submit requests for reimbursement or request for payment (e.g., invoices),

and (b) the organization's bookkeepers, accountants, and managerial approvers

to review those requests, add them to the organization's books, and prepare

payment.  The primary motivation for this project is to save time both groups

spend on handling reimbursement requests and outgoing payments, and reduce

turnaround time for these requests, and to help members file complete

requests that are easy for bookkeepers to review and accept.

Members of the organization could be employees, members of projects

represented by the organization, or others doing work to advance the

organization's mission—anyone who the organization might want to reimburse or

pay.

The system should not make assumptions about specific reimbursement policies

or invoicing requirements.  Instead, it should be possible for a bookkeeper

or administrator to define follow-up questions and what responses are and are

not eligible for reimbursement or payment.  Early versions may require

sysadmin-level technical expertise to do this, but ultimately it should be

doable by a bookkeeper with appropriate privileges.

## Requirements for first release

### Defining the request form

Accepted, and Rejected.

Administrators can define questions to ask the requestor about the entire

request, and about each expense in the request.  The system can display

forms, validate answers, and record answers for questions with the following

types of answers:

* Text

* Boolean (yes/no)

* Selection (from a list of values)

* Number

* Currency (this is probably a string that's validated to have a numeric part plus an optional currency code)

* Date

* File upload

For each question, the administrator can define any number of conditions to

check against the requestor's answer.  When a requestor submits an answer that does

not comply with all of the conditions, the answer is flagged in the interface

as making the expense non-reimuburseable.  The first release must support the

following conditions:

* Boolean: is yes, or is no

* Selection: the selected value is in a specific subset of values

* Date: the value is N days before and/or after today or a date in another answer

Using these same conditions, the administrator can define questions that are

conditional on other questions' answers.  These questions are only presented

to the requestor when they submit an answer that meets the specified conditions.

For illustration purposes, the common deployment is expected to have

relatively few unconditional questions about each expense (type of expense,

receipt, amount), and then a series of conditional questions based on those

answers (e.g., follow-up questions specific to airfare expenses,

accommodations expenses, etc.).

### Requestor workflow

Requestor can log in and see the status of all their requests.  They can also

When they view a report, it shows the questions and answers about the entire

report, and a list of associated expenses.  Viewing a specific expense

similarly shows all the questions and answers about it.

When a report is In Progress state, the requestor can edit any answer in the

report or an associated expense.  They can also add an expense, which begins

by asking them unconditional questions associated with expenses, and then

follow-up questions as necessary based on those answers.

When an In Progress report has at least one expense associated with it, and

all questions have been answered, the requestor may submit the request for

approval.  If any of the answers do not meet the administrator's conditions

for payment, the requestor may still submit the request, and provide an

explanation for why the request should be paid (e.g., because it was

approved in advance).  Once the request is submitted, it moves to the

Submitted state.

### Bookkeeper workflow

Bookkeepers can log into the system and see all requests.

When a bookkeeper reviews a Submitted report, they can change the report's

state, and include a note explaining why the report was moved to that state

(e.g., moved back to In Progress because a specific receipt was insufficient

documentation).  When they do this, the system sends e-mail to the requestor

letting them know about the change, including the rationale provided by the

bookkeeper.