MDF Claims, Proof and Reimbursement
Once an activity is approved and the partner has run it, three things happen in order: the partner claims their expenses, supplies proof of performance, and you reimburse them.
Expense Claims
A claim is a request for money against one approved activity. It carries a title, the activity, an amount, the expense date, an expense type limited to those eligible on the activity's type, and a description.
The four rules that govern claims
- Claims can only be filed against an approved activity. A partner cannot claim against something still awaiting a decision.
- A claim cannot exceed the activity's approved amount. If an activity was approved at 50% of what was requested, that reduced figure is the ceiling - not the original request.
- A claim cannot be filed after the claim deadline, calculated from the activity's end date plus whichever claim-deadline days apply: the organization default, the program's override, the allocation's override, or a per-activity override.
- A reimbursed claim cannot be changed. Once money has gone out, the record is locked.
Claim statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|
| Draft | The partner is still preparing it. |
| Submitted | Sent for review. |
| Under Review | A reviewer has picked it up. |
| Approved | Approved for payment, not yet paid. |
| Rejected | Refused with a reason; the partner can revise and resubmit. |
| Declined | A final no. |
| Reimbursed | Paid. Final and immutable. |
Reviewer comments are what the partner reads. Write a rejection as an instruction rather than a verdict - "the attendee list is missing" tells the partner what to do, "rejected" does not. The same text appears in your claims reporting, so consistent wording across reviewers makes that reporting far more useful.
How many claims an activity may carry is controlled by Allowed claims per activity. Multiple - the default - lets a partner claim in instalments as costs arrive; Just One expects a single consolidated claim.
Proof of Performance
Proof of performance is the evidence that the funded activity happened and delivered what was promised. Requirements are defined per activity type - see Activity Types and Templates.
The partner uploads evidence into the named slots defined on the activity type. Required items must all be supplied; optional ones are supplementary. A reviewer marks each item Verified or Rejected individually, so a partner can be asked to replace one item without resubmitting the rest.
Where proof is required, the partner must upload every required item before submitting the claim, and each required item must be verified before the claim can be reimbursed.
Reimbursement
Reimbursement is the moment money actually leaves the business. It writes a ledger entry that moves the amount from committed to spent, leaving available unchanged - see Understanding MDF Balances.
Issuing or reversing a reimbursement is administrator-only, even for someone holding the Enable MDF Management Access permission. This keeps approval and payment in different hands by design - a channel manager can approve spend but cannot pay it.
Unclaimed Funds Do Not Return Automatically
When a claim deadline passes with budget still approved but unclaimed, the commitment stands. Nothing releases it on its own.
Find these with the Fund Expiration / Lapse report, then release the commitment on the activity or cancel it to free the budget. Do not use a manual adjustment for this - it leaves the activity looking funded when it is not.
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