user guide (program staff)

Modified on Fri, 23 Feb 2024 at 01:26 PM

(Financial Reporting for Program Staff)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Welcome to Your Financial Reporting Platform!
Accessing the Financial Reporting Section
Submitting Your Budget
If Your Budget Needs Edits
Submitting Expense Reports
Submitting Budget Modifications

Welcome to Your Financial Reporting Platform!

We’re grateful for the opportunity to work with you in this area. As you know, we’re new to the financial reporting side of the national service world. You will be using the initial version of the financial reporting platform.

Whenever you have ideas on how we can make things better for you, please call us, text us, or e-mail support@americalearns.net. Our office landline is 310-689-0542 (we receive texts on this number).

We can’t wait to make this side of running an AmeriCorps program even easier for you.

Accessing the Financial Reporting Section

When your financial reporting account was created, you were given permission to either only read submitted budgets and reports or also to submit and edit them.

Once you log in, from the left, click Financial Reporting.
On the right, select the program year you’d like to access and then the program.

(If you’re a contractor who manages financial reports for multiple programs, by using the Program Year- and Program-selection drop-down menus, you’ll be able to access all client data.)
If your commission will enter your budget on your behalf, you will see a Submit Your Budget link on the page (as displayed towards the bottom of the screenshot below), please don’t click it. You’ll be notified once your budget has been approved. (If you will enter your own budget, please see the next section.)
Once your budget is approved, you’ll see an additional section on this page called Metrics. This section will provide you with an up-to-date picture of where you are with your grant’s financials. These numbers update as budget modifications and expense reports are approved.

Your commission has a similar real-time view of your program from their dashboard.
To view already-approved budgets, modifications, and reports, access the drop-down menus under the section “View Submitted Budgets & Reports”.

Submitting Your Budget

Some State Commissions will enter budgets for programs. Please consult with your Program Officer before completing and submitting a budget.

Designated staff members responsible for submitting financial reports for your program can submit a budget when it's time.

Here’s how to submit a budget:

From the left, click Financial Reporting.
On the right, towards the bottom of the page, you’ll see the section, Submit & Update Expense Reports.

Click Submit Your Budget.
Review the details of your award and pay close attention to the instructions. Click Next to begin.
Enter all of the data as required by your State Commission.
To save your budget and return to complete it later, click the Save Draft button.
To submit your completed budget, click Submit for Approval.

This will trigger an instant notification to your State Commission.
Please wait for this confirmation message before navigating away from your account.
You can view your submitted budgets at any time by clicking View.
If your budget needs edits or if it's approved you'll receive an email notification from your State Commission.

If Your Budget Needs Edits

You will get an email like this one:
Log in to your State Commission's Impact Suite.

Note: You can navigate between your Impact Suite account and your State Commission site using my accounts drop-down on the upper-right of your site.
On the right, click Financial Reporting.
On the left, click Resubmit Original Budget.

Submitting Expense Reports

Designated staff members responsible for submitting financial reports for your program will receive e-mail alerts when it’s time to submit or resubmit an expense report.

Here’s how to fill out the report:

From the left, click Financial Reporting.
On the right, towards the bottom of the page, you’ll see the section, Submit & Update Expense Reports.
Here, you’ll see a list of any reports that have launched and have either not been submitted or have been returned to you for editing.
Click the link to access the report.
At the top of the report page, you’ll see financial status details about your program, along with a link to open your current budget. (If your program submitted and received approval for a budget modification, this link will pull up the most recently approved modification.)
Click the section for which you need to enter expenses.

When the section expands, you’ll see the remaining amount of money left in each line item. Enter expenses for each item.
If activated for your program, as you enter expenses, you may be prompted to attach receipts for specific line items. To do so, simply click the relevant link and then follow the prompts in the pop-up window to attach the requested documentation.

Once you click the "Save" button in the receipt attachment window, you'll see an option to Edit Receipts for the given line item in case you need to add/remove any attachments or need to modify any attachment descriptions.
As you enter values in Sections I and II, if available for your program, Section III calculations will update automatically per custom values that were entered by your commission.

Do not change these values without explicit permission from your commission.

If you mistakenly edit the automatically-calculated values and realize that doing so was a mistake, at the bottom of the Section III table, click the link, Remove Your Edits & Restore Default Section III Calculations.

If you do make any change to Section III, the system will automatically track that change and make a note in the Final Details section at the bottom.
At the bottom of the page, you’ll see a Review section. This section will provide you with key details about the total amount of expenses you entered and the remaining amount of money that will remain once the report is approved.
At the bottom of the report, you’ll see a Final Details section where you can enter any notes for your commission to take into consideration while they review the report.

Depending on what's required of your program, you may see a prompt to attach your General Ledger for this reporting period.
If you’re not quite ready to submit the report, you can always click the “Save Draft” button at the bottom of the page. Your commission will not see the report until you click Submit for Approval.
When you submit the report, designated individuals at the commission will receive an e-mail notification letting them know that your report is ready for review.
If the report is approved or returned for editing, you’ll receive an e-mail notifying you of the outcome.

Submitting Budget Modifications

Designated staff members responsible for submitting financial reports for your program will receive e-mail alerts when it’s time to submit or resubmit an expense report.

Here’s how to fill out and submit a modification:

From the left, click Financial Reporting.
On the right, towards the bottom of the page, you’ll see the section, Submit & Update Budgets.
Click Submit Budget Modification.
You’ll see instructions from your commission at the very top of the page.
Sections I – III will display originally-budgeted totals.

When you click in a blank field to make a change, you'll see the originally-budgeted totals, the amount spent to-date, and the remaining balance for each line item.

Enter the changes you need to make in any relevant cells.

When you enter changes, you’ll be prompted to share a reason. And you will see a help tool to ensure you know how much you'll need to reallocate to another line item in the column. (Note: If you are making changes to your share the AmeriCorps share will be locked until you have balanced the Grantee share, and vice versa.)
If Section III is in your budget, values there will auto-calculate based on what you enter in Sections I and II. Do not change these values without explicit permission from your commission.

If you mistakenly edit the automatically-calculated values and realize that doing so was a mistake, at the bottom of the Section III table, click the link, Remove Your Edits & Restore Default Section III Calculations.

If you do make any change to Section III, the system will automatically track that change and make a note in the Final Details section at the bottom.
Towards the bottom of the form, you’ll see a section called REVIEW. This is the most important part of the submission process as it lets you know what you need to do to reconcile the budget for accurate submission.

In the Totals & Matches table, see the third line item, Amounts to Add/Subtract in Sections I or II in order to Reconcile.

In the example below, you’ll nee to add $29,500.29 to Section I or II in the AmeriCorps Share column, and $30,047.27 on the Grantee Share side.

Once you balance everything, here’s what this section will look like. Note that there are no longer numbers in the row, Amounts to Add/Subtract in Sections I or II in order to Reconcile.

Notice that all red text goes away.
If you’d like to attach backup documentation, attach those files at the bottom of the REVIEW section. Each file can be up to 10 MB or less (10 MB is equivalent to a Word doc of several thousand pages).
In the Final Details section at the bottom of the page, enter any notes for your commission to help them understand the reasons for your proposed changes.

If it needs to be formally approved, you’ll see a note above the submission button informing you of the need for formal approval.

Click Submit Budget Modification.

Designated staff members at the commission will receive an instant e-mail informing them of the submission.

Note that you can always save and come back later to finish your work by clicking the “Save” button at the very bottom of the page.