Expenditure Policy¶
The expenditure policy defines how expenses are approved and paid. Non-trivial changes to this policy require a project-wide decision.
Budgeted Expenses¶
Expenses (reimbursements and invoices) paid from Open Collective
Expenses defined as part of the yearly budget are to be approved by the finance team.
If unexpected additional costs come up in big projects, the project manager has the right to approve expenses for 5% of the project budget, and up to a maximum of 500€. The project manager will inform the finance team and justify the expense as project-related expense.
Deviations from the budget greater than 1000€ require a project-wide decision.
Expenses not part of the yearly budget can be approved by the finance team if:
It is a small expense (less than 1000€), and the whole team (CC + TC) must be notified.
Deviations from the budget greater than 1000€ require additional approval in a Team Meeting vote.
Reimbursement policy¶
Certain personal expenses incurred by TC:s or CC:s can be reimbursed via Open Collective if they are made for the purpose of facilitating work on postmarketOS. A receipt—or other proof of payment accepted by Open Collective Europe—must be provided. If you are unable to provide this, the expense cannot be reimbursed by us. Depending on the size of the expense and prior context, the exact approach varies. See subsections below for details. All reimbursements ultimately follow the standard approval process we use for Open Collective, but to ensure your expense actually is valid please keep on reading.
Smaller expenses (around 25€ or less)¶
Small expenses like buying SD cards for the express purpose of using them for postmarketOS development can generally be bought and compensated without prior notification, of course within reason. We expect this to be done in good faith and reserve the option of rejecting any reimbursements that seem unjustified or unreasonable. If you want to be sure, email the board and ask about the expense before making it.
Larger expenses (around 25€ to 200€)¶
In the case of larger expenses, more justification and context is required than smaller ones. Always email the board to ensure your expense can be reimbursed before committing to buying something.
The following are some types of expenses that can be covered:
Hardware for hardware CI, e.g. cables, PDU (harness), phones. Note that we will not cover these costs for every single device as we will try to balance costs vs benefit with regards to aspects like hardware coverage (e.g. are there already multiple tested phones with the same SoC?) and total cost. This is primarily available for devices in the community and main categories of devices.
Repairs or replacements for development phones for established maintainers of well-supported devices. For instance, if you have been maintaining a device in the community or main category for an extended period and you accidentally drop it and the screen breaks or lose it, you may be able to receive reimbursement to have your original device repaired or replaced.
Approval process in Open Collective¶
The finance team reviews each expense according to the expenditure policy.
All 3 finance team members must agree with the expense, either via discussion in chat, mail, real life or by writing “LGTM” (Looks Good To Me) as comment in the expense on Open Collective.
The last finance team member to approve clicks the Approve button (instead of leaving a comment that says that they approve).
Some Core Team members are admins on Open Collective and could in theory approve expenses, but they must not do it. Approving expenses must only be done by the finance team.
Any change to these rules must be approved in a Team Meeting vote.