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Event advance funds will be considered outstanding until the event financial administrator completes and submits a Cash Journal along with the receipts associated with each expense. Reliant asks that the event finance administrator uses a folder in Google Drive to maintain the Cash Journal of expenses and upload all necessary receipts. Receipts are needed for all expenses. (Reliant can help with entering the Expense Account information. Please be specific in the description to help us know what type of expense it was. 

Events Cash Journal

Please contact Reliant immediately if using google forms or internet access overseas is a problem.


The Cash Journal should be reconciled and submitted to Reliant monthly (for events lasting longer than 60 days) or within 30 days of the end of an event.

Reliant can help with entering the Expense Account information into that column on the event cash journal. Please be specific in the description to help us know what type of expense it was. 

Reliant can help you add a new currency not listed in the cash journal under the rates tab or we can also change the exchange rate. We use one exchange rate for the whole time you are there. Usually we take the average of the week or the month that you are there.  We ask that you use the currency listed on your receipt. The formula will change it over to US dollars. 

In the “reimbursed to” column, write down the person who is receiving the event funds because they made the purchase. If that is you, write your name. If you had someone else purchase something for the event and you paid them back with the event funds (such as giving them cash, or electronically with paypal, zelle, etc.) then write their name down. Just remember you are responsible for sharing these event advance guidelines with anyone making purchases using event funds.

Form Instructions

Complete the header rows with the name of the event finance administrator, the event title and event dates. The Balance field will auto populate as expenses are added to the form. 

  • The first line of the Cash Journal should list the initial starting cash balance as a positive number. This is the amount received from Reliant. 
  • Enter each receipt on a separate line. Include the date payment was made, who received the payment, and the receipt number.
  • If the receipt contains more than one type of purchase (for example: supplies and food) please enter a separate line item for each type of purchase on the receipt (you can reference the same receipt # for all line items).
    • To expound on this, if items fall into different account codes (for example, supplies for a dinner and the actual food for the dinner), we need to account for these separately. You would put the amounts for the different purchases as two different line items and you can reference the same receipt # if they were purchased together. 
  • Select the correct account code for the expense based on the provided descriptions on the Account Codes tab of the form. (Or you can leave it blank and Reliant events will take care of the account code entering for you.) See Frequently Used Expense Accounts for Events
  • The description column must include sufficient details to explain what was purchased and how it was used (ex. journals for each event participant - token welcome gift). 
  • List the amount of the receipt in Column F and select the receipt's currency in Column G.
  • If additional requests for funds are made in the duration of the event, list additional funds received on a separate line using "DEPOSIT" as the description.


Example Cash Journal Log

Here is an example of a cash journal log. You can see the highlighted receipt #6 has the information given from the hand written receipt sample below.

Receipt Documentation

All expenses on the Cash Journal MUST have an itemized receipt of the expense. Reliant will not be able to accept a credit card receipt or a bank/credit card statement in lieu of an itemized receipt. Receipts (including hand written receipts) must include specific criteria to be considered valid: 

  1. Name of Receipt Issuing Authority/Service Provider (Who are you buying from?)
  2. Date of the transaction
  3. Description of the item(s)/service(s) being purchased
  4. Cost of the item(s)/service(s) being purchased 
  5. Total amount paid
  6. Method of payment
  7. Receipt number (you don't have to add the number here, as you will also add the receipt number as the name of the file when you upload into google, but it might help you keep track along the way if you add it onto the receipt)
  8. If the Event Finance Administrator needs to write a receipt for him or herself, or for his or her spouse, a non-related event participant must also sign (or email their approval) stating it is valid for accountability. The spouse of the person receiving the cash cannot provide the 2nd signature on the receipt.

Please make sure receipts are legible and not blurry when you take a photo and then upload receipts digitally to the google folder. It is highly suggested that notes and perhaps photos of the receipts or using a receipt book are used to help with the accounting of the expenses.

We highly suggest purchasing a receipt book to keep track of purchases where no receipt is given which happens often overseas. You can send a request to events@reliant.org to purchase it online and mail it to you if you would like. (Reminder that the cost will still be paid by the event fund.) Here is an example of a hand written receipt. 

You can take a picture of the receipts with your phone and then upload the picture to the google drive folder for your event receipts. Please name each receipt as receipt 1, receipt 2 so that it correlates with the cash log receipt explanations. It is fine if the receipt is in a different language- because you are translating for Reliant on the cash log.  But, it will also be helpful to name the pictures and this would be especially true with receipts not written in English to make sure to name the picture that you upload of the receipt (receipt 1, receipt 2) so that we can keep track and know which receipt goes with which cash log detailed entry. 

Also, before you get rid of any paper receipts please make sure that the pictures you took are enough quality for us to read the letters and numbers in the receipt. If portions of the receipt of illegible just add a hand-written note explaining what those portions are. 

  • If the receipt contains more than one type of purchase (for example: supplies and food) please enter a separate line item for each type of purchase on the receipt (you can reference the same receipt # for all line items).
  • If your receipt is written in a language other than English, please be more detailed in the cash log description to list the items that were on the receipt for us (you are our translator) since Reliant won’t be able to read them other than to see the total. So instead of just saying on the cash log for example supplies for the outreach event, please list what supplies you actually bought as well. However, If the receipt is in English and we can read the itemized list on the receipt to show what you bought, then you can just say the purpose of the purchase (supplies for outreach event) rather than listing out the individual supplies purchased.
  • If your receipt is for a different amount than listed on the cash journal please explain in the description on the cash journal log why it is different. 
  • If the receipt is in a foreign language we ask that you list the items for us in the description on the cash journal log.
  •  If the receipt was from a restaurant please confirm in the log description that no alcohol was purchased.
  • If the Event Finance Administrator needs to write a hand-written receipt for him or herself, or for his or her spouse, a non-related event participant must also sign stating it is valid for accountability reasons. The spouse of the person receiving the cash cannot provide the 2nd signature on the receipt.
  • You must always submit itemized receipts of all transactions (credit card receipts that include only a total are NOT sufficient).  If you receive a receipt that is not itemized please also submit a hand-written receipt with the itemization.


There are a couple of unusual situations for receipts listed below.

Receipts for Meals

Receipts for Meals

We understand that in some international countries service providers/vendors are less willing to give receipts for purchased items. At the very minimum we need a hand-written receipt listing the name of the store, what was purchased, the date, and the total and have the finance admin and another participant from your team sign the receipt for accountability. 

For hand-written transportation receipts (for example taxi, bus, boat) in the description please give us a little detail of what the transportation was for rather than just writing “taxi” for the description. We do not need great detail of actual names of location, just general reason for the usage of the transportation. (Example: taxi from hotel to airport)

For hand-written meal receipts, please don't forget to note on the receipt that alcohol was not purchased on each receipt. You do not have to write down specifics such as this person had chicken, this one fish, etc. But, here's an example of what we need on the hand written receipt:

12 people ate breakfast/lunch/dinner at this restaurant name on this date at $x per person (it’s fine to take the total cost of the meal and get an average price per meal) plus tax and we gave a $x tip for a total of $x. Also, please remember to always write that no alcohol was purchased. Then have the finance admin and another participant in the group (for accountability) sign the receipt.

If your receipt is for a higher amount that you are reimbursing with the event advance please explain the difference in the description on the cash journal for us to have a paper trail of the reason why. For example, “our trip leader purchased dinner for the team. Included in this receipt were other people that were not a part of the trip so only the food for team members are being bought. That is why we are only reimbursed part of the food from this receipt.” 

Receipts for items purchased by a non-event participant

Receipts for items purchased by a non-event participant

If someone else purchases something for you (for example a local international leader) and the plan is to pay them back, Reliant would like for you to keep a paper receipt trail of those multiple transactions. 

What we mean by that is to submit two receipts. Receipt 1a and receipt 1b.  Receipt 1a would be the receipt that the other person received for their purchase from the store that they would then give to you. Receipt 1b would be to get a hand written receipt from the person who purchased it for you and have them sign to say they received x amount of payment from you (and let us know that amount whether you did US dollars or foreign currency) on this date in exchange for them pre-purchasing x thing for you. Please make sure you pay them the exact amount on the receipt. That receipt can include a tip that they paid for the purchase (and that should be written on the original receipt), but please do not give them an extra “tip” or a little extra money to say thank you for purchasing that for you. (Remember to follow all rules with the gift policy- rule number one is that you can’t give cash gifts with travel advance funds 😊 and reminder gift cards are also considered “cash” so they are a no go as well) You will need to give them exactly the amount written on the receipt. So then in the google folder we would have a receipt and an explanation for both transactions a and b. This would come into play with affecting Reliant during our audit if for example they find a receipt that has the name of someone else on it and not the trip leader who used the travel advance to pay for it and they would say this doesn’t add up as to who actually purchased it so a paper trail to explain the transaction is beneficial to us.

See other examples (such as mileage, etc.) of allowed expenses and how we handle receipting in the dropdown below. 

Allowed Event Expenses

Event expenses can be covered either by an Event Advance or paid for directly by Reliant as arranged through the Events Department. Once connected with Reliant's Events Department, the event leader is a trusted source for what is a necessary expense as related to the event. Reliant has provided broad spending guidelines, allowing the event leader to decide what is appropriate and necessary, according to the event needs. The church partner leader and the event leader should be in agreement about appropriate and necessary event expenses, both prior to the event during the budgeting phase and during the event should questionable expenses arise.

The rules below DO NOT apply if you are a missionary purchasing an expense for an event using the event fund to reimburse the expense through a normal Reliant reimbursement form. If you are using that method (and not using an event advance or having Reliant purchase it for you directly then you need to follow Events Gifts Policy (which adhere to the traditional Reliant reimbursement rules instead.)


What is Allowed

Expenses for an event should be reasonable to the type of event and must fit within Reliant's set category of expenses. The church leader and the event leader should be in agreement about appropriate and necessary event expenses, both prior to the event during the budgeting phase and during the event should questionable expenses arise. Expenses for individual event participants that are needed may also be covered. Reliant's Events Department is available to provide guidance as needed. Event Admins are responsible for sharing these guidelines with other event participants that may be making purchases using event advance funds.

Examples of Allowable Expenses

  • If the event purpose is a work trip to build a playground, every purchase needed to build the playground would be acceptable expenses.
  • A team is going overseas to help a church rehab a building for services. Allowable expenses might include new windows or flooring materials.
  • It the event's purpose is to do evangelism in a city or on a campus, paying for participants and locals to do an outing for evangelism purposes would be acceptable.
  • A team is going to help a church build relationships in a surrounding community through evangelism and service. Buying groceries to gift to each house in the neighborhood while doing evangelism would be an acceptable expense.
  • Event participant needs during an event such as medicines that can be purchased without a prescription or laundry are acceptable expenses.

Other allowable expenses:

Medicine

If the event used participant allowance, then medicine should be bought using those funds.

However, if the event did not use participant allowance, then simple over-the-counter medicines that can be used by the entire team (such as stomach medicine or pain relievers) can technically be purchased using event funds, but are typically only purchased if they will be used by multiple team members so that it is not a personal expense.

Although medicines that need a prescription are not covered by the event fund, medicines requiring a prescription or doctor visits may possibly be covered by Reliant event's supplemental medical insurance. Please see the Reliant Events Department for guidance.


Laundry

If the event used participant allowance, then laundry should be paid for using those funds.

However, if the event did not use participant allowance, and the event is long enough to warrant washing clothes during their stay, then laundry can be paid for by the event fund if all participants are given the opportunity to wash their clothes. 

Phone SIM cards

International phone SIM cards, or payment for a month of international phone service with a phone provider is approved for event leaders as this is a necessary expense for communication for event leaders for planning, finances, etc. during the event. For your receipt, for international phone service if you are paying for a month of added international plan (vs buying SIM cards) go online with your provider and take a picture of how much it costs for a month (or per day) for that plan and we will use that as the receipt. Typically a phone plan/SIM card is not necessary or needed for all the individual participants to have for the purpose of the event. Therefore, it would be considered a personal expense for the rest of the participants to also buy an international phone plan/SIM card and would not be reimbursed using event funds.  (The only exception to this would be the purpose and goal of the event directly correlates to each participant needing their phone to work in that country in order to accomplish their role during the event. Before purchasing international calling ability for each participant to be reimbursed by the event fund directly, please discuss with Reliant the purpose and reasoning for that need so that we can verify that it has a purpose for the event and not just a personal reason such as wanting to socialize with family and friends, etc.) If Reliant agrees with the decision that it is needed for all participants to also purchase using event funds an international plan for a month (or a few days, etc.) or buying a SIM card, we suggest allotting a specific amount that is the same for all participants to receive from the event. Please show us how you came to that amount (example show a picture of your international calling plan amount online) and say you decided to give all or a portion of that amount of the cost to each person to pay for their phone plan for the week then have everyone sign (either via paper or by replying to an email) that they have received $x amount on x day for that purpose. 


Visas

You are also allowed to also purchase Visas for your event participants if that was a budgeted expense approved by your church.  Since Visas are specific to the country you are visiting it would be an event related expense. If you are going to a more secure country we do not suggest buying Visas all together. We suggest having the individuals purchase their Visas and you can use the event advance to reimburse them for their purchase. (Passports and immunizations are not allowed to be purchased with event funds as they are considered a personal expense that can continue to be used by the participant after the event.)

Thank you gifts

Many events want to bless their host family, or interpreters, or host church leader, (for the Collegiate programs you may want to bless a few key leaders at the YMCA, etc.) You can take them out for a meal, create a gift basket or for international trips we suggest bringing a few token gifts from the U.S. (for example something from your home state) to hand out as thank you’s. 

Unfortunately you can not give straight cash or gift cards using event advance funds directly to an individual. See Leftover Funds for ways to give to a specific ministry. 

Here are a few suggestions to help define what we think to be a reasonable amount to spend on thank you's, but again with all event purchases think about the purpose of the funds being spent, what is budgeted, etc. when deciding on appropriate amounts. 

  • Thank you gifts around  $25
  • Thank you dinners up to $40 


Thank you gifts cannot be given to Reliant missionaries. The IRS considers the wonderful experience as the missionary’s “gift”. If you feel so led to give a gift to a Reliant missionary (this would include a program director that is a Reliant employee) you can do so, but it will be considered a personal out of pocket expense and can not use event advance, event funds or MTD funds to reimburse the gift.


Unexpected Larger Purchase

If a larger purchase has to unexpectedly be made with expense advance funds while overseas (for example something breaks like a camera that is needed for the purpose of the trip) then, Reliant would need to make sure that whatever is bought becomes local church property after the trip is over and not an individual property since we cannot use event funds for personal expenses.  Before you were to buy for example a brand new camera overseas because a lens broke, we would want to see if you could first try to get it repaired or just purchase that part for the camera before resorting straight to buying a brand new one if possible. Please contact Reliant before purchasing something expensive with expense advance funds so that we can help you figure the best course of action. In all cases, something big like that would need to be the church property after the event is over and not personal property and an email would need to be sent to Reliant from the church leader explaining/affirming that the church will be using it or storing it there for use on the next trip.

Mileage

Mileage Reimbursements 

For summer programs, the event fund is not used to reimburse travel to and from the event. 

See the following for more details on why:


However, there may be a few times during a summer program where you need to reimburse mileage using event funds if it was budgeted by the event.

Examples include:

  • Missionary driving to the airport to pick up a main session speaker for the summer program.
  • The entire summer program is driving together to go to an event or location far away, etc. (Example: Winter Park LT participants are all going to Estes Park LT to have teaching session together.)


For domestic mission trips, the event fund is typically used for reimbursing travel to and from the event since the church travels together as a team to the event. (Make sure that Reliant is aware that this is happening so that proper liability insurance has been bought for the event.) 


The event will reimburse those that have driven based on the mileage reimbursement rate for the year. (2021 rate is $0.56/mile, Use the IRS standard business mileage rate ).  Or, your event may also choose to budget a lower flat rate agreed-upon amount for trips rather than following the yearly mileage rate. (You may give a lower rate, but you may not give a higher rate.) 


For those that are driving that own the car being driven:

For someone who is driving their own car, it is preferred that you calculate the cost using mileage rather than paying for specific gas receipts. This allows for equitable reimbursement for all drivers to account for both gas and wear and tear on the vehicle. Please ask each driver to track their odometer readings from their vehicles before and after the trip to substantiate the # of miles driven.

For documentation for your event advance receipts, you'll need a handwritten receipt from the driver saying they received X amount of dollars from the (event name) for driving their car to _____ for this purpose_____ and include their vehicle's starting and ending odometer readings. If you are giving less than the standard business mileage rate, then write the amount you used to calculate the total amount given.


Here's an example of a hand-written receipt for mileage reimbursement....  (If you are unable to get a handwritten receipt, then an email from the individual who received the funds can count as well.)

I, Gabe Smith, received $69.55 from this event (ex. Estes ParkLT) for driving my vehicle 130 miles (starting odometer 85,000/ ending odometer 85,130) to transport this week's summer program main session speaker from the airport to the summer program housing.

Signed _(Gabe Smith)_

Date: 6/14/2021


For those that are driving that are borrowing the car being driven:

For those that are borrowing someone else's car to drive, there is reason to give compensation to both the driver who paid for gas and the owner of the vehicle for wear and tear on the car. 

In this situation, it makes sense for the event to pay for the specific gas receipt (rather than to use a mileage calculation) to reimburse the person who bought the gas. Then, it also makes sense for the event to compensate the owner of the vehicle for the use of their car towards the purpose of the event. Since you are not allowed to simply give someone cash or a gift card to say thank you for letting us borrow your car, we need to make it more official that this is a payment for the usage of a vehicle. In this situation, we would ask that you give the owner a copy of this invoice template and ask that they fill it out with a description that says why they are being paid. The amount they are paid should be agreed upon in advance (based on your budget) and all owners of the vehicles should receive the same amount across the board. This invoice will count as your receipt for your event advance. 


Fun events for participants

If you have any special outings planned for participants during the event that you'll incur fees to places such as tours/admission to national parks/ropes course, etc. (or outreach or fun events) please keep in mind the purpose of the event and the intent of the event fees or donations related to the mission of the event. We ask that you would budget this line item ahead of time and work with your church partner/network on an amount that seems reasonable and in line with the purpose of the trip. Ultimately, especially for trips with donations, we want to make sure that the participant is giving more than receiving and that the event is not perceived to be more beneficial to the participant than those that they are going to serve.


What is Not Allowed

Expenses not related to the direct purpose of the event are not allowed. This would include items meant to bless a local church in the middle of a trip just because it feels right or the church asks, but it was not part of the original objective of the event.

  • Note that once all expenses related to the event have been paid for, that it may then be possible to bless the church with anything truly leftover. See Leftover Funds for more information.

Alcohol cannot be purchased using Reliant funds.

Passports and immunizations are not allowed as those are personal expenses for the individual. 

No straight cash or gift cards can be given directly to a foreign individual.

Examples of What is Not Allowed

A team is going overseas specifically to do evangelism with a local church, and while there the local church asks the team for money for new windows. New windows are not tied to the original purpose of the event so the expense would not be allowed as a reported expense.

A team is going to help a church build relationships in a surrounding community through evangelism and service. The team is asked by families in the neighborhood for money to buy groceries. The team is not allowed to give cash to them out of the Event Advance. 


Collegiate Church Network

Collegiate events are subject to additional guidelines as determined by the Collegiate Church Network. See  solomon for further information.


Receipt Submission 

When your event is using an event advance, you must submit a receipt for every purchase made. To share those receipts with Reliant, there will be a shared folder on Google Drive to upload the receipts digitally for Reliant to review. Reliant requests that the receipts are delivered monthly and you may not request any more funds until the receipts have been seen by Reliant (for events lasting longer than 60 days) or within 30 days of an event's end date. 

If you are waiting until after the event has ended to submit the receipts in the expense advance log it is advised that you keep notes of the expenses incurred because you will need a concise ministry explanation of each expense.


Uploading event advance receipts into google drive

When your event is using an event advance, you must submit a receipt for every purchase made. To share those receipts with Reliant, we ask that you create a shared folder on Google Drive (or it may have already been shared with you) and upload the receipts digitally for Reliant to review. Reliant requests that the receipts are delivered monthly and you may not request any more funds until the receipts have been seen by Reliant (for events lasting longer than 60 days) or within 30 days of an event's end date. If you have any questions about using Google drive or adding receipts, please contact events@reliant.org.

Google drive has an app you can download onto your phone so you can easily upload the picture to drive using the app from your phone. The below concepts are the same for all google drive users, but some of the specific instructions were written with iphone users in mind. 

Create a Shared Folder (Reliant should have already done this for you)

  1. LOG IN TO GOOGLE DRIVE. You will first need to download the google drive app if you are using it on your phone. *MAKE SURE YOU ARE LOGGED IN WITH YOUR @RELIANT.ORG ACCOUNT as this verifies that it is you. 
  2. ADD A NEW FOLDER. If you have an iphone you will open the app and see this plus sign. Click on the plus sign and then select new folder.  
  3. NAME THE FOLDER. Name the Folder "(Event Name) Receipts" (
  4. SHARE THE FOLDER WITH events@reliant.org. Next, share your folder with Reliant by choosing ADD PEOPLE and then add events@reliant.org.  


Add Receipts

  1. TAKE A PHOTO OF THE RECEIPT. The easiest option would be to take a picture of the receipts with your phone and then upload the picture to google drive. Make sure the picture is high enough quality for Reliant to be able to read the letters and numbers. You will not need to send Reliant the paper receipts, but make sure to check on the quality of the photo before you get rid of the receipt. 
  2. ADD PICTURES OF EACH RECEIPT TO THE FOLDER (each photo will be an individual file uploaded to the folder). To add a picture of your receipt to the google folder simply open your photo gallery and select the photo. You will see Google Drive as an option to share with. Please name the photo image as Receipt 1, Receipt 2, to correlate with the Cash Journal for the receipts. Once you select Google Drive, you will choose MY DRIVE and then select the correct folder to upload the receipts. Once the receipts are in the correct folder the receipts are instantly shared with Reliant. 
  3. PLEASE NAME THE FILE THE RECEIPT NUMBER so that we can easily find how it connects to the cash journal. If you have any questions about using Google drive or adding receipts, please contact events@reliant.org.

Add Information to Cash Journal

REMEMBER, YOU'RE NOT DONE YET! Simply sharing the receipts with Reliant is the first step. Remember to add each receipt to your Cash Journal to record the description and amount of each expense. Follow those instructions here for Reporting Event Expenses.










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