Financial Agreement

Dependencies

This agreement is dependent on three others:

• Activity Types Agreement
• Self Management Agreement
• Buffer Agreement

Member Remuneration

Our simplified formula for a month's pay can be described as:

Base Income + Business Viability Bonus + Performance Bonus

• Base Income: This is the monthly amount a core member will always receive, no matter what number of hours they work.
• Business Viability Bonus: A top up amount that is based on how sustainable we perceive our business to be.
• Performance Bonus: A top up based on work that brings money to organisation.

How we generate these different amounts is a little more complex as it depends on two factors:

• Our current Buffer Level
• Activity Types conducted during the month

We use Activity Types and Buffer Levels to determine what amounts are added to these three components:

Variables:

• COR - Charge-out rate: How much a member costs per hour to the client
• BH - Billable hours: Number of billable hours a member billed to a client in a month
• COM - Commission = 20%
• Day Activity Types:
  • Personal: Covered by monthly basic income
  • Team: Days the member is acting/working for the team - paid a day rate based on buffer
  • Contracting: Top up for hours worked on Team days that bring money to the group - BH * COR * COM
• Buffer:
  • Level 1
  • Level 2
  • Level 3
  • Level 4

The Formula

To calculate the amount someone recieves, take their active days for a month and refer to the table below.

Calculating daily amounts

Buffer Level	Day Rate	Contracting Rate
Level 0	100	COM * COR * BH
Level 1	150	COM * COR * BH
Level 2	200	COM * COR * BH
Level 3	250	COM * COR * BH
Level 4	300	COM * COR * BH

Day rate adjustment

To provide members flexibility we ask members to self-describe how much they feel they worked according to team expectations. Members book in and update "day descriptions" to denote their intent and actual work::

• Short day: 0.5
• Full day: 1.0
• Long day: 1.25

Members will denote what type of day they plan to work and update it to what was actually worked.

Forcasting example

Given we are planning for February of a non-leap year (28 days, 20 weekdays, 8 weekend days) And we are at Buffer Level 2 And a member has booked in:

• 4 Personal days
• 16 Team days

And we can estimate:

• 6 billable hours per day for 10 of the days
• a charge out rate of $140

When we run a cashflow forecast Then we can calculate the member will recieve:

                 1 * $1500
        +        16 * $200
        +  60 * 0.2 * $140
          ----------------
              Total: $6380

End of Month

At the end of a month we produce the invoices for our members. This follows the same process as forecasting except that we substitute in the actual billable hours worked, and the charge out rate.

It is the job of the Coordinators to keep an eye on this overtime and checkin with the group and members about how things are going. A transparent monthly report will be shared to all members.

Buffer as control lever (What's the point of all this?)

By coupling several factors to buffer events we can create a self-regulating system. The intent is that as the buffer increases, so too does the money flowing away from the pod. These are the scaling money outflows and do not include fixed costs such as space hire and SaaS tools.

Buffer level amount

A buffer level is defined as $4,000 per person as per the buffer agreement

Contribution to a commons

Contribution to a commons is done as a percentage of total revenue of the pod per month. Unless agreed otherwise this is a scaling amount of between 0-8% depending on the Buffer Level.

Collaborative funding

Giving individuals control over a discretionary amount of organisation funds that they (by themselves or with others) can use for a business expense they identify. e.g. new computer, desk, coffee machine, plants etc...

Invoicing

Invoices to our customers are sent within the first 5 days of the month following the billing month. Invoices are sent via Xero.

Reporting

A cashflow report is published at the end of each month.

Glossary

Income

The pod's funds come from the following sources:

Contracting/Bodyshopping

We sell our time to work as directed - often augmenting an existing team. We charge by the hour.

Brownfields project work

We manage and deliver a project that is extending/refining an existing code base. May be charged by the hour or by negotiated value.

Greenfields project work

We manage and deliver a project with a new code base.

Technical Discovery workshops/Code audits

Typically a day's work, these are tools we use to deepen ours and the client's understanding of the requirements.

Retainers/Maintenance Agreements

A fixed monthly sum paying for us to update, refactor and slowly develop the code base.

Expenses

Money flowing away from the pod happens as follows:

Fixed costs

Paying for our operation cost has the highest priority and happens before paying individuals.

Payment for services rendered

Paying for contractors by the hour.

Livelihood

Eating together

Basic Income

All members recieve $100 a day (5 days/week) all year. Regardless of what activities they conduct.