Sports Camp Bookkeeping and Payroll Records

Give every payment a home

Use a business bank account where appropriate for your structure. Avoid mixing household purchases with camp purchases.

Use clear account categories. Examples include camp sales, refunds, payroll, venue costs, insurance, advertising, software, equipment, and professional fees.

Keep deposits, loans, tax collected, and owner money separate from earned sales. Ask an accountant how to record advance camp payments and long-life equipment.

Reconcile the money

To reconcile means to check that two records agree.

Check your booking system against the payment processor. Then check the processor against the bank.

For example, a customer pays $400. The processor keeps a fictional $12 fee and sends you $388. Do not record only $388 as sales. Record the sale and the fee correctly under your accounting method.

Match each refund to its booking. Track chargebacks, which are payments disputed through a bank or card provider. Keep fees and the disputed sale separate so you can see what happened.

Build a weekly money routine

Once a week, enter receipts, match payouts, review unpaid balances, check bills due, and update the cash plan.

Keep a note of anything that does not match. Do not force the books to balance by hiding a difference in “miscellaneous.”

At month-end, review results by camp week or offering. One busy program can hide losses in another.

At season-end, include setup spending, unused supplies, equipment treatment, borrowing costs, and taxes as advised. A weekly management surplus is only part of the full result.

Handle payroll as a real duty

Confirm the person's employment status under the rules that apply. A contract saying “independent contractor” does not settle the issue. Canadian and U.S. tax authorities look at the actual working relationship, using their own tests.¹²

Check minimum pay, working time, overtime, breaks, holiday pay, payroll deductions, employer contributions, workers' compensation, and required records with local advisers. Different rules may apply to different roles or worker ages.

Record all required paid work. This may include setup, training, meetings, and closing duties. Do not budget only the hours participants are present.

A volunteer label is not a safe way to avoid employment rules in a for-profit business.

Understand owner pay

Your planning budget should show the value of the owner's work.

Your legal accounts may treat owner draws, salary, dividends, and business profit differently. A sole owner's draw is not the same thing as an employee wage.

Do not count the same work twice. If the owner is also the head coach, separate the actual roles and hours before adding both pay lines.

Get tax advice for the exact service

Ask whether your activities are taxable, exempt, or treated differently across programs. Ask when registration is required and where sales are taxed. In Canada, use CRA's GST/HST guidance as one starting point.³

Do not assume that being a camp, serving children, or working with a nonprofit creates a tax exemption.

Track collected tax as money owed, not free cash. Keep a calendar for returns and remittances.

Reduce mistakes and fraud

Use individual logins. Limit who can change bank details, issue refunds, or add suppliers.

Have a second person review large payments where practical. When a supplier sends new bank details, confirm through a trusted contact method you already have.

Set a record-retention plan with your adviser. Keep legal and insurance holds in mind before deleting records.

Your task: Set a weekly money meeting and a monthly close date. Assign one person to prepare records and another to review important payments where possible.