Financial Reporting for SCCF August 2018

Contents Financial guidance Financial reporting Templates

Financial Guidance

Principles Financial guidance available: Principles of Reporting, Budget Classification, Exchange Rates Cash based accounting (no accruals) Reporting on the transactions of the project not the grant holder – partner transactions should be reported alongside grant holder transactions 1st April – 31st March financial year (flexibility between years with agreement) Quarterly financial reporting feeding into claims/payments Payments are made in ‘advance’ but require some working capital for reporting time.

SCCF Claims All SCCF grant holders are on ‘advance’ funding, plus a working capital allowance of: 20% for one-year projects 10% for two-year projects Working capital is disbursed with the first payment and deducted from last.

10% Variance rule “During the course of any financial year, up to 10% of the value of a budget sub-heading (subtotal) can be transferred between the budget lines (within each sub heading) without Fund Manager approval. Any proposed virement within the budget sub-heading amounting to over 10%, or any virement between budget sub-headings, must be approved in advance and in writing by the Fund Manager before the budget is changed.”

Budget Heading / Sub-head Budget Heading / Sub-head Budgets Budget Heading / Sub-head Budget Lines Project Activities (Grouped under an Output) Project Activity Budget Line A Project Activity Budget Line B Project Activity Budget Line C Sub Total 1 Prior Approval AND Budget Revision Required if: Budget lines within a single sub-heading change over 10% of the sub-head value If any reallocation from one sub-heading to another Budget line going to £0 New budget Line Budget Heading / Sub-head Budget Lines Capital Expenditure Budget Line D Budget Line E Budget Line F Sub Total 2 Staff Costs Budget Line G Budget Line H Budget Line I Sub Total 3 Other Admin Costs Budget Line J Budget Line K Budget Line L Sub Total 4 Monitoring, Evaluation & Lesson Learning Budget Line M Budget Line N Budget Line O Sub Total 5

Exchange rates Not Acceptable Acceptable Lump sum transfer Daily spot rate Average Market Rate Daily Market Rate Not Acceptable Budgeted rate Estimated rate Cumulative averages across the year Start thinking about management of the risk of currency fluctuations Note that your budget has an entry to describe your exchange rate policy

Financial Reporting

General There are 2 claim windows per quarter. These will be in month 1 and month 2 of the quarter. Any claims received after the deadline will be held and processed with the batch received in the following month. One claim every quarter. Grant Holders must be able to back up their claims with evidence Please don’t wait until the deadline to submit your claim. If you are able to prepare your claim in advance of your chosen deadline, please send it to us as soon as possible.

Timetable

Process for quarterly reporting A pre-prepared copy of the template will be saved on SMILE The template will be accessible by Grant Holder, Fund Manager and Donor Each quarter the grant holder will complete the relevant tab on the spreadsheet, and submit the finance report through SMILE The Fund Manager will process the claim based on the transaction listing provided, and will save a remote copy

Process for annual reporting 1st April – 31st March financial year Same level of detail as financial report. Increased scrutiny of variance against the annual budget on a budget line level. To be completed alongside technical reporting.

Templates

Process for financial reporting <refer to Excel template>

A few tips Please read guidance Don’t change the format of the template Make sure the budget matches a workplan and results framework Fill in the tab referring to the current quarter not the previous one. Eg. In July (Q2) you report data for Q1. When completing the template please use the Q2 tab. Fill in the cells in blue.

Important Notes Authorisation No physical signature required. We do hold Grant Holders responsible for the claims they make (and they are subject to audit). Important to consider internal control, and the importance of SMILE login. Forecasting Hugely important to DFID, the Fund Manager, and to the project itself. We strongly recommend activity based forecasts regularly updated.

Questions?