Stipend & Reimbursement Approval
Stop routing payment requests through email and hoping finance finds them.
What changes when you build this
The gaps you're living with today,
and what this tool fixes.
Problems
- Stipend and reimbursement requests use PDF forms attached to emails that sit in inboxes for days
- Staff don't know the status of their request — approved? denied? pending? lost?
- Finance re-keys data from PDFs into the accounting system, introducing errors and delays
- Budget code validation happens after approval, causing rejected payments and rework
- At year-end, finance scrambles to process a backlog of requests submitted in the final weeks
Solutions
- Staff submit requests through a structured form with amount, budget code, description, and receipt upload
- Multi-step approval chain routes requests to the supervisor, then department head, then finance — each with clear accept/reject actions
- Requesters see real-time status of their submission from pending through paid
- Budget code validation happens at submission so invalid codes are caught before the approval chain starts
- Finance sees a queue of approved requests ready for processing, not a pile of forwarded emails
What the data model looks like
Refine generates this table structure from your
prompt. Edit columns, types, and relationships after.
100%
Mistakes to avoid
These are the failure patterns teams hit most often
when building this.
Budget code errors caught after approvalFix: Validate budget codes at submission time. Reject invalid codes before the request enters the approval chain.
Budget code errors caught after approval
Fix:Validate budget codes at submission time. Reject invalid codes before the request enters the approval chain.
Approvers sit on requestsFix: Set SLA reminders — notify the approver after 48 hours, escalate to their supervisor after 5 days.
Approvers sit on requests
Fix:Set SLA reminders — notify the approver after 48 hours, escalate to their supervisor after 5 days.
No receipt attachedFix: Make receipt upload required for reimbursements. Block submission without an attachment.
No receipt attached
Fix:Make receipt upload required for reimbursements. Block submission without an attachment.
Year-end request pile-upFix: Set a submission deadline 3 weeks before fiscal year-end and send reminders starting 6 weeks out.
Year-end request pile-up
Fix:Set a submission deadline 3 weeks before fiscal year-end and send reminders starting 6 weeks out.
Staff can't track their requestFix: Give every requester a status view showing exactly where their request is in the approval chain.
Staff can't track their request
Fix:Give every requester a status view showing exactly where their request is in the approval chain.