Payment applications – EU-funding

The payment application in Min ansökan consists of the expenditure report and the joint progress report as well as the reporting of so far achieved indicators.

Note for Small-scale projects: You do not need to report expenditures, nor indicators. It is only necessary to upload the joint progress report and then submit the payment application (and complete it with the signing document after the submission).

The expenditure report
Below you can read more about the expenditure report.
– Regarding the joint progress report – please refer to the webpage https://www.interregaurora.eu/programme-manual/implement-your-project/joint-progress-report/
– Regarding the registration of so far achieved indicators – please note that this is made directly in Min Ansökan in the section called Status report.

The expenditure report consists of both the expenditures and the corresponding co-financing that partly finances those expenditures.
– All partners should report on the same schedule as long as they have expenditures in the period.
– For partners who reports expenditures, you shall add all mandatory documents.
– For partners who do not have had expenditures in a reporting period you just leave them out and write a comment about that in the progress report.
– You need to add co-financing corresponding to at least 35% of the reported costs. Add the amounts you have been paid from external financiers and if needed to fill it up to 35%, add own financing from the partners. You don’t need to add verifications of the paid financing in the system. 

Use a csv-file to create the expenditure report
The expenditure report in Min Ansökan is most easily created by uploading csv-files with costs for each partner for the current period.

• The amounts entered in the csv-files shall be gathered from the project ledger for each partner.
• One line in the csv-file shall correspond to one verification number in the ledger. However, if one verification number refers to posts in several accounts, please make sure to make separate lines for each account with that verification number in the csv-file. As an example, if verification number 56 is split between account 4010 and account 7510 in the ledger, it should be entered as two separate lines in the csv-file. 

The csv-file is created from an Excel file, either exported from your system for financial records (the ledger) into Excel or by creating an own excel file where you add all necessary information from the ledger. When the excel file is filled with data, save it as a csv file, a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file, which is a plain text file that contains a list of data. To save an excel file to a csv file, open the excel file and select Save as, give the file a name and select csv file format.

The csv file is then imported to Min Ansökan to create the expenditure report. When you upoad the file you will be asked to choose whom of the partners the expenditure in respective file refers to.

There is also an option to create the expenditure report in the system by adding one line at the time, which can be very time consuming why the programme recommends uploading the costs via the csv-file.

Any costs entered in the project accounts that are not eligible or shall not be reported as real costs shall be removed before uploading the files. 

• Staff+40%; add account posts concerning the staff costs in Min ansökan. The 40% flat rate is calculated and entered in Min ansökan on top of the staff costs. 
• All cost categories; add account posts concerning real costs categories in Min ansökan. The flat rates (for the cost categories office and administration as well as travel and accommodation) are calculated and entered in Min ansökan on top of the staff costs. If you, for internal purposes, register project costs regarding office and administration and travel and accommodation in your project ledger, these lines must be removed from the file before uploading the file in Min Ansökan but can of course remain in your ledger. 

If your excelfile consists of many sheets, you need to save each sheet as a separate csv.-file. To avoid trouble when uploading the file, please make sure that you don’t have empty cells or lines.

The mandatory headings for the uploaded csv file are the following (the headings must be spelled correctly, but the relative order does not matter):

• Ver No
• Verification text
• Accounted
• Paid
• Account
• Account name
• Supplier
• Currency
• Amount
• Cost type
• Appendix no

The different headings refer to each verification in the ledger. The information concerns the verification number, the verification text, the date when the cost was accounted (posted in the ledger) (date format YYYY-MM-DD), the date  when the cost was paid (date format YYYY-MM-DD), the number and name of the account in the ledger, the name of the supplier (for external expertise and service costs or equipment costs), the currency (SEK for Swedish partners and EUR for Finnish partners), the amount, which cost type the cost refers to in the payment application and if it is supported with an appendix.

Applicant’s comment
For each verification it is also possible to give a comment, own additional information for a verification. That information can be uploaded via the file as well but are not mandatory to be able to upload the file. You can therefore choose whether you want to add the column to the csv-files or if you prefer to add this information for a specific verification line directly in the system once you have uploaded the file.

In-depth cost specification
For each verification it is also possible to give an in-depth cost specification. This specification can be uploaded via the csv-file as well but is not mandatory to be able to upload the file.  The in-depth cost specification is not applicable to all types of costs or all programmes using the system so it might be easier to add this information for a specific verification line directly in the system once you have uploaded the file.

The questions in the in-depth cost specification are (italicized text are not applicable for Interreg Aurora):

• Is the amount a depreciation cost? (Yes/No)
• Is the post related to a procurement above the EU threshold? (Yes/No) If the answer is yes, there are additional questions to answer regarding the procurement procedure, type of contract, contract amount, contract awarded to subject to provisions of regulations/EU-directives, name of contractors /subcontractors and their organisation number, beneficial owners of contractors/subcontractors
• Does the cost constitute a state aid according to GBER? (Yes/No) If the answer is yes, you shall choose the GBER article found in your decision of support.
• Purchase of land (Not applicable to Interreg Aurora)

Swedish partners’ costs shall be uploaded in SEK and the system will convert the amounts into EUR using the monthly accounting exchange rate of the European Commission in the month during which the payment application is submitted in Min Ansökan.  

The Commission exchange rates used by the system can be found on the official website:
https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/procedures-guidelines-tenders/information-contractors-and-beneficiaries/exchange-rate-inforeuro_en

Payment applications for regular projects – 40%-method
The payment application for projects using the 40%-method will only need to be supported by documentation verifying the eligible staff cost for each project partner. When creating the expenditure report, calculate 40% of the registered staff cost for each partner and add lines for those costs as well. This is done either in the csv-file or as an addition of lines directly in the expenditure report after uploading the real costs. In future releases of Min Ansökan the flat rate will be calculated automatically but so far this isn’t the case.

Payment applications for regular projects – other than 40%-method
The payment application for projects that chose to not use the 40%-method will need to be supported by more documentation to verify the eligible costs for the project. The staff cost as well as costs for external expertise, equipment and infrastructure and works need to be verified. The costs for office and administration (15% of registered staff costs) as well as costs for travel and accommodation (15% of registered staff costs) for each partner need to be calculated and you need to add lines for those costs as well in the expenditure report. This is done either in the csv-file or as an addition of lines directly in the expenditure report after uploading the real costs. In future releases of Min Ansökan the flat rates will be calculated automatically but so far this isn’t the case.

Mandatory supporting documents for the expenditures in every reporting period:

• Certificates on respective partners’ reported expenditure, signed by an authorized signatory for each partner (using the template on the webpage For project beneficiaries – Interreg Aurora). The amount in the partner certificate shall correspond to the total of reported expenditure for respective partner, including flat rates. E-signatures must be accompanied by graphic or text elements that show the electronic process by which the signature was created.
• project account ledger for the current reporting period, from the system of the financial records of the partner organisations (the system report, not the information exported to excel) Note! If you have a “40%-project” – a project ledger covering the staff costs is enough while all other regular projects need to submit a project ledger covering all project costs.
• summary of staff cost (in Excel-format), using the template on the webpage For project beneficiaries – Interreg Aurora, provided there are staff costs in the period.

Mandatory supporting documents regarding costs in the first reporting period (and whenever changes occur):

• description of administrative routines for every partner organisation (a template on the webpage For project beneficiaries – Interreg Aurora is available)
• Proof of authorization to sign the certificate on partners expenditure (for each partner)

Mandatory supporting documents regarding staff costs in the first reporting period (and whenever changes occur):

• a task assignment document for each employee, both full time and part time assignments. Or, in exceptional cases, a different document covering requirements as indicated in the template task assignment (the fixed percentage of time to be worked by the staff member on the project per month with a proportionate detailed description of the tasks).
• document identifying the salary costs (gross salary and employer’s social contributions and other compulsory payments) for the staff member, such as payslips or other accounting documents where the employment costs are clearly detectable.

Examples of supporting documents on demand:

• employment contract or any other equivalent legal agreement that permits the identification of the employment relationship with the partner organisation;
• Proof of payment (e.g., extract from the reliable accounting system of the organisation). Note! If you have a “40%-project” – only proof of payments regarding staff costs may be asked for while all other regular projects may be asked to submit proof of payments regarding all project costs.
• copies of invoices and receipts
• documentation verifying the correct public procurement procedure
• documentation verifying the correct use of the EU-emblem

Naming of documents to be uploaded in Min Ansökan
The documents you upload as supporting documents in the payment application need to be clearly named. Instructions for the naming of documents can be found on the webpage For project beneficiaries – Interreg Aurora 

Please note that any answers to completions also need to be named according to the instructions.

Signing document for the payment application
When you have submitted the payment application you need to complete the application with the signing document. The signing document is possible to download when you have submitted the payment application.

The signing document must be signed by an authorized signatory at the Lead partner organization. If your organization uses e-signatures, those must be accompanied by graphic or text elements that show the electronic process by which the signature was created.

The signed signing document shall then be uploaded in Min ansökan as additional information.

The signing document shall be submitted preferably within a few days after the submission of the payment application. The payment application cannot be finally processed before the signing document has been submitted.

If you haven’t submitted a verification of the bank account before, please upload a bank statement or a financial identification as a proof that the bank account belongs to the Lead partner organisation. 

Management verifications and payments
Payments for regular projects will be made based on approved expenditures and the approved progress/final report. 

Payment of the approved lump sum for small-scale projects will be paid as soon as the joint progress report is approved by the Joint Secretariat.

Payments will be made in EUR to the Lead partner who shall disseminate the funds to respective partner as agreed.

When the payment application is received, the controllers from Sweden and Finland will perform the management verifications of the expenditure reports belonging to partners from the respective country.

The checks are mostly made as administrative (desk-based) checks by checking supporting documents and calculations but can also be made as an on-the-spot check.

The controllers will contact the specific partner if any completions or clarifications are needed, and the Lead Part will get a copy of the request. The person whom the Controller wishes to answer the said completions/clarifications will receive an e-mail notification from Min Ansökan when the Controllers have published a request for completions/clarifications. All contact persons for the project have the possibility to see the request in Min Ansökan. Only the person uploading the answer as well as the Controllers can see the answer.

When the progress/final report is approved by the Joint secretariat and all partners’ expenditures are checked by the controllers, the Managing Authority will make the payment.

The payment will be sent to the Lead Partner EU’s bank account and a payment notification will be sent to the Lead Partner EU. The Lead Partner EU is responsible for distributing the received grant to the project partners. The eligible expenditure as well as any deductions made will be visible for every partner in Min ansökan once the decision on the payment application is done. It is possible to raise complaints if the beneficiary is not consent with the outcome of the decision of payment.