Paying Expenses as a Fiscal Host#

Every expense submitted on the platform must be approved by both a Collective and Fiscal Host administrator.

We do this to ensure that the Collective is satisfied the expense is legitimate and that the Fiscal Host is satisfied it contains all the necessary payment information.

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This section covers the role of a Fiscal Host in the expense payment process. If you want to see an overview of the whole process, and all of the potential states of an expense, go to the Understanding Expenses page.
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Expenses Dashboard#

Payment Processor Status#

When you connect your Fiscal Host to Wise, PayPal, and Stripe, they are added to your expense page to help you keep track of your money on the various platforms where it may be processed.

For each payment processor, the card will show the balance of the corresponding account and a button that redirects you to the payment processor to add funds to your balance. If the payment processor is connected as a payout method, like Wise or PayPal, it will also show the cumulative total of expenses that are ready to pay out through that processor, and the cumulative total of expenses that have currently been batched to pay simultaneously.

Expense List#

You can monitor the status of expenses submitted to your hosted Collectives from Dashboard > Outgoing Money. Use these sub-pages depending on your task:

Without the sidebar reorganization preview, these workflows appear under Dashboard > Expenses.

Use Copy link from expense actions to share a permalink with teammates. The link opens the expense in the correct dashboard view for each viewer's role.

There you will see a list of expenses, which you can filter by:

• Date
• Amount
• Type
• Payout Method
• If an expense has a virtual card receipt
• Who made the last comment
• Associated account
• Tag
• Status

You can also order by newest or oldest first.

Expenses Explained#

When an expense appears in your queue as a Fiscal Host admin, it will be marked as “Approved." This means that the Collective admin has confirmed that the Collective is happy to pay the expense.

If the Collective has rejected an expense or marked it as spam, it will not appear in your expenses queue.

At this point, it is your responsibility to check that the expense can and should be paid. You may wish to consider factors such as:

• Whether there are sufficient funds in the Collective’s account
• Whether the information included is correct
• Whether the expense includes all information required for tax and admin purposes

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As the Fiscal Host, you are responsible for clarifying all necessary details around each expense before you approve it.

If you are in any doubt, consult an expert in the relevant field before taking further action.
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You can also find more detailed information about the expense by clicking the name of the expense. This will reveal an additional view featuring:

• The name of the expense
• Tags relating to the expense (if added)
• A description of the expense
• The total amount of the expense
• Any attachments such as receipts or invoices
• Any agreements relating to the expense or reimbursement
• Information on who is being expensed, who should be paid, and the payout method
• Comments relating to the expense
• A text box where you can add your own comments or replies

Screenshot of pullout box with additional expense information.

An expense that is awaiting your approval will feature basic information about the name of the expense submitter, the amount expensed, the payout method and the balance of the Collective or Event in question.

Screenshot of pending expense waiting approval.

You will also see an option to review some basic security checks relating to the expense. These may help you decide whether to ask for more information or clarification before processing.

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To understand how security checks take place on the Open Collective platform, go to the Understanding Security Checks page.
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What can I do next?#

When you are ready to make a decision about an expense, you can access a number of options from the expenses menu or the dedicated expense pullout window.

Go to pay#

If you are happy with the expense, you can select this option to begin paying it out of Collective funds.

You will either be able to pay out the expense with a connected external payment processor like Wise (learn more on our Payouts with Wise page) or you can pay the expense manually.

If you wish to represent expenses previously paid and you don’t need to actually move any money you can utilize Vendors. This will debit the amount from the balance and record the details of the expense.

Mark the expense as incomplete or on hold#

By clicking on the “Approved” status button, you will see the option to “Mark as Incomplete” or “Put on Hold”. You can do this if you wish to request more information about the expense. You can read more about this on our Asking for Information about Expenses page.

Edit #

If you have received clarification or additional information about the expense, you can edit it directly using this option. If this does not require a substantial change to the expense, you may then decide to begin the payment process.

Request Re-approval#

If you or the expense submitter have edited the information in the expense in a substantial way since it was approved by the Collective admin (for example, by changing the amount), you should re-submit it to the Collective for re-approval.

Download#

Select this option to download the invoice for tax filing and other purposes.

Copy link#

Select this option to send a direct link to the expense on the platform. This could be used when referring to the expense in discussion with another Fiscal Host admin.

Rejecting an expense#

If you wish to reject an expense outright, you will need to go to the Collective’s page, and access the expense in the “Transactions” section.