Reps/SOPs/Budget

Budget request SOP for Mozilla Reps

Overview

In order to effectively support Mozilla Rep activities/projects around the world, a budget request SOP exists to evaluate, approve budget requests submitted by Mozilla Reps and efficiently disburse funds.

This SOP outlines:

• what selection criteria should be used to assess and approve a specific budget request
• who approves the budget requests
• what the different review stages of approval budget requests go through
• how funds are disbursed
• what follow-up strategy is employed to measure the success/failure of a funded activity/project

Assessment Criteria

a) Main focus areas

It is essential that clear criteria of relevance and success be established so that the ReMo Council can properly assess budget requests. It is important to consider the following questions when evaluating a budget request:

• How will the event or activity promote Mozilla’s mission?
• Does this opportunity represent a relatively small level of financial support that will have a large impact on others in the Mozilla community?
• Does the project empower other members of the community?
• How will Mozilla's financial support impact others both in Mozilla and in the larger user-community? Is the investment in the community being successfully leveraged?
• How measurable is the success of the event/activity and how easy is the follow-up ?

b) Disqualification of Budget Requests

Budget requests received less than 3 weeks before the targeted launch date of the event/activity in question will automatically be rejected (exceptions can be made but only with council approval). This 3-week “buffer” guarantees that each budget request undergoes the same thorough selection process.

Futhermore, the ReMo budget request SOP is open ONLY to Mozilla Reps. A person who is not a Mozilla Rep requesting a budget via the ReMo Budget Request SOP is automatically rejected from the procedure.

Questions to ask yourself when reviewing a budget

See full list of recommended questions here.

Budget Request Form

To request a budget, the following budget request form needs to be completed and submitted.

As an additional resource, it would be recommended for Reps to read The Quick Guide to Writing Budget Requests for Mozilla Reps.

Three-phased Screening/Selection/Approval Process

The process of bugdet requests is made up of three distinct phases:

1) preliminary screening made by the Rep's mentor
2) "filtering" made by Budget Task Force and approves/rejects budget requests <$500 USD
3) the ReMo Council approves or rejects budget requests >$500 USD

Peliminary Screening

Requesting Review using flags

When a Rep makes a budget request, (s)he must request that their mentor review the bug. The mentor is responsible for ensuring that the budget detailed in the request is appropriate for review. It is up to the mentor to decide when the budget request ready to be reviewed by the Budget Task Force.

To request review, the Rep needs to use the flag option located under the CC list. The Rep must set the remo-review flag to ? and then it will give you a field to enter your mentor's bugmail address.

Screening by the mentor

When screening the budget request (and the related event page), the mentor should use the assessment criteria set out in this SOP, as well their own knowledge of the Rep. Very importantly, the mentor needs to ensure that the event has a minimum of 3 success scenarios and metrics, chosen from the following list of success criteria: https://remo.etherpad.mozilla.org/success-criteria

This screening phase is to ensure the request is clear with solid success scenarios that can be measured. It is also an opportunity for the mentor to provide any additional details that may help the ReMo Council's final decision. NB: A mentor cannot decide whether or not a budget should be approved, the mentor is tasked to make sure the budget request is valid for review.

• If mentor considers the budget request to be valid for review:

   Bug Status : NEW
   Bug Whiteboard : Valid for review
   Set remo-review flag to +

• If the mentor does NOT consider the budget request to be valid for review:

   Bug Status : NEW
   Bug Whiteboard : NOT valid for review
   Set remo-review flag to -

• Disagreement of screening results

Should the applying Rep, or any other following the request disagree with the mentor, they should voice their concerns to the council via the council alias reps-council@mozilla.com

Filtering phase

A member of the Budget Task Force will filter out those requests that are not considered relevant or appropriate. All remaining requests are then passed on to a ReMo Council member for final review and approval/rejection.

• If budget task force considers the budget request to be valid for review:

   Bug Status : ASSIGNED
   Bug Whiteboard : Council Reviewer Assigned
   Set remo-approval flag to ?

• If the budget task force does NOT consider the budget request to be valid for review:

   Bug Status : RESOLVED - WONTFIX
   Bug Whiteboard : NOT valid for council review
   Set remo-approval flag to -

ReMo Council approval or rejection

• Requests < $500 USD: assigned reviewer is any member of the Budget Task Force and can approve/reject request without consulting the council

   Bug Status : ASSIGNED
   Bug Whiteboard : Budget Approved or Budget Rejected
   Set remo-approval flag to + or -

• Requests > $500 USD: assigned reviewer must be a council member and must approve/reject request with prior deliberation of ReMo Council over email or IRC. Approval of budget can only be made if council approves with a majority.

   Bug Status : ASSIGNED
   Bug Whiteboard : Budget Approved or Budget Rejected
   Set remo-approval flag to + or -

• Requests > $5,000 USD: assigned reviewer must be a council member and must approve/reject request with prior deliberation of ReMo Council over email or IRC. Approval of budget can only be made if council approves unanimously.

   Bug Status : ASSIGNED
   Bug Whiteboard : Budget Approved or Budget Rejected
   Set remo-approval flag to + or -

Accounting Rules

The fund flow should comply with accounting rules.

A donation is usually an amount given to an established non-profit organization with an established charter and its own auditing processes. It is usually not linked to a specific project but just to partially support the overall goal of this organization.

Expenses covered must be related to a ReMo event/project (with a proper ReMo event wiki page) as they occur, or once they have occurred.

In general, event-related expenses are covered once the event has occurred, besides advanced payment such as a portion of a proposal for a room, technical equipment rental, catering at the event. The remaining due amount is then paid just before the event, or upon receipt of a bill. In all cases such documents/offers should be formalized once the project has been approved with amounts/due dates and bank info so payments can be made accordingly.

In general, individual expenses are covered by paying back expense notes submitted with receipts, to cover individual travel, accommodation and food falling within pre-approved limits/guidelines. In some cases some of these expenses (travel, accommodation) could be directly paid to the service provider beforehand by Mozilla, which then provides the airline ticket or the hotel room to the individual. Food, taxi and other limited expenses are still reimbursed through an expense note.

Disbursement of Funds

Once a budget request has been approved, William Quiviger must process payments via PayPal or Western Union provided all relevant receipts and/or pro-forma invoices are attached to the budget request bug. It is currently not possible to make payment via bank transfer.

Tolerance threshold for events going "over" budget

• Budgets < $500 USD: maximum of 30% over-budget
  

• Budgets > $500 USD: maximum of 20% over-buget
  

• Budgets > $5,000 USD: maximum of 10% over budget
  

Tracking and Follow-up

The ReMo Council must regularly track the status of all pending budget requests and carry-out a follow-up of all projects whose budget requests have been approved. All this information must be available to the public on the Mozilla wiki and on Bugzilla.

a) Budget Request Tracking

All budget requests should be tracked based on 5 different bugzilla whiteboard statuses :

• Reviewer Assigned : budget request fits all the selection criteria, and a person from the ReMo council has been assigned as reviewer
  
• 
  Reviewer Assigned - need unanimous sign-off from Council
• Budget Approved : budget request has been approved and signed off by reviewer (and a majority of members of ReMo Council if > $500 USD and unanimously if > $5,000 USD), and the funded project is now in the process of disbursement
  
  • Approval comment on bug must say:
    

 

Hi [first name], thanks for submitting this request. Your request has been approved. Please follow these next steps
before we can process your payment: 
- indicate the twitter hashtags, flickr photos and blog posts related to your event on this bug and on your event wiki page
- provide a paypal account
- scan and attach all relevant receipts to this bug

Thanks and good luck for your event!

William

• Payment Processing : payment process is underway
  
• Payment Processed : all elements in the budget have been documented for payment and all payments have been made.
  
• Payment Received : submitter has confirmed that (s)he has received the requested funds
  
• Rejected : budget request was rejected by ReMo Council and/or during initial filtering phase
  

The following information must be properly documented :

• Name of Mozilla Rep
• Community (if applicable)
• Country
• Project/Name name and wiki page
• Date Budget Request was submitted
• Date Budget Request was Approved
• Date funds were Disbursed
• Amount Requested

Contact

For any questions, suggestions or comments, please also contact William Q or Pierros.