Money questions

Short answers to what players often ask about money. For the whole story, see Savings and investments, Loans and Taxes and bonuses.

Mostly by making goods and selling them. Money comes in from:

• goods sold on the market or to the bank (The market, Selling to the bank);
• sales in your Shops and the work your offices sell (Offices and services);
• selling your own shares, and dividends from the shares you hold (Selling your own shares, Trading shares);
• deliveries by your vehicles, £1 for each unit (Vehicles and cargo);
• the purchase bonus on bought goods your factories use.

Of each sale of goods you made, and each payment for office work, 10% goes to your stockpile, which pays your shareholders' dividends.

No. Your goods sell on the market at the full market price, or to the bank at once. A shop charges its customers more, 150% of the market price or a little above, and adds 1 CV for each unit it sells, so shops are worth having, but a company can earn well without one.

Three ways pay at once:

• Instantly sell to bank for a reduced price on My shares, for your own shares;
• a loan from the Loans page under The bank;
• Sell to bank for your goods, with a discount while a lot of that good is on the market.

Money from your own shares never has to be paid back, while a loan costs interest. Shares you Put out for sale fetch their full price instead, but only when a player buys them.

No. None of your accounts earns interest: not your savings, the salary account, the gasoline account or the stockpile. Savings are simply where your money waits until you spend or invest it.

Your staff's wages build up every hour and are paid from the salary account on payday, every 7 days, not from your savings. Top it up with Deposit to salary account on the Salary tab under Staff: the money leaves your savings at once, arrives at the next update and can't be taken back out. The same tab shows what your staff are owed since the last payday, with estimates of the wage bill an hour and a day.

The rest comes out of your savings with a fine of 25% of the missing money, and your staff's dissatisfaction rises 20% at the next midnight. Your secretary reminds you the day before payday, and the front page warns you when payday is less than 24 hours away and the account is short. You can also move payday on the Salary tab.

Your open loans together may come to as much as your company value, counting what you borrowed rather than what you still owe. You can borrow up to on the Loans page shows what is left. You can have up to 10 loans at once, no loan may run past the end of the round, and the bank lends nothing in the last 7 days.

Interest is a rate per day, shown as Today's interest rate. The bank sets a new rate every midnight, but each loan keeps the rate of the day you took it. Interest is charged on the amount borrowed for every day of the term, and the loan and its interest are split into equal down payments, taken from your savings every midnight. The Loan preview shows the daily payment and the total before you borrow.

Yes: type an amount next to the loan under Present loans and click Pay, or leave it empty to pay it all. Each early payment costs a £100 fee and saves no interest; the loan just ends sooner. You must pay off all your loans before you can reset your company.

Investing turns savings into company value: 1 CV for every £20, without the loss that spending usually causes. The Investments tab under The bank opens once your company value reaches 20,000, and the smallest investment is £100. The money is gone for good, so keep what your company needs for buildings, staff and goods. Whatever is left in your savings when the round ends is invested for you anyway.

• Dividend tax: 20% of the dividends from shares you hold, taken before they reach your savings.
• Wealth tax, in some rounds only: charged every week on your savings, at a rate that rises with the balance. When a round has it, the Loans page shows your rate and what you would pay today. Money you have invested pays none.

Nothing else is taxed: not your sales, your offices' earnings or your deliveries.

The Bonuses page under Company information has two:

• Sales bonus: each unit you made that sells on the market adds 1 CV, up to what you made of that good yesterday, less what your factories used and what you sold in shops or to the bank. It pays in company value, not money.
• Purchase bonus: 20% of what you paid on the market for goods your factories use comes back into your savings at midnight, up to £2,500 a round.

• Wages, which build up every hour and are paid from the salary account on payday, plus social fees of 2% for every employee. Staff at head office still earn £2 an hour.
• Loan down payments, taken from your savings every midnight.
• Fuel for your vehicles, from the gasoline account.
• Fines: £500 for each zone still unused after a warning, and £1 an hour for each unit over your warehouse's capacity.

Buildings themselves cost nothing to keep. In some rounds there is also the weekly wealth tax.

Usually one of these:

• loan down payments, taken every midnight;
• a payday the salary account could not cover, so the rest and a 25% fine came from savings;
• fines for unused zones at midnight, or for a warehouse over capacity every hour;
• in rounds that have one, the weekly wealth tax.

Orders are paid when you place them, not when they go through. Transactions under Company information lists every payment in and out of your savings in the last week.