1. By Lillian Irene Stormo, HiB
SW-Vircamp Consortium Meeting – Liepaja 2-3 September 2010
Budget and Account
By Lillian Irene Stormo, HiB

2. Budget – revisions
The original project budget of SW-VirCamp has been revised three times:
May 2009, February 2010 and July 2010
The revisions have been based on the amended resource plans and meeting plans. The amended plans have been results of changed needs in the project, which have demanded reallocations of resources.
Expenditures realised on a lower level than set in the original budget (changed conditions) have made reallocations of resources possible.

3. Budget – starting point
The budget plan in the application approved by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) was the starting point for the revisions.
The deliverable number 4.3 of the project description stated the following:
A transparent yearly budget, including accountability requirements, money transfer regulations etc. will be defined and presented to partners.
The first revision split the original budget into yearly budgets. The yearly periods were 1st October 2008 through 30th September 2009 and 1st October 2009 through 30th September 2010.

4. Budget – starting point
In addition there were some discrepancies between the budget plan and the project description in the application:
The breakdown of travel and subsistence costs.
The number of working days for the categories of manager and teacher.
The first revision of the budget adjusted the breakdown of travel and subsistence costs among the partners to be in accordance with the original meeting plan.
The resource plans of the different work packages in the application was amended to be in line with the original budget, in order to make yearly budgets for the project.

5. Budget – changed conditions
The original budget was based on staff cost ceilings and subsistence ceilings, in other words maximum eligible daily rates by category and country set by the EACEA.
Staff, travel and subsistence costs have to a great extent been realised on a lower level than the ceilings used in the original budget. The reduced costs of staff, travel and subsistence have enabled us to add elements of other costs, working days and meetings to the project throughout the revisions.

6. Budget – changed conditions and needs
Staff costs:
Throughout the budget revisions the daily staff cost rate for most partners has been changed from the maximum eligible rate set by EACEA to a daily rate based on real staff cost increased by a guessed percentage of wage increase. In the last revision the general wage increase was set to be 5 percent.
The last revision of the budget is based on the following amendments in working days:
Category 1 Manager days
Category 2 Researcher, teacher and/or trainer days
Category 3 Technical days
Category 4 Administrative days
Total amendments days

7. Budget – changed needs Several physical meetings have been added:
SWSC meeting in Mannheim in June 2009 to plan for the Progress Report.
Three meetings for the project leader with the EACEA in Brussels.
Consortium meeting in Amsterdam in April 2010 which was cancelled. The project had to cover some cancellation costs.
Consortium meeting in Lisbon in June 2010.
Wp 2 teacher meeting in Liepaja in September 2010.
Subcontracting costs were increased from EUR to EUR according to the contract with Lund University.

8. Budget – changed needs Other costs:
The cost of the web hotel for the whole project period was added to the budget with EUR 200.
Rent for for the VITERO Conference room used for online meetings was added with EUR
Print costs for pamphlets, posters and information material have been increased from EUR to EUR
Conference fee for 2 participants at the EDEN Conference in Valencia and conference fee for 1 participant at the IASSW conference in Hong Kong, both in June 2010, was added with the total of EUR

9. Budget – breakdown among partners
The breakdown of costs among the partners has been adjusted to be in accordance with:
The amended meeting plans (travel and subsistence costs).
The amended resource plans (staff costs).
Added elements of other costs.
Equal share of subcontracting costs was increased from EUR 520 to EUR 529 (for HiB EUR 531) according to the increased total costs of subcontracting.

10. Budget – last revision Original budget Last revision Amendments
All figures in Euro
Original budget
Last revision
Amendments
Staff costs
Operational costs
10 965
Travel and subsistence
5 946
Subcontracting
6 250
6 350
100
Other costs
3200
8 119
4 919
Total project expenditures

11. Budget – last revision
The grant from LLP covers as before 73,93 % of the total project expenditures.
Own funding of the partners will still be 26,07 % of the total project expenditures.
Every budget revision has been approved by the EACEA. No formal amendment request to the EACEA has been necessary due to the fact that the amendments to each budget category have neither been more than 10 % nor more than EUR

12. Account – status by august 2010
All figures in Euro
Budget last revision
Account
Unused funds
Staff costs
76 022
Operational costs
76 840
51 275
Travel and subsistence
70 409
43 237
Subcontracting
6 350
Other costs
8 119
6 431
1 688
Total project expenditures

13. Final report – financial statement
The final report shall cover the entire period of the project.
The final report must include:
Request for payment of the balance.
Final financial statement of the eligible costs actually incurred, following the structure of the estimated budget.
A full summary of the receipts and expenditures of the project.
The final report must be delivered to the EACEA within 2 months following the project end date. The project end date is 30th September 2010 and the deadline for the final report will then be 30th November 2010.

14. Final report – request deadlines
The partners must send in request for reimbursement of all their outstanding claims of travel and subsistence costs immediately after this consortium meeting and no later than 20th September 2010.
The project end date of 30th September 2010 will be the last date for the partners to register working hours and staff costs. The exception is work related to the final report by members of the Steering Committee.
The deadline for sending in request for reimbursement of staff costs is 15th October 2010.

15. Final report – last reimbursement
Remember to enclose receipts and time sheets for the costs you request being reimbursed to the reimbursement forms!
The last payment of staff costs will be conducted after the EACEA has approved the final report and paid the balance.
The amount finally determined for the partner`s own funding will be deducted from the last payment of staff costs.

16. Final report – payment of the balance
If the EACEA does not request additional supporting documents or information the EACEA shall pay the balance within 90 days of the reporting date. If the EACEA does request additional supporting documents or information the payment of the balance may take longer time.
The EACEA will pay the balance on the basis of the costs actually incurred by the consortium in carrying out the project, within the maximum level of costs set in the project budget.

17. Final report – final grant
The EACEA may reduce the amount of the final grant:
By judging some of the reported costs to not be eligible.
By taking into consideration the final assessment of the project outcomes, based upon the opinion of external experts. The final assessment will be done by rating values running from 0 to 10. If the rating falls between 0 and 4 a reduction of grant will be applied to the total eligible staff costs according to a scale from 25 % to 85 %.
If the total eligible costs are lower than the total eligible cost in the budget, the grant will be limited to the amount obtained by applying the Community grant percentage (73,93 %) to the actual eligible costs approved by the EACEA.

18. Final report – afterwards
The partners shall keep at the ECAEA`s disposal all original documents, especially accounting and tax records, or, in exceptional and duly justified cases, certified copies of original documents relating to the agreement for a period of five years from the date of payment of the balance.