Administering Player Dues?

by **UMD Lax** on Thu Mar 06, 2008 1:51 pm

Last summer I was trying to determine a better way to administer player’s dues. Currently, we collect cash/checks/credit card payments/etc from each player. Payment plans are optional if some guys have trouble paying the full amount up front. All money is eventually deposited into the school account and they pay the bills. I’m sure with many programs this can be a pain to manage.

My idea was to let the school do most of the grunt work. The plan would be to submit the roster to the school Athletic Department and inform them who is playing. They would in turn administer the player dues to their school account in addition to tuition/lab fees/etc. This way the players would have to deal with school about payments and if anything is late or not paid the school would have a hold put on their account. It also helps us because all the money is in the Lacrosse Account when the semester starts and we don’t have to worry about tracking down payments. I know when I played a few years ago; it would have been nice to simply use my school loans to cover my tuition and player dues all at once. For us it just seems easier since the all the money is going back to the school account anyways. I mentioned it to the school and they seemed interested but they said it wasn’t possible at the moment and it was left at that. I am just wondering if other teams have a process like this and what the details are. If you have something else that works great please feel free to share.

**Sponsor**

by **Gvlax** on Thu Mar 06, 2008 2:10 pm

GVSU has the option to go through the Student Organization Center to make player/school contracts that state if the player does not pay their dues or return team equipment a hold will be placed. However, at this moment we do not go through this organization for paying dues or anything else, we use a team bank account away from school. Its nice to know that school has the power to place a hold when players dont pay in full or dont return equipment.

by **UMD Lax** on Thu Mar 06, 2008 2:28 pm

We also have player contracts. The AD has put holds on accounts in the past for unreturned equipment and unpaid dues. This is very helpful, considering the expense of equipment. However, I was just looking for a good way to have the school manage the dues.

Having your own outside account is good in the fact that you have complete control. However there are obvious liabilities. The school prefers us to coordinate everything through them so the know what going on which is fine with me. It just gets tough managing payment plans and riding the players to get money in. By having the full amount of dues charged to their school account, it takes the coach (or president, treasuere, etc) out of the picture. The players now have to deal with the school for getting their money in. It also allows us to have all our money up front as the school knows they will be getting paid back as they have they now have the control.

by **UMD Lax** on Thu Mar 06, 2008 2:31 pm

Not to mention I think its easier to raise dues when its being applied to the school accounts. This allows scholarships and loans to cover the majority of the amount owed. It seems like less of a burden on the players than coming up with a lump sum out of pocket on a college budget.

by **Kevin OBrien** on Thu Mar 06, 2008 6:25 pm

The problem with school accounts is that they are a pain to get the money out of. I would hate to wait a month every time we wanted to spend money. To us the advantage in having an off campus account outweighs any sort of benefit having all our money on campus. I haven't heard of a school willing to place holds on accounts, although that would be great.

by **UMD Lax** on Thu Mar 06, 2008 6:50 pm

It seems like most schools manage their own accounts off campus. Luckily, our school has been pretty good and fast about getting the bills paid and getting cash out when we need it. We usually try to keep some petty cash on the side for small purchases (field paint, etc). I was just looking to take advantage of the fact that the school has control over our money and hoping they would take control over charging dues. Any other teams have to manage their money through school channels?

by **Andy Sharp** on Thu Mar 06, 2008 8:00 pm

I am thankful that my athletic/financial departments do let us bill players through the normal channels to their misc. accounts. This past week I sent a list of student id #s with an amount to be billed and added to our team admin fund (league dues, refs, travel) a second amount to be deposited for team purchases (helmets, bags, pinneys), and a third amount to pay for gear each player chose to buy (heads, shafts, gloves, elbow, shoulder).

Contrary to most teams, getting money paid out is not super hard/long. There's the normal week or so for invoices to be paid by check and mailed from the financial office, but we also have a department credit card managed by the secretary that can be used for hotels and such. There is also the possibility of requesting a petty cash pick-up with a days notice. They are sticklers for receipts, understandably.

It took me 4 years to create a budget that I could look at and understand, the one the school administers comes as a monthly report with funding coming from student life, athletics, player dues, and one time payments at different times of the year making it difficult to get my mind around. There were also a set of budget areas for expenses that only the creator of the system would understand (job security). My spreadsheet now gives me the ability to forecast dues and purchases above and beyond the normal budget like never before.

Head Coach
Calvin College

by **UMD Lax** on Fri Mar 07, 2008 8:20 am

Andy Sharp wrote:I am thankful that my athletic/financial departments do let us bill players through the normal channels to their misc. accounts. This past week I sent a list of student id #s with an amount to be billed and added to our team admin fund (league dues, refs, travel) a second amount to be deposited for team purchases (helmets, bags, pinneys), and a third amount to pay for gear each player chose to buy (heads, shafts, gloves, elbow, shoulder).

This is exactly what I want to work towards. Knowing there are other schools (well at least one I know of now) are able to do this I will have to continue working with the school to see if we can get this done.

Contrary to most teams, getting money paid out is not super hard/long. There's the normal week or so for invoices to be paid by check and mailed from the financial office, but we also have a department credit card managed by the secretary that can be used for hotels and such. There is also the possibility of requesting a petty cash pick-up with a days notice. They are sticklers for receipts, understandably.

Our system is very similar to yours as far as timing and payment methods. This takes the hassle out of making payments on your own. I simply shoot an email with a copy of the invoice to the secretary and it’s paid within 1-2 weeks. They also help out with hotel reservations whenever needed.

It took me 4 years to create a budget that I could look at and understand, the one the school administers comes as a monthly report with funding coming from student life, athletics, player dues, and one time payments at different times of the year making it difficult to get my mind around. There were also a set of budget areas for expenses that only the creator of the system would understand (job security). My spreadsheet now gives me the ability to forecast dues and purchases above and beyond the normal budget like never before.

We also receive a monthly budget report from the school. We just started doing this in the fall because we ran into numerous discrepancies where our budget did not match the schools at all. They had us in the red and we were really in positive according to our budget. Now we can compare our detailed budget to the schools account and verify that no incorrect charges or deposits were made. I really hated having the school handle the money a few years ago, but with monthly reports and timely support from the school when making payments/hotel reservations/etc it is starting to grow on me.

Thanks for the info.

by **Michael Martin** on Fri Mar 07, 2008 11:13 am

At Missouri S&T, we handle our finances through the clubs/intramurals department. The university allows students to charge their dues with payment to the university. Checks made out to the university and designated for lacrosse also are allowed for student dues and from alumni. This allows alumni contributions to be tax deductible. We also have 1 or 2 players pay with cash to cover miscellaneous expenses, covering mostly non-invoiced fall ball bills.

Be careful of outside accounts - some schools like ours do not allow them. They also raise the question of proper oversight.

Each club will have a slightly different financial system, based on school administration regulations and maturity of the club. Try to find the comfort zone within your schools policies.