Economis 201

Questions to Consider when setting up Economis

Notes:

  1. The word “meeting” can mean a meeting, or activity, or class.
  2. The word “Timeclock” can also refer to Transactions (a different method of earning credits).
  3. Think of a Timeclock in Economis as being fairly equivalent to a meeting in YFC Impact.
  1. Deciding on Programs and Timeclocks – This is deciding how Economis will be structured for your chapter. Specifically, you need to decide how many Programs will be set up and then which Timeclocks will be set up in each Program.
  2. Generally speaking a Program can be as broad as a core ministry (e.g. City Life) or even the entire chapter, or something more specific (e.g. Westside City Life Club). You can have multiple meetings and activities under one Program (in Economis, these are called Timeclocks – one Timeclock per regularly scheduled meeting or activity).
  3. Remember that Timeclocks can be linked to meetings in YFC Impact (this is recommended, as a youth clocking in is entered in attendance automatically).
  4. Programs in Economis are simply a way to categorize and organize Timeclocks. A program can have anywhere from one Timeclock to many Timeclocks.
  5. Timeclock reports can be run based on Program (i.e. all timeclocks that are part of that Program), or a specific Timeclock.
  6. Timeclocks can be set up to be “registration only”. This means that the system will not allow a student to clock in without being on an approved list of students for that Timeclock. This is useful for the higher rate Timeclocks (e.g. to prevent a youth from clocking in to an educational activity but then going to the gym to play basketball). Timeclocks by default are set to “open”, meaning anyone can clock in.
  7. Economis also has the ability to create Departments, which are a level “above” Programs. However, for YFC Chapters, we strongly recommend that you not set up different departments because of the way Economis interacts with YFC Impact.
  8. How this is done at one YFC chapter:there are quite a few programs set up, all of which are City Life Center programs – YFC Wheels, City Life Club, Sports & Education, etc. Each one has from one to four Timeclocks; e.g. YFC Wheels Timeclocks are Basic Auto Mechanics, Advanced Auto Mechanics, and Basic Shop Management.
  9. Deciding on a currency and hourly rates for timeclocks
  10. Decide on the name of your currency. The default is “credits”, but other organizations have used bling, rocks, bucks, etc.
  11. Determine how much of your currency will equal one dollar. You could have 100 credits equal one dollar, but since the unit of currency can be determined down to two decimal places, that means your youth actually have credits down to the hundredth of a penny. Another possibility is to have one unit of currency equal to one dollar, so that with two decimal places it’s really showing down to the penny. However there is a psychological consideration, in that earning 50 credits per hour just seems “better” than earning 0.5 credits per hour, even if both represent earning 50 cents per hour.
  12. Now figure out the hourly rates for the various Timeclocks you will create. The more recreational the activity, the lower the number should be, and conversely the higher the educational value (but less fun), the higher the number should be. This is a key component of Economis: incenting youth to attend meetings and activities that they otherwise wouldn’t because “they’re not as much fun”. The greater the “spread” between the hourly rates, the more incentive that provides to youth to attend the educational activity. For example, paying 150 credits per hour for a Conflict Resolution class and 25 credits per hour for Open Gym (a 6 to 1 ratio) is more of an incentive to participate in the class than paying 100 credits and 50 credits (only a 2 to 1 ratio).
  13. The hourly rates will need to take into account your budget for inventory (stuff for youth to buy). They may need to be adjusted after seeing how many kids participate and how much they earn. Keep in mind that since “taxes” are taken out, and sales tax can be applied to purchases, that youth will actually be able to spend about 75-80% of what they earn (earning 500 credits will mean purchases of around 375 to 400 credits worth of stuff).
  14. How this is done at one YFC chapter: for purely recreational activities like playing in the gym, the hourly rate is 25 credits per hour (25 cents), whereas the Teen Parents hourly rate is 150, and YFC Wheels rates range from 200 to 300 ($2 to $3 per hour).
  15. Deciding on inventory and shopping
  16. Decide whether you will have Point of Sale (POS) terminals, online shopping, or both. POS means a physical place where items can be purchased (e.g. a corner “store”).
  17. This is not that important at the beginning, but as you get more items into your inventory of stuff to buy, you’ll want to organize it by categories. Think of categories as the labels of shopping aisles at a store, like breakfast cereals or canned fruits and vegetables. Some examples of possible categories are Snacks, Audio/Video, Baby Central, and Clothing.
  18. Just because something is available for purchase doesn’t mean you need to keep it in stock, especially more expensive items such as iPods or mobile phones. In fact, it’s advisable to not keep those in stock, but purchase them only when a youth buys one. The students will know that it may take up to a week to have their order fulfilled (via a message when they place the order).
  19. Setting up payroll and taxes
  20. Payroll is set to run automatically every Saturday at 5am. This can be switched to a different day, but it is recommended to keep it on Saturday.
  21. Taxes are set by default to FICA at 7.5%, State at 3.0%, City at 2.0%, and Federal at 8.5%. These can be adjusted if you want, and you can also add other taxes. We recommend setting these rates reasonably close to your local conditions. You can do the same with Sales Tax on purchases.