Treasurer's FAQ

This includes some common questions when using the treasury services.

General Forms and Requisites

  1. For payments in advance, or payments for incomplete work, or large payments, a contract signed by SPI is required.
  2. For payment for individuals, a contractor agreement (for projects) or participation agreement (for programs) signed beforehand is required.
  3. For payment of products, an invoice from the provider or a complete reimbursement request from an individual is sufficient.
  4. For payment of services, a contract is required for large amounts or recurrent payments, and an invoice is sufficient for smaller amounts, or when the service is part of a reimbursement request (such as Taxi services).

Validation, Payment Terms and Exceptions

  1. All expenses are subject to the liaison validation that they indeed benefit the project, in the terms of the Associated Project Framework. Expenses without this authorization, or which SPI concludes to not advance SPI goals or eventual restrictions, will NOT be paid.
  2. SPI Payment Queue normally operates on NET-30 terms (30 days from submission of the complete invoice to the payment). Exceptions when necessary are made on a case-by-case basis.
  3. Exceptionally, SPI can transfer funds to other non-profit organizations in the form of grants (such as to cover legal expenses incurred by foreign fiscal sponsors). It's useful when an invoice cannot be made, when a reimbursement request is not applicable, or when payment must be done in advance but for some major reason it's not possible to specify the expenses in a contract. Grants are extremely rare, for exceptional situations.

General Restrictions

  1. SPI cannot pay when receipts are missing, when banking information is invalid, when the receiver is in the OFAC/SDN list or similar money laundering and terrorism prevention lists, when the receiver is resident or citizen of an embargoed country (such as Cuba and Russia), etc.
  2. SPI cannot pay when the amounts are incompatible with the market average pricing, when SPI cannot determine what was provided or if the price for what was provided is reasonable, when it could be for private benefit or when the payment would otherwise be in conflict with 501(c)(3) limitations.