Money: Pay-Per-Task Scheme, Budget Plan, and the Cashbook

Three tabs handle the DAO's money off-chain: the Pay-Per-Task Scheme (what each task pays), the Budget Plan (how the $3,000 seed is allocated), and the Cashbook (what actually moved). Together they mirror what the framework does on-chain — the framework stays the source of truth for money; these keep the plan and the record around it.

Pay-Per-Task Scheme

Before a DAO can budget or pay anyone, it defines what its paid tasks are and what each one pays. That's the Pay-Per-Task Scheme — the DAO's approved menu of paid tasks, each with a rate.

For each task you set a task_id, its scope and lane, the task, its Definition of Done (what "qualified" means), a rate in USDT, the basis (per task, per member, per session, per milestone), and how many are planned. The budgeted amount computes itself (rate × planned).

This is pay-per-task: what a member is owed follows the tasks they complete, at the task's rate — not a flat wage. Contributors are paid for completed, reviewed-qualified tasks, settled once a month through the framework's Microjob pool. The scheme is set in the DAO's proposal and changes only by a new proposal and a DAO vote. Its budgeted total is what feeds the contributor-payouts side of the Budget Plan.

Screenshot: the Pay-Per-Task Scheme tab (task_id · lane · Definition of Done · rate · basis · # planned · budgeted). Source: the DAO Workbook template.

Budget Plan

The Budget Plan shows how the DAO's $3,000 seed — its capital for the agreed collaboration — is allocated. It has two parts, matching the two ways money leaves the DAO:

1. Contributor payouts — pulled from the Pay-Per-Task Scheme and totalled by lane. This is the money that pays members for their tasks, through the framework.
2. Operating costs — everything not tied to one person's task: tools, hosting, a venue, community micro-grants, on-chain fees, a contingency reserve. Each line names the Cashbook category it will log under. This money is released by a DAO vote to the DAO Lead or treasurer, against receipts.

The plan then totals both against the seed: total planned = contributor payouts + operating costs, checked against the $3,000, with the buffer left over shown and a plain "within seed?" flag. Because the seed is released monthly across execution, a phasing table lets the DAO spread the plan across the months so each tranche is planned, not guessed.

Keeping the two parts separate matters: they travel different paths (the framework for payouts, a treasury vote for operating costs), and a DAO that blurs them loses the thread of who was paid for work versus what was spent to run things.

Screenshot: the Budget Plan tab (A · contributor payouts by lane · B · operating costs · C · summary vs seed · D · monthly phasing). Source: the DAO Workbook template.

Cashbook

The Cashbook is the only ledger, and it records what actually happened — the Budget Plan is the intent, the Cashbook is the actuals. Every line carries a date, a description, a Ref # (the task_id for payouts), an income or expense category, the amount in and out, and a running balance. It mirrors the framework's on-chain records rather than replacing them.

At the bottom, a reconciliation checks that total contributor payouts in the Cashbook equal the total accepted amount in Contributions. Read the Budget Plan and the Cashbook side by side through the cohort and you can see plan versus actual at a glance — where a lane is under or over what it budgeted.

Screenshot: the Cashbook tab (ledger + reconciliation). Source: the DAO Workbook template.