Effective disaster financial management is critical for successful response and recovery. It helps jurisdictions obtain the resources needed to support their communities, increases the efficiency of recovery efforts and reduces the likelihood of audits and financial penalties for the jurisdiction. Fiscal and grant regulations are strict and apply to all jurisdictions, regardless of size, so it is imperative that all jurisdictions have robust scalable, flexible and adaptable disaster financial management plans and processes in place pre-disaster for all types of incidents.
This document helps jurisdictions (e.g., state, local, tribal and territorial governments) establish and implement sound disaster financial management practices. It identifies the foundational Skills and Capabilities (Section 2) needed for successful disaster financial management and provides an overview of key Disaster Financial Management Activities (Section 3) that jurisdictions can complete before, during and after a disaster to support sound disaster financial management. This includes considerations and practices necessary to track, calculate and justify the costs of an emergency, support local reimbursement reconciliation, avoid deobligation of grant funding and effectively fund and implement recovery projects and priorities. Jurisdictions are encouraged to use this information as a starting point to establish sound disaster financial management practices and prepare to identify, obtain and implement disaster funding resources when disaster strikes.
This guide also provides an Introduction to Financial Assistance Programs (Appendix A), as well as key information about the most commonly applicable Federal Disaster Funding Programs for Recovery (Appendix B) and Additional Federal Disaster Assistance Resources and Programs (Appendix C) that may benefit jurisdictions’ recovery efforts. Jurisdictions are encouraged to familiarize themselves with available programs to streamline the disaster funding process before a disaster occurs.