1. Co-funded by the European Union Ref. number: 542203-LLP-1-2013-1-FI-ERASMUS-ENW Technical and Financial issues Justyna Dabrowska OI-Net kick-off meeting LUT, Lappeenranta, Jan 16, 2014

2. Agenda o Technical o Financial issues

3. TECHNICAL ISSUES

4. Templates o Minutes, OI-Net Power Point templates, etc will be available on OI-Net Platform o Always remember to save (send/upload) the documents with detailed title e.g. Pnumber_organization_country_intro.pptx

5. o Deadlines: please keep in mind the deadlines and ALWAYS inform in case of problems to deliver on time

6. FINANCIAL ISSUES

7. LUT Financial Management Team  Sanna Tomperi, Sanna.Tomperi@lut.fi  Jenna Partinen, Jenna.Partinen@lut.fi  Katja Jeulonen, Katja.Jeulonen@lut.fi In case of any questions related to finance, budget, trip reimbursement etc., please contact Jenna Partinen directly (cc. Justyna, Sanna) for assistance.

8. Questions related to budget etc. o For OI-Net kick-off meeting: if you have specific questions, please address them directly to the financial team who is present at the meeting. o Thursday: 11.40-12.00 and 15.20-15.40  Or individually: All two days room 1525A (if needed, ask people with black badges for assistance in finding the room) Jenna Partinen mobile: +358 50 438 4836

9. Forwarding the EU grant o The coordinator manages the grants centrally. Partners pre- finance their project activities and have them reimbursed by the coordinator when costs have been incurred or at defined intervals. o Travel reimbursement: the money transfer will be made in the following month when the meeting took place (if the correct and full documentation is provided by partner by the end of the month when the meeting took place)  E.g. Meeting in January  full and correct documentation provided by partner by the end of January  transfer by the end of February)  Exception: meetings incurred during summer period  transfer by the end of August (due to official holidays in July)

10. Remember! The OI-Net project uses OI-Net platform for managing any reimbursements and for staff costs management. The partners are required to register to the platform and upload on time the financial documentation in “Financial Reporting” section, if they wish to be reimbursed.

11. Travel claim - template o The travel claim template can be downloaded from Partner repository  Administration and Reports – Partners  Financial templates (visible only for registered members)

12. Saving and uploading travel claim o Format how the file should be saved and uploaded:  OI-Net-J4-Pnumber-YYYYMMDD-person-place-Va02 o J4: is for Travel & Expenses Claims in the EU report excel file o Pxx: Partner Code (for instance LUT has the code P01 in the LLP contract) o YYYYMMDD: date of claim, for instance: 20130115 = 15 January 2013 o Person: e.g. torkkeli or marko-torkkeli or mtorkkeli for Marko TORKKELI (replace by the name of the concerned person), what is important is to always keep the same naming for the same person all along the duration of the project. o PLACE: Destination of the travel : Lappeenranta.... o vXX: Version number, for instance v01. (if you want to upload it another time, you should rename with another version number as the system will not allow a second upload of any file except if you do an update of the upload).

13. Instructions for travel claim o Each uploaded reporting document should be:  signed by the mission holder (working person) and by the legal representative of the contract  the covering page or of the synthesis document has to signed and dated by the legal representative with the following manuscript indications: Copy of the present document and of all attached documents are certified truly conform to the original ones signature name and position of the person signing date of signature  the full document (the cover page and the copies of the justifying documents) have to be scanned into one single document, to be named as indicated here below, and then to be uploaded into the Financial reporting folder of your organisation.Financial reporting  Then you can send only the covering page signed by normal mail to LUT, the coordinator (or to hold it to LUT's representative at the next partnership of workgroup meeting. The contact person and address to be sent to is: o Jenna Partinen Project financial secretary, OI-Net (full address on OI-Net web)

14. Daily subsistance o Reimbursement must be based on the existing internal rules of the partner organisations, which may be on the basis of actual costs (reimbursement of receipts) or daily allowances. o Max. daily allowances are set by EU and included in additional spreadsheet in OI-Net travel claim reimbursement excel file. o The Full OI-Net budget sets exact daily subsistence rate: e.g. for Finland eligible subsistence costs are 210 EUR o Subsistence rates cover accommodation, meals and all local travel costs (but not local travel costs incurred to travel from point of origin to point of destination). o The maximum number of days that can be claimed is the number of working days + 1. A full day normally includes an overnight stay. In duly substantiated cases, a full day’s allowance without an overnight stay may be allowed with a pro rata reduction for accommodation (costs limited to 50% of the maximum rate). A corresponding reduction must be applied if accommodation, meals and local travel costs are provided for by a third party (e.g. OI-Net kick-off meeting)

15. Example

16. Eligible travel costs (1/2) o Costs may be claimed only for journeys directly connected to specific and clearly identifiable project-related activities o Reimbursement must be based on real costs, regardless the means of travel chosen (rail, bus, taxi, plane, hire car, etc.). Partners are required to use the cheapest means of travel (e.g. use Apex tickets for air travel and take advantage of reduced fares, where this is not the case then a full explanation should be provided). o The travel cost for a journey should include all costs and all means for travel from the point of origin to the point of destination (and vice versa) and may include visa fees, travel insurance and cancellation costs.

17. Eligible travel costs (2/2) o Expenses for private car travel (personal or company cars), where substantiated and where the price is not excessive, will be reimbursed as follows (whichever is the cheapest) :  either a rate per km in accordance with the internal rules of the organisation concerned up to a max of EUR 0.22; (please include Google Map screen with marked journey and mileage in supporting documents to travel claim)  or price of a rail, bus or plane ticket. Only one ticket shall be reimbursed, independently of the number of people travelling in the same vehicle. o For hired cars (maximum category B or equivalent) or taxis: the actual cost where this is not excessive compared with other means of travel (also taking account of any influencing factors e.g. time, excessive luggage). Reimbursement takes place independently of the number of people travelling in the same vehicle.

18. Examples of supporting documents that must be uploaded on OI-Net Platform o tickets (plane, train, bus, etc.) and invoices (hotels, restaurants, travel agency); o boarding pass; o for car journeys: declaration stating the city of departure and arrival, the calculation method with unit rate and number of units, dates and names and activities concerned; (include Google Map screen with marked journey) o list of participants duly signed with clear identification of the activity/purpose of the trip, dates, names and functions of the participants in the project (e.g. partner, expert, volunteer, subcontractor); o proof that the payments have been made by the partner and are recorded in the accountancy.

19. Timesheet on time spent working on the project o Available on OI-Net Platform.  Needs to be uploaded by the end of Month 12  Filled according to the instructions on the website and supported with: o clear justification of the daily rate (e.g. a calculation signed by your accounting department if not already stated in the documents requested here below). o Please attach a copy of a declaration of staff salaries on the official document from your organization, signed by the head of accounting or human resources department + stamp of your organization indicating:  the name of employee, job title, gross annual salary, employer's charges, total salary plus on-costs, number of days worked/year less annual leave and public holidays  the registering as permanent member of staff or under short term employment contract for the project or other type of contract (i.e. temporary contract)

20. Documentation of costs o All partners are required to have evidence of all expenditures (e.g. invoices, bills, tickets etc.) o as well as proofs that these costs were actually paid (balance statements, receipts, etc.) o The documentation should be kept for at least five years after the termination of the project. (EA can do a randomly chosen audit and request to see all the financial documents) o OI-Net Platform will store the documentation in pdfs of all partners

21. Supporting documents o EU Project Handbook can be downloaded from Partner repository  Global contract and reference documents  Provides information on : Ineligible costs Eligible direct costs: Staff, Travel and subsistence, equipment costs, subcontracting and other costs Indirect costs

22. 22 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Programme: ERASMUS # 542203-LLP-1-2013-1-FI-ERASMUS-ENW o For more information: www.oi-net.eu FIN:+358 504 357 545 www.oi-net.eu o Justyna Dabrowska Lappenranta University of Technology Justyna.Dabrowska@lut.fi Justyna.Dabrowska@lut.fi