Expenditure Pre-Approval Form (Required for all SCORE Expenses)

To ensure SCORE’s sustainability into the future by immediately reducing SCORE’s cash outflows in light of potential federal funding reductions or delays. Pre-approval via the form below is required for ALL SCORE expenses, regardless of funding source.


  • All SCORE-related Field expenses must receive pre-approval from the District Director before being incurred.
  • New permissible expense rules have been put into place.
  • All expenses must comply with our Executive Order Compliance Guide.
  • A non-local travel freeze is in effect as of May 12, 2025. Only travel that has already been booked to the Regional Meetings in June is permitted.
  • A hiring freeze for SCORE HQ is in effect as of May 12, 2025.


Approval is required for ALL SCORE expenses regardless of funding source.

FORM INSTRUCTIONS

All expenditures are to be preapproved by your district director using this form before the chapter commits to the program or expense.


Please make sure that the request has been approved by the chapter leadership before submitting your request on this form. We recommend that only the Chapter Chair, Treasurer or their Approval Designee submit expenses to the DD for consideration.


Admin costs are to be submitted using this form stating the weekly hours and monthly costs for a one-time approval. This includes your admin from Panther Group.


Fill out this form in full, naming the District Director and his/her email address. You must click the Submit Button at the very bottom for the form to be processed. It is always a very good idea to send a copy of the form to yourself by checking the box to send a copy of your responses.


The form will be sent via an email request to review to the District Director. When the District Director approves the request, you will get a confirmation email stating that the request is approved. Please submit a copy of this confirmation approval email with the vendor bill or volunteer Form 14 through normal chapter approval channels to accounting@score.org when submitting for payment.


Expense Policy Updates

The following expense policy changes will be effective May 12, 2025.


  • Contracts: No contracts may extend into FY26. Limited exceptions apply.
  • Events: Only profitable fundraising or client-facing events that count toward service totals are permitted. All other events are suspended.
  • Field Meetings: Chapter/District meetings must be virtual or held in no-cost venues. No food may be purchased.
  • Appreciation & Networking Events: Suspended until further notice.
  • Travel (Field and Chapter): All travel over 50 miles is suspended.
  • Administrative & Misc. Expenses: Lease payments, utilities, and essential operations may continue. Expenses such as sponsorships, memberships, and new subscriptions are frozen.
  • Food & Alcohol: No expenses involving food or alcohol will be reimbursed under any circumstances.



Mesh Payments Credit Cards & Transactions:

New credit card requests will need the confirmation approval email. We will make a note in the card description that it is approved. Transactions for the specific vendors listed in the next section below are exempt from pre-approval. Existing Cards: All other transactions in Mesh (for vendors not listed below) will need the confirmation approval email uploaded (print email to PDF to upload to Mesh Payments and attach to the latest transaction. Mesh Payment credit cards that have transactions without pre-approval will be suspended until it is rectified.


EXPENDITURES NOT REQUIRING PRE-APPROVAL:

The following list of vendors are exempt from pre-approval. Your District Director may request your chapter to provide a list of these exempt recurring costs. Only the vendors listed do not require pre-approval. No other expenditure will be exempt from the pre-approval requirement. Please use this Excel form for that purpose:


https://tinyurl.com/RecurringBillsApprovalForm


These transactions will not need pre-approval for every transaction:

  • Local Travel
  • Monthly electricity, telephone and internet services
  • Monthly Office Rent governed by a lease agreement, (meeting space rental needs approval)
  • Office Parking governed by an agreement
  • PO Box Rental
  • Monthly storage unit rental    
  • Existing Contracts such as Ecropolis, AboveX that cannot be changed, postponed, or cancelled. (In this case, please forward Recurring Bills Approval form to acccounting@score.org to avoid follow up emails)


Specific vendors on Mesh Payments (Please review your subscription to see if the service is still needed):

  • Apptoto, EZText, SimpleTexting, GReminders, Liquid Web, TextMagic, Meetup, PATLIVE, CampaignMonitor(CEO Forum support), Calendly - Monthly client/volunteer scheduling, texting & reminder services
  • Buzzsprout, Libsyn - Radio Show & Podcast Storages
  • Microsoft Office 365, Adobe, Norton, McAfee - Low-cost monthly subscription software



FORM FIELD EXPLANATION:


Expenditure Description & Explanation – Please provide an extensive description of this expenditure for your DD to consider. Include type of product or service such as "Meeting Owl" or "Airfare and Hotel". Please include the title of the event if applicable.


ROI (Benefit to SCORE) – Please include an explanation of the benefit for SCORE for the expenditure, such as:

  • Fundraising benefit - dollars raised
  • New clients for mentoring or from workshop attendance
  • Awareness through collaboration with local partners
  • Local events focused on building client services


PLEASE ALWAYS CHECK THE BOX FOR SEND ME A COPY OF MY RESPONSES AND GIVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS.

Submitter Information

What is your position within SCORE?

Select or enter value
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Please select your chapter. If you are a District Director, please select your district.

Select
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This form will route to this individual for approval.

Payment Information

Is This Request for Your Chapter's Admin Costs?*

Are you requesting approval for your admin hours, whether Panther or another vendor?


(In order for all the rest of the fields to appear, you need to answer this question. Please click YES or NO. Then all other boxes will appear.)

Select or enter value
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Who approves the admin's timesheet?

If this a request for approval for various vendors for a specific event, you can put various here and list the vendors and the estimated amounts for each in the description.

Does your chapter need a Mesh Virtual Credit Card to pay for this expense? Please change select "Yes" or let us know whether you will be using an existing card or need the card limit increased.

No
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Who should be assigned the card to manage? Usually the treasurer or the person managing the vendor.

If they aren't already in Mesh Payments, we need a phone number for them that accepts texts to give them access.

Phone
Payment Frequency

What type of expenditure is this? Will it be for an event or series of events or is this request for a continuing monthly expense?

Enter in the total $ amount expected for the request. If its a monthly expense, please list the monthly total.

Non-Local Travel Related?

Does this request include payment or reimbursement for non-local travel such as hotel, airfare, taxi, or car rental?

NOTE: Non-Local Travel Freeze

A non-local travel freeze is in effect as of Jan. 28, 2025. To approve any exceptions, you must route this form to your RVP (via the approver name and email fields above).

Rationale Information

Is this directly benefiting or serving SCORE clients?

Please describe the expenditure and its benefit to the SCORE mission and the ROI it provides in 2-3 sentences.

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