SHAPE Expenses Policy

This expense policy is to make sure that Southwark Housing and Planning Emergency (SHAPE) is to set out clearly who can apply for an expense on our page.

Our expenses are related to the cost of printing flyers, leaflets, posters, as well as graphic and video work, and other relevant expenses incurred in the SHAPE events or campaigns. Food, drink, accommodation and travel expenses will not be reimbursed. In order to maximise the proceeds of our fundraising and minimise our reimbursements, we do require formal pre-approval by the Core Group for ALL expenses described above. If in doubt, and please email SHAPE on shapesouthwark@gmail.com, BEFORE incurring any reimbursable expenses.
Expenses will only be paid if there is enough income to cover the expenses within the collective. Expenses must be documented with a receipt or an invoice and approved by the collective admin (we have 3 admins)

Key Principles of SHAPE Expense Policy:
1. For the time being, we will only be accepting expenses that cover SHAPE’s day to day activities and events. These expenses will need to be submitted by SHAPE Core Group members and must have been agreed by the Core before hand.
2. In order to approve expenses i.e. for printing etc., we will generally need a proof of payment such as a valid receipt or an invoice.
3. As the expenses can be submitted by Core Group members only, they have access to internal communication channels.
4. Expenses will be approved by one of the three admins. Expenses can’t be approved by the same person who has submitted it.
5. Social Change Nest (SCN), our fiscal host, normally makes payments on Tuesdays and Fridays, however the cutoff point for them is now 5pm on Mondays and Thursdays. Any expenses that are submitted after 5pm on those days will be picked up in the next batch of scheduled payments.

More information on how paying expenses works

1. An individual/volunteer submits and expense claim on the SHAPE OC page with the appropriate information outlined in the Expense policy, i.e. receipt / invoice.
2. The Collective’s administrators receive a notification and can review then approve or reject the expense claim.
3. If rejected, they can add a note about it so the individual can edit or change their claim
4. If approved, the SCN receives a notification to pay out the expense.
5. All of the steps are visible on the platform so the individual and Collective can keep track of the process. For a step by step on submitting expenses, click here. To find out more about how to approve an expense on Open Collective, click here.

Contribution to SHAPE

Financial contribution to SHAPE

Collective balance