Finance Squad Proposal

Proposals for Executive Sub-DAO
#4

ESD has already outlined a process for reporting requesting reporting by the 1st of the following month. However, this process was developed on the basis that S1 proposals would be posted and decided early in the month of April.

It will now be at least the 18th before the first funding proposals decisions are finalised and requesting reporting 12 days into a month fails to serve a purpose. It already appears that fixed dates lack the flexibility we need.

Should we consider changing the reporting so that it falls due 28 days following approval of funding? As this would better align reporting with the ESD General Meeting cadence? I would still however expect we retain the fixed payments date as the 15th of the month

ESD assess deliverables and approved funding based on reporting here in the forum. Monthly reporting template here. We have requested

It would not seem reasonable though to expect the Finance team to trawl the forum for this information so a simple process whereby the teams report funding directly to Finance would be good.

These are very good processes that help set realistic contributor reward payments. Thank you

Edit to Aragon Govern

Not quite sure what this is saying but from what I can gather, I agree one multi-sig will significantly improve the three step process. However, ESD funding from Main DAO was approved on the basis that

In order to change a process formally established via on-chain voting we would need to vote on a Main DAO proposal. The ESD can not approve a change to an on-chain Main DAO agreement. Would the Finance team expect to make this proposal S1? You will have my vote in favour and the development of standards to support clarification around the Charter attracts fixed $500 additional funding

Woohooo

Can you clarify please why Anukriti is listed as an unpaid contributor to this proposal? Or can you clarify please how ops involvement with this guild is delineated from work within the DAOOps Guild. Maybe an idea of time and contribution to the financial objectives and deliverables.

Edits are required to this proposal. Rather than determining here all needed processes perhaps list this as a deliverable. I look forward to working closely with this team, excited to see monthly financial reports and more transparency around the value flow within the AN DAO.

Although this proposal was not posted with seven days lead time it is a listed priority and we will look to provide either a decision on funding or request further clarification following the ESD General Meeting scheduled for Monday 18 April UTC 1900

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#5

Understand your point on reporting in April is maybe not that useful, however lets interpret the first round of reports regarding April as a training to get familiar. As stated, I talk this process through with the several guilds and will provide them with a standardised report. In my opinion, it would be great to use the April payment cycle as rehearsal for the remaining Season.

I have edited the proposal (including time line) and I will provide the different guilds with a standardized report format, so they can briefly report about their first month, under the motto: bureaucracy out & simplicity in

Definitely agree as well that the teams should share their reports also with the finance team!

During Season 1 I will work out a proposal to disintermediate ESD Govern and make it more efficient.

To elaborate on Anukriti’s part, the Finance guild aims to stay integrated with the OPS guild as this is critical. We expect that it is not necessary to allocate hours but if in afterwards it turns out to be necessary, we already include her into the proposal.

Thank you for providing priority and feedback, really appreciate it!

#6

Can we clarify what standardised report you refer to please. In terms of ESD mothly reporting we have an intentionally, very simple template

This is linked from the ESD S1 Funding Reporting Process

Can you please also drop a link here to you pre-season bounty I’m interestrd to compare the bounty to better understand the transition from bounty to full-time role.

SMART deliverables
You’ve provided some very specific deliverables for S1 Rik can you please add metrics and time to all those to be considered for funding

For example

Monthly

  • 100% timeliness to compile all payments, prepare, sign and execute routine financial transactions by the 15th of the month 2100 UTC +0

  • 100% timeliness of monthly income / expense report posted to forum by +the 10th of the Month 2100 UTC +0

Discrete deliverables

  • 1 May deliver visualisation of token flow to aid transparency into the grants funding rated 8/10 or higher by community polling

  • 15 June start initiating the first payments via the Polygon chain

I’m keen to see people setting high performance targets. ESD do not intend to penalise people for unavoidable delays and changes to best laid plans but we do want to understand why delays happen and what questions and solutions issues raise.

#7

ESD General Meeting Monday 18 April UTC 1900: We are keen to see this team continue to deliver impact for AN DAO especially as financial transparency is a priority for us.

However, we would consider it a failure of an effective and efficient process if ongoing financial requirements in S1 are more than10 hours per week. We do also see that there could be 80 -120 hours required within the first month to get the systems and process’ in place.

We would like to try to make a final funding decision async within the next seven days cc @fartunov @daniel-ospina

#8

Can we clarify what standardised report you refer to please. In terms of ESD mothly reporting we have an intentionally, very simple template

Edited the standardized report and I will also talk the new payment / reporting process through with the guilds that are provided with funds for S1.

Can you please also drop a link here to you pre-season bounty I’m interestrd to compare the bounty to better understand the transition from bounty to full-time role.

This was the bounty in pre-season for 8-10 hours

  • Preparing a list of all past know payments and paying the pending payments.
  • Automate tagging and link payments to proposals.
  • Prepare a weekly and monthly account report with respect to bounties.
  • Initiate payments for projects funded by AN DAO (Bounties Included).
  • Help to set up source-cred for new contributors.

As always in DAOs the role changed (in discussion with Ben and Alex) more towards exploring the hick-ups in the current processes and prepare to change them in the next Season(s)

SMART deliverables
You’ve provided some very specific deliverables for S1 Rik can you please add metrics and time to all those to be considered for funding

I definitely like the SMART way of defining KPI’s, so I will give it a try:

Monthly deliverables

  • 100% timeliness to compile all payments, prepare, sign and execute routine financial transactions by the 15th of the month 2100 UTC +0

  • 100% timeliness of monthly income / expense report posted to forum by the 15th of the Month 2100 UTC +0

Discrete deliverables

  • 1st of May, define contributor reward payment and reporting process

  • 1st of May, deliver visualisation of token flow to aid transparency into the grants funding rated 8/10 or higher by community polling

  • 15th of June (2nd payment cycle), start initiating the first payments via the Polygon chain

  • Prepare an overview of all contributors per guild (and their addresses) within a week after the guild is approved for funding by ESD (to get contributors paid in time)

  • 1st June, Deliver the Finance notion page, that will be rated by the community on: transparency, easy to understand, helpful (aim for 8/10 at community polling)

  • 1 July, Initiate the necessary change in the Charter, to increase efficiency in the payment process

  • 15th of August (after last payment cycle), deliver an overarching AN DAO S1 Finacne Report, which provides an overview of the financial status of AN DAO, a look back on S1 and an outlook to S2 (will be rated by the community and aim for 8/10)

#9

No thanks, I’ve restored the version that the ESD require for reporting. We do not need a breakdown by contributor. Here again, please do note our reporting requirements which I would expect to be different from Finance

I will note again that imo the forum will NOT be the most effective and efficient means to collect contributor reward information. Due to some confusion here as to the different processes required please let me clarify

  1. ESD will define/refine and document strategy and processes’ relating to ESD
  2. Finance S1 is expected to define/refine and document processes’ relating to transparent and timely financial information

I would like to see “define contributor reward payment and reporting process by DDMMYY” as a deliverable here. Example here

Thanks for the bounty summary, as requested can you share a LINK to the bounty information as I am looking for transparency about the role. I’m wondering how it has gone from 10 hours to 45 hours per week, and why in a DAO we would even want to model the 40-hour workweek.

I can assure anyone reading this imo ESD funding is not here to secure employment type roles. I prefer to fund deliverables based on impact as opposed to time. Financial transparency and timeliness I expect to have a significant positive impact.

Nice work on the SMART deliverables @Ricktik6 some of these I consider simply requirements of the the role and even if the list was 20 items long it is the monthly deliverables that I’m looking to fund a focus on, so I would focus on those and leave opportunity for “additional deliverables”

What do you consider a reasonable budget allocation per month to ensure delivery of transparent and timely

  1. monthly supplier and contributor reward payments and contributor reward reporting
  2. monthly income/expense report
  3. S1 financial report

I would advise pricing these differently and per deliverable price as opposed to based on hours

#10

I will note again that imo the forum will NOT be the most effective and efficient means to collect contributor reward information. Due to some confusion here as to the different processes required please let me clarify

We understand that you prefer two different documents from the guilds, ESD report and Finance (reward report) report. We will come up with a standardized finance report and process before the 1st of May.

I would like to see “define contributor reward payment and reporting process by DDMMYY” as a deliverable here. Example here

Added to discrete deliverables: 1st of May, define contributor reward payment and reporting process

Thanks for the bounty summary, as requested can you share a LINK to the bounty information as I am looking for transparency about the role.

FYI, 2 separate bounties of 500 dollar and 8-10 hours (1 Treasury bounty and 1 accounting bounty) were merged at the start of Pre-Season into this bounty. During Pre-Season, I worked closely with Alex and Ben on the which tasks to pick up next as there was a lot to pick up.

I’m wondering how it has gone from 10 hours to 45 hours per week, and why in a DAO we would even want to model the 40-hour workweek.

We didn’t take a 40 hour workweek into account but did an estimation on time that is required to deliver the tasks. Let us elaborate on our estimation:

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**Lower value due to work completed during pre-season

This is a rough estimation of the first deliverables that we are picking up (of course deliverables can be added and priority can switch during the season).

In terms of transparency, we would like to propose: if a deliverable takes actually more or less time (and costs), we will report this to the ESD including argumentation.

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#11

I will start by saying that I have not followed the discussion too deeply. I only want to note that some of the guilds are suffocating without funding.

dTech has never received payment on time for one reason or another. Mainly due to govern issues or waiting on a signature. This finance guild will create a role that can focus on solving these issues.

Currently it is the 20th of April and dTech has not been compensated for March, nor has any of the bounty contributors. This is the same with onboarding and ops. Some of this compensation is from the beginning of March. This has led to disappearing contributors and lack of interest in taking up new bounties. If compensation is not executed properly progress stops, interest and participation goes dormant and Aragon stagnantes.

I strongly urge to get this proposal resolved so guilds can focus on executing tasks and not worrying about compensation.

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#12

Do I understand correctly those issues will be resolved?
These sound a lot like process and operational issues rather than financial. As the proposal is almost double recommended length, I sincerely apologize for not going over all the details. However, for us to decide, we would ideally want to see the impact of the guild over the season.

We identified a major pain point for the ESD at the beginning of Season 0: the lack of transparency around current financial standing, which is still unresolved. Yet we are committing on other things.

Ideally, the outcome of this season should be a streamlined set-up that does not require someone working full time on preparing reports…it’s mostly on-chain data so a script should resolve this (maybe there is an existing tool to resolve some of this.

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#13

100% agree on the issue. I am not seing how the proposal is adressing the pain point. It’s a combination of tasks and symptom treatments, but doesn’t seem to be a solution to the underlying problems

#14

Please adhere to the 750 word limit on funding requests

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#15

These are all issues that are being resolved in the proposal. Rick has pulled together the prioritisation on bounties/tasks for the season to try and make it clearer what is being achieved. Solving the pain points and creating a robust process is a priority 1 for the season. Automating the reporting has been set as a priority 2.

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#16

These issues will be resolved as we re-organize the payment process (which I am currently working on this week to outline on Notion)

As you stated it is indeed more a process and operation issue than a financial one.
In order to be transparent on the reward payments it is necessary to have a process where every stakeholder (Guilds, ESD, and Finance Guild) is aware of their role (respectively: report to ESD & Finance in time, Assess the reports in time, prepare the payments in time).

It is also not our goal to work full time on reports, but focus right now on getting these reports properly (and therefore provide transparency). If the new reporting processes are working then we will look into automating that process, as indeed that is the ideal situation.

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Proposal for community accepted reporting standards
#17

Hey, do you need any help on the accounting side of the finance guild proposal? I may be able to help with some of the work. I’m a Ph.D. In accounting and statistics with 7 years of experience in Big 4 and 3 more years of experience in public companies reporting to SEC. I worked with both US GAAP and IFRS standards, SOX compliance, etc. if this is helpful here in any way. Please let me know if I can get involved:)

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#18

Hey!
Thanks for reaching out!
Lets have a chat, could you contact me via Discord: ricktik6#0196

#19

Hey @Ricktik6 after reviewing the proposal again the value adds are starting to pop up. While the proposal is overly wordy and makes our job as ESD substantially more difficult than it should be I hope you would be able to submit a better one next time. That being said, let’s try to boil down the main deliverables into bullets that can help me @lee0007 and @daniel-ospina more accurately understand what will be achieved during the season:

  • Design and “enforce” a consistent reporting/approval/payment cadence across guilds through a well-organized process (well-organized means someone can quickly orient themselves on what’s going on and follow/execute the process, not lengthy wordy explanations - it should be clear who can schedule payments from which wallet, on what basis, etc.)
  • Have functional contributor payments for USDC denominated payments on Polygon

Are the two bullets above an accurate representation of the scope because if it is, it’s something I can get on board with?

NB: @AlexClay we have the umbrella proposal and the EVM crisper proposals approved. How/when are we initiating payments?

Comment below on the other discrete deliverables

  • 1st of May, deliver visualisation of token flow to aid transparency into the grants funding rated 8/10 or higher by community polling - not sure what this one is. If it’s about the pictogram PDFs, they were more confusing than helpful.
  • Prepare an overview of all contributors per guild (and their addresses) within a week after the guild is approved for funding by ESD (to get contributors paid in time) - sounds reasonable
  • 1st June, Deliver the Finance notion page, that will be rated by the community on: transparency, easy to understand, helpful (aim for 8/10 at community polling) - So far it is looking really good but just want to clarify something. The payment process should be in the main wiki somewhere - consult with @lion917 but the “how do I get paid” bit should be relatively easy to find, not somewhere deep in the finance guild space. Finance guild space can link in there as “one of our outputs”
  • 1 July, Initiate the necessary change in the Charter, to increase efficiency in the payment process - this basically means remove the payment process from the charter, or am I missing something?
  • 15th of August (after last payment cycle), deliver an overarching AN DAO S1 Finacne Report, which provides an overview of the financial status of AN DAO, a look back on S1 and an outlook to S2 (will be rated by the community and aim for 8/10)
  • The really basic transparency request by the ESD is still pending as per my last message - would be great to get a commitment on that being completed in the beginning of May

Looking forward to getting this out of the gate ASAP and apologies for the late response.

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#20

Hi Ivan,

First of all, thank you for your feedback.

The two bullets that you mentioned are indeed the main scope for S1.

Great to hear that the ESD has approved already 2 initiatives!
I will also discuss the new payment & reporting process with the guilds.
If they have worked on / finished deliverables (in April) that are approved by the ESD, they should receive payments for that.

In terms of the basic transparency request by ESD, I already made a first draft on the ESD & Main DAO financial position which you can find here: Financial Position - Google Sheets

Lets align on this as well later today during the ESD office hours

In addition, I will also align with Lion regarding the Notion board.

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#21

Can maybe take this to discord as to not distract.

EVM - Once per month based on deliverables so I would imagine first in April/Mays payment run
Umbrella - First payment of $3000 was paid in the last payment.

Thanks,

Alex

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#22

1/3 ESD Approved: Based on the updates to the proposal and conversation to date here in the forum and elsewhere @Ricktik6 thank you for your proactive efforts to address our many questions. I am stoked that @AlexClay will have your talent and support moving forward to develop financial transparency. I look forward to working alongside this team following majority/unanimous support by the ESD cc @fartunov @daniel-ospina

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#23

@Ricktik6 the proposal has my approval

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