project-page westside-accounting
project-westside-accounting updated 2026-04-21

Vision

Legally coherent entity stack supporting Westside Kings and Queens Inc.'s payment rails. Pal Enterprises LLC (platform) facilitates WKQ (nonprofit merchant). Every dollar that belongs to the nonprofit lands in the nonprofit's bank, under the nonprofit's EIN, with clean 990/audit posture from day one.

User Stories

  • US-1: As Lucas, I need Pal Enterprises LLC formed so the tech/platform company has its own legal home separate from older personal entities.
  • US-2: As Lucas, I need a new Stripe platform account under Pal Enterprises so WKQ's payment rails flow through legally correct entities, not through a staffing LLC that has no business touching nonprofit money.
  • US-3: As Lucas (and the WKQ board), I need WKQ's Connect account activated with Mercury attached as its payout bank so nonprofit revenue lands in the nonprofit's own FDIC-insured checking account.
  • US-4: As a parent paying Westside online, I need my card statement to show WESTSIDE (not PAL-E) and Stripe's 1099-K to correctly name WKQ as the merchant.
  • US-5: As a coach (Marcus, KJ, Emmanuel, James, Abiegaill, Amanda), I need my Connect account migrated to the new platform so my payments continue flowing without disruption.
  • US-6: As Lucas, I need the old ISS-owned Stripe account drained and archived so no Westside money lingers in the wrong entity going forward.

Architecture

Target state:

Pal Enterprises LLC (EIN: TBD)
    └── Stripe platform account (new)
        └── facilitates ──>
            Westside Kings and Queens Inc. (EIN: 41-5331799)
                └── Stripe Connect account (standard, activated)
                    ├── payouts ──> Mercury checking (held by WKQ Inc., ...0628)
                    └── transfers ──> Coach Express Connect accounts
                                        (Marcus, KJ, Emmanuel, James, Abiegaill, Amanda)
                                        └── payouts to each coach's own bank

Current state (what we are migrating away from):

Intelligent Staffing Systems LLC (EIN on file with Stripe today)
    └── Stripe platform account (old, will be drained + archived)
        └── acts as merchant for all Westside charges  ← the problem
            └── payouts ──> NBKC ...1257 (Lucas's older bank)
            └── manual transfers ──> Coach Express Connect accounts

Why This Matters

Today's stack has three entities visible in the chain: Intelligent Staffing Systems LLC (legal merchant on Stripe), Pal-E (display name / statement descriptor, not a legal entity), and Westside Kings and Queens Inc. (the actual beneficiary of most money but not yet a merchant). Stripe's Terms of Service prohibit using an account registered to one legal entity to process payments on behalf of another — it's called factoring, and it's a suspendable offense at scale. At current volume the acute risk is low, but every 1099-K filed under ISS's EIN for Westside revenue creates audit friction the nonprofit cannot afford.

The migration also moves WKQ's money out of Stripe's money-transmitter escrow (no interest, no ACH-out, no FDIC) and into Mercury's Column-N.A.-backed checking (FDIC pass-through, interest, Marcus-visible balance). Stripe is a payment processor, not a bank.

Milestones

  • M1: Pal Enterprises LLC filed + EIN issued
  • M2: New Stripe platform account opened under Pal Enterprises
  • M3: WKQ Connect account activated + Mercury attached as default payout
  • M4: basketball-api routes charges via on_behalf_of=WKQ — customer statements show WESTSIDE
  • M5: All active coaches re-onboarded on new platform
  • M6: Old ISS Stripe account drained + archived. One-way transition complete.

Status

Ready to start: Mercury is open and verified (account ...0628, approved 2026-04-14). WKQ nonprofit is filed (EIN 41-5331799). Intent and timeline communicated to WKQ stakeholders 2026-04-20 via WKQ Stakeholders GroupMe.

Blocked on: Pal Enterprises LLC filing — gating every other migration step.

Estimated timeline: 2-3 weeks end-to-end, dependent on Stripe review latency at M2 and M3.

Repos

  • forgejo_admin/westside-accounting — issue tracker for entity + payment-infra work
  • forgejo_admin/basketball-api — consumed by US-4 (code change: route charges via on_behalf_of)

Stakeholders

  • Lucas — architect, executor, registered agent on WKQ Inc. and Pal Enterprises LLC
  • Marcus — WKQ co-director, affected via coach Connect account + operational continuity
  • Todd — WKQ independent director
  • Active coaches — Marcus, KJ Ng, Emmanuel Taban, James Taylor, Abiegaill Lorraine, Amanda Johnson (all affected by re-onboarding in M5)
  • marcus-personal — shares Pal Enterprises LLC dependency; US-2 (insurance) on that project may use Pal Enterprises once formed
  • westside-basketball — downstream consumer of the clean entity stack