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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.

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.

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

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.