04/19/23 Leonardo – Transfer of Innovation MEDIA TECH

Financial management rules

Celia HadjichristodoulouGrantXpert Consulting Ltd

MEDIA TECH: The future of the media industry using innovative techniques (2011-2013)

Kick-off meeting, 03-04/11/2011

1

Main Topics•Contractual agreement

•Budget issues

•Payment arrangements

•Division of budget

•Progress Reports

•Financial reporting documentation

•Amendment of budget

•Templates used for financial reporting purposes

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Contractual agreement•Grant agreement has already been signed between the National Agency (Commission) and the project coordinator-beneficiary (Sigma):•I. Description of the project•II. Estimated eligible budget of the project•IV. Administrative and financial handbook•V. Progress and Final report forms, Contractual modification form•All communication goes between National Agency and project coordinator•Following this, all partners will sign a contractual agreement with Sigma •This is a binding document with respect to this project•Clearly state the responsibilities and role of each organisation in the project, input in hours, total budget received from EU, own contribution•This form has been prepared and sent to all partners to be signed by their legal representatives•Bank details included in each contractual agreement

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Budget issues•Total project budget: 348,501 EUR•EU contribution (70%): 243,952 EUR•The Evaluation committee has reduced the budget (originally 399,432EUR)•Total partners’ own contribution: 104,549 EUR

•Own contribution is divided as follows:•P0: Sigma Radio TV Public Ltd, Cyprus 32,880 EUR•P1: ea Media Solutions Ltd, United Kingdom: 23,715 EUR•P2: GrantXpert Consulting, Cyprus: 10,586 EUR•P3: Instituto de Formación Integral, Spain: 13,395 EUR•P4: Athens Technology Center, Greece: 14,704 EUR•P5: GSI Italia- Gruppi di Solidarietá Internazionale, Italy: 9,269 EUR

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EU funding per partner

•EU funding for each partner:•P0: Sigma Radio TV Public Ltd, Cyprus 76,720 EUR

•P1: ea Media Solutions Ltd, United Kingdom: 55,355 EUR

•P2: GrantXpert Consulting, Cyprus: 24,702 EUR

•P3: Instituto de Formación Integral, S.L.U, Spain: 31,256 EUR

•P4: Athens Technology Center, Greece: 34,311 EUR

•P5: GSI Italia- Gruppi di Solidarietá Internazionale, Italy: 21,628 EUR

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Payment arrangements•After signature of the grant agreement:1st pre-financing payment: 30% (after national agency releases the fund to Contractor)

•Upon completion of agreed tasks and outputs in the work programme at the end of the 1st year:2nd pre-financing payment: 40%

2nd pre-financing payment will be made after the approval of the Interim Report2nd pre-financing payment cannot be made in full unless you have spent at least 70% of your first pre-financing payment

•After approval of the final report by the National Agency and release of final fund to the Contractor (as long as the partner’s contractual agreements have been fully met and all the necessary supporting documentation has been received)

Final Payment: 30% or remaining amount (calculated based on what you can justify as spent amount)

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Eligible cost categories•Staff costs

•Travel and Subsistence costs

•Equipment (up to a ceiling of 10%) 

•Subcontracting costs (up to a ceiling of 30%)

•Other Costs

•Indirect cost (up to a ceiling of 7% of direct costs)

•VAT is ineligible (except if you are VAT exempt)04/19/23 Leonardo – Transfer of Innovation 7

Staff Costs•Calculated on the basis of real daily rates: actual gross salaries plus social security charges and other statutory costs included in the remuneration.•Maximum amount of real daily staff rates can be found in the provided Table 1•For this cost category we need:1.Timesheets per employee (template provided)2.Contractual agreement between employer and employee3.Payslips•All of the above need to be signed by both the employees and the employer (legal representative)

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Subsistence Costs•Calculated on the rate of the country of destination. •The reimbursement is based on the daily allowance basis. Decision made by all partners: each person travelling handles this cost individually. •Table 2 provided comprises the maximum eligible daily rates per country•Includes: hotel, meals, inter-city travelling. •We only need: hotel check-out bill.

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Travel Costs•Allocated on the basis of real costs. Airplane tickets must be paid by the company, not the individual travelling (otherwise show that this person has been reimbursed by the company fully). •Includes all costs and all means of travel from the point of origin to the point of destination (including travel from/to the airport to/from the hotel)•For this cost category we need:1.Boarding passes from and to your home country2.Invoice/Receipt or bank statement for travelling expenses for airplane tickets or train/bus tickets3.Invoice/Receipt or bank statement for travelling from home to the airport, from the airport to the hotel and vice versa. Choose the cheapest method of travelling.

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Equipment & Other Costs•Equipment costs: cover PCs, projectors, digital recorders, digital camera, external hard disks, memory sticks, etc. May not be over 10% of the eligible direct costs of the project. Buy these early for depreciation reasons!

•Other Costs: examples include dissemination of information, reproduction, lecturers/trainers’ fees, costs for coordination meetings, survey costs, one-off costs etc.

•For both categories, an invoice and a receipt of payment need to be present.

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Subcontracting Costs• This category includes catering, conference and meetings’ organisation costs, translations, printings/distribution of conference materials,external audit(s) etc.• They are awarded on the basis of value for money•Specific Community rules with regard to procurement apply:i) Contracts with a value below EUR 12.500 can be paid simply on presentation of an invoice.ii) Contracts with a value from EUR 12.500 on and up to EUR 25.000 are subject to a procedure involving at least three tenderers.Iii) Contracts with a value over EUR 25.000 up to EUR 60.000 are subject to a procedure involving at least five tenderers.

•The applicant should award the contract to the subcontractor offering the best cost-benefit ratio

•For this cost category we need:1.Contractual agreement between the subcontractor and the Partner (a template can be provided if necessary)2.Invoice and receipt of payment for their services

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Cost headings

•In order to decide on appropriate cost heading, consider circumstances:

e.g. When hosting meetings, consider who attended:PartnersSub-contractorsThird parties (e.g. beneficiaries)or a combination of these

e.g. For catering during training or a seminar: ●Costs for partner organizations' staff fall under Travel and Subsistence ●If any subcontractors attend (e.g. your external evaluator)

their costs fall under Sub-contracting ●Costs for non partners (e.g. beneficiaries) fall under Other

Cost.

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Progress ReportsProject start date: 01/10/2011, Project completion date: 30/09/2013

•Interim Progress report: Submitted one year after the project starts: 30/9/2012. It will contain material up to 01/08/2012.The deadline for the submission of the Progress report cannot beextended. All documents sent by partners by 01/08/2012.

•Final report: 2 months after the official completion date of the project : 30/11/2013. All documents sent by partners by 01/11/2013.

Extension possible in exceptional cases: formal amendment request30 days before the official completion date of the project.

Three-monthly financial reports: complete table sent by GrantXpert every three months, declaring the expenses paid for that period.

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Financial reporting•Your accounting departments need to keep all accounting documents relevant to this project and provide us with these twice:•For the interim progress report and •the final report.•Need: invoices, receipts of payments, copies of cheque payments, bank statements, timesheets, payslips, subcontracting agreements, boarding passes, hotel check-out bills, etc.•The documents sent need to be certified that these are true copies of the originals. Thus create a stamp saying TRUE COPY and have the legal representative of your organisation sign each document

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Amendment of budgetCheck your budget early on with your Financial Director and inform the project coordinator (P0) if you require any changes in the budget. Do not assume a change is ok without first asking for the permission of the P0. Cases where an amendment request is NOT necessary: change to the budget breakdown per heading•An amendment request relating to an adjustment to the budget breakdown is not necessary when the transfer between budget headings (staff, travel, equipment, subcontracting, others) does not exceed 10% of the amount of each heading of eligible costs for which the transfer is intended.

•In all other cases of a budget change an amendment request is necessary

•When assessing your Final Report, the NA will accept declared costs that exceed the budget as long as they stay within the threshold of the rule above (by budget heading of cost).

•This rule is not applicable to indirect costs as they are always limited to 7% of eligible direct costs

•It is not possible to modify the total budget, the amount of the grant or the percentage of community funding.

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Follow-up tasks•Complete the declaration form of daily rate per staff member involved in the project. Example: monthly gross salary (including employer’s contributions): 2,000 EUR. Works 22 days per month. Daily rate: 2000/22=90.90 EUR. •Declaration form sent by GrantXpert.•VAT declaration (whether exempt or not)•Travelling and subsistence costs: send relevant accounting documentation for kick-off meeting•Inform P0 for any requests for changes in your budget.•All sent by the 30th of November the latest.•Start completing your timesheets on a weekly basis. All staff members involved should complete one.•Prepare contracts with members of staff hired on a project basis for MEDIA TECH.

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Contact details

If you need additional information, pleasecontact us:Tel: +35722669266email: celia@grantxpert.eu

projects@grantxpert.euFax: +35722669256

Thank you for your attention!

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