npo-accounting-ikiwiki/UseCases/ReimbursementRequest.mdwn

# 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.