1. Workshop for grant beneficiaries on interim and final reporting procedures under grant contracts
Presentation prepared by
Andreja Tonč, Team Leader
Belgrade, 30/31 May 2018

2. PURPOSE OF THE WORKSHOP
To present interim and reporting process to Grant Beneficiaries including: reporting obligations, interim and narrative reporting formats, list of supporting documents, main challenges in reporting process, implementation of the On the spot verification visits.

3. AGENDA OF THE WORKSHOP TIME TOPIC 09,30 – 10,00 WELCOMING NOTES
10,00 – 11,00
REPORTING OBLIGATIONS AND ROLES OF THE MAIN ACTORS
11,00 – 11,15
COFFEE BREAK
11,15 – 12,45
NARRATIVE REPORTING
12,45 – 13,30
LUNCH BREAK
13,30 – 14,45
FINANCIAL REPORTING
14,45 – 15,00
CLOSURE

4. EU Support to Social Welfare in Serbia update Social Welfare Strategy
MoLEVSA
30 Grant Beneficiaries
Social Welfare Strategy
Grant management capacity building – training and mentoring in progress.
Support in review of reports submitted by Grant Beneficiaries starting.
Help Desk on regular basis.
Grant Training completing.
On the job coaching completing.
Upcoming training and networking, peer to peer learning (social entrepreneurship, licencing etc.).
Strategy development started.
Development of new regulatory mechanisms started.
Training in later stage.

5. REPORTING OBLIGATIONS
Reporting is an obligation of the beneficiary according to the Special Conditions of the Grant Contract (Art. 2) and General Conditions (Art. 2) of the grant contract represented (Annex II). Grant contract sets the obligation of interim and final reporting and these templates are given in the grant contract (Annex VI).
In all levels of reporting, beneficiary needs to report on all expenditures incurred under the project (not only partially, as covered by the funds of Contracting Authority). Therefore, each report must provide a full account of all aspects of the Action's implementation for the period covered.

6. TYPE OF REPORTS REPORTS INTERIM FINAL
PERIOD TO COVER
First 12 months of the project
Full project duration
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION
60 days after the reporting period
3 months after the end of project implementation period
DOCUMENTATION TO BE SUBMITTED
See the page 3 of the Reporting Guide
PR0CEDURE OF REPORT SUBMISSION
See the page 4 of the Reporting Guide

7. CONTENT OF REPORTS Narrative section of project progress
Financial progress – financial tables –
Supporting documents/annexes:
Major project outputs (i.e. final versions of the publications printed, final reports of the service providers).
Proof documents including:
Documentation proving implementation of project activities
Financial documentation proving costs occurred are eligible
Detail list of documentation is provided at the end of the Interim Report and Final Report sections in the Reporting Guide.

8. Very important!
Reporting documentation should be arranged in folders as per Project activities (supporting documents as per narrative report) and Budget Headings (supporting documents as per financial report).
Division of documents should follow the same order in the hard copy and in the e-version of the report.
Please note that documentation submitted without order, messy and incomplete documentation will lead to immediate rejection of the report!

9. ASSESSMENT AND VERIFICATION OF REPORTS
After submission of the report, Contracting Authority requests the review of the report by the MoLEVSA – IPA Unit. With support of the Technical Assistance Team, MoLEVSA – IPA Unit will conduct following tasks:
Assessment of the report submitted – desk work (review of the documentation sent by Grant Beneficiary).
On the Spot Visit Check (OSVC) with purpose of verification of the supporting documents of the report.
In addition to above presented, Contracting Authority will conduct assessment and verification of the report as well prior approving of the next payment instalment.

10. NARRATIVE REPORTING
Narrative/descriptive presentation of the project implementation.
Based on the Description of the Action and Log Frame!
Presentation of achievements and success stories.
Presentation of challenges and how they are resolved.
Information presented should be justified with supporting documents.
Make a list of supporting documents.
Check whether information presented is clear to persons outside of your team!

11. NARRATIVE REPORTING CONTENT
Table of contents
List of acronyms used in the report
Section 1. Description
Section 2. Assessment of implementation of Action activities
Section 3. Beneficiaries/affiliated entities and other Cooperation
Section 4. Visibility
Section 5. Location of records, accounting and supporting documents (section only in Final Reporting format)

12. NARRATIVE REPORTING TIPS
Table of contents – often missing
List of acronyms used in the report - often missing
Section 1. Description
1.1. Name of Coordinator of the grant contract – this is Leading Applicant NOT the person responsible for coordinating the action!
1.2. Name and title of the contact person - physical person which is responsible for preparation of the report. In addition to signature of the report by this person, the report must be signed by the responsible person on behalf of the Coordinator and verified by the stamp of the institution/organisation.

13. NARRATIVE REPORTING TIPS
Section 1. Description
1.8. Final beneficiaries &/or target groups (if different) (including numbers of women and men): Provide information describing the current composition of the target group and final beneficiaries. In case some differences occurred concerning the composition of the target group and final beneficiaries, this information should be presented and justified in the further text of the report. See the example in Reporting Guide!

14. NARRATIVE REPORTING TIPS
Section 2. Assessment of implementation of Action activities
In section 2.1 provide global overview of the achievements.
In section 2.2 there should be detailed description of the A. RESULTS achieved and B. ACTIVITIES implemented. When presenting the results try to think about changes happened instead of reporting only about the delivery of workshop or production of material. Here you can ask yourself what is different because workshop was conducted or analysis was produced. Also, in this section you are requested to provide information about the level of achievement of the indicators at the level of Results.

15. NARRATIVE REPORTING TIPS
Section 2. Assessment of implementation of Action activities
In section 2.2 When reporting about each activity conducted, consider following:
Present activity in the form as it is written in the Description of the action (i.e. Activity Title).
Describe implementation of activity – provide information on main tasks conducted and outputs produced.
Present list of outputs produced as in line with outputs listed in the Description of the action.
List all available supporting documents for this activity.

16. NARRATIVE REPORTING TIPS
Section 2. Assessment of implementation of Action activities
In section 2.3/2.4.&2.9. (Final Report) submit an updated version of the Logframe matrix, highlighting the changes eventually occurred. Here also provide short list of all contracts (works, supplies, services) above EUR awarded for the implementation of the action, mentioning the procedure used and the name of each winning contractor.
In section 2.4 you should send updated time table of activities for the next period (in months). Please note, this plan should cover only the period between the interim report and the final report.

17. NARRATIVE REPORTING TIPS
Section 3. Beneficiaries/affiliated entities and other Cooperation
In section 3.1 assessment of the relationship of the applicant with its partners (co-applicants and affiliated entities) should be described.
In section 3.2 assessment of the relationship of the applicant with state authorities involved in the implementation of the project should be described.
In section 3.3 relations with all other stakeholders should be described. Here is especially interesting relationship with other organisations and institutions which were not subcontracted or where not acting in the role of project partners or associates.
In section 3.4 any links and synergies with all other projects, if applicable.
In section 3.5 any follow-up with previous projects funded by EU, if applicable (i.e. targeting the same target group).

18. NARRATIVE REPORTING TIPS
Section 4. Visibility
In section 4 all visibility of EU support that was done during the project needs to be explained.
Here you can make a list of products and events that have contributed to the EU visibility.
If the detail information is already presented in other parts of the report, i.e. under description of promotional activities, you do not have to repeat this information but indicates where the information is presented.

19. NARRATIVE REPORTING TIPS Name of the organization/institution
Section 5. Location of records, accounting and supporting documents (only in Final Report)
In section 5 indicate in a table the location of records, accounting and supporting documents for each Beneficiary and affiliated entity entitled to incur costs. You can use the following format or create the one more appropriate for your type of reporting:
Name of the organization/institution
Types of documents
Address
Name of the Coordinator of the Action
Name of the Partner 1 (co-applicant)

20. NARRATIVE REPORTING – SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS
SENT AS ANNEX TO THE REPORT (copy and scan version)
AVAILABLE FOR VERIFICATION ON THE SPOT
Documents proving the implementation of the project activities
Only main outputs (i.e. publicised reports, analysis, documentary movies, promotional material).
All original documents proving the production of the key outputs (i.e. all documents used in conducting research activities, materials used in conducting training etc.).

21. FINANCIAL REPORT
Please use the template from Annex VI of grant contract. This excel table for financial reporting includes 6 working sheets. These are as following:
Working sheet: INFORMATION – provides basic information for filling the working sheets.
Working sheet: Forecast budget and follow up
Working sheet: Addenda or use of contingencies (if applicable, not relevant for minor modifications of the budget)
Working sheet: Interim Report
Working sheet: Final Report
Working sheet: Final Sources of Funding

22. WORKING SHEET: INTERIM REPORT
This is a summary list of the costs of your project for the interim period.
At the top of the column A you should insert the period for interim financial report (dates from-to, i.e. 6 June 2017 – 5 June 2018) and at the top of the column B you should insert your Contract no. (i.e / – XY), and implementation period of the contract (i.e. 6 June 2017 – 5 December 2018).
In columns A, B, C, D and E please insert individual budget lines (with items, quantities, prices and total costs) from your grant contract / contract addendum (approved budget in force).

23. WORKING SHEET: INTERIM REPORT
In column F you should enter all approved re-allocations of the budget lines, if applicable. Only the difference between approved amounts is to be entered. Where re-allocation means reduction of the amount of particular budget line, the number should be entered with minus.
Example:
If the re-allocation was for budget line from 500 to 700 EUR, here should be entered 200. If the re-allocation was in budget line from 300 to 100 EUR, here should be entered -200.

24. WORKING SHEET: INTERIM REPORT
In columns G, H and I you should enter the units and costs that incurred under each budget line. Costs here are to be presented in euro. All the costs here have to be from the period of reporting (date on invoice). Number of units (column G) has to match to the real number of units from the budget of the contract.
Please note that VAT is ineligible cost and that no VAT is to be presented in this column as part of the invoice. If you have incurred a cost with VAT, please report only the part of the invoice without VAT. In case of salaries or other type of labour contracts, full gross salary is referenced here.

25. WORKING SHEET: INTERIM REPORT
Column J should remain empty;
Column K should include the same data as the column I
Column L should be fill in only if the grant contract budget was reallocated
Column M presents the % vale of the column L.

26. RULES FOR CURRENCY CONVERSTION
Please read detail information on article of the General Conditions of the Grant Contract.
The first 12 months of the project implementation have to be reported based on the exchange rate calculated on the date when the first instalment of funds is received from Contracting Authority.
However, this rate shell be used for operative and reporting purposes until the second instalment is received (payment after approval of the Interim Report).
That means the second exchange rate will be used only for calculation of costs that will occur after receipt of the second (next) payment (in the case of this Grant Scheme, in case of payment after approval of the Interim Report).

27. WORKING SHEET: FORECAST BUDGET AND FOLLOW UP
Columns A – E should present the budget contracted or budget as per addendum.
Column F includes totals equals to totals presented in the column I of the Interim Report working sheet.
Columns G – J include information on the planned budget costs for the following period (in your case by the end of the project, i.e. next 3 months, next 6 months or next 12 months). Please note that the final, total sums must be in line with the budget contracted or budget per addendum!

28. WORKING SHEET: FINAL REPORT
Please note that this is a summary list of the costs of your project.
At the top of the column A you should insert the period for of whole action (dates from-to, i.e. 6 June 2017 – 5 June 2018) and at the top of the column B you should insert your Contract no. (i.e / – XY), and implementation period of the contract (i.e. 6 June 2017 – 5 December 2018).
In columns A, B, C, D and E please insert individual budget lines (with items, quantities, prices and total costs) from your grant contract / contract addendum (approved budget in force).

29. WORKING SHEET: FINAL REPORT
In column F you should enter all approved re-allocations of the budget lines, if applicable. our grant contract / contract addendum (approved budget in force).
In columns G, H and I you should enter the units and costs that incurred under each budget line. Costs here are to be presented in euro. All the costs here have to be from the period of reporting (date on invoice). Number of units (column G) has to match to the real number of units from the budget of the contract.

30. WORKING SHEET: FINAL REPORT
Columns J and K have to be filled only in case if you have had interim report. In column J all the costs from the approved interim report are copy-pasted. In column K all costs cumulated from the beginning of the action have to be presented.
Column K has to match to the costs in column I. Please note, you should not applied formula listed in the column K since Contracting Authority requests to present ALL costs not just for the period after interim report.

31. WORKING SHEET: FINAL REPORT
In columns L, M and N you will enter all differences in amounts and its percentages in comparison to the original budget (not addenda, or approved re-allocations). Column N should provide brief information why variation occurred, i.e. exchange rate difference, lower cost, minor change per Notification Letter 1 etc.

32. WORKING SHEET: SOURCES OF FUNDING
This working sheet includes summary overview of the final distribution of the budget costs per funding sources. Therefore, you should NOT copy/paste the same working sheet from the budget contract or budget per addenda but to present the final status of funding sources.
In this document, you also have to provide the list of pending payments in value over 500 EUR with information why the particular costs are not paid yet.

33. Main mistakes related with filling the financial reporting format:
Forecast budget and follow up working sheet is often not filled in.
Mistakes in the presentation of the budget as per contract/addendum. Often the budget from the project proposal not contracted is presented.
Data presented are not rounded to the nearest euro cents (2 decimals, 0,00 EUR).
Excel formulas are missing which reflects on arithmetical errors in the document.
New types of costs are presented which were notified to Contracting Authority.
Unit costs are not in line with the budget contracted/as per addendum.

34. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS IN INTERIM NARRATIVE AND FINANCIAL REPORT
SENT AS ANNEX TO THE REPORT (copy and scan version)
AVAILABLE FOR VERIFICATION ON THE SPOT
Request for payment (Annex V of grant contract)
Signed and stamped - 2 originals
Narrative report (electronic and signed hard copy)
Signed and stamped hard copy – 2 originals
2 electronic versions on CD or USB (including all other annexes in scan version)
Electronic version by mail (word document without annexes)
Documents proving the implementation of the project activities
Only main outputs (i.e. publicised reports, analysis, documentary movies, promotional material).
All original documents proving the production of the key outputs.

35. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS IN INTERIM NARRATIVE AND FINANCIAL REPORT
SENT AS ANNEX TO THE REPORT (copy and scan version)
AVAILABLE FOR VERIFICATION ON THE SPOT
Financial report – per item table (electronic and signed hard copy)
Signed hard copy – 2 originals
2 electronic versions on CD or USB (including all other annexes in scan version)
Electronic version by mail (excel document without annexes)
Annexes to financial report:
All originals to be available for on the spot verification!
Detail list of expenditures
CFCU provided excel format enclosed to this report.
To be submitted: 2 electronic copies in excel format.

36. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS IN INTERIM NARRATIVE AND FINANCIAL REPORT
SENT AS ANNEX TO THE REPORT (copy and scan version)
AVAILABLE FOR VERIFICATION ON THE SPOT
Tender documentation/tender dossiers for all tenders implemented including the Market Analysis/Market Research Report (no matter on the budget line).
Complete tender documentation!
1 hard copy as annex to the report and two scan copies.
All tender documentation in original version.
Supporting documents per Budget Headings (see Reporting Guide for detail info)
To be submitted:
1 hard copy (copy of the each document)
2 electronic copies (scan version of the original document)   
All originals to be available for on the spot verification!

37. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS IN INTERIM NARRATIVE AND FINANCIAL REPORT
SENT AS ANNEX TO THE REPORT (copy and scan version)
AVAILABLE FOR VERIFICATION ON THE SPOT
Tender documentation/tender dossiers for all tenders implemented including the Market Analysis/Market Research Report (no matter on the budget line).
Complete tender documentation!
1 hard copy as annex to the report and two scan copies.
All tender documentation in original version.
Supporting documents per Budget Headings (see Reporting Guide pages for detail info)
To be submitted:
1 hard copy (copy of the each document)
2 electronic copies (scan version of the original document)   
All originals to be available for on the spot verification!

38. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS IN FINAL NARRATIVE AND FINANCIAL REPORT
SENT AS ANNEX TO THE REPORT (copy and scan version)
AVAILABLE FOR VERIFICATION ON THE SPOT
Request for payment (Annex V of grant contract)
2 originals
Narrative report (electronic and signed hard copy)
The same as in line with instructions provided for preparation of Interim Report.
Documents proving the implementation of the project activities
The same as above!
Financial report (electronic and signed hard copy)
Annexes to financial report (as per Budget Headings)
All originals to be available for on the spot verification!

39. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS IN FINAL NARRATIVE AND FINANCIAL REPORT
SENT AS ANNEX TO THE REPORT (copy and scan version)
AVAILABLE FOR VERIFICATION ON THE SPOT
Expenditure verification report (original signed and stamped)
As in line with the format provided in - Annex VII of the grant
1 original and 2 copies
2 electronic versions
Statement of interest occurred (original signed and stamped)
Statement of Bank confirming the amount of interests on bank account of the project - 1 original
Evaluation of project success
Free format.
2 originals

40. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS IN FINAL NARRATIVE AND FINANCIAL REPORT
SENT AS ANNEX TO THE REPORT (copy and scan version)
AVAILABLE FOR VERIFICATION ON THE SPOT
Statement of income occurred (original signed and stamped)
Free format.
1 original and 2 copies
2 electronic versions
Information about placement of equipment (original signed and stamped)
Annex IX of grant contract - 1 original and 2 copies, 2 electronic versions.
Copies of the proofs of transfer of any equipment and vehicles for which the purchase cost was more than EUR 5000 per item, shall be attached to the final report.
Proofs of transfer of equipment and vehicles whose purchase cost was less than EUR 5000 per item shall be kept by the Beneficiary(ies) for control purposes.

41. FOR ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS ON PREPARATION OF THE NARRATIVE AND FINAL REPORT YOU MAY SEND YOUR INQUIRIES AT THE HELP DESK ADDRESS:

42. LIST OF ANNEXES TO REPORTING GUIDE:
Request for payment (word format)
Interim Report – Narrative Report (word format)
Final Report – Narrative Report (word format)
Financial Reporting format (excel format)
Detail Breakdown of costs (excel format)
Calculation of costs – project team (excel format)
Expenditure Verification – ToR and reporting form (excel format)
Transfer of Ownership – reporting table form (word format)