Record a loan from a member
Record a loan from a member
Section titled “Record a loan from a member”Sooner or later a member puts their own money in. A float so the account can meet the hangarage before the monthlies land, or cash fronted for a bill the syndicate cannot cover this week. That is a loan, and Syndik8 records it as a credit on the member’s balance, marked as a loan so a treasurer can pick it out later.
The money comes back as flying. A loan puts the member’s balance in credit, and their charges consume it until it is used up. Syndik8 has no way to record the syndicate handing the cash back, so if you intend to repay in cash, keep that record wherever you keep the syndicate’s bank reconciliation — the app will not track it.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”- You must be an admin (treasurer counts as admin).
- You must be online. A loan writes to the financial ledger.
- Know the amount. It goes on as a credit at exactly the figure you enter.
- This is not an expense claim. If the member paid a syndicate bill from their own pocket — an invoice from the engineer, a fuel card, an insurance renewal — that is an expense. Expenses carry a receipt and an approval trail, and credit the member on approval. Use a loan only for money lent, where no cost was incurred on the syndicate’s behalf.
- Open the syndicate and go to Members.
- Tap the member’s row to open their drilldown, then Record a payment to open their charges. Route:
/syndicates/:syndicateId/members/:membershipId/charges. - Tap Add ledger entry in the top bar. It is there whether or not the member currently owes anything.
- Choose Loan.
- Read the note that appears. It says what recording a loan does and, as importantly, what it does not do: there is no repayment to schedule.
- Enter the amount the member lent, as a positive figure.
- Enter a reason — this is what appears on the ledger row, so make it something the member will recognise a year from now. Float towards the annual is better than loan.
- Tap Record loan.
The credit lands on the member’s balance immediately. Their next collection, whether a Direct Debit or a payment you record by hand, is smaller by that amount.
What the member sees
Section titled “What the member sees”On their own balance screen the loan appears as a row named Loan, with its own icon, carrying the reason you entered and a negative amount. Their balance is lower by it, and it is netted off by Pay All and by any Direct Debit collection in the ordinary way — a loan is a credit like any other in the arithmetic, and different only in what it is called.
The same dialog does two other things
Section titled “The same dialog does two other things”Add ledger entry also records:
- a Charge — an extra debit on the member, outside the normal finalisation flow; and
- a Refund — a credit, where you are correcting a figure rather than recording money lent.
Both write a manual adjustment. Pick the one that describes what happened: the type is what a future treasurer reads, and the reason box will not be read as carefully as you would hope.
The same three-way choice appears on a finalised booking’s detail screen, minus the loan — a loan has no flight behind it, so it is never filed under one.
If it goes wrong
Section titled “If it goes wrong”- “Failed to record the loan” with a permission message: you are not an admin of this syndicate.
- “This syndicate is closed and read-only.” or “This syndicate is over its free plan and is read-only.”: the syndicate’s ledger is frozen, admins included, and nothing was written. Where the app could not tell in advance, the same refusal arrives from the server as “Failed to record the loan: …” instead.
- You recorded the wrong amount. The ledger is append-only, so there is nothing to edit. Post a Charge for the difference, with a reason naming the loan it corrects.
- You recorded a loan that should have been an expense. Post a Charge cancelling it, with a reason saying so, then have the member submit the expense properly so the receipt and the approval are on the record.
See also
Section titled “See also”- Transaction types: every kind of ledger entry and how each affects a balance
- Member balance: which transactions count toward the current balance, and when
- Record a payment from a member: logging money that came in
- Approve an expense: the route for a cost the member incurred on the syndicate’s behalf