Committee members can request advance payments directly from their student group account to their personal account when an invoice cannot be obtained through our finance module that we refer to as SGF (Student Group Finance). This article will detail how student groups can do this. 

Accessing SGF

To access SGF, start by going to the SU website and log in from your personal account by using the drop-down menu in the top right-hand corner. Once logged in, you can navigate to your group's admin panel by using the same menu to select 'Organizations'. 

From your organization control panel, choose 'Finances' to be taken to the student group finance (SGF) dashboard which can be seen below. From this dashboard, you can request an advance by choosing 'New Money Request'.

To request an advance it will need to be uploaded to a request and all details as seen below should be filled in. 

Request type - Advance should be chosen for advance payments

Event - If the request is related to an event created on your SU webpage you can mark it here

Payable to - This can either be the requester, the person filling in the request, another student, or a third party if someone other than a student made the purchase

Payment method - This will always be BACS. It's a three working day payment

Payee name - The name of the person looking to make the purchase on behalf of the group

Contact email / telephone - This contact information of the person receiving the payment. This may be needed by the SU finance department if there are any issues

Bank Sort Code - The sort code of the person looking to make the purchase on behalf of the group. This should be in the format of 12-34-56

Bank Account - The account number of the person looking to make the purchase on behalf of the group. This should be 8 digits long for UK bank accounts

Item Description - Details of the product or service you're purchasing. This information should be clear for the finance team to be able to understand and should be clear for you to be able to refer back to

Justification - Details of why your group is purchasing this product or service. Also detail why this request is an advance rather than an invoice or reimbursement

Amount - The cost in pounds and pence. e.g. £54.99

Account - This will always be the student group you are on the committee for.

Upload Receipt - Attach as much information regarding the cost of the product(s) or service(s) as possible

Create - You can create the request and save it for further editing

Submit - Submit the created request to the next stage of approval 

Once a request has been submitted it will then go through an approval process before it gets paid. 

Approval Process

All requests go through an approval process once submitted. Requests need to be approved by the committee, by the SU engagement team or relevant elections officer, and by the finance department. 

At each step of the approval process all details should be checked, but each level of approval will have a different insight. Committees will know if the goods or services were agreed upon and a fair price; the SU officers will know if it's a fair use of student group funds and submitted correctly; the finance department will have one final check to ensure that the documents are enough evidence to be able to be paid. 

At any point in the approval process, if the approver sees a mistake or needs further information, the request can be referred back to the original requester. It is the requester's responsibility to address any referrals in a timely manner. The request should be amended and resubmitted where it will be subjected to the approval process again. 

You will not be automatically notified when a request is referred, so it's best to check SGF in the days following submitting a request to review what stage it is at.