Finance

Approving spend requests

Review requests against their budget, approve or deny, and follow up on receipts

This guide is for treasurers and other officers who decide on spend requests. Members ask before they spend, you approve or deny, and the receipts they upload count against the budget.

What you'll need

  • A chapter Admin account, or a role with the Reimbursements Admin permission. That's who can approve and deny spend requests. There is no separate Spend Requests permission.
  • Budget and Reimbursements both turned on in Admin → Chapter setup → Features.
  • At least one open budget. See Setting up budgets.

Opening Spend Requests

Until your chapter has an open budget, the Spend Requests page says "Spend Requests need a budget".

  • If you can create budgets, click + New budget there to create one.
  • If you can't, you'll see "Ask your chapter admin to set up a budget."

Once a budget exists, members can start sending requests. If every budget is later archived or past its end date, new requests pause, but existing requests stay listed.

Reviewing requests

Open Finance → Spend Requests. Approvers see two sections:

  • Needs decision: every request in the chapter. Use the chips to switch between Submitted, Approved, Denied and Cancelled.
  • My requests: your own requests.

You also get a notification ("New spend request") when someone submits. Pending requests show up on the Finance overview too.

Click a request to see its details, the note, and the budget it comes out of. That budget's Goal, Spent, Committed and Left show what approving it would do.

Approving or denying

On a submitted request:

  • Click Approve to approve the full amount asked. There are no partial approvals. If you'd approve less, deny it with a reason and ask the member to send a new request.
  • Click Deny and enter a Reason. The reason is required, and the member sees it.

You can do this from the request itself, or straight from the row in Needs decision.

The member gets a notification either way. One approval is enough.

If approving would take the budget over its goal, you'll see a warning. You can still approve.

If the member changed the request after you opened it, Greek Connect asks you to reload first, so you never approve an amount you didn't see.

Deciding on several at once

In Needs decision, tick the requests you want, or use Select all. Then click Approve or Deny in the bar that appears. Bulk approval shows the total by budget and warns you if the requests together go over what's left. Bulk denial uses one reason for all of them.

After approval: receipts

An approved request counts as Committed on its budget until receipts come in. Then it counts as Spent.

  • Members upload receipts from the request, or pick the request when they submit a receipt.
  • Each request shows how much has been spent out of the approved amount. If the receipts add up to more, you'll see a warning.
  • To fix a receipt that's attached to the wrong request, open it in Reimbursements and change its Spend request, or set it to None.

Receipts on spend requests are approved, and paid if needed, the usual way in Reimbursements. See the Reimbursements overview.

Receipt reminders

Greek Connect follows up on approved requests that have no receipt yet. To change the timing:

1. Open Finance → Reimbursements and tap the gear icon.

2. Find Receipt follow-up.

3. Adjust the settings and save.

The settings, with their defaults:

  • Remind the submitter: on. The member gets a "Receipt needed" notification.
    • First reminder after (days): 3
    • Then every (days): 3
    • Stop after (reminders): 4
  • Alert approvers: on. Approvers get one "Receipts missing" notification saying how many approved requests are still waiting on a receipt. It opens the Spend Requests list.
    • Alert after (days): 10

Days can be set from 1 to 60, and reminders from 0 to 10. A change applies to requests that are already open. Reminders for a request stop once a receipt is attached to it. A rejected receipt doesn't count.

Common questions

Can I approve my own request?

Yes. If you're an approver, you can approve your own request. Many chapters ask a second officer to decide on the treasurer's requests.

Does approving a request send the money?

No. Greek Connect records the approval. Sending a card load, writing a check, or reimbursing the member still happens the way your chapter does it today. For reimbursements, approve the receipt and mark it paid in Reimbursements.

What happens to approved requests when a budget is archived?

They stay on the budget, with their receipts. Nobody can send a new request against an archived budget. Archive a budget once its approved requests have their receipts.

Can members see how much is left in a budget?

Yes. Members picking a budget see its name and how much is left on it. Only budget managers and budget owners see the full Budget page.