Payment applications – EU-funding

The payment application in Min ansökan consists of: 

• the expenditure report; which you can read more about below on this webpage
• the joint progress report; please read more about the progress report here 
• the reporting of so far achieved indicators; please read more about the indicators here

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
The expenditure report consists of the costs and the corresponding co-financing that partly finances those costs.

• Reported costs shall be specified with lines corresponding to each line of eligible costs entered in each partner’s project ledger. If one verification number refers to posts in several accounts, please make sure that separate lines for each verification in each account are reported. 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 expenditure report.
• Non eligible costs should not be reported.
• Costs in the ledger covered by any of the flat rates should not be reported.
• All partners shall report on the same schedule as long as they have expenditures in the period.
• For partners who report costs, you shall add all mandatory documents (see below which those documents are).
• For partners who have had no costs in a reporting period, you just leave them out and write a comment about that in the progress report.
• Add co-financing corresponding to at least 35% of the reported costs. Add the amounts you have been paid from external financiers (no verifications needed) and if needed, fill it up to 35%, by adding own financing from the partners. 
• Staff+40%; you only need to report the staff costs. The 40% flat rate will be added automatically by the system based on the reported staff costs. 
• All cost categories; you only need to report the real costs categories in Min ansökan. The flat rates (for the cost categories office and administration as well as travel and accommodation) will be added automatically by the system based on the reported staff costs. 
• 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

How 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. It is also possible to add lines manually, one by one. The csv files are imported to Min Ansökan to create the expenditure report. When you upload the files, one by one, you will be asked to choose whom of the partners the expenditure in respective file refers to.

Start with exporting an Excel file from your project ledger and save it as a csv file, a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file, which is a plain test file that contains a list of data. If, for some reason, you are not able to export an excel file from your financial records, you can create an own excel file where you add all necessary information from the ledger before saving it as a csv file. 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. 

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 and make sure that you use the mandatory headings (must be spelled correctly, but the relative order does not matter). The mandatory headings are the following (specification in italic in parentheses is not part of the heading):

• Ver No (verification number in the project ledger)
• Verification text (the text in the project ledger)
• Accounted (the date for the post, make sure that the date format is YYYY-MM-DD.)
• Paid (the date for the payment, make sure that the date format is YYYY-MM-DD.)
• Account (the account number in the ledger)
• Account name (the name of the account in the ledger)
• Supplier (the name of the supplier of the bought service/item)
• Currency (SEK for Swedish partners and EUR for Finnish partners)
• Amount (the amount of the cost)
• Cost type (the cost category to which the cost shall be reported under)
• Appendix no (the number of the appendix if you add supporting documents)

Applicant’s comment
For each verification it is also possible to give an own comment. You can add a column for this purpose (Applicant’s comment) already in the file that you upload but it is not mandatory. It is also possible to add information for a specific verification line directly in the system.

In-depth cost specification
For each verification it is also possible to give an in-depth cost specification. It can be added already in the file that you upload but it is not mandatory. It is also possible to add information for a specific verification line directly in the system. The questions 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)

Supporting documentation
If the project uses the 40%-method, you only need supporting documentation verifying the eligible staff cost for each project partner.

If the project uses the method all cost categories, you need supporting documentation verifying the real cost categories for each project partner.

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).
• A document identifying the salary costs (the different types of salary that form the 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. If there are no changes to the salary within the first reporting period, it is sufficient to only submit the payslip for the first month. But if the salary differs between the months, you need to submit them all. 

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 which 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 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.

Bank account for payments
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 project leader at the Lead Partner organisation will also be notified. 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.