Child Trust Payments

The company-side setup and editing steps in this guide require Admin or Payroll. An Approver can review the available status but cannot open Finish payee setup or private packet documents. The payee and parent or guardian still complete their own signing steps.

Child trust (also labeled Coogan in the product, after California's Coogan Law) sets aside part of a minor performer's earnings into a blocked trust account, the way many states require. It's a direction of payment, not a payee type: it rides alongside a payee's normal record rather than replacing it, and it applies to a minor whatever their payee type.

Who this applies to

Where it lives

The trust is set up in the payee's start-work packet. When a payee is a minor, their packet automatically includes a Child trust authorization and a Parent / guardian permission form. On the manager's side, both appear under Additional packet documents in the Startwork documents step of the payee's finish-setup page (see Payee Onboarding).

The payee's edit screen also shows a Child trust (Coogan) card near the end of the form, after Deductions, the start-work packet card, and the Payment card. It appears for a payee who is under 18 on their engagement's start date, and for anyone with a trust on file. For an approved payee it's on the Edit screen, not the read-only record. The card only shows the trust: it has nothing to edit, and a trust is never set up there. It says where the trust stands:

The card distinguishes a newly saved unsigned account from a replacement that has only been requested. Requesting a replacement alone does not interrupt payments into a previously signed, linked trust (see Changing or stopping a trust).

Unless the trust is signed and set up, the card links to where it's fixed: Open Finish setup, or, for a payee with no start-work packet yet, Assign a start-work packet (This payee has no start-work packet yet. Assigning one adds the trust authorization.).

Supported states and rates

Greenroom currently has statutory child-performer trust rates on file for four states. All four are set at 15% of gross pay today:

If your production is based in one of these four states, the Child trust (Coogan) card on a minor's edit screen gives that state's rate under its title: State law sets aside at least 15% of gross in a blocked trust account. Anywhere else it reads A share of gross set aside in a blocked trust account. The percentage that payroll actually uses is the one elected on the trust authorization, in every state. The form says The statutory minimum is 15% of earnings. A parent or guardian may elect a higher percentage. Greenroom accepts anything from 15% to 100% of gross pay.

Setting up a trust account

Choose the payee's payment method first (see Payment Details): the trust account is linked to how the payee is paid, and the authorization can't complete until it is. Then open the Child trust authorization in the payee's packet documents and fill it in:

Click Save details. Then the parent or guardian signs the authorization electronically from the payee's own setup page, typing their full legal name, or you record a signed paper copy in Documents. Signing is what switches the trust on.

A few rules apply when the details are saved:

• The trust account has to be separate from every one of the payee's personal accounts. Greenroom refuses one that matches: Use a separate child trust account, distinct from every personal account.
• Paid by direct deposit: the trust account has to be set up with our tax partner, under the payee and after their own account. When that happens depends on approval:
  • Before the payee's setup is approved, saving keeps the details, and the form says, for an employee, Saved. It is set up with our tax partner when setup is approved, and payroll pays into it after that., and for a loan-out, contractor, or vendor, Saved. Once setup is approved, the parent or guardian enters it once more so it can be set up with our tax partner. Payroll pays into it after that. The parent or guardian can sign it straight away. For an employee, approval then sets up the trust account right after their own account. If that fails, the payee isn't approved, the reason begins Child trust account:, and the next approval tries again.
  • After approval, saving sets the trust account up at once, and the payee's own account has to be linked and verified first. Until it is, Greenroom says so, for example Link and verify the personal payment account before the child trust account.
  • A loan-out, contractor, or vendor: approval sets up a waiting trust account for employees only. For anyone else, a trust account saved before approval isn't set up at approval, even when the payee's own setup has already set up their personal account with our tax partner. The form and the card say so before approval, and after it the card says the trust isn't set up. Once they're approved, request the authorization again and re-enter the account; a save after approval sets it up, as described above (see Changing or stopping a trust).
• Paid by paper check: the trustee mailing address is required, because the production sends the trust's share there.

Routing and account numbers are encrypted at rest. Only the last four digits are shown again once saved, the same PII handling used for the payee's own bank account.

Payroll won't include a minor without a signed trust

Until a minor's trust authorization is signed, with its account set up for how the payee is paid, Greenroom leaves them off new payroll drafts. The panel above the run's table names the reason Needs a signed child trust with its account set up, with Open Finish setup linking to their setup page. When the draft can take them, they appear under Ready to add, with their name, type and union and an Add; Add all appears for two or more ready payees. If they are no longer ready when you click, the notice reads "[Name] isn't ready for this run, so nothing was added."

Re-including a minor without a ready trust, sending a run that includes them for approval, or approving it is refused with:

[Payee name]: payroll needs a signed child trust authorization with its trust account set up. Open the payee's Finish setup to complete it, or assign a start-work packet on the payee page if they have none.

A benefits-only week with no pay to route doesn't need the trust.

How the allocation is calculated

Each payroll run, Greenroom figures the trust's share as the elected percentage of that period's gross pay. That amount then comes out of the payee's net pay: the trust gets its share, and the remainder is what the performer (or guardian) actually receives. The payee's total net pay isn't changed by having a trust; the trust allocation is a split of it, not an add-on deduction.

If a period's net pay is too small to cover the full amount due — a short week, for example — Greenroom pays what it can into the trust and carries the shortfall forward, adding it to what's due on the next run. This continues until the balance is caught up, so a light week doesn't lose money for the trust; it just delays part of it.

Corrections (amendments to an already-paid run) never generate their own trust allocation. The original run owns its trust payment, and a correction doesn't create another trust payment from the difference.

Turning 18

Greenroom decides whether a payee is a minor as of the employment start date recorded on the signed authorization, not as of each payroll. A performer who was a minor when the engagement started keeps allocating to the trust at the elected percentage after they turn 18, and any carried shortfall keeps catching up the same way. Payroll doesn't stop the trust on the 18th birthday.

Changing or stopping a trust

To change the percentage or the account of a signed trust, request a new version of the authorization: on the payee's finish-setup page, under Additional packet documents, choose Request a document, pick Child performer trust, and click Request current version. Requesting adds the new version to the payee's packet and sends nothing on its own: the panel says what happens next, and when the payee completes their packet by emailed link, Send to payee emails it, to the payee's email for their parent or guardian to complete. Fill in the new version and have the parent or guardian sign it. The previously signed version stays on file. Saving new account details on the new version pauses the trust until it's signed, and the payee can't be included in payroll in the meantime.

Until new account details are saved, the payee page's Child trust (Coogan) card says payroll keeps paying into the previously signed, linked trust. After the new details are saved, it says the authorization isn't signed yet and payroll leaves the payee out until a parent or guardian signs it.

There's no delete, remove, or stop control for a signed trust, and the payee page's Child trust (Coogan) card only shows it. If a trust needs to stop (for example, a court order or the end of the obligation), contact Greenroom.

Reporting

Trust allocations show up on the payroll run itself: the Employees & Loan-outs and Vendors & Contractors steps each show a read-only Child trust accounts card with every included minor's current contribution due and the amount allocated. In Reports:

• Payroll register has a Child trust allocations section per run: the elected percentage, the current contribution due, the amount allocated to the trust, and the payee's personal payment.
• Remittances lists Child trust — employer remittances for minors paid by paper check: who to send the payment to, the amount to remit, and its check number once assigned. For a company with union contracts, the report is called Union remittance; choose All unions to include the child trust section.
• Consolidated register rolls trusts up across a date range in a Child trust accounts table, with the amount due, the amount allocated, and any running shortfall shown separately, so a shortfall carried from a light week stays visible until it's caught up.

An employee's own pay stub in their portal also shows a Child trust allocation section. A loan-out's, contractor's or vendor's pay statement doesn't: its figures are the amount paid, reimbursements and net pay.

Next steps

See Payment Details for how the payee's own payment method works, or continue to Running Payroll to see how trust allocations appear on a run.