TS-FS-13
Trust & Stewardship
Financial Stewardship
CORE
Compliance
v2.9.7
Funds disbursed timely
Assessing whether the organization disburses funds to beneficiaries, projects, and partners in a timely manner is critical. Prompt disbursement is essential for program effectiveness, maintaining partner relationships, meeting beneficiary needs, and fulfilling the purpose of charitable donations. In Islamic tradition, the prompt distribution of Zakat (obligatory charity) and Sadaqah (voluntary charity) reflects upholding organizational Amanah (trust). Unjustified delay in delivering these financial rights contradicts the imperative of Ihsan (excellence) when serving vulnerable populations.
Assessment Questions
- Does the organization have a documented policy and procedure for disbursing funds to beneficiaries, projects, and partners, including defined timelines?
- How does the organization monitor and measure the timeliness of its fund disbursements against its defined timelines or service level agreements (SLAs)?
- How are stakeholders (e.g., beneficiaries, partners) kept informed about the status and timing of their expected funds, especially in case of delays?
- Provide examples of how the organization has used performance data or feedback to improve the speed and efficiency of its fund disbursement process.
- How do you evidence the timestamp for ‘Payment Pack Complete’ and ‘funds credited’?
- Provide SLA attainment by risk tier/corridor for the last 12 months (rolling trend).
- How do you ensure zakat is disbursed within its due period?
- What is your 12-month on-time % and aged backlog trend?
- Show evidence of weekly operational dashboards and monthly management reviews.
- How do you classify and report 'lawful holds' vs internal delays?
Evidence Requirements
- Documented fund disbursement policy, procedures, and/or process flowcharts.
- Service Level Agreements (SLAs) or internal policies defining disbursement timelines.
- System-generated reports or logs showing 'Payment Pack Complete' timestamps and actual disbursement dates.
- Weekly performance dashboards and monthly management review minutes/action logs.
- Minutes of meetings where disbursement performance and process improvements are discussed.
- Examples of communication templates or records sent to partners/beneficiaries regarding payment schedules.
- SLA matrix by tier/corridor and monthly segmented performance reports.
- Notification logs/templates; partner-facing payment status reports.
- Aged backlog report (items >SLA), exception reports with root-cause codes.
- Sanctions/KYC screening logs with clearance timestamps.
- Bank settlement confirmations with timestamp (payment released vs credited).
- Root-cause analysis register and corrective actions.
- Payment calendar (cut-offs/holidays).
- Cash-flow forecast and liquidity threshold policy.
- Contingency test scripts and results (tabletop and live).
- Data retention policy and access logs for beneficiary banking data (GDPR).
Scoring Guidelines
| Level | Rating | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 5/5 | Excellent disbursement systems with consistently prompt payments (≥95% on-time net of lawful holds) and robust performance tracking |
| 4 | 4/5 | Good disbursement processes with generally timely payments (90–94% on-time) |
| 3 | 3/5 | Adequate processes but some delays or inconsistency (80–89% on-time) |
| 2 | 2/5 | Significant delays in disbursement or inefficient processes (60–79% on-time) |
| 1 | 1/5 | Chronic disbursement delays (<60% on-time) affecting program implementation |
Discussion (1)
Administrator
2026-03-07 12:01:00.075367
📋 **Version updated: 1.0.0 → 2.9.7** **Changes:** Full import from mizan-297.json
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