General Accounts Payable Process

1. Complete the AP Form:

• Requestors are required to complete the AP Form for any payment requests. If bills are sent to ap@movementstrategy.org the finance team will require the requestor to fill out the AP Form. 

• Note: Bills may NOT be emailed into your project's Bill.com inbox.

1.2 Internal Review (Optional):

• If the submitter would like an internal review before submitting the request to MSC, they should include the reviewer's email address in the field labelled "Once the form is submitted, MSC's team will begin reviewing and processing your request. If you would like to review the request or any documents generated first, or have someone else review the request, please enter the reviewer's email address below. Please note that MSC will not receive or process this request until the reviewer listed approves."

• The reviewer will receive a copy of the submission by email. 

• The reviewer may use the edit link in the email to update the submission or click Approve to send it to MSC for processing. If the submission is editted, the review email will be resent. 

• MSC will not receive the submission until the reviewer clicks Approve. 

2. MSC Enters Bills:

• The MSC AP Team is responsible for entering bills into Netsuite. They will input details such as vendor name, invoice number, invoice date, due date, description, account code, program code, and grant code. 

3. MSC Reviews Bills:

• The finance team reviews bills to ensure all necessary documentation is attached and that the bill details match the documentation. They also check if there are enough funds for FSP payments and review past payments to prevent duplicates. Contracts or grant agreements are also reviewed to ensure payment compliance.

4. Project Director Approves Bills:

• Bills are approved by the appropriate authority (usually the Project Director) to confirm MSC's authorization for payment.

• See Netsuite Procedures for instructions on approving bills in Netsuite. 

• Once a bill is fully approved, it will be automatically synced to Bill.com for payment.

5. Vendor Account Set Up:

• If it is the vendor's first time receiving payment from MSC, they will receive an email from Bill to set up their vendor account. They can securely enter their banking information for direct deposit. You may provide them this article to support setting up their account.

Payment Network Identification (PNI) Number: Each vendor is assigned a unique Payment Network Identification (PNI) number by Bill. Vendors are encouraged to provide this number to MSC to ensure accurate payments.

6. Processing Payments:

• Finance processes payments through Bill via check or ACH. Vendors without bank account information will receive checks, while those with account details will receive payments via ACH within 3-5 business days.

Outstanding Checks: Vendors have 90 days to cash their checks. If not cashed within this period, the check will be voided. Finance will contact projects after voiding to confirm the vendor's address and whether the check should be reissued.

Wire Payments: For urgent payments, Finance can issue wire transfers for a $40 fee. Please contact your Project Advisor to request a wire payment.

A Note Regarding Payments for Contractors

Projects and staff should ensure their contract or contract amendment is fully executed before submitting an invoice. All contracts and amendments that are fully signed by Monday will be entered to Netsuite and available for payment processing that same week. 

Accounts Payable Processing Timeline 

• Paper checks are issued by Bill and mailed via USPS within 7-10 business days. 

• Direct Deposit received within 3-5 business days. 

Account

Requestors should review the chart of accounts and their descriptions and use their best judgment when determining the correct account for an expense.

Department

All bills will be coded to the FSP department.

Program

Programs (formerly departments in Xero) represent your project's programmatic areas. 

To request a new program in Netsuite, email finance@movementstrategy.org

Grant

Grants (formerly locations in Xero) represent individual grant awards

Grants will be created by the MSC Grant team for each agreement received. Expenses related to that grant agreement must be coded to the grant to track the spend down and net assets for the grant.

Functional Expense

MSC allocates its expenses on a functional basis among its various programs and support services. There are several functional classifications that you need to code your expenses to. Please use your best judgment in coding transactions to these functions.

• Program - Direct

• Program - Indirect

• Lobbying

• Grassroots Lobbying

• Management & Admin - Direct

• Management & Admin - Indirect

• Fundraising

For FSPs, the default is Program - Direct. Because FSPs are programs of MSC, most FSP expenses are considered program expenses.

Finance uses Program - Indirect Expenses for salaries and benefits of FSP Administrative Staff.

Fundraising expenses are costs related to fundraising or soliciting from others money, time, other contributions. These include:

• Fundraising consultants, other personnel

• Occupancy costs related to fundraising 

• Printing, postage, telephone costs related to fundraising

• Direct mail lists, direct contact solicitations

• Other fundraising costs

Lobbying expenses are costs related to attempts to influence a legislative body through communication with a member or employee of a legislative body, or with a government official who participates in formulating legislation. 

Grassroots lobbying expenses are costs related to attempts to influence legislation by attempting to affect the opinion of the public with respect to the legislation and encouraging the audience to take action with respect to the legislation.