5 min read

Funding Requests Made Easy

We all love our kids. We love our community. But managing the bureaucracy of a parent-teacher group shouldn’t take up more time than it needs to.

Funding Requests are a classic example of something that consumes more time than it should. If you’re a treasurer, then you’re all too familiar with incomplete and vague requests, struggling to get approval from leadership, and, of course, chasing down missing receipts.

Big Nest’s Funding Request feature simplifies receipt tracking and financial management for school groups, helping you spend less time chasing receipts and more time with your family.

The Current Landscape

Many school groups currently handle funding requests with a combination of email and Google Forms.

Email: Convenient for attaching receipts and facilitating quick back-and-forth communication.
Google Forms: Allows organizations to collect structured information with custom fields and questions.

What neither of these tools do is help track the lifecycle of a funds request—from creation, to approval, to receipt collection and completion.

The Big Nest Approach

Big Nest streamlines the entire process. Community members can easily fill out structured web forms to submit their requests. Everyone involved receives email notifications and tracking receipts has never been easier. It’s designed to maximize transparency and keep everyone on the same page.

Here are just a few examples of when Big Nest’s Funds Request feature comes in handy:

A parent needs reimbursement for expenses made on behalf of the PTO/PTA.
A teacher requires classroom supplies that aren’t covered by the school’s budget.
A student proposes a new program or event idea for your group to sponsor.
The school administration requests funding for a specific project.

Anytime your organization needs to collect receipts, approve requests, or track financial expenditures, this feature has you covered.

The requester’s Experience

Anyone requesting funds can find the Funds Request form on your website. They’ll encounter a simple, user-friendly web form where they provide:

Contact information
Details about their request (title, summary, and any additional information)
Supporting documents, such as PDFs, screenshots, or images of receipts

After submitting the request, the requester receives a confirmation email with a link to their request, making it easy to track their progress.

In addition, you—or a designated representative—will receive an email notification informing you of the new request so that you can review it.

The Organization’s Experience

Here’s what the Funds Request process looks like for your organization.

Organizational Settings

The Funds Request feature comes with default settings that can be tailored to your group’s needs. Some key settings include:

Coordinator: Typically, this is the treasurer or another designated person’s email address. They’ll receive notifications every time someone submits or updates a Funds Request.
Stakeholders: You can choose to CC important stakeholders like the school principal or executive board members. Stakeholders can receive notifications about all Funding Requests or only specific ones, depending on your preferences.
Custom Questions: While every request form includes basic fields like title and summary, you can add custom questions specific to your group’s needs. THese are set globally and will show up on each request. Common questions include:
- Should this request be added as a recurring budget line item?
- How many students will this request impact?
- Will the request require school district approval?

This flexibility allows your organization to tailor the Funds Request process to match your goals and priorities.

Managing Funding Requests

Managing requests is a breeze. The dashboard provides a clear, organized view of all requests, helping you track and manage each step of the process. You can drag and drop requests through various stages. Move a recent submission to approved and ask for receipts. Or move it to the Denied column if it’s out of scope for your organization.

Managing Funding Requests

Submitted: Requests that have just been created and are waiting for review.
Approved: Requests that meet all requirements and are ready for receipts to be submitted.
Denied: Requests that are outside the scope of your organization’s funding priorities or don’t meet the criteria.
Completed: Requests where receipts have been uploaded, reviewed, and reimbursement has been issued.

For example, once a submission is approved, you can move it to the Approved column and notify the requester to upload receipts. If the request doesn’t align with your organization’s goals, you can drag it to the Denied column, ensuring a clear record of why it was not approved.

Click on any request to see all the details, including uploaded receipts, notes, and the activity log.

If you want more details about a request, you can message the requester directly from the dashboard. Once the requester updates their request, you’ll receive an email notifying you.

When you’re satisfied with the request, you can move it into the Approved column and message the requester that they can make the purchase and upload their receipts. You’ll receive another email when receipts are uploaded.

Once receipts have been uploaded and you’ve reimbursed the requester, you can move the request to the Completed column.

Pre-Approved Funding Requests

Sometimes, you already know you’re going to write a check. For instance, let’s imagine you have an after-school program with a budget of $700. You don’t need the program chair to complete a full Funding Request. Instead, you can provide them with a simple page to upload receipts.

On your site, you can generate a pre-approved Funds Request and email it to the committee chair so they can upload receipts.

For pre-approved requests, custom questions are bypassed since you already know the specifics of the request. You already know the contours of the request. You just want to convey the budget and give the committee chair a place to upload receipts.

Make It Easy on Yourself

By combining the strengths of traditional email and forms with a modern dashboard and tracking system, Big Nest’s Funds Request feature empowers school organizations to:

Simplify request submissions with a structured web form.
Streamline communication and reduce follow-up emails with built-in notifications.
Maintain transparency and accountability with a visual dashboard and activity logs.
Save time for treasurers and administrators, enabling them to focus on higher-value tasks.

Whether you’re organizing events, managing classroom funds, or reimbursing volunteers, this feature is the all-in-one solution for efficient financial management.

Ready to simplify your funds request process?

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