Paying Out Aid: Cash, Check, ACH and Gift Cards

An approved request becomes money going out. Two screens hold the record: one for every payout, and one for the gift cards you hand across the desk.

When you’d use this

• The board asks what you paid out last quarter and by what method.
• You wrote a check against the wrong fund and need to undo it cleanly.
• A family needs a grocery gift card today rather than a check next week.
• An auditor wants to see which cards were issued and which were actually used.

Every payout in one list

1. Go to Nonprofit > Aid & Assistance > Disbursements.
2. Tabs filter the list: All, Active, Voided.
3. The Method filter narrows it further: Cash, Check, ACH, Gift card, In-kind, Stripe transfer, or All methods.
4. A payout is badged Active or Voided.

Void a payout

If a payout was wrong, void it rather than editing it. Click Void on the row, and Muin tells you exactly what voiding does before you confirm: a cash method restores the fund and reverses the general-ledger entry, an in-kind payout returns the relieved stock, and the request reopens so it can be disbursed again. This cannot be undone.

A Reason is required. Write what was actually wrong: it is the audit trail.

Gift cards

Nonprofit > Aid & Assistance > Gift Cards tracks cards internally. Muin records which card went to whom, for how much, and what happened to it; it does not buy the cards for you.

Issue a card

1. Click Issue gift card.
2. Fill in Recipient, Fund and Card value (USD).
3. Optionally set Assistance class, External reference (the card or batch number printed on the card itself), and Notes.
4. Save.

A card also appears here when you choose the gift-card method on an Approve & disburse in the review cockpit: you do not have to issue it twice.

The card lifecycle

Status	What you can do next
Issued	Activate it, or Void it
Activated	Redeem it when the family uses it, or Void it
Redeemed	Nothing. This is the end state
Void	Nothing. This is the end state

Tabs filter by the same four statuses plus All. Each transition asks you to confirm: Activate this gift card?, Mark this gift card redeemed?, and for Void gift card a Reason explaining why the card is being taken out of circulation.

What it affects

• A payout decrements the fund it was charged to, so fund balances on Aid Stewardship move as you disburse.
• Voiding restores the fund, reverses the general-ledger entry, returns in-kind stock, and reopens the request: four effects from one action, which is why the dialog spells them out.
• A disbursement is what flips its request to Disbursed, so the request list and the review queue both change.
• Gift-card value counts as assistance disbursed in the stewardship and impact reports.
• Charging a payout to a grant draws on that grant’s budget.

When it goes wrong

What you see	What it means	What to do
Couldn’t load disbursements	The list failed to load	Reload the page. Check your connection if it repeats.
No disbursements yet	Nothing has been paid out	Approve a request first; payouts are created from approvals.
No disbursements match	The method or status filter excludes everything	Set Method to All methods and the tab to All.
Void asks for a reason and will not proceed	The reason is required	Write what was wrong. The reason is the audit record.
Couldn’t load gift cards	The card list failed to load	Reload the page.
The Gift Cards screen is empty	No cards issued yet	Cards appear here when you issue one, or when a one-motion approval uses the gift-card method.
Activate or Redeem is not offered on a card	The card is already redeemed or voided	Those are end states. Issue a new card if the family still needs help.
You voided the wrong payout	Voiding cannot be undone	Re-disburse the reopened request. The original void stays on the record, with your reason.

Next step

Decide the rules before the next request arrives: Fairness policies, eligibility screening and poverty guidelines.