Invoice: Google Form

There are two steps to the invoicing procedure: filling out the hour breakdown and filling out the new Google Form. 

Your RM will send out the Google Form every month. There are two versions of the Google Form that generate two different types of invoices – one for researchers and one for RM/ARMs. If you do not see your name under the “What is your name” question, it is likely that you are filling out the incorrect version. If your name does not appear on either form or if you believe it to be on the wrong form, contact finance@acleddata.com. See a video guide for filling in the Google Form here.

Some other things to consider about the invoicing process:

• If you have worked on any special projects (apart from regular coding/backcoding) please indicate what hours you have worked for each in either the Comments or Regional Breakdown questions of the Google form. This can be a simple breakdown: e.g. 50 hours (25 ACLED coding; 25 ESRC grant) - if you are unsure what to put, feel free to ask your RM before submitting. This also applies to those working on more than one region (e.g. East Asia + Middle East General). If you are claiming 50 hours, please break that down by region (25 East Asia, 25 Middle East General).

• For those of you who are submitting partial hours (when you worked 50 hours and 20 minutes, for example), please round up to the nearest quarter-hour. So if you coded for 50 hours and 20 minutes, this can be recorded as 50.5 hours. **Never report hours and minutes on an invoice as this isn't clear. E.g. do not report 20 hours and 30 minutes on your invoice. This would instead be 20.5 hours.

• If you need to submit hours from a previous month, be sure to indicate the monthly split in the comments field (ex: 3 hours in October, 100 hours in November)

• If your rate changed partway through the month, do not fill out the Google form. Please email your RM and finance@acleddata.com if this applies to you.

The following sections explain some of the questions on the Google form in further detail. These fields will help generate a complete invoice and also speed up the approval process.

How do you want your name to appear on your invoice?

• • Only fill this in if you want a different name to appear on your invoice than from the dropdown menu in the “What is your name?” question. The name that appears in the dropdown menu is for our bookkeeping purposes. If you are fine with the name in the dropdown being on your invoice, leave this question blank.

Supervisor Email Address

• If applicable select the email address of your primary and secondary supervisors. These should be the emails of the people who approve your Hour Breakdowns, normally your RM. The generated invoice will be sent to them, as well as to the email address you provide on the Google Form. 

Hour Breakdown

• Upload your Hour Breakdown file through the Google Form. The link to the Hour Breakdown will be emailed to you and to your supervisor(s). You can reupload an Hour Breakdown if you need to make corrections, but you cannot delete your previous submission. Please submit the corrected file with the EXACT SAME file name as your original submission, and also let your manager know that you have submitted an updated file. 

Total hours worked and your hourly rate

• These numbers will appear on your invoice exactly as you enter them into the form. They also will be used to calculate your total invoice amount, which you will no longer enter into the form.

• Check to make sure your total hours worked matches the total hours on your Hour Breakdown.

• You can submit for previous months only if you worked less than five hours that month. You must clarify the monthly split in the comments section.

• Because the form calculates the total invoice amount automatically, you should not fill out the form if your rate changes in the middle of the month. If this affects you, please email your RM and finance@acleddata.com. 

• The form asks for the regional breakdown of your hours, which countries you coded for, and comments, if applicable. These fields will appear on your invoice exactly as you enter them into the form. 

• Do not include bank details here. 

Signature

• Everyone has to upload an image of their signature that will appear on the finished invoice. The image imports onto the invoice in its original size. Please only upload images that are approximately 150x100. You will not be able to upload more than one signature file or change your previous submission.

• Tip: if you have a notes app that allows you to save drawings, you can draw your signature there and then export it as an image. Taking a photo of your written signature also works. 

After you submit the form, you will receive a PDF of the generated invoice via email. The email also contains a link to your Hour Breakdown and is sent to your supervisor(s) for review. You can respond to the email if you have any questions about your invoice. You will also receive a copy of your form responses directly from the Google Form. You do not have to email the response receipt to your RM unless they require it. 

You will have the opportunity to edit your responses before the Google Form closes. Editing a response will create a new PDF invoice that is sent to you and your supervisor(s) in the same manner. Please try to limit corrections to the Google Form, as the generation of multiple invoices for one person could slow down the finance team’s processing of your invoice.

***SHARED EMAIL Notice***

Follow these instructions if you experience issues relating to the shared apps@acleddata.com during the invoicing process. 

Google relates each form response to a specific Gmail account. If you fill out the form while signed in to the apps@acleddata.com (or any other shared email address), not only will you not receive a generated invoice, but also everyone else with access to that email will be able to see your responses, including your signature file.

Before filling out the Google Form, look at the very top block of text. In the example below, the person is logged in to the apps@acleddata.com email.

There are several things you can try to change the account you are signed in as. You should also follow these steps if you ever see someone else’s responses already filled in. The suggestions are listed in the order in which you should try them. If you have experienced problems with this before that were not solved by the first options, you may want to try one further down the list.

1. Click “Switch account” and log in to your email account.

2. Open an incognito window and fill out the form there.

3. Sign out of all Gmail accounts and resign in to only the email address you want to be associated with your response.

4. Clear your cache and try one of the previous options.

5. Try a different browser.

6. Sign in to a new Google Chrome window as a guest. See more instructions here.

In the end, you want to see something like this screen, where you are signed in to your own email, and you cannot see anyone else’s responses. 

Change of bank information

Are you new to ACLED or your bank details have changed since last month?

• Researchers with bank accounts outside the US: please send your bank details (see the information requested below) in an email to finance@acleddata.com. DO NOT send bank details to your RM or include them on your invoice.

• Researchers with US bank accounts: You will receive your payment via Bill.com / Quickbooks - if you are new/this is your first payment and you are receiving USD to an account in the US, let the finance team (finance@acleddata.com) know once you submit your invoice and they will set up your payment through Quickbooks. You will get an email directly from bill.com where you will fill in bank details. ACLED must have a W9 on file in order to send you a 1099 for your US tax filings.

Requested bank details:

Country:

Bank account currency:

Your name as it appears on your bank account:

Your address:

Your Bank’s name:

Your Bank’s address:

IBAN:

BIC (Swift Code):

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact your RM or finance@acleddata.com 

Further readings:

Invoicing - Main page

Hours Breakdown