Following the Request: An Example Organization Accounting Workflow

Use this example case to help visualize what a complete Organization Accounting management process might look like from both a student and administrator perspective. Campuses often have very different financial processes and you can always refer to your consultant for more ideas on how to translate your specific process. 

For this exercise, we will work on the assumption that our example campus, Hometown University has a relatively simple process wherein funding and purchase requests are approved by organization advisors and then approved and processed by a Student Activities office. We'll use an example of the Baking Club funding a Food Drive event on their campus. 

Funding the Event

If the event has not been budgeted for in an existing budget, the Baking Club treasurer may either submit a second budget request or a funding request, depending on the specifics process of the institution. If the event's budget is already included in the organization's budget, skip to "Paying for the Event." If the organization decides to submit a budget request rather than funding request, refer to the Budgeting Overview to visualize the funding steps instead of this section and skip to "Paying for the Event."

1. The Baking Club treasurer decides to submit a funding request for $200 to support the event. 
2. The organization advisor, who has been affiliated with the first finance stage through their position template, receives a notification of the submission. When they are ready, they move the request to the "Student Activities" stage. This stage change notifies the submitter of the request and any user affiliated with the next stage in the process.
3. After determining the amount they would like to approve, the Student Activities office moves the request to the "Completed" status.
4. The Student Activities office completes an allocation transaction to move funds from a parent "Events" budget" to the organization. 

Paying for the Event

The food drive is approaching and the organization needs to begin purchasing their supplies, beginning with basic decorations.

1. The treasurer of the organization makes a purchase request to spend $50 from their account funds on decorations. 
2. The organization advisor, who has been affiliated with the first finance stage through their position template, receives a notification of the submission. When they are ready, they move the request to the "Student Activities" stage. This stage change notifies the submitter of the request and any user affiliated with the next stage in the process.
3. After determining the amount they approve to be spent on donations, the Student Activities office moves the request to the "Approved" status. Let's say they approve it for the full $50 - the organization now has $50 removed from their available funds and moved to their encumbered funds. 
4. The student treasurer makes the relevant purchases and brings in a receipt. It turns out that they only purchased $20 of decorations. 
5. The Student Activities Office now logs a payment transaction of $20 and reimburses the student. The organization's encumbered funds are decreased by $20. The organization still has $30 in encumbered funds.
6. The organization could purchase additional decoration supplies, which would be subtracted from the organization's encumbered balance using additional transactions, but in this case, they are all set.
7. The Student Activities Office now moves the request to the "Completed" status. The $30 funds that were encumbered are now returned to the organization's available balance, which if the original amount funded was all they had in this account, now amounts to $180 that they can request to spend on other event supplies.