1Create your first project

Programme manager

1. Open Programmes → Projects and choose New project.
2. Give it a name, dates, sector and locations, choose the lead, and tick the grants that fund it.
3. Add the team: everyone on the team (and only them, for programme managers and field officers) sees the project.
4. Ask finance for budget lines on the project, or add them yourself from the project if you manage budgets.

2Plan the activities

1. From the project, choose Add activity.
2. Set the owner, due date, location and the budget line it will spend from.
3. Owners update progress themselves; a blocked activity asks the project lead for help.

3Get field reporting ready

1. Ask M&E for the report templates your field staff will use (MEL → Report templates).
2. Field staff open Civora on their phones and install it (browser menu → *Add to home screen*), so the report form works offline.

Submit a field report (online or offline)

Field staff

1. Choose New → Field report, or *Submit field report* on the project or activity.
2. Pick the project, the activity and the template, then fill in the figures and attach photos or registers.
3. Without network, the report is saved on the phone and sent automatically when the connection returns; it is never sent twice.

A supervisor can approve, ask for changes or reject. If changes are asked for, you see the comment on the report and in your attention list.

Review a field report

Supervisors and programme managers

1. Open Field reports or your Approvals inbox.
2. Check the figures against the evidence.
3. Approve, ask for changes with a comment, or reject. Approved reports go to M&E for validation.

Register participants and record attendance

1. In Participants, register a person once, with their consent; Civora warns you about likely duplicates.
2. Enrol them in the projects they take part in.
3. Record a session's attendance by participant code; each project then shows unique people reached by sex, age and disability.

If a person withdraws consent, their personal details are erased and only anonymous counts remain.

Bring in an implementing partner

1. Add the partner in Implementing partners; it also becomes a contact in Finance.
2. Record a capacity assessment (governance, finance, procurement, people, MEL, safeguarding). A weak finance or safeguarding score makes the partner high risk.
3. Sign a sub-grant agreement on a project budget line. Its report schedule is created automatically (monthly for high-risk partners).
4. Disbursements are paid by Finance as bills on that line.

1Set your fundraising targets

Executive director or grants lead

1. Open Funding settings.
2. Enter what the organisation needs to raise this year and the next two (usually the approved budget, less unrestricted income).
3. The overview now shows the gap to each target.

2Record your donors and current grants

1. Add each donor in Donors with what they fund, their funding cycle, contacts and who looks after the relationship.
2. Choose New → Grant award for each active grant: amount, currency (with a budget exchange rate if it is not your own currency), dates, reporting frequency, indirect cost rate and co-funding.
3. On each grant add its payment schedule, its reporting deadlines and its donor rules from the agreement.
4. Ask finance to add the budget lines (or add them from the grant page).

Track an opportunity to a decision

1. Choose New → Opportunity: the donor, amount requested, submission deadline and who leads it.
2. Move it along the pipeline as the work progresses; its chance of success rises with each stage (you can set your own).
3. When the donor answers, open it and choose The donor said yes (enter the amount, dates and agreement reference) or Not funded (record the donor's reasons for next time).

Set the donor rules on a grant

1. On the grant, open Donor rules → Add a rule.
2. Choose the rule: an ineligible cost category, donor approval needed above an amount, budget line flexibility (%), an indirect cost cap (%), or another condition to remember.
3. From now on every expense and purchase request charged to the grant is checked against it.

A request above a donor's approval threshold can still go ahead: the requester enters the donor's approval reference on the request.

Record money received from a donor

Finance

1. On the grant's payment schedule, choose Record receipt next to the tranche (or New → Money received in Finance).
2. Check the amount the bank credited, any bank charges, and the original currency amount if the donor paid in another currency.
3. Save: the receipt posts to the ledger and the tranche shows as received on the grant.

Organisations not keeping their books in Civora can use Mark received on the tranche instead.

Prepare and submit a donor report

1. Open the Reporting calendar and choose Prepare next to the report.
2. The report pack shows the award, budget against actual by line and project, results against targets with variance explanations, delivery and evidence for the period.
3. Print it or export the transactions; when it has gone to the donor, mark the deadline submitted on the grant. The pack is frozen exactly as sent.

Agree an extension or top-up

1. On the grant, open Amendments → Prepare an amendment: the kind, the new end date or the change to the award, and why.
2. Record it as sent to the donor; it appears under Amendments and on the overview until the donor answers.
3. When the donor approves, choose Donor approved: the grant's end date or award changes, and the previous values stay on record.

Keep the donor relationship warm

1. On the donor's page, choose Log a contact: the meeting, call or visit, and the next step with a date and who does it.
2. Next steps due within a week appear on the overview and on Donors; mark them done when finished.

Close a grant

1. From 90 days before the end date, the grant shows a Close-out checklist: final reports, audit, assets, unspent balance, open orders and advances, staff, records.
2. Tick each item as it is done and set how long records must be kept.
3. When everything is done and no report is outstanding, choose Close the grant. Nothing more can be charged to it.

1Set up accounting

Finance manager

1. Choose New → Set up accounting. The wizard starts from a Kenyan NGO chart of accounts and KRA tax codes.
2. Add your bank, M-Pesa and cash accounts with their opening balances.
3. Bring forward the balance of each grant fund on the opening date.
4. Choose whether to post requests that were already paid before Civora.

Pay an approved expense request

1. Open the request from your attention list.
2. Choose the account it is paid from and record the payment reference.
3. The payment posts to the ledger on the request's grant, project and budget line.

Approve and pay supplier bills

1. Bills from procurement arrive matched to the goods received; check them in Bills.
2. Someone other than the preparer approves; bills above the executive threshold also need the executive director.
3. Choose New → Pay bills to pay several at once and send remittance advice.

Reconcile the bank

1. In Bank & M-Pesa, import the statement CSV (any bank or M-Pesa; map the columns once).
2. Civora matches lines automatically; match the rest by hand or record what nobody recorded (bank charges, interest).

Close the month

1. Work through the checklist in Period close & tax.
2. Set the lock date so nothing can be posted into a closed month; only the executive director can reopen.
3. Export the withholding tax schedule for iTax and record the KRA remittance.

1Set the HR rules

1. In HR settings, check the working week, leave types and balances, public holidays and statutory rates.

2Add your people

1. Choose New → Employee. One step creates the person's account, role, HR file, contract and onboarding checklist.
2. Complete the file (KRA PIN, NSSF, SHA numbers, bank or M-Pesa details) and the salary's funding split across grant budget lines.
3. Or import many people at once from a spreadsheet in Administration → Import data.

Run monthly payroll

1. In Payroll, prepare the month: pay is calculated from files, unpaid leave and certified timesheets.
2. Send it for approval; someone in finance (never the preparer) approves and it posts to the ledger.
3. Record the salary transfer and the KRA, NSSF and SHA remittances; download the bank or M-Pesa file and schedules.
4. Release payslips: staff see them in My HR.

Recruit someone

1. Choose New → Vacancy: the post, salary range and funding are approved by the executive director first.
2. Move applicants through the pipeline; safer-recruitment checks must be done before any offer.
3. Hire in one step: the applicant becomes an employee with a file, contract and onboarding.

Handle leave and timesheets

Supervisors

1. Leave requests and timesheets wait in your Approvals inbox.
2. Approve leave (the person names their cover); certify timesheets so salaries are charged to the right grants.

1Build a project's results framework

1. Open Results frameworks and choose the project.
2. Add the impact, outcomes and outputs, then the indicators with their reference sheets and baselines.
3. Set the period targets; they follow each indicator's reporting frequency.

2Design report templates

1. In Report templates, build the forms field staff fill in; tag fields with indicator codes so validated figures count towards them.

Validate field reports

1. Open the Validation queue.
2. Check the approved report against its evidence and validate it; its tagged figures become indicator results.

Explain a variance

The person responsible for the indicator

1. When a closed period is more than the threshold (±10% by default) off target, an explanation is asked for in your Approvals inbox.
2. Write what happened and what will change; it goes into the donor report pack.

Handle community feedback

1. Anyone logs feedback under *Community feedback* in the sidebar.
2. Ordinary feedback goes to the project lead to acknowledge and answer within your standards.
3. Staff conduct, fraud and safeguarding complaints go only to MEL and HR case handlers, must be referred within a day, and can open an HR case.

1Set your procurement rules

1. In Procurement rules, set the value thresholds for each method and when an evaluation committee is needed.

2Register your suppliers

1. Add each supplier in the Supplier register with their KRA PIN, tax compliance certificate and payment details.

Buy what a purchase request asks for

1. Open the request in Purchase requests; Civora proposes the method its value calls for.
2. Send a request for quotations and record the quotes; above the committee threshold, at least three evaluators declare any conflict of interest and score them.
3. Award and raise the purchase order; the budget commitment moves from the request to the order.

Fewer quotations or a lesser method than the value calls for needs a written justification.

Receive goods

1. When the delivery arrives, record a goods received note against the order: quantities accepted and rejected.
2. Stock items go into stores automatically; Finance can now approve the supplier's bill for what was received.

Assign transport

1. Transport requests from staff arrive in Transport requests.
2. Assign a free vehicle with enough seats and valid insurance, and a driver.
3. The driver records odometer readings and fuel; kilometres are charged to the project's budget line.

1Record the board

1. In Board & committees, add the board and its committees, their members (staff or external), positions, terms and quorum.

2Set the risk appetite and the compliance calendar

1. Set the board's risk appetite in Governance settings.
2. Add your recurring obligations (PBO returns, KRA, data protection registration, licences) in the Compliance calendar.

Hold a board meeting

1. Choose New → Meeting, set the agenda and attach the papers.
2. Record attendance; decisions cannot be recorded without a quorum.
3. Record resolutions with votes and the actions arising (each reaches its owner's inbox), then approve the minutes, which locks them.

Prepare the board deck from Presentations, linked to the meeting and its agenda.

Review a risk

The risk owner

1. Reviews come due every 30–90 days depending on the score and appear in the owner's inbox.
2. Re-score likelihood and impact after controls and update the mitigation actions.

File a statutory return

1. Open the obligation in the Compliance calendar.
2. Record the filing with its acknowledgement number; a recurring obligation rolls forward to the next due date.

1Your first sign-in

1. Sign in with the email and temporary password you were given; you are asked to choose your own password.
2. If your role needs it, set up two-step sign-in with an authenticator app and keep the recovery codes safe.
3. On a phone, add Civora to your home screen from the browser menu.
4. Optionally connect your work mailbox under Mail.

Raise an expense request

1. Choose Create → New expense request.
2. Pick the project and the budget line; the line decides the grant. Enter the amount, purpose and payee, and attach quotations.
3. If the donor requires approval for this amount, enter the donor's approval reference.
4. Submit: it follows the approval chain set by your organisation (supervisor, then the roles the amount calls for).

If a donor rule stops the request, the message says why and what to do. Purchases go on to Procurement once approved; other requests are paid by Finance.

Decide what waits on you

1. Open Approvals: requests, field reports, leave, timesheets, reviews, explanations and actions in one place.
2. Open each item to see the full record and decide; every decision is recorded with your name and the time.

Request leave and see your payslips

1. Open My HR. Under *Leave*, request time off and name who covers for you.
2. Payslips, timesheets, reviews, policies to acknowledge and your documents are in the other tabs.

Ask for transport

1. Open Transport, give the date, destination, passengers and the budget line.
2. Logistics assigns a vehicle and driver; you see it on the same page.

Log community feedback

1. Open Community feedback and record what the person told you, how to reach them, and the project.
2. Complaints about staff conduct, fraud or abuse go only to the people who handle them.

File an email on a record

1. In Mail, open the email and choose File on a record; Civora suggests the grant or project from codes in the subject.
2. Filed emails appear under *Correspondence* on that record for everyone who can see it.

Upload an organisation document

1. Open Organisation documents and use the upload form (document managers only).

Find a file

1. Open All files and search; each result links to its record.

Prepare a donor review

1. On the grant page choose Prepare donor review, or open Presentations and choose *Donor review*.
2. Choose the period (for example since the last report) and the slides.
3. Present full screen, print one slide per page as a PDF, or copy the link.

Prepare a board deck

1. Open Presentations, choose *Board or committee meeting* and link the scheduled meeting so its agenda opens the deck.

Link departments to their workspaces

1. Open Departments and edit a department.
2. Choose the workspace it runs (for example Finance & Accounting); its menu then names the department, and the department page opens it.

Set who approves what

1. Open Approval policies.
2. Create a policy for each band of amount and type of request (and optionally a grant or department), with its steps: the supervisor, then roles such as finance or the executive director.

Require two-step sign-in

1. In Security, choose the roles that must use two-step sign-in; reset a member's two-step sign-in or sessions if they lose their phone.