Finance & PRESAGE Presentation

URBACT II – Training Session

Finance & PRESAGE-CTE

Introduction

Introduction to the URBACT team Adele BUCELLA – Finance Manager Céline ETHUIN – Finance Officer Sabrina TEMIME – Technical Assistant

Roundtable introductions by person (10 s. per person) Project Name Firstname Partner / Finance Officer Partner institution (city, country)

Structure of the session Finance & Presage: procedures, main messages Practical exercises Wrap-up

Thursday 30 January 2014

Eligibility of costs

costs are eligible from 1 December 2013 until 31 May 2015

if costs are linked to activities implemented between the project’s start date and end date and

if paid by the Partners/Lead Partner’s institution

2 exceptions: are also eligible until 31 May 2015

costs for personnel and FLC to administratively close the project after project end date

costs linked to final outputs and dissemination after project end date if such activities:

- contracted and started before the project end date- finished by 31/05/2015- costs related to them paid and certified by the end of the 2-months closing period- exceptionally and only after consultation with the URBACT Secretariat


Eligibility rules

Expenditure actually paid out that complies with all of the relevant rules:

EU: (EC) 1080/2006 (EC) 1083/2006 (EC) 1828/2006

National: eligibility rules laid down by MS (national contacts in DMCS)

Programme: Factsheet 6b, Programme Manual Factsheet , Pilot Transfer networks

In case of complicated or unclear eligibility criteria, the Secretariat can answer eligibility question (even via its contact to EC)



Eligibility of Expenditure

Eligible expenditure is that outlined in the approved budget as presented in the AF

Need to respect the amounts presented per budget category

Can exceed by max. 20% from one budget category to another

Shall remain within the total approved budget


Eligibility per Budget Category

Factsheet 6b of the Programme Manual outlines in detail the types of costs which are considered to be eligible by budget category:

1) Project coordination (incl. Overheads)General costs, administrative costs, legal costs, etc.

2) PersonnelCosts for the personnel employed by the partner/lead partner’s institutions officially listed in the AF (time records incl. timesheets)

3) Meeting organisationCosts for the organization of meetings, conferences and seminars (venue, interpretation, catering, etc.)

4) Travel and accommodationCosts for travel and accommodation of personnel and experts involved in project activities

5) Communication and disseminationCosts for newsletter, brochures, other communication and dissemination tools

6) External expertise Costs for external experts (excluding Lead/thematic experts paid by the Program)


Requirements for record keeping

Documents to be archived at the partner’ premises :

– contractual documents (incl. audit trail doc.) ;

– bank account statements ;

– original invoices ;

– time records of personnel working for the project (including timesheets) ;

– copies of all contracts with external experts and/or service providers ;

– documents relating to public procurement, information and publicity ;

– proofs for delivery of services and goods (studies, brochures, newsletters, minutes of meetings, participants’ list, travel tickets, etc.) ;

– calculation of administrative costs, records of costs included in overheads ;

– etc


Audit Trail requirementsPublicity and information requirements

• Regulation (EC) 1828/2006 Articles 8 and 9 (and its amendments)

Audit trail and record keeping

• Keep a record of where all the documents supporting the expenditure are stored at LP and PP level –

see Audit Trail doc• Retention period : at least until 31 December 2020

Second Level Control and audits• Potential audits in 2015 and in 2016 for expenditure declared to the EC respectively in 2014 and in

2015


PRESAGE-CTE


Presage-CTE: Financial management and monitoring system

› On line monitoring tool https://urbact.presage-cte.org

› The system is secure and access is restricted by personal log-in and password (user types: LP, PPs, FLCs)

› Each project must undertake an official reporting using Presage–CTE :

Accounting and validation of expenditure Certification of expenditure and FLC certificates Production of a payment claim Submission of a progress report

› Monitoring project expenditure and ERDF payments


Accounting and Validation of Expenditure


Accounting of Expenditure

Decentralized financial management system

Each LP/PP is responsible for Spending and accounting its own costs (liability for its own

activities) – through Presage-cte

Both LP and PP enter expenditure so need to ‘train’ the PP

in doing this Provide them with the guide developed by URBACT Foresee this shortly after the kick-off meeting


Accounting and Validation of Expenditure (cont.)

› Guidelines prepared by the Secretariat – available on website Programme/Technical documents/

› Demonstration on how to enter expenditure

› Use the dot (.) for registering decimals


Logging into PRESAGE-CTE

Link:https://urbact.presage-cte.org

You can reach it from the URBACT website

Access codes as LP/PP:Nom d'utilisateur: indicate your loginMot de passe: indicate your password

Project for exercise:Your Project Acronym


Mains sections in PRESAGE-CTE

3 main chapters: Access application form data

Access expenditure data

Financial monitoring


Practical exercise in PRESAGE-CTE

Practical exercise to enter expenditure

Common Problems in Accounting Expenditure

Dates and eligibility period – attention that payment date is within eligible period (from start date to the end of each reporting period)

Double recording – attention to save data only once

Miscalculations – attention when accounting costs: develop a calculation method (esp. for project coordination or personnel costs) and put explanation in the comment box +attention when saving amounts


Common Problems in Accounting Expenditure (cont.)

Date when the expenditure has actually been paid out – when the amount is debited from the PP/LP’s institution bank account

EC monthly exchange rate (automatic calculation) – attention should be paid to the month during which the cost has been debited from the LP/PP institution’s bank account

Invoice original amount vs. Expenditure amount – the global amount of the original invoice can be either equal or higher than the expenditure amount (e.g. if in local currency other than €)


Common Problems in Accounting Expenditure (cont.)

Work plan – WP – attention to account the expenditure on the correct Work Package of the project Work Plan

Budget category and/or line – attention to account the expenditure on the correct budget line

Invoice document type invoice / certificate– in most cases ‘invoice”, for staff costs “certificate”

Expenditure type in cash / in kind– staff costs are considered as a cash contribution (and not in-kind contribution) as they are actually paid by the partner institution



Validation of Expenditure

LP must validate the expenditure of PPs

attention that they are not:

› making a mistake with budget line + WP

› exceeding the budget allocation (total + per budget category)

Allows for LP to manage budget and control what is being claimed

Only expenditure that has been validated by the LP can be certified by the FLC of each PP in PRESAGE-CTE


Practical exercise in PRESAGE-CTE

Practical exercise for LPs to validate expenditure entered by PPs


Accounting and Validation of Expenditure

Hints and tips

› Possibility to monitor the project in Presage-CTE

› Guidelines prepared by the Secretariat – available

› Demonstration where to find the link in Presage-CTE for:

: Financial monitoring allows LP to have an overview on the declared and certified expenditure against the amounts forecasted in the budget of the project

: Exporting expenditure allows LP/PP to have detailed information usable in Excel tables about all expenditure entered in the Presage-CTE system by each project partner

Any Questions?



Certification of Expenditure

and FLC certificates


First Level Controller: What is FLC?

The implementation of first level control is outlined in Article 16 of Regulation (EC) No 1080/2006

In order to validate the expenditure, each Member State shall set up a control system making it possible to verify:

• the delivery of the products and services co-financed ;• the soundness of the expenditure declared for operations or

parts of operations implemented on its territory ;• the compliance of such expenditure and of related

operations, or parts of those operations, with Community rules and its national rules.

For this purpose each Member State shall designate the controllers responsible for verifying the legality and regularity of the expenditure declared by each beneficiary participating in an operation.


First Level Controller : Who can do it?

2 different control systems have been proposed by Member States

(see Member States and Partner States' control system descriptions):

› centralised control at MS level : controllers already designated by the Member State no need to be proposed by the project partner

› decentralised control through internal or external controllers proposed by the project partner need to be approved at national level as long as (s)he is

qualified and from a unit independent of operation’s activities and finances

costs can be included in your budget – eligible cost for ERDF


Member States and Partner States' first level control systems

CENTRALISED DECENTRALISED

BULGARIA

GERMANY

BELGIUM –BRUSSELS CAPITAL REGION

BELGIUM –FLANDERS REGION

CYPRUS

DENMARK

SWITZERLAND SPAIN

FINLAND

FRANCE

UNITED KINGDOM

LATVIA

IRELAND

HUNGARY

GREECE

ESTONIA

CZECH REPUBLIC

BELGIUM –WALLOON REGION AUSTRIA

LUXEMBOURG ITALY

POLAND LITHUANIA

ROMANIA MALTA

SLOVAKIA NETHERLANDS

SWEDEN PORTUGAL

SLOVENIA NORWAY


First Level Controller: Validation

In a decentralised control system, each first level controller has to be approved at national level:

1) The PP/LP fills in a checklist concerning the proposed controller with specific selection criteria related to independence and competence and sends it duly signed to its national contact (see Member States and Partner States' control system descriptions)

2) The national contact confirms the proposal by sending a letter to the URBACT Secretariat and to the concerned Project Partner with the filled in and signed « checklist for approbation of first level controller » in annex

3) Only after the choice of the controller is confirmed by the MS central approbation body, the controller can assume the role of independent project controller and can have access to PRESAGE-CTE

4) Deadline to submit the approbation letters to the Secretariat:

28th February 2014 at latest


Certification of Expenditure by FLC (1)

The main aim of the certification is to provide a guarantee that projects costs are accounted for and claimed in accordance with the legal and financial provisions of :

the EC Regulations;

the URBACT II rules (Programme Manual);

the Subsidy Contract;

the Joint Convention (optional);

the applicable national legislation in the fields of public procurement, state aids, equal opportunities, the environment, etc.;

the approved application form (incl. breakdown of expenditure per main budget category and per WP)


Certification of Expenditure by FLC (cont.)

› Once validated, it is the role of First Level Controller to check and, if eligible, certify the expenditure incurred by the controlled project partner

› The controller has to check 100% of expenditure based on all documentary evidence (pay slips, invoices, proof of payment, etc.)

clearly identify in PRESAGE-CTE the amounts of non-eligible expenditure deducted from the partner’s claim explaining the reason of non-eligibility (using the dedicated “comments” section for each item of expenditure)

clearly note in PRESAGE-CTE any additional comment and information which might be considered relevant in the framework of the first level control

› On-the-spot checks (vs. desk base) can be carried out if necessary

› The controller has to produce an “interim” or “final” certificate

› All of this is carried out in Presage CTE – special profile for controllers


Certificate of Expenditure

› It is signed by the first level controller of PP/LP

› It certifies the eligibility of the declared expenditure

› It is produced in Presage CTE by the first level controller (with a checklist filled in by the controller in annex)


Certificate of Expenditure (cont.)

ATTENTION:

› LP responsible for checking FLC certificates:

- correctness (“interim/final” status, FLC answers to certificate control checklist, etc.)

- completeness (signature by the approved controller of the LP/Partners certificates)



› Certificate control checklist (annex 3)- use guidelines provided by the Secretariat



ATTENTION:

› Certificate of expenditure: common errors in the control checklist completed by the FLC:

› VAT eligibility: answer yes or no to section 7.3 Q3 and add a comment which states very clearly VAT status in the current reporting

› Annex 1: take note of the amount rejected – if costs are rejected should be reported in the checklist section 7.3 Q11

› Annex 2: check certificate expenditure breakdown per category to complete control checklist

› When a section is not applicable or there are no costs in the period then the answer should be ‘no’ with comment saying n/a



› Demonstration in Presage CTE

Any Questions?



Payment claim by LP


Payment Claim by LP

› What is a payment claim?

Request for refund : it claims globally the expenditure incurred by the project at the end of the reporting period

It regroups the certificates produced by several partners to make a cumulative claim for ERDF

It is produced in PRESAGE-CTE and signed by the LP

ATTENTION:- LP responsible for checking FLC certificates

WE CANNOT PAY ERDF WITHOUT IT !

> Demonstration in PRESAGE-CTE


Payment Claim by LP (cont.)


Payment Claim by LP (cont.)

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO MAKE PAYMENT CLAIMS?

• Obligation to follow the financial plan outlined and approved within the Final Application

• Risk of decommitment – N+3 – all projects have a role to play in avoiding any decommitment

• At a local level need for expenditure to be refunded due to cashflow problems – crisis making this situation worse

Any Questions?



Progress Reportby LP


Progress Report by LP

› To ensure that the project’s activities are progressing in accordance with the work plan and the budget approved by the Monitoring Committee

› The Progress Report shall be produced and submitted through PRESAGE CTE – to be signed by LP and LP FLC

› Structure of the Progress Report shaped on the work plan included in the Application Form

› Demonstration in Presage-CTE


Progress Report by LP (cont.)

Any Questions?



ERDF refunding

ERDF refunding

• Claim, certificates and PR are reviewed by the Secretariat

• Once all is clarified, payment request transferred to the CA – via MA certificate (in PRESAGE-CTE)

• THE LP AND PP TO DO– the LP to transfer the ERDF to PPs– the LP to complete Presage-CTE with date of receipt + amount

and dates of ERDF transferred to PPs– the PPs to complete with date of receipt on bank account

› Demonstration where to find the link in Presage-CTE for ERDF payments



Actions required from the LP

Transfer to PPs – Once ERDF received, the LP is responsible for transferring the correct amount of ERDF due to the PPs

Actions required in Presage CTE – the LP needs to report the amounts redistributed to each PP in Presage-CTE in section « Show received payments » (see guide developed by the Secretariat)

Click here to add a transfer to a PP


Actions required from the LP (cont.)

Choose the PP in the list of your partnership

Add payment references and explanation about calculation of the

amount transferred

Indicate the amount transferred using the dot

(.) for decimals

IMPORTANT! Do not forget to save


Actions required from the PP

Actions required in Presage CTE – Once received, each PP needs to report the dates when the amounts been received on bank account in section « Show received payments » (see guide developed by the Secretariat)

Click here to add date of receipt


Any Questions?


Getting the best from Presage CTE


PRESAGE CTE additional functions

Monitoring project and partner activity - the chapter “Financial monitoring” will allow you to have an overview on the declared and certified expenditure against the amounts forecasted in the budget of the project.

Practical exercise


PRESAGE CTE additional functions

Exporting data - By going to chapter “Show expenditure list”, you have to go at the bottom of the screen. You will find the button “export expenditure”.

Practical exercise


Wrap-Up

Flow of documents


Common problems

• Claiming ineligible Value Added Tax (VAT)

• Not respecting the appropriate Public Procurement Rules

• Lack of awareness of Programme and national eligibility rules if stricter (e.g. alcohol, taxi, etc.)

• Revenue generated by projects

• Internal recharge costs


Common problems points in the project payment cycle


Hints and tips

• Keep a table to monitor costs claimed per PP (action / budget category)

• Reporting of costs not in euros – ensure there are comments outlining the details

• Fix earlier internal deadline for partner to ensure Programme deadline is respected

• Notify and report ERDF refunds to PPs – see guide to Presage


Certificates of expenditure

Allow time for certification internal project deadline local deadline (FLC PP) incl. additional requests

The FLC to submit in Presage with INTERIM / FINAL status print PDF – NEW! wait in a queue sign

keep an original and send to PP/to LP

Check by LP INTERIM / FINAL version control checklist – use guidelines on how to be completed ask a scan to gain some time


Payment claim

The LP to submit in Presage with INTERIM / FINAL status print PDF – NEW! wait in a queue sign keep an original

TIP submit before Progress Report then the figures in the PR

should update automatically


Transfers of ERDF

Ensure that the ERDF received by the Lead Partner for the project is redistributed to partners

The LP to complete the information in Presage-CTE

The PPs to indicate the date of receipt in

Presage-CTE



Audit Trail requirementsPublicity and information requirements

• Regulation (EC) 1828/2006 Articles 8 and 9 (and its amendments)

Audit trail and record keeping

• Keep a record of where all the documents supporting the expenditure are stored at LP and PP

level – see Audit Trail doc• Retention period : at least until 31 December 2020

Second Level Control and audits• Potential audits in 2015 for expenditure declared to the EC respectively in 2014


Requirements for record keeping

Documents to be archived at the partner’ premises :

– contractual documents (incl. audit trail doc.) ;

– bank account statements ;

– original invoices ;

– time records of personnel working for the project (including timesheets) ;

– copies of all contracts with external experts and/or service providers ;

– documents relating to public procurement, information and publicity ;

– proofs for delivery of services and goods (studies, brochures, newsletters, minutes of meetings, participants’ list, travel tickets, etc.) ;

– calculation of administrative costs, records of costs included in overheads ;

– etc

Project financial management resourcesTemplates & Guidelines provided by the Secretariat

Key project management documents

• URBACT II Programme Manual, Factsheet 6b• Factsheet Pilot Transfer Networks• Template Subsidy Contract• Template Joint Convention• Template Audit Trail

Accounting and Claiming of Expenditure

• Guide for Accounting Expenditure – in Presage-CTE• Guide for Financial Monitoring – in Presage-CTE • Guide for production of Payment Claim – in Presage-CTE• Guide Transfer ERDF Refunds to PPs – in Presage-CTE


Project financial management resources (cont.)

Templates & Guidelines provided by the Secretariat

First Level Control

• Member and Partner States’ Control System Description• Template Checklist Approbation FLC• Template Letter Approbation FLC• Guide for Certifying Expenditure – in Presage-CTE• Guidelines Control Checklist (Annex 3 to the Certificate)



Contact Details

Adele BUCELLA – Finance Manager

[email protected]

Tel – 01.49.17.47.36

Céline ETHUIN – Finance Officer

[email protected]

Tel – 01.49.17.47.08

[email protected]

Finance & PRESAGE Presentation

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Transcript of Finance & PRESAGE Presentation