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Treasurer, president

Reimburse a teacher or a parent

Send the claim link, collect the receipt, get two officers to approve it, and write the payment to the register.

When you are done

You will have a paid reimbursement with the receipt attached, two recorded approvals, and a matching entry in the register.

Who else you need

Approving needs somebody other than the person who submitted the claim, and PTO HQ refuses the submitter by name. How many officers must approve is your board's standing rule and it differs by state: Texas says one signer is required absent a standing rule, while New York and Florida expect two. Confirm yours with your state PTA.

Check what arrived

  1. Open the claim on the Reimbursements page.

    It shows the submitter's name, the amount, what it was for, and the receipt.

  2. Open the receipt and compare it against the amount claimed, before approving anything.

    They are two different numbers until somebody has compared them.

  3. Ask for the receipt rather than approving without it.

    A claim with no receipt is still recorded. A nonprofit is expected to produce receipts for seven years, and the approval is what makes the payment defensible.

Approve it, with somebody who did not submit it

  1. Each officer opens the claim and chooses Approve or Refused, with an optional note.

  2. Read the Approval trail on the claim.

    It lists every decision with the name, the role and the date. It is the record your annual reviewer reads, so a refusal stays on it alongside the approvals.

  • The submitter cannot approve their own claim.
  • Neither can anybody your board has recorded as related to the submitter. PTO HQ names the relationship and refuses, rather than leaving it to somebody to notice.
Who may approve, and who may notThe person who submitted a reimbursement can never be one of its approvers, and neither can anybody your board has recorded as related to them — PTO HQ names the relationship and refuses rather than leaving somebody to notice. How many officers must approve is your board's standing rule and differs by state: Texas says one signer is required absent a standing rule, while New York and Florida expect two. Confirm yours with your state PTA.Maya submitted this claimMaya cannot approve itThe submitter is never an approverNor can Maya's householdA recorded relationship refuses tooWho is leftJordanTreasurerSamSecretaryBoth approvals recorded, with datesYou can't decide on this one:you submitted it.

Pay it and write it to the register

  1. Wait for the status to read "Approved — ready to pay".

    It changes once the claim has the approvals your rule requires, and the payment control appears with it.

  2. Choose the account the money leaves, the date it left, and the check number if you wrote one.

  3. Choose Pay and write it to the register.

    PTO HQ creates the register entry for you and links it to the claim, so the payment and the approvals stay attached to each other.

  4. Reconcile it against your bank statement like any other line.

Paying it writes the register entry for youOnce a claim has the approvals your rule requires it reads Approved — ready to pay, and the payment control appears. Choose the account the money left, the date it left and the check number if you wrote one. PTO HQ creates the register entry and links it to the claim, so the payment and its approvals stay attached to each other, and you reconcile it against the bank like any other line.Approved — ready to payRecord the paymentAccountOperating checkingDate paid18 Oct 2025Check number1107writesRegister · Maya Brooks · Book fair supplies

How to check it worked

  • The claim shows as Paid, and the Approval trail names each officer who approved it.
  • A new entry appears in the register on the date you gave, for the amount claimed, marked as uncleared.
  • The receipt opens from the claim and from the register row.
  • The audit log carries a row for each approval and one for the payment.

If it did not work

What you seeWhat it meansWhat to do
The approve control is missing on a claim you submitted yourself.The submitter of a reimbursement can never be one of its approvers. That is the control this screen exists for.Ask another officer to approve it. If you are the only officer, invite a second one from the Board tab in Settings — nothing that needs two people works with a board of one.
PTO HQ refuses your approval and names a relationship.Your board has recorded you as related to the person who submitted the claim.Ask an unrelated officer to approve it. If the relationship is wrong, correct it on the Board tab in Settings.
The payment control does not appear on an approved claim.Either the claim does not yet have the number of approvals your rule requires, or your organization has no account to pay from.Check the Approval trail against the number on the page. If you have no accounts, add one from the Accounts page first.
A claim was submitted twice.The link has no way to tell a second submission from a first.Refuse the duplicate with a note saying which claim it duplicates. Refusing keeps both on the record, which is what your reviewer needs to see.