Merchant integration and expenses module for volunteer payment service

该项目将支付和金融技术结合起来，为在封锁期间和之后帮助弱势群体购买必需品的志愿者提供安全便捷的支付。我们在4月份开发了vHelp服务原型，并在Innovate UK的资助下开发了一个全自动应用程序。在目前的服务版本中，志愿者必须为他们所做的任何购物付费，然后在送货完成后获得退款。在vHelp应用程序项目期间，我们发现慈善机构和志愿组织的一个主要问题是管理和处理志愿者费用——它给志愿者管理者带来了相当大的管理负担，成本高昂，并阻碍了一些团体的志愿活动。远程工作增加了这个问题，因为管理部门之间的文书工作非常困难。我们还确定，志愿组织和地方当局不希望志愿者使用自己的资金购物，他们希望避免志愿者自掏腰包，即使是短期的。本项目旨在：1；建立一个志愿者费用支付模块，以减少组织的管理和成本，并适合于目的（可访问和安全），确保所有志愿者报销的顺利体验。2. 创建一个解决方案，将代金券集成到应用程序中，允许志愿者在不使用自己的资金的情况下支付购物费用。这个项目的结果可能会让我们修改目前的商业模式，这已经证明了我们的目标市场，志愿组织的挑战。志愿部门承受着巨大的财政压力，他们可能需要承担的任何费用都会对服务的采用造成重大障碍。这将增强我们的竞争力，增加我们产品的粘性。费用支付模块为新的收入流和增长途径开辟了机会。我们目前正在与志愿/第三部门合作，但一旦我们的解决方案稳定下来，我们将扩展到社会护理部门，因为该服务可以被照顾老年人或弱势群体的护理人员使用。我们的短期重点是英国，但我们已经从正在应对covid - 19并面临类似付款困难的欧洲国家获得了兴趣。一旦我们的技术在英国建立起来，我们将探索国际扩张。目前的社会环境鼓励依靠志愿者和社区支持，以实现经济可持续发展和社会责任，这项服务在这两个方面都产生了积极的影响。

This project brings together payments and financial technology to enable safe and convenient payments for volunteers helping vulnerable people with essential purchases during lockdown and beyond. We developed the vHelp service prototype in April and developed a fully automated app with a grant from Innovate UK. In the current version of the service volunteers have to pay for any shopping they do and then get reimbursed after delivery is completed. During the vHelp app project we identified a major problem for charities and voluntary organisation is managing and processing volunteers expenses - it places a considerable admin burden on volunteer managers, is costly and discourage some groups from volunteering. The move to remote working increased the problem as it is very difficult to manage paperwork moving around departments. We also established that voluntary organisations and local authorities prefer that volunteers do not use their own funds for shopping and they want to avoid volunteers being out of pocket, even for short periods. This project aims to: 1. Build a volunteer expenses payment module to reduce admin and costs for organisations and is fit for purpose (accessible and secure) ensuring a smooth experience for all volunteers claiming expenses. 2. Create a solution that integrates a voucher into the app to allow volunteers to pay for shopping without using their own funds. The results of this project may allow us to modify the current business model, which has proven challenging for our target market, voluntary organisations. The voluntary sector is under immense financial pressure and any cost they may need to incur creates a significant adoption barrier for services. This will enhance our competitiveness and increase the stickiness of our offering. The expenses payment module opens up opportunities for new revenue streams and growth routes. We are currently working with the voluntary/third sector but, once our solution is stable we will expand to the social care sector, as the service can be used by carers looking after elderly or vulnerable people. Our short term focus is the UK, however we've already had interest from European countries dealing with Covid19 and facing similar difficulties with payments. We will explore international expansion once our technology is established in the UK. The current social context is encouraging the reliance on volunteers and community support for economical sustainability and social responsibility reasons and this service delivers positive impact on both fronts.