| Standard Name: | Reimbursement and Expense Recovery Bonus Standard |
|---|---|
| Relevant Policies: | Reimbursement and Expense Recovery Bonus Policy |
| Creation Date: | |
| Last Revision Date: |
As noted in the policy, field staff are expected to employ sound expense management practices and exercise prudent financial management in their stewardship of Reliant resources. As such, field staff share the responsibility of ensuring that these resources are used appropriately, support the ministry, and comply with Reliant policies, applicable laws and regulations, and donor restrictions. All field staff are expected to exercise due diligence when generating, reviewing, and approving the expenditure of Reliant funds. Field staff must use discretion and also consider the reputation of the ministry when determining how much to spend on any given expense. Excessive and unnecessary expenditures must be avoided, and Reliant may, in its sole discretion, decline to reimburse excessive expenses.
As noted in the policy, general criteria for determining a permissible expense is that they must be reasonable, ordinary, necessary, and directly related to the field staff’s job and ministry.
In the course of raising financial support and conducting ministry, it is reasonable to expect that field staff will incur legitimate ministry-related expenses. Any expense that does not support the ministry of Reliant and does not reflect proper stewardship is considered non-reimbursable and non-recoverable regardless of the source of funds. Reliant expects that field staff will demonstrate scrupulous integrity when deciding whether an expense is ministry related or personal in nature. Field staff may not use, or attempt to use, Reliant's non-profit status for personal benefit (e.g. avoiding state sales tax on personal or ministry items). Misuse or attempted misuse of Reliant's non-profit status is grounds for discipline, up to and including termination, in Reliant's sole discretion.
In order to be reimbursed to an individual, a ministry expense must be:
An expense is necessary if there is a valid ministry purpose required to fulfill the mission of the Reliant. The primary beneficiary of a necessary ministry expense is Reliant or the participants in the ministry activity, not the individual. A necessary expense is a minimum purchase or service required to achieve a valid ministry objective.
Reasonable means that the amount being spent reflects the value that normally would be spent in that specific situation. An expense is considered reasonable if it is not extreme or excessive and reflects a fair and prudent decision and action to incur the expense. A cost may be considered reasonable if the nature of the goods or services acquired, and the amount involved, therefore, reflect the action that a prudent person would have taken under the circumstances prevailing at the time the decision to incur the cost was made. Major considerations involved in the determination of the reasonableness of a cost are: (a) whether or not the cost is of a type generally recognized as necessary for the operation of the ministry; (b) whether or not the individuals concerned acted with due prudence in circumstances, considering their responsibilities to the ministry, its employees, its participants, the Federal Government, and the public at large; and (c) whether or not the cost represents fair value for the good or service provided.
*Reliant reserves the right to determine whether or not an expense fulfills the above criteria.
All submissions for expense reimbursements and bonuses should use the appropriate form listed below.
Included on the form with each expense should be:
Description of the expense
*Please refer to all Reimbursement Standards, which detail receipt information and other specific criteria.
For all Reimbursements and Expense Recovery Bonuses, requests must be received within 60 days after the end of the month in which the expense is incurred. An expense is incurred when an item is purchased or in the case of pre-payment for travel or an event the expense is incurred when the travel or event actually has taken place. (For example, an expense is incurred when something is purchased or when travel or an event has actually taken place as long as both the payment date and travel date are listed on the receipt for documentation.)
Late submissions will be considered on a case-by-case basis by the submission of an exception request. The exception request must include a valid reason for the late submission and include supervisor approval.
Key Changes to the Standard: Under the previous policy and standard, approved late submissions were automatically considered taxable wages. Going forward, that will no longer be the case. Approved late submissions will be treated like any other expense regarding taxability. Therefore, if an expense reimbursement would normally be considered non-taxable, it will remain non-taxable if approved for late submission. |
Please view Payment Dates & Deadlines (get rid of the page) for more details on the timing of receiving reimbursement/bonus funds based on the submission date.
Copy and paste the table into here
Reliant requires that itemized receipts for expenses greater than $75 must be submitted along with the reimbursement form. (The only exception to the $75 limit is that a receipt is always needed for all hotel/lodging receipts regardless of the amount requested for reimbursement.)
Receipts must include the following itemized details:
Credit Card Receipts
Credit card statements or credit card signature receipts that don’t include the list of purchased items are not acceptable as the only receipt documentation for an expense. However, typically it is the credit card receipt that shows any tips that have been added to the purchase. If you would like to reimburse the tip amount for an expense over $75 where an itemized receipt is required, please attach both the itemized receipt and the credit card receipt showing the amount included for the tip expense.
Hand-Written Receipts
Hand-written receipts are acceptable when a printed itemized receipt is not available as long as it contains the following criteria.
Writing a Handwritten ReceiptIf you are unable to attain a formal receipt for an expense, you can create your own handwritten receipt. Create your own handwritten receipt if the organization or person doesn't provide one for you, by including the following information with it:
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Receipts from Mobile/Banking App
For receipts from mobile apps (such as Venmo, Square Cash, PayPal, Google Wallet, or a banking app), please be sure to include a clear description in the memo or "what's it for?" section of the transaction, to document what expense the payment is related to. Be sure to also include with your reimbursement submission any information that is required for a valid receipt, that is not visible on the mobile app "receipt" (see the guidelines above for what details must be included on the itemized receipt for it to be acceptable.) In most cases, receipts for mobile apps will be for shared expenses. Please see the section below for details on receipts for shared expenses.
Receipts for Shared Expenses
If a Reliant field staff pays an individual for a portion of an expense that requires a receipt (the portion is over $75), they will need to submit two receipts. The field staff submitting the expense will need both a copy of the original receipt with the full expense amount listed from the individual who collected the money and paid for the full expense as well as submitting a hand-written or mobile/banking app receipt for the portion paid to the individual to give Reliant a paper trail for both transactions. Make sure to include all details required for the hand-written or mobile/banking app receipts as detailed above. Remember, if it is for a hotel expense, a copy of the itemized receipt is always required no matter the amount being reimbursed.
If expenses are removed from or denied on a reimbursement request (see Denied Expenses & Re-submission bring it over for more details), they may be resubmitted for further review. If the item is removed for improper documentation or a similar situation, it may be resubmitted under the guidelines provided for proper receipt documentation in the Reimbursement Standards. If the item is related to a policy issue, a formal exception request must be submitted.
Sufficient Funds Required
Reimbursements: If the MTD account for which a field staff is responsible does not contain sufficient funds to provide full reimbursement for the amount requested by the field staff on an expense submission request form, Reliant will hold the form and delay reimbursement until sufficient funds are available in the staff MTD account, in accordance with Reliant's approved order of pay. They will be paid out in the order from which the reimbursements were received once funds become available for the whole amount of each individual reimbursement. If reimbursement submissions do not have sufficient funds to fully cover the total amount for the reimbursement, then they will be stored as "back reimbursements".
Expense Recovery Bonus: If the MTD account for which a field staff is responsible does not contain sufficient funds to provide full recovery for the amount requested by the field staff on an expense submission request form, Reliant will hold the form and delay reimbursement until sufficient funds are available in the staff MTD account, in accordance with Reliant's approved order of pay. In the order of pay, Expense Recovery Bonuses take precedence over reimbursements, in accordance with IRS requirements. If funds are not available to immediately pay the Expense Recovery Bonuses (ERB) (previously known as taxable reimbursements) then Reliant will short-check those bonuses and include them with backpay.
Requesting a Reimbursement be Partially Paid Out (forfeiting any un-reimbursed expenses)
If a field staff would like to request a reimbursement be partially paid out using the available funds, they must agree to forfeit any un-reimbursed amount from that reimbursement. For example, if there is a $1,000 reimbursement that's next in line for the order of reimbursement payout and only $650 is available to pay out. The field staff may elect to send an email to reimbursements@reliant.org asking the reimbursement team to pay the $1,000 reimbursement using the available funds, and acknowledging that they forfeit any un-reimbursed portion of that reimbursement. Note: this action is completely voluntary and at the discretion of the field staff.
Here's a sample email of how to word the email.
"I would like to request that my April (Year-20xx) reimbursement totaling $X be paid out on X date using the available funds in the MTD account for which I am responsible. I acknowledge that any un-reimbursed funds from this reimbursement will be forfeited and unable to be reimbursed at a future date. "
Exiting Employment with Unpaid Reimbursements
If a field staff is exiting employment and has reached their final month of payroll without receiving enough funds to fully cover the total amount of a submitted reimbursement, Reliant will automatically reimburse a portion (based on available funds) of the submitted reimbursement without the field staff needing to submit a request for partial payment of the reimbursement.
Change- you no longer have to ask |
order of pay and how will my reimbursement be paid
Back reimb paid in the order they were received as long as the back reimbursements remain eligible for reimbursement.
Reimb paid in the ordre they were received
As a reminder, timecards must be up to date for hourly employees to be eligible for receiving reimbursements and expense recovery bonuses. |