The end of 2005 means a year end financial report for the City of Neulatenburg, our first. It's actually a complete year, although the sim was bought in May 2005. Before that month, since October 2004 in fact, small sales of Neualtenburg-themed items have contributed revenue. We won't use 12 months of monthly averages to calculate a budget for the upcoming year, but it's a calendar year of Neualtenburg financial activity nonetheless, and surely a milestone.
As usual, the financial reports are located at these URL's:
Neualtenburg Balance Sheet in Lindens
http://www.tospitimou.com/Neualtenburg/BalanceSheetLD.pdf
Neualtenburg Balance Sheet in US Dollars
http://www.tospitimou.com/Neualtenburg/BalanceSheet.pdf
Neualtenburg Income/Expense Report in Lindens
http://www.tospitimou.com/Neualtenburg/IncomeExpenseLD.pdf
Neualtenburg Income/Expense Report in US Dollars
http://www.tospitimou.com/Neualtenburg/IncomeExpense.pdf
The two US dollar reports are available by direct link from the site; the Linden dollar reports you'll have to use these links. My comments will use the US dollar reports.
December was a profitable, and very simple, month. The revenues were primarily the "Land Tier" revenues, your monthly fees, which were just according to the Land Journal projected amount of US$209. In addition, revenues from "Land Sales", the sales of land never sold, or previously sold and then abandoned, were rather significant, at US$125. Expenses were primarily the predictable LL fee of US$195. The net income for December was US$136.... for the year itself, it was in total US$289.
This information provokes some thoughts as we prepare and approve a budget for 2006. The founders calculated each person's monthly fee in such a way that the sum total would just slightly exceed the Linden Lab US$195 monthly expense. "Exceed", because we knew that there would be other small Paypal and conversion charges, and also because we couldn't calculate how quickly new residents would buy up the land. We now have a number of months experience with these dynamics, and a useful discussion might be held to examine the assumptions behind our monthly "assessments".
Going over to the Balance Sheet, I offer my usual description, because while an Income and Expense report might be pretty obvious, Balance Sheets make most people's heads "swim", my own included when I first started out in accounting. A Balance Sheet is a list of everything we (Neualtenburg) *own* (the Assets) minus the list of everything we *owe* (the Liabilities). The net is the Equity, The Net Worth, the "Value" of the company.
I'm going to skip right down to the bottom of the Balance Sheet, the Equity/Net Worth. There's a line there labeled "Current Earnings". This is exactly the number on the bottom right of the Income Expense Report, US$289. Its how much money Neualtenburg made in 2005; it comes from the Income Expense Report and lands here on the Balance Sheet, and its the number that ties the two reports together.
Neualtenburg had made a few dollars in 2004, US$15.64 to be exact, and thats where we started off the year. We added US$288.90 to that in 2005; we're now worth US$305.50 (with the $0.97 currency adjustment). That's a 20 times increase in value. Its been a very successful first full year for Neualtenburg, but we shouldn't expect another 20x increase in value for 2006. So, it's a start-up anomaly, but its certainly a very good start.
A note about cash. As you can see on the Balance Sheet, we are now holding cash of US$557. The number on the line labeled "City Avatar" is usually gotten from the "Services/Vendor/Balance" page of the site, since this account is one of Ulrika's avatars. That page appears to be broken at the moment, so the information was extracted instead from the transactions listed on the "Register" page, which are inherently inaccurate since they do not include LL system credits and charges. The amount is small, only US$76 out of the US$557. However, with Ulrika's stepping away from a day to day involvement with the city this small problem shows the urgency which exists for residents to gain more access and control over the site.
I will prepare a budget for 2006 within the next few weeks, and submit it to the RA for approval. Input on all levels is highly appreciated... both budget ideas for the proposal, and participation in the approval discussions in the RA.
Looking forward to another interesting Neualtenburg year.
Sudane