Distribution Limits and Disbursement Batches

Two kinds of guardrail: rules that stop the same household collecting twice on one day, and a two-person check before a batch of grant payments goes out.

When you’d use this

• The same family collected a box twice on Saturday and you want that caught, not noticed later.
• A large household genuinely needs more than the standard cap.
• You are paying eleven grantees this month and would rather do one run than eleven.
• Your policy says one person cannot both approve and pay.

Distribution limits

Nonprofit > Distribution > Distribution Limits has two kinds of rule.

Built-in rules ship with Muin and cannot be deleted. You can change how strictly each one is enforced.

Custom limits are yours. Click Add Limit and set:

• Name: what you will call it.
• Limit Type: one of: same-event duplicate, same-day duplicate, family per-event cap, visits per period, weight per period, items per visit, or cooldown days.
• Period: week, month, quarter or year, for the per-period types.
• The maximum. What it is labelled depends on the type: members per family per event, max visits, max pounds, max items, or cooldown days.
• Enforcement: Block stops the distribution outright; Warn lets the operator through with a warning.
• Applies To: Person or Household.
• Warning Threshold %: how close to the limit a household gets before the desk is warned. Defaults to 80.

Each limit shows its enforcement as a badge, Block or Warn, and its scope: every program, or one named program.

Per-family overrides

The household overrides panel on the same screen is how you say yes to the family of nine whose needs genuinely exceed the standard cap, without weakening the cap for everybody else. The override is a record, so the desk sees why the exception exists.

Change or remove a limit

Edit changes it. Delete removes it, and cannot be undone, so for a rule you only want to pause, set its enforcement to Warn instead.

Disbursement batches

Disbursement Batches pays a set of approved grant disbursements in one run. It is the grantmaking side of money out, not the household-assistance side; for household aid see Aid disbursements.

There is no sidebar entry for this screen today. You reach it at /nonprofit/disbursement-batches.

Run a batch

1. Select the approved grant disbursements you want to pay and create a batch from them.
2. Open the batch. The header shows Total Amount, Total Items, Processed, Failed / Skipped and Progress.
3. Click Validate. This checks the batch before anybody commits to it.
4. Click Approve. Muin shows you the batch name, the total and the number of disbursements, and states that approving records you as the approver.
5. Click Approve Disbursements to pay. The dialog says the amount and count will be sent for payment and cannot be undone from here, and it makes you type PROCESS to confirm. The cancel button is focused by default, deliberately.

The batch statuses

Status	Meaning
Draft	Built, not approved
Approved	Approved, not yet paid
Processing	Payment in motion
Awaiting payment	Waiting on the payment leg
Completed	All items paid
Partial failure	Some items paid, some did not

A batch in a two-signature band carries Awaiting second approval; one over your board-approval threshold carries Board Approval Required.

Who may approve and pay

The same approval settings govern this as everything else, under Settings > Approvals. If your organization separates the approver from the payer, the person who approved the batch cannot process it, and Muin says so in a dialog rather than a toast. Approving a batch you created yourself follows the same self-approval setting, with a required note where that is what you chose.

What it affects

• A Block limit refuses the distribution at the desk. An operator cannot talk past it; it is a rule, not a suggestion. Warn lets them through and records that they were warned.
• Changing a limit changes behavior at the next check-in, including for households already part way through a period.
• A household override applies to that household only, and shows at the desk so the operator knows it is intentional.
• Processing a batch sends every item in it for payment and posts the ledger entries. Partial failure means some items landed and some did not: read the per-item result rather than assuming the whole batch failed.
• Deleting a custom limit removes enforcement immediately.

When it goes wrong

What you see	What it means	What to do
Failed to load limits	The limits query failed	Check your connection and press Retry.
No custom limits configured yet	Only the built-in rules are active	That is a valid setup. Add a custom limit when you have a rule the built-ins do not cover.
A household is blocked and you want to let them through	A Block limit is doing its job	Add a household override rather than loosening the limit for everybody.
A limit you set is not firing	Its enforcement is Warn, or it is scoped to a different program	Check the badge and the scope line on the row.
Batch not found	The batch was removed, or the link is wrong	Press Back to batches and pick it from the list.
Couldn’t load this disbursement batch	The batch query failed	Check your connection and retry.
No batches yet	Nothing has been batched	Select approved disbursements and create a batch.
Partial failure on a batch	Some items paid, some did not	Open the batch and read Failed / Skipped. Re-batch the items that did not land.
The pay dialog will not enable	You have not typed PROCESS	Type it exactly. The gate is deliberate; the action cannot be undone from this screen.
Approve is refused	Your settings forbid approving a batch you created, or require a second signature	Have the second approver act, or change the setting under Settings > Approvals.
Approve Disbursements is refused after you approved	Your organization separates approver from payer	A different person processes the batch.

Next step

Limits are enforced against a recipient record. See The recipient record, privacy and attestations.