npo-accounting-ikiwiki/UseCases/ReimbursementRequest.mdwn

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# Handling Requests for Reimbursements
Most non-profit organizations have to reimburse employees, contractors and
volunteers for expenses, such as travel expenses. There are two sides to the
reimbursement process that must be adequately handled by a non-profit
accounting system.
## Reimbursement: The Organization's View
The organization has to be able to easily:
* Receive and store receipts.
[[Track those receipts|UseCases/TrackingDocumentation]] in the context
of the
[[double entry accounting entries|UseCases/DoubleEntryAccounting]] that
relate to those receipts.
* Track the reimbursement request as an invoice.
* Handle any [[currency conversion|UseCases/MultiCurrency]] related to
the receipts, both from the point of view of international travel, and
also considering the fact that the person reimbursed may seek
reimbursement in a different currency than the native currency of the
organization's.
* Track approvals of the expenses by multiple parties. (For example,
perhaps a volunteer project leader must approve, and then later by with
fiduciary duty to the organization itself).
* Ideally, the system would auto-detect any places where a travel and/or
reimbursement policy for the organization is violated (or mandates
additional approvals).
* Ideally, the system could "set up" accounting entries for "merger" into
the accounts, based on an expense report submitted.
## Reimbursement: The Traveler's View
From traveler's/reimbursement-requester's view, they'll need:
* An easy, outward-facing web interface for submitting receipts.
* Ideally, flagging them when additional approval is needed before
submitting their expense report, so that they can seek additional
approval before submitting.
* Updates on the external web interface system about status when the
expense is moving through the internal system at the organization.
* Automatic calculation of any per-diem allowances.