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Research & Innovation - Funding & Tenders Portal H2020 Online Manual

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Periodic reports

In this section, you can look through the structure of the periodic report and download the reporting template for previewing the structured web-tables and the part B that you have to fill in the Funding & Tenders Portal Grant Management Service.

Structure

  1. Technical report (in 2 parts)
    • Part A structured tables from the grant management system:
      • cover page
      • summary for publication
      • web-based tables covering issues related to the project implementation (e.g. work packages, deliverables, milestones, etc.)
      • answers to the questionnaire about the economic and social impact, especially as measured against the Horizon 2020 key performance indicators and monitoring requirements.
    • Part B the free text, core part of the report that you must upload to the grant management tool under the Report Core tab, as a single PDF document with:
      • explanations of the work carried out by all beneficiaries and linked third parties during the reporting period
      • an overview of the progress towards the project objectives, justifying the differences between work expected under Annex I and work actually performed, if any.
  2. Financial report
    Consists of structured forms from the grant management system, including:
    • individual financial statements (Annex 4 to the GA) for each beneficiary (and third parties)
    • explanation of the use of resources and the information on subcontracting and in-kind contributions provided by third parties, from each beneficiary for the reporting period concerned
    • periodic summary financial statement including the request for interim payment.

Technical Report

Part A – structured forms

The structured web-forms of Part A can be found in the continuous reporting module of the grant management system. You can update this information at any time during the life of the project. If you click on the below list of the forms, you will find a detailed desciption of the different sections leading you to the continuous reporting page of the Online Manual.

Part B – Report Core

Any beneficiary can contribute to the narrative part, download the word version of the Part B template from the grant management system, complete it and upload it as a pdf document under the Report Core tab.

  • There is no page limit per work package - but your report should be concise and readable. Avoid duplicating any text.

1. Explanation of work & Overview of progress

Detail here your work carried out per WP, give an overview of your project results towards the objective (including summary of deliverables and milestones) and a summary of exploitable results (with an explanation about how they can/will be exploited).

If you have received EU funding and plan to exploit the results it generated mainly in non-EU countries not associated with Horizon 2020 - indicate how the funding will benefit Europe's overall competitiveness.

If applicable

2. Update of exploitation & dissemination plan

Say whether the plan described in Annex 1 (Description of the Action – DoA) needs to be updated, and give details.

3. Update of data management plan

Say whether the plan in Annex 1 (DoA) needs to be updated and give details.

4. Follow-up of recommendations & comments from previous review(s)

Include the list of recommendations and comments from previous reviews and explain what action you have taken on each.

5. Deviations from Annex 1 (DoA)

Explain the reasons for any deviations, the consequences & proposed corrective actions.

  • 5.1 Tasks
    Explain any tasks not fully implemented, critical objectives not fully achieved and/or not on schedule. Explain also the impact of the available resources on other tasks and the timetable.
  • 5.2 Use of resources
    Explain any difference in the use of resources between actual and planned (Annex 1), especially related to person-months per work package.
    • 5.2.1 Unforeseen subcontracting
      Exceptionally, the Commission may approve costs related to subcontracts not included in Annex 1 and 2, without formally amending the GA (Article 13.1, GA) - if you explain and justify the circumstances:
      • describe the tasks performed by the subcontractor
      • explain why you needed to use a subcontract, taking into account the specific characteristics of the project
      • confirm that the subcontractor was selected as offering the best value for money, if not the lowest price, and avoiding any conflict of interests.
    • 5.2.2 Unforeseen use of in-kind contributions from a 3rd party against payment or free of charge
      Exceptionally, the Commission may approve costs related to in-kind contributions not included in Annex 1 and 2, without formally amending the GA – if you explain and justify the circumstances:
      • identify the third party
      • describe the resources made available by the third party, either for payment or for free
      • explain why you needed to use these resources to carry out the work

Financial Report

You can fill in your financial statement in structured forms in the grant management system (under Financial Statement drafting).

Financial periodic report main menu

Individual financial statements

Beneficiaries and linked third parties must fill these in and submit them to the Commission, as part of the periodic report.
They will be combined automatically by the system into a consolidated financial statement.

  • If you fail to do so, your costs will be considered 'zero' for this reporting period (though you can declare them in the next reporting period).

For more information, please refer to the IT help

You can find a template for your individual financial statement in Annex 4 of your GA, with all the details for eligible costs, EU contribution, etc. and a sample financial statement in the Periodic report template.

Explanation of the use of resources & financial statements

If applicable

Explain in your financial statement how the resources were used during this period: for each cost you declare, you will be prompted to give a justification, by clicking View/Edit the Use of Resources.

A. Direct personnel costs- line a)-c)

  • Declare here your direct personnel costs a) as actual costs or b) as unit costs (average costs).

    With the aim to help you calculating and reporting the actual direct personnel costs, a "personnel costs calculation wizard" is available inside the financial statement screen. On a completely voluntary basis you can first define the required parameters for the calculations through a set of questions proposed by the wizard. Then you can introduce the costs for the persons having worked in the action over the reporting period. The wizard will then calculate the total personnel costs and fill in the respective field in the financial statement.

    Alternatively, you may decide not to use the tool at all, or not to take into account the outcome of the calculation (in this case, you should delete all data introduced in the wizard), and thus simply continue using your own calculations outside the wizard and insert the total personnel costs in the financial statement. Nevertheless, if your organisation is relatively new to the programme, or does not have enough administrative or accounting capacity, or has recently been object of ex-post audits on which errors in the calculation of actual personnel costs were identified, you may find the wizard particularly helpful.

    Before using the wizard you should read the User's Guide (describing the main principles and working logic of the wizard, including the list of use cases and scenarios currently not supported) in conjunction with the relevant section of the Annotated Model Grant Agreement (art. 6.2.A).

    Importantly, the wizard is currently offered in testing mode (beta version). You are therefore advised to systematically double-check all amounts against your own calculations and contact us in case of issues. You may send your feedback or ask questions through the IT Helpdesk Contact Form (selecting the domain "personnel cost wizard") available in the Support section of the Funding & Tenders Portal.
  • If you are an SME owner or individual not receiving a salary /reimbursed on the basis of unit costs, declare your personnel costs in column A.4 (c).
  • You need only supply data on the person-months per work-package (not per deliverable).
  • At this stage, you don't have to provide details like names, level of experience etc. (though we may ask you to later).
  • Use of in-kind contributions from third parties: if you need to report any related personnel costs, the system will prompt you for details of the costs, name and type of third party, and whether or not the costs were planned in Annex 1 or not.
    If the costs were not planned, you must give more explanation.

B. Direct costs of subcontracting - line d)

  • In this pop-up, break down the total direct costs for the period into the costs for individual subcontractors, under Unforeseen subcontracting not indicated in the grant agreement (Annex 1) (in addition to the information provided in the technical report - par.1.2).

A + D Direct costs of Third Parties (not linked third parties) – line a)-d)

  • Declare direct cost related to in-kind contributions from third parties in the pop up appearing in the columns for personnel and/or other direct costs, depending of the type of cost.
  • If you used any unforeseen in-kind contributions, either for payment or for free, as well as describing them in the technical report (par.1.2), you must specify here the cost of the resources.

C. Direct cost of providing financial support – line (e) pop-up

This concerns "cascade funding" and prizes (Article 15, GA). Declare third parties here.

D. Other direct costs – line f)

You should have detailed costs related to contracts to third parties for providing goods, works or services in line f9 (Article 10, GA).

  • If costs declared under "other direct costs" are equal to or less than 15% of the personnel costs, you are claiming for this reporting period, you do not need to provide an explanation (though you must still keep all the proof you have of any costs you declare as eligible, in case you are audited).
  • If costs declared under "other direct costs" are higher than 15% of these personnel costs, then you must explain other major direct cost items (This means costs declared in your accounts according to your internal accounting practices.) in the table provided in the pop up in line f).
    You must explain all items apart from those that add up to less than 15% of your personnel costs. Start from the highest-value cost items.

If you are reporting other direct cost items, you must provide:

  • if indicated in the DoA – a simple reference to the DoA
  • if not indicated in the DoA – cost/amount per item, description of the item, nature of item (travel, equipment, other goods & services), work package(s), project relevance/explanation

Example

  • Personnel costs: €100 000
    Other directs costs: €35 000
  • Since the other direct costs represent 35% of the personnel costs, you must justify an amount representing 20% of the personnel costs, i.e. €20 000.
  • If the €35 000 is the sum of items recorded in the accounts (e.g. €8 500 + €7 500 + €6 500 + €5 500 + €4 000 + 3 x €1 000)...
    ... you must list and justify the items €8 500, €7 500 and €6 500.
  • The remaining amount (a total of €12 500) is less than 15% of the personnel costs, so no details are required for it.

F. Specific costs – line i)

Report individual specific costs in the pop-up that appears here:
e.g. costs for energy-efficiency measures in buildings, costs for providing transnational access to research infrastructure, costs for clinical studies.

Additional information – line o)

You can declare again the different third party costs that need to be removed from your total eligible costs, in order to calculate your indirect costs (e.g. costs of in-kind contributions from third parties, but only those which are not used on your premises). More on eligible & ineligible costs.

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