Webinar: How to complete reimbursement requests in ePlan

Tom McGrath, manager of charter grants at the Tennessee Department of Education, led a webinar explaining how charter schools should complete reimbursement requests in ePlan. He outlined the state grant life cycle — funding application, reimbursement requests, and the final expenditure report — and emphasized that reimbursements can only be submitted after a school’s funding application is approved. McGrath walked participants through ePlan screens and data-entry steps: selecting the correct fiscal year and grant, entering expenditures by budget line item on the expenditure details page, saving progress, entering a fiscal “as of” date, and uploading a single PDF that includes a mandatory cover page, dated itemized invoices for each expense, and matching proof-of-payment documents. He noted common errors: reimbursement requests must only use approved funding-application line items; requests must be for expenses already incurred during the funding window; only one reimbursement request may be open at a time; ePlan blocks requests that exceed a line item by more than 10% (requests beyond that require a funding-application revision). After submission, TDOE staff review requests for allowability and alignment; payments typically process in 5 to 7 business days through Edison. McGrath provided contact information for follow-up.