Hosts can receive money directly from their bank account (via bank transfer) and then allocate those funds to a given collective via the dashboard.
Financial Contributors are able to choose 'Bank Transfer' as a payment method:
The instructions for the wire transfer are sent to them via email with a unique transaction identifier. Once the money has been received in the Host's bank account, and admin of the Host will be able to mark the transaction as received in the Host Dashboard and the funds will be added to the collective's budget.
To set up this option, please go to your fiscal host settings and look under receiving money.
There are two types of expected funds on the platform:
The first are automatically generated when contributors use the “bank transfer” payment method and then manually complete payment at a later time.
The other are expected funds created by a fiscal host to track expected funds as a consequence of fund-raising efforts by either the fiscal host or collectives. Documenting expected incoming contributions will make it easier for you to track them down and reconcile them when they appear in your bank account.
Expected funds can be found in your Fiscal Host Dashboard:
When you become aware of expected funds (for example, when notified by a collective administrator), you can create a new expected fund. Navigate to your Fiscal Host Dashboard -> Expected Funds. In the Top right corner, click “Create pending”
The form is divided into three sections:
In the first section, you can indicate:
To which of your hosted collectives the funding is going to be allocated.
You can decide within the collective if the funds are supposed to go to the main collective account or to a project or event. You can also link the funding to a specific contribution tier.
In the second section, you can indicate where the money is coming from:
Select an existing organization or create a new one.
Add contribution-specific contact information (name and email) for this funding. If you provide a contact email address, they will be automatically notified when the funding is allocated to the collective.
You can assign it to an accounting category
If you are interacting with a funders payment system and have a purchase order number to track, you can add it here.
Add an internal note to document information related to this pending contribution.
In the third section, you can indicate:
The expected amount.
Set the host fees.
Indicate when the funds are expected to arrive
The expected payment method.
Review & Edit Expected Funds
When you find a expected fund (see Searching for expected fund), you can click on it to review its details.
Click on “Edit Contribution” to modify the expected fund details.
You can search for an expected fund based on any of the information you’ve entered and you can filter expected funds for any time period, the amount of the contribution, who created the expected funds, the status and type; recurring or one time. You can also sort the expected funds by Newest or Oldest.
When you’ve found an expected fund that matches incoming funds, you can reconcile it by clicking on the three dots and then “Mark as completed" which will display this reconciliation screen.
This screen will be populated with the information from the pending contribution. You can modify the amounts to match the funding that was actually received, including payment processor fees and the host fees.
When you click on “submit” the following things will happen:
The funds will be credited to the collective (or project or event) and if selected, Tier. Four transactions will be created:
Funds will be debited from the funder account.
Funds will be credited to the collective.
Host fees will be deducted from the collective account.
Host fees will be credited to the host.
The expected fund will be marked as completed.
The collective admins will receive a notification letting them know that their funds have arrived and have been allocated to their account.
The funder contact (if there is one) will receive an email notification letting them know that the funds have been received and allocated to the collective.
The reconciled expected fund will no longer appear under pending contributions. It will now appear as a contribution to the collective.
The expected dates on expected funds are informational estimates. When the expected date passes it will be emphasized with a highlight to indicate it may be overdue.
If you no longer expect an expended fund to be fulfilled, you can mark it as expired.
If for some reason, the funds for an expired expected fund do arrive, you will still be able to search for it and reconcile it.
Once you connect Stripe and/or Paypal, financial contributors can select these payment methods when paying your Collectives, and Open Collective will automatically process the transactions and credit the appropriate budget on the platform.
You can also set up bank transfer payments. If users select this option, they will automatically be given instructions you define to complete their transaction. When the funds arrive, you confirm on the financial contributions section of the dashboard.
You can receive funds by any other means (such as checks or other payments services) and add them manually.
How to connect to Stripe:
Go to your fiscal host settings
Receiving money
Connect Stripe
Select the account you'd like to connect. You will need to be an admin of this account.
Stripe will guide you through their connection process.
Make sure your Stripe account is correctly enabled to make live charges. Without this contributors will not be able to make payments.
You can manually add funds to a Collective directly. This is useful when you receive a contribution for a Collective outside the Open Collective system (like a bank transfer) and want to apply it to a Collective's budget, or to represent money you're already holding on the platform.
Navigate to your Dashboard > Collectives.
Locate the Collective you'd like to add funds to. Click on the three dots and then the Add Funds button.
And fill the form with all required information to add the funds to that Collective with the following information:
The source of those funds. It can be your Fiscal Host, another Collective, or an Organization. Events and Projects are also displayed here.
The Collective's tier to which the donation applies (if any)
A short description of those funds.
The effective date of which the funds cleared your bank account.
The Accounting Category to categorise your accounts
An internal memo used by other host administrators.
The amount of funds you want to send to a Collective.
Your host fee, which is the fee you charge your Collectives. It's already set to your default, but you can change it to a one-time fee of your preference.
Any payment processor fees that need to be included.
Once you're done, click Add Funds.
Internal memos are used to indicate, to yourself and other administrators, anything of note regarding this transaction. Typically, this will be some information about the source, the provision of funds, or any stipulations under which the funds were provided. For instance:
A purchase order or invoice number
A check number or bank transaction identifier
A grant application and associated award
The memo will appear to any administrator under 'view details on the transaction list:
Made an error when adding some funds! No worries you can now correct your entry. To maintain ledger integrity we effectively delete the transactions related to this added fund and recreate them with the correct information.
Navigate to your Fiscal Host Dashboard > Contributions and press the three dots on the right hand side of the added fund, click 'edit funds'.
The fields that can be updated are:
Description
Source
Recipient (can be edited to any event/project of the same collective)
Tier
Effective Date
Memo
Gross Amount
Host Fee
Payment Processor Fee
Tax Number and Rate
An edit activity is also created and displayed in the Contribution details drawer.
