English to Spanish Bus/Financial Finance (general)

A barter exchange is an organization that serves as a third party to coordinate barter transactions between members of the organization and as a bank to keep track of the value of barter transactions and the value of each member's account. Barter exchanges provide monthly accounting for each member and year-end tax reporting of barter transactions.

Barter exchanges are usually local or regional, and they have websites which list products or services for sale. If you buy products or services from exchange members, your Trade Account is debited; if you sell products or services to other members, your account is credited.

Barter exchanges allow you to trade with more businesses. Many of these barters are not one-to-one. For example, an auto repair business may barter with a radio station that barters with a printer that barters with a delivery service.

Barter exchanges charge an initial membership fee, a transaction percentage, and a monthly maintenance fee. Some barter exchanges also charge a monthly fee to "stock" the account, to encourage buying and selling.

One big advantage to a barter exchange is your ability to barter with several other businesses or individuals in a kind of round-robin system and you don't have to worry about keeping track of who owes what to whom.