The financial management and reporting is a critical element in any Horizon Europe project. This is the place where the very basic (yet somewhat hidden) principle of granting is manifested: the actual grant that you will receive derives from the actual spending (which many times deviates and varies from the original planned budget). This means that the financial management and reporting must be done in a meticulous manner while adhering to all relevant Horizon Europe rules on one hand, while on the other hand, to any local tax, labour and other relevant rules and regulations in the specific countries of the beneficiaries. Our training guides and walks you through all the intricate details of financial reporting in these projects:

DoA to reality: similar to other courses (above), this must be properly addressed by the financial managers of the project. The key here is to clearly understand the financial scopes of the project’s tasks, periods, timeline, etc. Another key factor is to learn about any potential execution barriers which may have financial impact. The budget plan must be revisited on a routine basis, to ensure smooth execution with minimal deviations in the form of under- or over-spending.
Best practices for record keeping and documentation
Payment management: In this course, unlike in the other course, we will refer to the technical aspects of the payment management. This will include:
- Details about the EC payment mechanism.
- What is expected from the coordinator in that sense?
- How to plan the transfers and their timing?
- The link to the Consortium Agreement
- Payments and Instalments
- When can a payment be withheld and under what circumstances?
- The unofficial EC attitude to this issue
- We will also refer to aspects as AML (Anti-Money Laundry) laws, Anti-Fraud laws and tax clearance
Continuous monitoring. It is advisable that the project’s financial manager will continuously monitor the financial execution of the project. In most cases, Horizon Europe puts the responsibility for properly managing the financial aspects of each beneficiary in the hands of the beneficiary, and there is no official mutual responsibility between the partners about the financial aspects (unlike the project’s work plan and goals). However, experience shows that it is advisable that the coordinator as the financial manager of the project will monitor, as much as possible, the financials of the beneficiaries in order to detect any points of failure as soon as possible. The training will address this sensitive issue in detail.
Periodic reporting, including the Technical reports and Financial reports. The periodic reports are the EC checkpoints for monitoring the project’s progress, during the periodic review. These checkpoints are also used to detect any malfunctions and ill-performed tasks. The periodic reports have a contractual nature in the sense that they serve as clear evidence of the project’s status in the specific timepoint, a snapshot of what has been done up until this point. The meaning of that is twofold: a. after the periodic review, it is normally impossible to change any reporting of the past activities; and b. forward looking, the periodic review is the latest official reference point for examining and assessing the future actions of the project. This puts a heavy burden on these periodic reports, and they must be well prepared. It is highly recommended that these reports are prepared while having a macro vision on one hand, and highly resolution details on the other hand. The training will address all the relevant aspects to lead to best possible reporting.
Handling unexpected events. Life happens, and in many projects problems arise. This could be all sorts of deviations from the original plan, conflicts between partners, defaulting partners (partners not performing, partners leaving the project, bankrupt partner going into liquidation proceedings, beneficiary termination, etc.). While one can’t anticipate all such unexpected events, our training, based on real-life examples, will equip you with tools and knowledge for dealing with them, by explaining the EC mechanisms, and by sharing best practices to handle these with minimal damage and impact on the project and the other beneficiaries.
Preparing for financial audits. While financial audits are rather rare in Horizon Europe, one should still be ready for this option. Financial audits in Horizon Europe can take place up to two years after the end date of the project. The training will guide you how to ensure your organisation is ready for such audits.

This course includes practical exercises in financial management and reporting. Here are some sample questions from such exercises:

A running Actual cost model project, with an underperforming and under-spending partner (beneficiary). This partner is affecting the entire execution plan. The first periodic review identified these issues, but since it was the first review, the Project Officer just noted these issues, without specifying anything else. The interim payment that followed the first periodic review was processed as planned by the EC. What and how should the financial manager do with this interim payment under these circumstances?
A running Lump Sum model project. One of the partners alerts that they may have a budget surplus in one of the work packages, and that they wish to move it to another work package. They are aware of the mandatory contract amendment in this scenario and they meet the conditions of such contract amendment. However, they claim that it is not cost-effective as the budget surplus is a small amount. What and how should they do under such circumstances?
A running Actual cost model project. The project has a major objective, with associated tasks, budget items and impact implications. However, during the execution, the project’s partners realize that this objective is in fact obsolete, and it makes no sense to fully execute the work associated with it. The partners have excellent arguments for that. How should this be reported to the EC? What would be the implications on the project’s plan and financial reporting? What is the timeline for that?