How to create a Volunteers’ expenses policy

At Expend we work closely with charities to help them manage and control their expense management processes. Like all organisations, charities have legitimate expenses, and it's important that there is clear visibility of these.

If you run a charity then you will know that an important aspect of your expenses is the costs claimed by your volunteers. 

The first thing to say is that volunteers are fully entitled to claim their legitimate expenses. Some may choose not to. For example, if they are involved in delivering meals they may decide that they do not want to claim their vehicle mileage costs. However, it's important to mention that all volunteers can claim for their respective legitimate expenses. 

What type of expenses can volunteers claim?

Volunteers are normally entitled to claim money to reimburse them for their legitimate out-of-pocket expenses. The typical costs that volunteers can make a claim for can include:

• the cost of travelling from their home to the volunteer location or activity

• subsistence food and drink whilst on the activity

• telephone costs

• stationery and printing costs

• appropriate protective clothing as part of their voluntary activities

• relevant training costs

So, in order to help your organisation and your volunteers, it's appropriate to create a volunteers expenses policy. Fairness needs to be at the heart of this. You will want to make it apparent that you value your volunteers, and your expense policy needs to demonstrate a fair approach.

Why have a volunteers’ expenses policy?

A volunteers’ expenses policy helps communicate the types of expenses that can be claimed and how they can be processed. The policy will also help to create and manage expectations around expenses, avoiding the possibility of confusion.

What should be included in a volunteers’ expenses policy?

The key principle of a volunteers’ expenses policy is that no volunteer should be out-of-pocket as a result of providing help to your charity. 

This is by no means a comprehensive list, and the needs of your charity may mean that there are other elements that you would like to include. However, here are the core elements of a volunteers’ expenses policy:

• details of the purpose and range of the policy

• details of the expectations of the policy and the compliance which is expected from volunteers

• how volunteers need to manage receipts

• details of how you will reimburse the costs of travel, accommodation, mileage in a private vehicle and costs of public transport (consider how a mileage allowance might differ if the volunteer is also transporting other volunteer passengers in their car)

• the responsibility for car parking fees, parking penalties and fines

• when to submit claims and when to expect repayment

• who will be the person in your charity responsible for the management and implementation of the policy

• how you plan to communicate the policy to your volunteers

• how will the policy be reviewed and revised

What are the benefits of a volunteers’ expenses policy?

A policy helps to make clear your expectations around volunteers’ expenses, what can be claimed, how and when. Importantly, your policy will communicate to your volunteers that you value their contribution. 

A clear and well managed policy is an important component, but it is also important to ensure that you do not create a clunky bureaucracy around expense claims and reimbursement. All charities are conscious of their operating costs, and it's equally important to be conscious of the effort required by your charity team to administer volunteers’ expenses. 

More broadly, it's also important to consider the best way in which to administer your wider expense management process, including claims for volunteers’ expenses. 

At Expend, our close association with charities means that we are equipped to provide effective and economic technical solutions to expense management in the form of our Expend mobile app.

This means that volunteers can capture photographs of legitimate expense receipts on their mobile phones via the Expend app. These are processed into appropriate spend categories and automatically reconciled for reimbursement. 

As importantly, the Expend app integrates the relevant spending data into your charity’s accounts. This data can easily and seamlessly be integrated with accounting software such as Xero and Quickbooks. 

If you would like to know more about how expense management solutions could help your charity, please contact us.