# Funding Policies

> Looking to donate? Visit [our Open Collective](https://opencollective.com/actual).

## Accepted Expenses

Actual's Open Collective funds should be used to cover operational costs directly related to the project. This includes, but is not limited to, domain/hosting costs, as well as code signing certificates. Please review the submission process below _before_ making any purchases.

## Submitting expenses

1. If you are not a maintainer, you must find a maintainer willing to champion your expense.
2. The maintainer submitting your expense will post a message in the `#funding-updates` Discord channel with the following information:
   - Who is submitting the expense
   - What the expense is for (including a brief description of how it benefits the project)
   - What organization is ultimately being paid
   - The amount of the expense (in US dollars, if possible)
3. All active maintainers (excluding the submitter) will have the opportunity to vote to approve (👍), reject (👎), or abstain (🤷) on the expense. If a maintainer does not vote within one week, their vote will be counted as an abstention.
4. An expense will only be approved if it receives a unanimous approval (excluding maintainers who abstain from voting). The expense must receive at least one approval vote.

For recurring expenses, the maintainer must indicate that the expense is recurring in their initial message. Recurring expenses will be automatically approved for a period of six months, after which they must be re-submitted for approval.
