Contents

• Overview
• What are Disbursement Attachments?
• ⚠️ Important Notes
• Step-By-Step Instructions
  • Access Disbursements
  • Upload Files
  • Additional Actions
    • View Uploads
      • Download a File
      • Remove a File
• How Attachments Work During Approvals
  • What Approvers See
• Related Articles

Overview

This article shows Program Admins how to add attachments (supporting documents) to a disbursement in Next.

What are Disbursement Attachments? 

For any disbursement record in an award cycle, you can upload supporting documents, such as invoices, contracts, award letters, purchase orders, and other relevant files. Uploading keeps that documentation attached to the disbursement itself, so it's available to anyone who needs to review it. Awardees cannot see disbursement attachments. 

• Disbursements have two kinds of attachments: 
   
  • Additional documents: Program Admins can add or remove any time before the disbursement is paid, voided, or completed. 
  • Approval documents: Fixed set of files sent with an approval request. Full details are in How Attachments Work During Approvals below.

• Who can upload documents to disbursements? 
  • Organization Owners
  • Client Admins (in partner-managed accounts) 
  • Program Owners
  • Program Managers

⚠️ Important Notes

• Programs that use approvals: Approvers can view and download disbursement attachments that are included in the approval request from their portal.
   
• Disbursement statuses that lock attachments: Once a disbursement reaches “Void,” “Paid,” or “Completed” status, its entire attachment list locks — you cannot upload or remove documents after that point
   
• Amendments block uploads: You can't upload or remove files on a disbursement while an amendment is in progress.
   
• File requirements: Accepted types are PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PNG, and JPG. You can attach up to 10 files per disbursement, uploaded one at a time.

Step-By-Step Instructions 

Access Disbursements

1. In the program, click the cycle name to open the cycle.
   
   
    
2. In the award cycle, click Post-Award > Disbursements in the left-hand menu.
   
   

Upload Files

1. On the Disbursements page, locate the disbursement record you want to add documents to. 
   
   

Need to add a disbursement? Use Bulk Disbursements to add one to an accepted award without initiating a full amendment (requires the Ad Hoc Disbursements feature). See ➡️ Add Disbursements After Award Acceptance (Bulk Disbursement) for full steps.

 2. On the far-right of the disbursement record, click Actions, then select Upload from the dropdown. 

 3. Choose a file from your device. 

4. A message appears in the bottom-left corner of the screen confirming your file was uploaded. The file appears in the Uploads table, under “Additional documents” list. 


 

Any files that were included in an approval request will be listed under "Approval documents." See more info about approvals below.

 5. To add more files, click +Upload file in the bottom-left corner of the table. 



 6. To exit the Uploads screen, click Cancel in the bottom-right corner, or click anywhere outside of the pop-up. 

Additional Actions 

• View Uploads: 

  • To view uploads for a disbursement record, return to the Uploads table by clicking Actions > Uploads on the far-right of the disbursement record. 
    
    
     

    • Download a File: 

      • Click the download icon in the Actions column on the Uploads table. 
        
        

    • Remove a File: 

      • Click the trash can icon in the Actions column on the Uploads table. 
        
        

How Attachments Work During Approvals

• When you prepare a disbursement for approval, any files already attached to the disbursement automatically populate in the “Send for Approval” pop-up. You can remove any of these files (click the red X) or add new ones (click Choose File) before sending. 
  
  For full steps, see ➡️ How to Request Approvals for Awarding, Disbursements & Reimbursements.
  
  

⚠️Important Notes:

• What you send is what approvers see: Whichever documents are attached to the approval request when you send it become “Approval documents” – what approvers can view or download in their portal. 
  
  
   
  • Once an approval request is sent, Approval documents cannot be removed or added to.

Made a mistake with your Approval documents after sending? If you want to correct this in-platform, void the disbursement, add a new one through Bulk Disbursement, and re-attach the correct files.

• Anything else is an “Additional document:” Files you remove from the approval request, or add to the disbursement after an approval request is sent, are listed as “Additional documents.” 
  
  
   
  • Additional documents remain fully editable throughout the approval process – you can add or remove them anytime before the disbursement reaches “Paid,” “Completed,” or “Voided” status.
     
  • Only Program Admins can see these; approvers can only see Approval documents. 
     

What Approvers See: 

• In their portal, approvers can see how many documents are attached to a disbursement from the Uploads column. 
  
  
   
• Approvers can click the Uploads icon to open the list of attachments. 
  
  
   
• From the Uploads table, approvers can: 
   
  • View a File: Click the eye icon to open the file in a new tab for read-only access. 
  • Download a File: Click the download icon in the Actions column on the Uploads table. 
    
    

Related Articles

➡️How to Set Up Approvals for Awarding, Disbursements & Reimbursements
➡️How to Request Approvals for Awarding, Disbursements & Reimbursements
➡️Add Disbursements After Award Acceptance (Bulk Disbursement)

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