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Claim Reimbursements

Goal: Get the money back. Under a reimbursement award the affiliate spends its own cash first, sends the funder a claim for costs already paid, and is repaid weeks later. The Reimbursement tab of a grant is where those claims live, and getting them out on time is how the organization stays liquid.

The tab appears only on a grant whose payment basis is Reimbursement or Mixed. An advance-funded grant has nothing to claim back, so it has no Reimbursement tab.

The three figures​

The Reimbursement position card at the top of the tab shows three numbers, each with its own meaning:

  • Claimable — costs charged to the grant that have not been asked for yet. This is the number that drives the month. It counts only costs dated inside the grant's period of performance, and it counts the unclaimed part of a cost: a cost claimed in part stays claimable for the rest.
  • In flight — claimed and awaiting the funder's payment.
  • Cash position — received minus spent. Negative is the healthy reading here: it is what the affiliate has fronted.

The line beneath proves the figures add up: claimable + in flight + paid = spent. If they do not, money has arrived that no claim explains, or a cost was charged that no claim covers.

If a cost is reversed in the accounting module after it was claimed, an over-claimed alert appears in red. That money was claimed for a cost that no longer exists and is owed back to the funder; it is an action item, not a balance.

Assemble a claim​

The Ready to claim card lists every cost with an unclaimed balance. Click New claim:

  1. Set the period the claim covers. It has to sit inside the grant's period of performance. The list below it updates to the costs dated inside that period.
  2. Tick the costs to claim. Each line defaults to what is still unclaimed on that cost. Enter less when the funder caps a category per period or an amount is under review; the remainder stays claimable next time.
  3. Give the claim a number if your affiliate keeps its own sequence (one is generated otherwise), add the funder's reference if you already have it, and any notes.
  4. Click Save draft.

A draft is freely editable: Edit changes its period, number and lines, and Delete removes it. A draft holds nothing — its costs still show as claimable, and two drafts may list the same cost. Only submitting takes the money.

Submit it​

Click Submit on the draft, confirm the date it went to the funder and their reference if known. From that moment the claim and its lines are frozen, and each cost's unclaimed balance is taken by this claim. A dollar is claimed once: if another claim submitted first took part of a cost, the submission is refused naming that claim, and the line has to be reduced or removed before trying again.

Submitting moves no money and writes nothing to the ledger. It records the ask — and builds the claim's evidence packet, the PDF the funder is sent, from the backup on file at that moment (see Evidence and Packets).

A submitted claim's costs cannot be voided on the Fund Tracking tab, and the cost itself cannot be reversed on its project, until the claim is voided or rejected.

Record the payment​

When the funder pays, click Record payment on the claim and enter the amount (it defaults to the outstanding balance), the date it arrived, and the funder's warrant or remittance reference. The payment is created under Fund Tracking like any other drawdown — it counts toward Received — and points at the claim it repays, which shows in the Settles claim column there.

A partial payment leaves the claim Partially paid with the balance outstanding; record the rest when it comes. A payment can never exceed what the claim has outstanding; an overpayment is recorded as a separate payment on the Funding tab.

Voiding a payment on the Funding tab puts the claim back to submitted or partially paid.

When the funder says no, or you withdraw​

  • Reject records the funder's decision on a submitted claim, with the date and what they said. The claim stays on the record as rejected, and every cost on it goes back to claimable so a corrected claim can be assembled.
  • Void withdraws a submitted claim with a reason — for a resubmission, for instance. Its costs go back to claimable too. A claim with payments recorded against it cannot be voided until those payments are voided first.

Neither is an edit. Once a claim has gone to the funder it is never changed in place, because it is exactly what a monitoring visit asks to see.

The deadline queue​

While a reimbursement award has claimable spend, the deadline queue on the Grants page carries a Reimbursement claim item for it, due at the end of the current month and showing the claimable amount. It leaves the queue once the spend is claimed.

Who can do what​

Anyone who can view grants can read the tab. Assembling, submitting, rejecting and voiding claims need the Manage Reimbursement Requests permission, which admins and staff have by default. Recording the funder's payment from a claim also needs the Record Grant Payments permission, because it creates a drawdown.