Back in the fall of 2019, it was my first month or so as a product marketer at Submittable that we released Funds Tracking for the first time. And let me just say—we’ve come a long way, baby!

With Budget Categories released last winter and super simple reimbursements just a couple weeks ago, now’s the perfect time to explore how you could be getting more out of financial management in Submittable. So today, I’ll walk you through how it works and why you might wish to start using these features.

Before we dive in, if you’re really more of a visual learner:

Also, everything here is documented in even more detail in the Help Center.

Okay, let’s go!

Budget Categories are how you can more fully control, understand, and report on how your grant investments are being spent on the ground. In Submittable, you can set budget categories for your organization and assign them to specific projects and awards to help ensure alignment between expenses and agreements, satisfy compliance considerations, and line up with your internal accounting.

If you primarily grant to general operating funds or don’t rely on budget categories internally, this is probably not for you. But for government customers and other grantmakers who are tracking expenses at the category level, this enhancement will save you time and help you take care of more of your due diligence without having to jump between different tools or reconcile expenses and reimbursements later. Yay!

Step 1: Add Budget Categories

You can add Budget Categories quickly and easily from within More > Configurations > Budget Categories.

Simply add the category, add any accounting code needed, and voilà—you’re all set. Add all categories that you’ll need within your account here.

Step 2: Assign Budget Categories to Projects

Next, when building your Project, assign the budget categories relevant for the Project on the Awards & Payments tab in your Project Settings.

While you’re here, be sure to also:

Note: Budget Categories and Funds can both be tied to a specific Project. You will not assign Budget Categories to a specific Fund.

Step 3: Make an Award

Finally, when you make an award, you can choose to set specific allowable amounts per budget category.

When using reimbursement processes, awardees will also be prompted to specify budget categories in their requests. Keep reading for more details!

Many funding programs operate on a reimbursement basis, where awardees receive payment after paying for expenses out of pocket and submitting receipts. Submittable’s new reimbursement process is a Project-level setting that will automatically enable your awardees to submit reimbursement requests from within their Submittable account, which you can approve or decline, with all communication automated and full transparency for your team.

While some Submittable customers have been using Additional Forms or Request Forms to handle reimbursements in the past, with the new reimbursement process integrated into Funds Management, it will be much, much simpler—for you and your awardees!

Step 1: Turn on reimbursements

Toggle Reimbursement Process to ON in your Project Settings (see image above).

Step 2: Educate your awardees about the new process.

A reimbursement request will be initiated by the awardee, so it’s important to let them know about the new process. We recommend you use our bulk email tool to do so. Here's some sample language you can adapt to your needs:

“We're excited to simplify our reimbursement process with Submittable's new tool. To submit a reimbursement request, go to the Awards & Payments tab within your submission, and click Create Reimbursement Request. You'll be able to add several expense line items, the associated budget categories (if used), and receipts. You can track its status (Approved or Declined) here as well. Learn more in this help article.”

Here's what it looks like from the awardee's point of view:

Step 3: Receive, assign, and approve or decline

When a new request comes in, you’ll be alerted via email. To review the request, open the submission details and click on View Award Details. It will include any relevant budget categories as well as a receipt. Requests can also include several expenses at once to save everyone time. You can also optionally assign the request to someone on your team.

Decide to approve or decline the request. When approving, you can conveniently issue a payment right from this view. When declining a request, you must provide the awardee with a reason. The awardee will be notified of the decision via email and can check the status anytime in their Submittable account.

Note: At this time, awardees cannot edit and reissue a request—they must create and resubmit a new request.

Step 4: Tracking and reporting for reimbursements

You and the awardee will both have visibility into a chart that clearly shows the amount used and available across budget categories as reimbursement requests are submitted.

You can also view or download a full history of your reimbursement requests on the Funds page under Reimbursement Requests.

Budget categories and reimbursement processes are included in our premium financial management module, referred to as “Funds Management”. It’s available as an add-on to the current Professional package. Contact your Customer Success Manager to ask about adding it to your account.

We hope the evolution of funds management in Submittable helps you run a smoother and more transparent funding process. See you next month.