Getting Accessories for Students
Since most band students live too far from the music store to pick up their own supplies, you might find it helpful to order their supplies for them. Some directors set up a special account with Amro to charge accessories ordered for students. You are free to charge students either the regular or the discounted price, but most directors charge their students the regular price in order to cover expenses like shipping, accessories that are broken or lost before they are sold, sales tax, and items that are given to students but never paid for. Generally speaking, if you charge the regular price, you'll have just enough to pay for what you have charged.
We recommend great care with charges on resale accounts as they can get away from you quickly. It's very easy to give out the supplies as students need them and then never get reimbursed. It's not that students have bad intentions or that parents aren't willing to pay their debts; it's more that the effort of keeping records and notifying each student and their parents is too much extra work on top of all the other duties of a director. More than a few directors have gotten stuck with a sizable bill for music and accessories that were given out to students but not paid for.
To simplify record keeping and prevent losses, most directors require students to bring payment in advance. It's also a good idea to pay each of these charges quickly from the money received to keep from having cash in a desk drawer and to prevent the money from getting spent for other purposes.
A few directors arrange to have the bookstore handle regular band supplies. That frees the director from the substantial amount of time these transactions take, and prevents the financial losses that often occur. Supplies that are unused or left over can always be returned for credit or exchanged.
