Volunteer Expenses and Getting Paid Back

Somebody bought pizza for the youth night out of their own pocket. They take a photo of the receipt, you approve it, your treasurer pays them, and the ledger shows it. Nobody fills in a form twice.

When you’d use this

• A parent drove to the distribution site and wants their mileage back.
• A teacher bought classroom supplies and needs reimbursing against the right program.
• You are the coordinator and four claims are waiting on your decision.
• You are the treasurer and need to know who to pay, and how they want it.

Who files where

Who you are	Where you file
A volunteer or parent, no staff account	The member portal: /go/{your-org}/me > Money back
Staff with a Muin login (teacher, coordinator)	My expenses in your account menu, or the Expenses module in the Muin Go mobile app

Both land in the same queue, follow the same approval rules, and are paid the same way. A volunteer does not need a staff account to be reimbursed, and never has to be given one.

File an expense

From My expenses:

1. Click New expense.
2. Add the Receipt photo. Muin reads the merchant, total and date off it and fills the fields in; you check and correct.
3. Set For which class or program? so the cost lands against the right work. Choose Not for a specific class or program if it genuinely does not belong to one.
4. Fill in Category, Description, Amount, Date, and Merchant (optional).
5. Click Send.

The Amount must be greater than zero and the Date cannot be in the future. Mileage needs no receipt, only the miles.

If the reviewer asks a question, the row shows Info requested along with Your coordinator asked: and the question. Click Answer and send again, write Your answer, and press Send again.

Where the money goes

Payout preferences is how you tell the treasurer where to send it. Reach it from the related links on an expense, or go to it directly.

1. Click Add preference.
2. Pick a Payment method: Zelle, Venmo or Mailed check.
3. Fill in what that method needs: an Email or phone number for Zelle, a Venmo handle for Venmo, or Make check payable to plus the address for a check.
4. Tick Use this as my default payout method if it is the one you usually want.
5. Click Save.

You can hold several and mark one Default. Set default, Edit and Remove sit on each card. The line under the header tells you how many requests are awaiting payment against your preferences, so you can see before you change anything whether a change matters right now.

Removing a preference cannot be undone, though you can always add a new one.

Review an expense

Coordinators and finance staff work from Nonprofit > Volunteering > Reimbursements and open a claim to the review screen.

The screen shows you the claim: Amount, Category, Merchant, Date, GL Code, Fund, and Miles with the Mileage Rate for a mileage claim, plus View receipt, an AI block with Confidence, Fraud Score and Suggested Category, a Timeline, and a Connected to this request list that takes you to the event, the person, the budget and their Payout preferences.

Your actions, in Review Action:

Action	What it does
Approve	Accepts it. Leave Approved amount blank to pay back what was asked; a lower number is what gets paid, and the filer sees it, so say why in the note
Reject	Declines it. The reason is required and the volunteer reads it: say what was wrong and whether they can send a new claim
Request info	Asks the filer a question without deciding
Escalate	Sends it up to a higher approver for something large or unusual
Record disbursement	Records the payment you made outside Muin

Notes on an approval are read by the person who filed the claim. Write them for that reader.

Who is allowed to approve

Approval rules are set per organization under Settings > Approvals, and the same settings govern every kind of request, not just reimbursements. Three questions decide it: who approves, whether an owner or admin may approve something they sent themselves, and the amount above which a second signature is required. The Approvals link in the reimbursements board header goes straight to the right section.

A small organization can run with one person: nothing is queued for a second approver, and the owner approves their own claim by writing down why. Larger organizations can set an amount below which claims with a receipt are approved automatically and recorded, one approver above it, and two above a second amount. Until the questions are answered, nothing is approved automatically and nobody approves their own request.

When a rule blocks you, Muin opens a dialog rather than flashing a message you might miss:

• Approving your own claim where the setting allows it with a note: a note box appears and the note is required.
• Approving your own claim where the setting forbids it: you are told, and told which setting governs it.
• Paying a claim you approved, where the organization separates approver from payer: the pay action is refused and names the rule.

Status vocabulary

Status	Meaning
Draft	Started, not sent
Submitted	Sent, waiting to be looked at
AI Reviewing	Muin is reading the receipt
Pending	Waiting on an approver
Info requested	The reviewer asked a question
Approved	Cleared for payment
Processing	Payment in motion
Paid	Money sent, with the method recorded
Rejected	Declined, with a reason
Cancelled	Withdrawn by the filer

An escalated claim also carries Escalated, and one in a two-signature band carries Awaiting second approval.

What it affects

• Approving a claim does not move money. The treasurer pays outside Muin: Zelle, check, cash, Venmo, and records it with Record disbursement.
• Recording the payment posts the general-ledger entry and marks the claim Paid. The filer sees Paid via and the method in their portal.
• An approved claim counts against the event or program budget on the Budgets tab of the reimbursements board.
• Claims linked to an event appear on that event’s page, and on the person’s record under Money back requests.
• Changing your default payout preference changes where claims already awaiting payment are sent, which is why the count is shown before you edit.

When it goes wrong

What you see	What it means	What to do
We could not find your person record	Your login is not linked to a person yet	Use the Link my record step on the page, or ask an administrator to link it.
We could not load your expenses	The list failed to load	Check your internet and press Try again.
We could not send your expense	The claim did not save	Try again. Check Amount is above zero and Date is not in the future.
Required on a field	A required field is empty	Fill it in. Amount, Date and Description are always required.
Date cannot be in the future	You picked tomorrow	Use the date you actually spent the money.
Please provide a rejection reason	You pressed Reject with an empty reason	Write it. The volunteer reads it.
A note box appears when you press Approve	You are approving your own claim and your settings require a note	Say why you are approving your own request. It stays on the record.
Approve is refused outright	Your settings forbid approving your own claim	Have somebody else approve it, or change the setting under Settings > Approvals.
The pay action is refused	Your organization separates the approver from the payer	A different person records the payment.
A duplicate warning appears	Muin matched an existing claim on amount, merchant, date and person	Check whether it really is the same receipt before sending again.
Your expenses moved to the volunteer portal, and we could not work out your organization’s address	A portal identity opened the staff page and Muin could not find the right portal to redirect to	Check your internet and press Try again, or open /go/{your-org}/me directly.
No payout preferences yet	The treasurer does not know where to send your money	Click Add your first preference.
Could not load payout preferences	The list failed to load	Try again.

Next step

To see what all of this added up to across the year, go to Volunteer impact reporting.