How (if at all?) shall we 'tier' or 'prioritise' Dignity's liabilities?
Luke Flegg PublicSeen by 269'liabilities' = money Dignity owes (either reimbursing expenses like train tickets, or paying for team hours)
I ask this because I recognise Dignity has no funding left at the moment and we're paying for various things out of our own pockets, as well as some of us hoping to get paid for our time invested thus far.
We've discussed some of these things being paid 'first' or 'only if we get X amount of funding' for example - now I invite us to explore the best option for prioritising these liabilities.
3 tiers + record level of agreement
proposal by Luke Flegg Closed Sat 16 Jun 2018 3:01PM
Great, thanks everyone for participating in this 🤗 we can now look at how exactly to implement it.
Tier 1 (top priority; Dignity will pay these first)
• Peoples' hours worked (unless they demote their hours to Tier 2, 3 or 'voluntary')
• Expenses paid by people (unless they choose to put them in a lower tier)
Tier 2
Tier 3 (lowest priority)
• No guarantee that this will be reimbursed, but we'll aim to - so long as we get (unrestricted) funding/ our own income.
• Tier 1 are reimbursed first (starting with the oldest)
• We also record the degree of agreement on an expense (as we've had on the Dignity accounts sheet the last ~year: tiny.cc/dignitydosh):
a) "I paid out my own pocket for this and ain't bothered about getting paid back"
b) "I paid out my own pocket for this + would like to get reimbursed, but don't feel it's been agreed yet"
c) "I paid out my own pocket for this + feel it's been agreed to pay me back"
This idea doesn't include a proposal of how exactly we design that ^ latter part. We'd decide that together separately if this idea is consented to + most popular idea.
Results
| Results | Option | Votes | % of votes cast | % of eligible voters | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agree | 2 | 67 | 40 | | |
| Abstain | 1 | 33 | 20 |  | |
| Disagree | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Block | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Not voted | 2 | 40 |  |
I feel like this captures a lot of information that's useful about expenses and we can all be clear on what will or won't be reimbursed (or how likely it is to be reimbursed) by when/ in what order.
What is tier 2? I see no description... or am i missing something?
Previous comments (copied from VocalEyes - Ideaspace V1)
@pasco I didn't think Tier 2 needed a description; does it make sense that it means 2nd priority? Meaning when Dignity has money, we pay the first priority expenses/hours first, then 2nd, then 3rd. And when the receipts are recorded/ hours logged, that's when the person recording them decides (without needing permission from anyone) what tier (priority) they are.
Is that clear? I'm happy to chat on phone quickly if anything is still confusing
It's not obvious that Tier 2 means 2nd priority, I believe that should be stipulated. But even then i'm still not clear when I would ever choose Tier 2 for expenses.
I did edit it to say
Tier 1 (first priority)
Tier 2
Tier 3 (last priority)
Not sure if you saw that?
So when would you use Tier 2? You might not! I would. For example if Ellie gets a train down from London, she might put that as Tier 1 (so it's paid first). I will put my hours as Tier 3. I would put my lunch at a Dignity meeting as Tier 2. Or my own train ticket to London for a Dignity meeting. Is that helpful?
Use this naming convention for prioritising reimbursement & wages
proposal by Luke Flegg Closed Tue 19 Jun 2018 5:02PM
Great! We've decided exactly how to prioritise reimbursing expenses + paying hours logged!
I'll check @alfredseni is happy creating the folders on Drive/ any other aspects of the system and I've already created Tier 2, 3 (and 4: Never pay me) on Wrike's timelog 'categories' (you'll see it when you log hours)
Reminder: Leaving category empty = Tier 1, as Pasco suggested
Now we've decided to tier Dignity's liabilities (be they expenses people need reimbursing, or recorded hours they need paying) 1-3 (with 1 being paid first) I propose the following process:
# If I (LukeF) want to be reimbursed for an expense:
•Tier 1 (first priority): Upload receipt to Drive > Receipts > Relevant month > Inbox and name the file "Tier1-LukeF-XXX.jpg" (XXX optional: can be anything you want)
• Tier 2: As above, but name it Tier2
• Tier 3 (will be reimbursed last): As above, but name it Tier3
•If you don't want to be reimbursed ever, then just don't upload any receipt
•As an alternative to the file naming, you can write with pen (or on the photo with touchscreen) the tier + your name, and any notes (such as what type of expense, if it's not obvious, because our accounts list expenses in categories like travel, food, etc)
# Getting paid for recorded hours
•Tier1 (paid first; where funding is allowed to be spent on wages): Log hours in Wrike (make sure date is correct and a short comment if you want to keep the team in the loop with what you did).
Tier1 is the default, so you don't need to use the drop-down menu
• Tier 2: As above but choose from the drop down menu "Tier2"
• Tier 3: Like Tier2, but choose from the drop-down menu: Tier3
•If you don't want to be paid ever, choose from the drop-down menu "don't pay me"
Results
| Results | Option | Votes | % of votes cast | % of eligible voters | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agree | 3 | 100 | 50 | | |
| Abstain | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Disagree | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Block | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Not voted | 3 | 50 | |
Complex but necessary I think. I like it as is but keen to hear any thoughts or amendments.
No
Testing
Why is Tier 2 the default on Wirke? When Tier 1 is very likely to be the most common for hours?
Tier 1 defaut Wrike, hozaar :)
Good question.. I guess if we have unrestricted funding then hours should be higher priority by default. Obviously if it is restricted grant funding then it can only be spent on expenses...
If this was a bigger amendment I'd propose I/you block this and either of us create the amended proposal, but since it's quite a small detail I suggest I just edit this one too include your amendment and we continue
@pasco I think we could add more clarity to this re: which is paid first: Tier 1 hours or Tier 1 expenses?
To be 100% clear, I propose when Dignity has money next, we pay liabilities in this order:
1. Tier 1 expenses - starting with the oldest recorded; same for all tiers:
2. Tier 1 hours
3. Tier 2 expenses
4. Tier 2 hours
5. Tier 3 expenses
6. Tier 3 hours (that's the time I'm logging for writing this comment right now, because I'm usually choosing 'Tier 3' when logging my hours in Wrike at the mo, and I accept that it may be a looong time or never that I get this time paid! Maybe one day when Dignity has surplus. And we would find a way of recording in the official accounts that this isn't 'debt' that puts Dignity in the red. How exactly we do that in the eyes of the law is up to our financial advisor; could be dividends/ bonuses/ shares/ etc, I don't know enough about legal/finance.)
So what would be counted as actual debt? I propose only Tier 1 expenses.
That feels like quite a significant clarification we haven't really decided yet so I am thinking this is worth a new proposal on here, just to create a clear breadcrumb we can quickly easily refer back to any time. I'll here your thoughts though first mate. And @andrewevans , and @alfredseni if you're interested in closing this loop with us! @gailbainbridge might even be up for chipping in? ❤️
So about hours. You can’t really pay yourself hours unless you have a payroll set up as ‘hours’ suggest an employee relationship. Additionally it doesn’t really become a debt (in accounting terms) until you have processed the wages with HMRC. You guys need
to sit down with a qualified accountant I think and get clear on this stuff. I’m not taking on anything while I’m travelling xx
Let the sitting begin
As I mention, if we agree on this basic proposal, we can work out a system for people to 'mark' expenses/hours as different tiers. I already have some ideas (but think it's best to do this in stages)