A guide on how to claim back expenses from Riverside Players.
Treasurer Life
A Treasurer’s ‘week’ is considered Sunday to Sunday. Claims made during a week will be paid that coming Sunday afternoon. Claims made Sunday evening will be paid the following Sunday. This makes the workload slightly easier to manage for the treasurer, and also makes finding relevant payments in your bank statement easier and more consistent (note: most online accounts will show transfers in real-time on the weekend, but some might not show up on the statement until business hours the following Monday – please get to know how your bank works so you know where to look).
All payments will be made by online Bank transfer, unless specifically requested otherwise. Please make sure your bank details are known to the treasurer via your point of contact. If you would rather payment by cheque, please provide a postal address, or else a point of contact from whom you would be happy to receive the cheque (Please note, this must be the committee member or show-runner via whom you made the claim for the sake of confidentiality and traceability – I can’t go handing cheques out to people willy-nilly!)
Claim Protocols
Claims for Productions
All show claims, whatever department, should be made via the Director or Production Manager – This ensures, importantly, that all expenses have been authorised as part of the production budget and will not come as a surprise to anyone involved after the fact. It also ensures no duplicate claims, as all will be made from one source. Thirdly, it makes assigning expenses to productions much simpler as it is simply a case of matching the sender with their show. Show-runners, please use the email subject format of “show name – department claim” (e.g. “Panto – Costume claim” or “Rope – Publicity claim”)
Extraordinary Claims
All extraordinary claims should be made via the relevant committee member – Non-production tech costs (e.g. replacing blown stage lights) should be made via the Tech Committee Rep. Non-production costume costs (e.g. storage boxes or shelves) should be made via the Wardrobe Committee Rep. This, again, ensures all claims are authorised and have been brought to committee, and also makes assigning departments easier. An updated line-up including Roles and Representatives of the committee members will be published shortly, as there may be some alterations following recent committee changes. Until this is published (and only until then), make extraordinary claims direct to me on the email below.
Claim Request
All claims must be made by email to [email protected] – Please include in the email a scan/photo of the relevant receipt. This ensures a digital ‘papertrail’ that will be much easier to search and troubleshoot in the occasion of any problems. By all means, hand physical receipts to me in person, but make sure they have been already scanned/photographed and sent to the relevant show-runner/committee member via email before This email address is not for general enquiries, and is provided to the group as a whole so you all know it for when it might be relevant – please remember, however, that it should only be Show-runners/Department Reps using it directly… apart from…
Urgent and/or Emergency Requests
“Urgent” or “Emergency” claims may be made direct to the Treasurer, as long as the relevant Show-Runner/Committee Member is CC’d in – Occasionally there may be an urgent claim (e.g. a particularly large amount of money, or a pre-pay for a large expenditure for a stage light that blew during the dress rehearsal and the world is falling apart aaaaaahhhhh). In these situations, members may use the treasurer email directly, with the subject line “URGENT – show name – department claim” . In these situations the claim will be paid that day if at all possible, and as soon that day as possible, rather than at the weekend with the ‘everyday’ claims. Please do not abuse this. I understand urgent claims will arise when the mortgage payments synchronise in just the wrong way with show week etc., but this should only be used when it is truly Too many, and it will ruin the purpose of maintaining an easily sortable and searchable email database, and may result in real urgent payments being delayed.
Corrections
If you believe you have been incorrectly reimbursed, or there is an amount outstanding, please email the treasurer email with the subject ‘Query’, and ‘Query’ alone – This means these emails can be filtered out of the invoices box, whilst still being seen and cross-referenced with their relevant claim. Whilst I will let the show-runners know at the weekend when that week’s claims have been paid, it is not feasible for me to contact each claimant individually. Please take the time to check your relevant bank statement or online banking account each week when you are expecting a payment. Payments will have a relevant reference (e.g. ERP – COSTUME) so they should be easy to spot. Please only contact with a ‘Query’ once you have checked this a week after the claim.
This should cover everything. If you have any further questions, feel free either to contact me either via the committee, website or facebook or any other channel you may have available – just not the treasurer email address!
Peace and Love,
Matthew Friett – your friendly neighbourhood treasurer
