1. Financial Reporting for SCCF
August 2018

2. Contents
Financial guidance
Financial reporting
Templates

3. Financial Guidance

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.”

7. 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

8. 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

9. Financial Reporting

10. 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.

11. Timetable

12. 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

13. 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.

14. Templates

15. Process for financial reporting
<refer to Excel template>

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. Questions?