Back to NewsOne of the ways that barter can be used is to compensate your employees. 5 main levels of compensation that can be considered are:
1) Gift Certificates / Gift Baskets: Ideal for small one off bonuses, gifts, or irregular bonuses up to $200 at a time. Also, good for in-house draws and customer giveaways.
2) Group Activity / Events: Great idea to schedule group activities through BarterPay – especially a good idea for restaurants or other customer service oriented businesses because happy staff means a better experience for your customers.
3) Single Direct Purchase: If for a particular employee (incl. yourself),wish to acquire a particular “larger” item (e.g. build a deck on their house) where it is going to be a one off type purchase, the purchase should be made direct from your main account – with accounting / payroll allocating the purchase accordingly.
4) Affiliate Account: On-going trade pay, or larger bonuses (where it won’t be spent on a particular item(s)). See Note A below.
5) Health Benefit Account: An affiliate account in the corporation’s name where you have an agreement with your employees (or a subset of only key employees) to pay for any health services they need –as they are available on trade. (e.g. glasses, fitness massage, dental, chiropractic etc.) It should be clear that this is not an insurance program. We have had employers offer to cover any where from 25 – 100% of the cost on trade. On-going relationships can be established with specific service providers in your area.
NOTE: Affiliate Accounts
An affiliate account is a sub-account of the main corporate account. No sales may be made by an affiliate account unless they are to the main corporate account. If an individual who is an affiliate sees the benefit of sales on a broader scale they must establish their own main account.
Fees are charged on the transfer of BP to the affiliate account, however no fees are charged on the BP when spent by the affiliate (i.e. the affiliate is a non-fee paying account). Please note: Affiliates do not receive a paper statement. Account activity can be viewed and printed by accessing the BarterPay website.
It is best to limit the number of affiliates to key employees; and only those whom you feel will truly grasp the barter concept. Other employees are more easily compensated through gift certificates.
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