I had to establish a connection to each boy as an adult leader. hmmm.....

I've tried to put in payments for dues & such & can't seem to find how to do that. I thought this feature was already added! Please help!!

Our parents can not see the log. Has this not been unlocked yet?

Definitely need quick entry on this. I was all excited to use it, but I'm not typing in the same dues 90 times (actually times that by 3 because we let them pay in payments).

As an admin I can see this feature for each of the scouts. However, parents cannot see this payments log option. What settings need to be changed so that it is visible to parents?

I have a family subscription & I am an admin for a unit. When I click on the "Payment Log" on either of my boys it does not bring up the payment screens. Does this feature not work for a family subscription?? When I click on any of the scouts in the unit level, I am able to see the payment screens.

Love this new feature!

Is there a way to add the payment log to the Quick Edit option? That way if 15 scouts had the same charge or credit we could do it all at the same time!

+1 Quick Entry
+1 Making this visible to parents

How do you add charges in the payment log section. When you click on the question mark it says you should add all charges first before adding any payments. However I do not find where/how to enter those. Please help!

In your "connection permissions" you should have a accounting permission. I had an issue with my treasurer, I had to give her "advancement/full" permission so she could enter payments or balances. I would rather give her only access to monies collect/due not to scout's advancement records. Or have a default connection when a person's role is a treasurer or top 3, they have access to payment editing.

This is a great feature. Some of our Dens collect dues and it would be nice to allow Den Admims the ability to add transactions as well.

Parents have asked me for an on-line feature to pay for dues and events. Please consider adding a "Pay Now" feature that could be tied to our pack's bank account.

Thank you.

I was trying to educate myself on what permissions our treasurer needed to record dues payments. I'm guessing, as Mario stated above, I need to give the treasurer full permissions for her to do this. What is the point of the statement "Only Admins and Treasurers are able to add or modify the payments log"?? If the treasurer has to have full permissions to enter payments, then, by default, any leader with full permissions can enter payments, right?? I was also blown away by the lack of "help" on the site in general. I only found this blog posting thru Google. Of course, I didn't search the blogs. I searched the FAQ's in the Help section, and the only references to "payment" is how to pay for a subscription! Lastly, like most everyone else above stated, it's quite discouraging that this blog has been going on for over a month, and I don't see a single response from anyone at BSA. The only guidance I've gained is from the other VOLUNTEERS that are posting trying to figure it out on their own like me.

I am the pack admin for a pack of 60+ boys. I am really struggling with the Payment Log feature. Some of my comments have already been stated but I am hoping that if they are repeated enough times that changes will be made.
1. My unit treasurer was able to pull the CSV report and now it is no longer an option for her.
2. My parents are unable to view their son's payment log balance.
3. Entering each scout individually is very time consuming.

I would suggest a view only option for all parents. The CVS report should also be available to more than just the Pack Admin. This should be viewable to the Treasurer and the Key 3. Inputting a Quick Entry to the Payment Log for things like dues and camping trips would also be extremely helpful.

Our pack has been very happy with ScoutBook since transitioning this year from ScoutTrack. We were part of the Beta testing as a Top 50 user, but it seems that many of the problems we pointed out were not fixed.
We are also running into issues with the attendance tracking. Our den leaders are not able to track attendance for anyone other than their son.

Hopefully someone from BSA is monitoring this blog since it doesn't seem like anyone responds.

Is this option still live?

Lots of negativity and frustration in the comments-- I think that this is a great feature and sorely needed, but all of the enhancements suggested above are valid-- especially some way to quick-enter lots of dues (one at a time is untenable)-- even if it were possible to take a CSV template and upload it, that would be a huge improvement. Also, the authorization model comments are valid. I know Scoutbook is not SAP, but money and management thereof are a big time-consumer, and streamlining administration, facilitating payments (various forms of electronic payments, Google Wallet, POPMoney, etc) to make things as self-service and automated as possible, and comprehensive/transparent reporting for Treasurer, leadership, and parents would be a massive win.

Leaders often have fees associated with events that they have to pay (eg. summer camp, district training, etc...). There is certainly a need to expand the payment log to all adults associated with the pack. As a new pack to this application, we're impressed so far and have seen many improvements in a short amount of time. I do agree with most of the statements posted here. Quick entry for a fee to the entire pack/den for a calendar event is a must. I'd like to see a field in the calendar event that for "Fee Amount" that posts that amount due to each invited scout, eliminating the need to edit each account individually.

So is everyone giving up on this feature? Lots of good/valid comments 8months ago....nothing now. What am I missing? Is scoutbook dead on arrival?

+1

I am still hoping for improvements to this feature. Any updates would be appreciated.

Need to be able to do mass/quick entry on entire Pack/Troop

We are attempting to use the Payment logs and I noticed something:

Calendar Event doesn't do anything in the event?
In the payment log entry screen the hint says "You can associate this charge to an event. This allows Admins to see who had paid for each event right from the event page. This field is optional."

Payment Due Date - where does one use the reminder feature?
The hint says "If there is a due date for this charge enter it here. Scoutbook can help remind users if they forget to make the payment. This field is optional."

Anything new on being able to enter registration dues for entire pack in one swift manner rather than having to do it one scout at a time?

Any update on which payment log enhancement requests are being worked on? There were a lot of good ideas here (I wish I could +1 several of them so you could prioritize). Giving us a view of your roadmap is important to keeping us happy so we can set expectations with our units.

I agree with all of the suggestions above, but especially with the need for bulk entry. The idea of entering dues as a separate amount due and separate payment for every one of our 130 pack families is a complete non-starter, and is pointless even at the den level. I'm even more concerned, though, that there doesn't seem to have been any roadmap or response to any of the comments here in the past 11 months.

So i have to admit that I didn't read this top to bottom, but it seems like there wasn't much input from the Scoutbook team. Where are we on this? I'd like to start using this feature.

I never even noticed the feature before today, but there is no way that I can ask our Treasurer to use this tool to keep track of dues and monthly activity fees for even our modestly-sized troop of about 50 Scouts. One at a time? How about, when you set up an event, everyone who is invited, Scout, Leader and/or Parent, gets an amount due that is specified in the event WHEN they RSVP YES? I don't know about the rest of you, but we do not charge a Scout for a camping trip they were not able to attend. And then, we probably need a quick entry of those who have paid that? Same thing with dues - quick entry for all Scouts?

This feature is a year old, and there have been no improvements/additions and no responses even to the comments and questions here? And now they have the excuse of working on performance for a while and doing NOTHING else.

Is anyone able to post any updates? I thought it would be nice to move from the excel document to scoutbook for our pack, but even with 60+ boys, I will not be doing that. It is a significantly greater amount of work than what I am doing now.

I use Quickbooks for all of our financial tracking i for the troop. It there any way to upload information from Quickbooks in a format that would populate this database for scouts in our troop? If not, then I won't be using this feature for our troop. Double entry accounting was bad enough to learn, I'm not adding the additional process of updating account information on Scoutbook to my workload.
Thanks and Cheers!

It would seem that the developers stopped working on this function. Totally agree that in its current state it is not useful to the treasurer as it is only partially built. A Pack accounting button for budget info, payments being linked to the calendar events, and the ability to build an annual or quarterly budget plan as well as the bulk entry (not sure how that got missed).

I've been talking with our treasurer about how to better track dues, outing payments etc. Thought I would check here to see what others are doing before inventing the wheel from scratch. Looks like Scoutbook started something useful and dropped support. What are other troops using? Seems like a spreadsheet was mentioned by some, Quickbooks by others but that takes a lot of training. I was wondering if Quicken would be able to do it. Our biggest issues is how to make simple reports (spreadsheet doesn't do well) and how to let parents see balance at any time (online).
Thank you!

I use ScoutBook with the Excel Tools that was offered elsewhere on this site. I also have the Chrome plugin that handles the bulk functions. For me it is not quite there, but works decently. One thing that I would like to see added, is the ability to give access to the Treasurer without giving full access. There are some other areas of SB that I would prefer to see some more granular control as well, like for awards and advancement.

Is there a way to import scout account balances and past transactions from another program like Troop Track? I know we can put in the current amount but want some tracking for at least the past year of two just to ensure no issues.

+1 on quick entry

any updates from the Scoutbook team?

question - Some parents can see their scout's money account but others can not see it. Why is this? Do you have to give everyone full access for them to see the Scout Account? We don't really want to do this since we don't want parent's necessarily having access to edit advancements and the money accounts. Not sure if that is the actual problem. Anyone had this problem?
Thanks in advance

Until quick entry comes online this feature is more of a hassle than it's worth. +1 for updates on when this might happen. Thanks in advance.

Adam, you can get "quick entry" functionality by using Chrome and adding the extension "Feature Assistant Extension for Scoutbook"

Also, I see there is a new Pack report called Show Payment Log Balances. Thank you! This looks to be very helpful!

How do you delete an entry where you made an error? I tried "Delete Log" button with no luck

Has there been any progress since this thread started two years ago?

Also interested in the progress of this functionality... Any updates will be very helpful.

Also a vote for quick entry or csv upload. It's hard to convince a volunteer to serve as treasurer if it means they will have to spend this much time inputing individual debits and credits for each scout in scout book in addition to managing the finances. Please make this a priority.

Why can't parents see what is in their scout's account? Only Admin can see it. So we have to constantly be hounding parents to put money in their scout's account. Please add this so everyone can see how much their child has available. Thank you for the recent updates. It is getting much more user friendly.

My boys transferred from a Pack to a Troop and their Payments Logs dropped to zero and all past transactions disappeared.
1) Is that supposed to happen?
2) How can we retrieve that data (or at least the final balance)?

help...

I am also looking for a quick entry for the payments or amounts due. Seems like it would be a great function not to have to enter each one in each account. Is there something I am missing?

Our Pack Treasurer does not use this because it appears to require individual re-entry of individual data. Is it possible to import information from a spreadsheet program? Can the Treasurer generate a summary report listing Cub account status from Scoutbook?

We've been trying to use the payments log in scoutbook but apparently it still requires you have full control such as the treasurer, advancement chair, Cub Master, etc.
We can't really use it unless we want to be handing out full control to all the parents. That seems a little counterintuitive to keeping scoutbook safe from changes to the electronic advancement system. I'm not saying parents will go deliberately changing things, but giving them the opportunities to make mistakes that could seriously affect something for their child, doesn't sound like a good idea. Isn't there some way to let parents see the payments log for their child without having full control?

Ok so after reviewing 3 yrs of comments... my take away is DO NOT use Scoutbook for payments and tracking financials. I was so excited when I noticed you could enter payments, but then hit a wall because there doesnt seem to be a way to enter the charges, and as many have commented it's useless unless you can enter a bill for everyone (by pack or by dens) at once.

And of course further useless if parents can't see their charges or payments. So... why is it taking 3 years?

Scoutbook Team:
• Have you issued any replies to the questions stated above?
• Our Treasurer is hesitant on using the Payment Log Feature.

Looking forward to your reply!