Projects and enterprises

Shared ventures with their own beans: find one, back one, or start one.

What they are

Projects and enterprises are the groups that hold Beans. Each has its own beans, its own Offers and Needs, and its own credit line.

On the global community there are no enterprises, so Commons shows an example one from a local community, the Example Valley Bakery, marked 🏘️ Local community. Its buttons, such as Pledge and Manage, say why enterprises live in a local community, and change nothing. See "Beans and the global community".

A project has a leader, a goal in Beans and usually an end date: raise 500 Beans for a new roof, build the shade house by November. The leader runs it; collaborators help. When the goal is met, or once its end date is over, it takes no more pledges. When the goal is met, the pledges go into the project's account. If its end date is over and the goal isn't met, the pledges go back to the people who made them a week later. When the work is done, its leader winds it up. After 7 days the leader finalises it, and what is left goes back to the Commons.
An enterprise keeps going and trades: a tool library, the egg flock, a market stall. Its keepers run it together and stand behind it. One of them is the lead keeper.

An enterprise has its own daily limits, ten times a member's: 1,000 payments, 300 people it has never paid before, 1,000 deals approved, 1,000 new posts and 50,000 changes. What a keeper does for it counts against the enterprise, not against the keeper's own. It also counts against what that keeper does for all the enterprises they keep together, which has the same limits: however many enterprises you keep, you can do one enterprise's worth for them in a day, on top of your own. So an enterprise with two or more keepers can still use all of its limits. Once an enterprise has used up one of its limits for the day, what you do of that for it counts against your own limits instead, as if you had done it for yourself. If you then reach one of yours, the app says so and names the enterprise. So one keeper who uses up its day can only stop themselves: every other keeper still has all of their own. Running the enterprise always counts against the keeper's own changes: taking on, removing or replacing keepers, stepping down, pausing, winding up, and completing or turning down its deals.

Finding them

Tap Commons, then Groups, and pick Projects or Enterprises. Each shows its status, purpose and balance. The ones you keep are first under Yours (lead first, each with its role and a Manage button to run it). Tap one to open it.

What an enterprise page shows

An enterprise's page is its shop front. Every member sees, from the top:

its banner photo across the top (until you choose a banner photo, the top shows your picture, faded and repeated, on your shop's category colour), then its logo, its name, its category and since when it has been here;
what it is for;
who keeps it (Kept by; Run by on a project), each with their trust level, stars and how many trades they have done. These badges show what each person has done. They don't decide anything;
a project's goal and its pledge box;
About: what its keepers say about it;
Featured: up to six of its Offers its keepers chose to show first;
What we do together: the kinds of thing its keepers offer;
its listings, in sections: To buy, Book a time, To borrow and Looking for. Tap one to open it;
How we deal;
Message, which opens a chat with its lead keeper (its leader on a project);
its balance and credit line in one line. Tap Money and backing to see its live Offers, surplus and capital ceiling, what its keepers back it with, and Income & Spend: every bean in and out. Its keepers see who paid or was paid and the note with it; other members see the amounts, and their own payments in full;
Recent activity and a Discussion you can write in.

Where a community lets people who are not members read its pages, they see its logo, name and category, what it is for, its keepers' names, About and a project's goal, but not its banner photo, listings, badges or money. Most communities don't: there, only members can open the page.

At the bottom, Report Enterprise (Report Project on a project) if something is wrong.

Backing an enterprise

Pledge beans to a project: on its page, under the funding box, enter an amount and tap Pledge Beans. You can make or change up to 20 pledges in any 24 hours, a keeper's backing included, and a pledge of beans is one of your payments too. Pledges are held in trust until the project reaches its goal, and then they all go to the enterprise. After that it takes no more pledges, and nor does a project once its end date is over (on the end date itself its page says Ends today and it still takes them; from the day after, Expired), or an enterprise that is winding up or has closed: its page says so where the pledge box was, and your beans stay with you. If a project is cancelled before it reaches its goal, every pledge goes back to the person who made it. If a project's goal isn't met by its end date, every pledge goes back to the person who made it a week after the end date, unless the end date is moved before then. Its page says on which day, and once they have gone back, that they did. You get a notice when your pledge goes back, or if the end date moves in that week. A pledge from an account that has since closed (deleted, or an enterprise that has wound up) goes to the Commons instead, as the rest of a closed account's beans did, and everyone else's still goes back to them.
Trade with it: its Offers and Needs are in the Market like anyone's.
Become a keeper: see "Keepers".

If you keep it

If you keep an enterprise, or help run a project, everything only its keepers do is under Manage: at the top of its page on the phone, and in the web app its page has two tabs, Page and Manage. So its page shows what every member sees, and to its keepers also its paused Offers (below). A community admin sees Manage too. Manage shows only what you can do:

requests to join, keeper changes waiting and, when the lead has gone quiet, choosing a new one. See "Keepers".
Its shopfront: its name and what it is for, its logo, its banner photo, About, its category and How we deal. Its category is one of the Market's categories, the same ones every listing has. Any keeper can change the logo (a photo or one of the ready-made pictures), the banner photo, About, the category and How we deal. Only the lead keeper, the only keeper or a community admin can change its name and what it is for; other keepers see them with a line saying so. A community admin who doesn't keep it can change its name, what it is for, its logo and About, not its banner photo, category or How we deal. The logo and the banner photo are two pictures: the logo is the round one (a photo or one of the ready-made pictures), and the banner photo goes across the top of its page. Under Banner photo, tap Choose a banner photo (Change the banner photo once it has one), or Remove the banner photo to go back to the default banner. With a photo, for the logo or the banner, move it and zoom it until the part you want is in the frame (a circle for the logo, a strip three times as wide as it is tall for the banner, as its page shows them), then tap Done. Change what you want, then tap Save once. In the web app, Save sends only what you changed, and if the community says no, it says why.
Featured (its keepers only): pick up to six of its Offers to show first on its page. An Offer must be in its shop first: Put them in its shop puts its live Offers in. If it has no shop yet, Open its shop opens one.
Operator controls: Post Offer and Post Need post in its name (a new Offer starts in its shop's category, which you can change before you post). Every new Offer and Need needs at least one photo (up to five), as for your own: tap the photo button, then Camera, Gallery (opens on Albums), or Browse files (on the phone), or pick a photo (in the web app). To Commons sends some of its surplus to the Commons. Bids on its Needs and its deals are here too, to approve and to pay. In the web app, Set map pin puts it on the map.
Changing its Offers and Needs: any keeper can open one of its Offers or Needs and tap Edit Post, as for their own: change the words, category, price and photos, then tap Save. Keepers can pause and resume its Offers too (Pause Offer and Activate Offer). A paused Offer is found under Paused on its page, which only its keepers see: tap it to open it, then Activate Offer. It is still the enterprise's. See "Posting an Offer or a Need".
Decisions: its keepers' votes.
Removing a keeper, and stepping down.
Season & lifecycle controls: pausing and closing it (below).
Discussion: remove a message that breaks your community's rules. It then shows as removed.

Season & lifecycle controls shows only the buttons you can use:

Pause for Season: any keeper. Its listings pause so nobody can buy, and its credit line stays where it is, for up to 90 days. Resume Enterprise (Resume Project) ends the pause.
Start Wind-Up: the lead keeper, the only keeper or a community admin. A 7-day wait starts; nothing closes the enterprise by itself. Any keeper or a community admin can tap Stop Wind-Up during the wait.
Finalise Wind-Up: once the 7 days are up, the lead keeper, the only keeper or a community admin finishes closing it. See "Rules and how decisions work".

Before a project reaches its goal, it can also be cancelled under Manage, and every pledge goes back. Its leader or a community admin can cancel it. If it has no leader, its only collaborator can too; with two or more and no leader, only a community admin can. Once you stop helping run a project, because you stepped down or were removed, you can't cancel it, even if you started it. If nobody cancels it and the goal isn't met by its end date, every pledge goes back by itself a week after the end date, and its leader gets a notice saying how many backers and how many beans.

Starting one

On the web or phone, tap Commons, then Start something (on the phone, the round + button) and pick Project or Enterprise. (On an empty list of projects or enterprises, the button takes you straight there.)
Give it a Name and a Purpose statement.
For a project, set a Funding goal (Goal Amount in the web app) and, if you like, a deadline.
Choose its logo: a photo or one of the ready-made pictures (the round picture people see beside its name). With a photo, move it and zoom it until the part you want is in the circle, then tap Done. For an enterprise, you can add a banner photo next; a project's is chosen later in Manage.
Tap Start the project 🌱 or Start the enterprise 🏛️.

It starts straight away, and you are its leader (a project) or its lead keeper (an enterprise). There is no community vote to start one. When you start an enterprise, it opens on its own page with Add a banner photo: tap it to choose the photo and the part that shows, or Not now to leave it for later.

You can start 3 projects or enterprises in any 24 hours, and have 20 running at once. Past that the app says no. If you have 20 running, wind one up before you start another.

Its keepers change its logo, its banner photo and its words under Manage, in either app (see "If you keep it").

The same guide is in the BeanPool app, and works there without a connection: open Settings, then "Help & how it works" under BeanPool. Every other rule, guide and manual is in the Help Centre. Guide version 162.