Admin contributions for projects that break even or run at a loss

My understanding is that the 15% administration fee is based on income and not profit- I believe this is clearly documented in all our membership documents (i.e. 15% administration from all income). If there are cases where the admin fee has been calculated on profits rather than income, this is not consistent and I would like to it reviewed as I have personally paid admin fee's for projects based on income and not profits.

Hi Jason-can you give us an example of this kind of project-I cannot see one that you have invoiced for?

I think that this has been inconsistent in the past and there are a few different scenarios.
1: I submit an application for funding and works out the costs and then add 15% onto the submission-this is very clear. 15% on total income.
2: I have a contract for work that provides for a daily rate for facilitation and also asks that any accommodation /meals expenses be included in the invoicing for reimbursement. In this case the admin fee is on the facilitation fees only. If I were charged 15% on the expenses, I would be 15% out of pocket.
3: A fee for service, budgetted project. Eg an AoH offering. What if we receive 10K in fees and the expenses are 9K? is admin on 10K or1K?

Separate to this, we can also claim any allowable expense from our class for general expeneses that may or may not be related to any specific project. For example, I claim phone, internet, travel, training fees etc. These are drawn from my class balance after admin contributions have been made.

My understanding has always been that I pay 15% to the backend on whatever amount I bring in to the org - 15% of the total invoice - that was consistent for years... the only change I ever heard about was the way you were doing yours, @kerry63 as per your example #2 above - I didn't realise we had all changed or agreed to this? Like @jasonemmins says it would be good to get clear about this...

I would see that people add a 15% admin fee to any funding proposal or project and this would cover the admin fee component without affecting any profit/loss.

I agree with this, and it is easy to factor this fee in when you are submitting a proposal or a grant. How does this work if it is not a grant/submission? Eg an AoH training (or any other fee for service project?)

I agree with Jason....

I think it should be 15% of all income across the board. All invoicing, paying invoices for expenses or reimbursements impact the work of admin. We could run all our classes at 'no-profit' if we chose to. Where would admin be then. Every time there is new work be they through grants, contracts, invoicing, NDIS there is admin work involved. It would be nice to see admin make a bit of a profit or pay more for what many people do as unpaid work or something else that fits with our pillars and purpose. At least if there was a surplus we could have a discussion about that.

For some scenarios this is easy, for others it is more complex.eg How would this work for example in the recent Ballina AoH? It just broke even (some people opted even not to have their expenses reimbursed), no one was paid, no admin was charged-if it had been, who bears this loss? Many of the particpants were jeder members on subsidised fees.
Another scenario is when your contract determines the fees and reimbursement, so you cannot add 15%.

And running a class at break even is completely different to running a project at break even.