Guide for Financial/Administration Departments for completing ENSEMBLES Year 4 Reports

The following is a guide to the forms and documentation that the Project Office will need to submit to the EC by early October 2008. Each section covers the required forms and clarifies items that caused confusion for some last year. All the documents should be submitted to the Project Office by 21 September 2008 at the very latest.

The full guidance for Ensembles reporting for year 4 can be found at http://ensembles-eu.metoffice.com/project_reporting/year4reporting/annual_reporting_yr4_guidance.html
This document is simply intended as a summary of the most relevant parts of the guidance notes for Financial/Administration departments.

Form C

Form can be found at
http://ensembles-eu.metoffice.com/project_reporting/year4reporting/FormC_ENSEMBLES_yr4.xls

This is the financial statement for each activity your institute was involved in during the previous period. For year 4 the reporting period is 1 September 2007 to 31 August 2008. Please read the following points carefully:

• All partners, including zero cost partners, need to provide two Form Cs.
• Complete the "Participant 1" sheet, print out two copies, sign them and send them to:
  Pip Gilbert, Met Office, Fitzroy Road, Exeter, EX1 3PB, UK
  as soon as possible after 1 September 2008. We do not need the "Summary report" sheet. Please also send an electronic copy to ensemblesfp6@metoffice.gov.uk. Date of signing must be on 1 September 2008 or after.
• Complete the information at the top of the "Participant 1" sheet in the yellow boxes (apart from the "Type of Action" box). FC is the default setting for Cost model, AC and FCF partners will need to change this.
• Section 1 - not applicable for ENSEMBLES partners (leave as "No").
• Section 2:
  1. IMPORTANT - Contract Preparation Form A3.1 and A3.3 in the DoW detail how each partner's budget is distributed between the different "activities" listed on Form C in cells B34 etc. The activities are RTD for RTs1-7, Training for RT8, and Consortium Management for RT0 (including a small amount for time and travel for attendance at Management Board meetings)
  2. ENSEMBLES partners have agreed not to charge the cost of the audit certificate to the project (see Section 5.3 of the Consortium Agreement)
  3. the form automatically checks that AC partners' indirect costs do not exceed 20% of direct costs, and FC/FCF partners' requested EC contribution for RTD can not exceed 50% of their total eligible RTD costs. Do not override these checks.
  4. No-cost partners should have a zero requested EC contribution in cell L54
• Section 3 - most/all partners will not have "receipts" to declare. Pre-financing received from the Co-ordinator is not a receipt.
• Section 4 -this is only for the co-ordinator to fill in.
• Section 5 - this figure is calculated automatically, and depends on whether you chose FC/FCF or AC. You can request a lower amount if required (but not a higher amount). If you are a zero cost partner then simply replace this figure with 0.
• Section 6 - please complete as relevant to your institute's situation. Remember that the cost of the audit certificate must not be included in the direct costs amount under section 2.
• Section 7 - for non-Euro based countries, please indicate the exchange rate used. For exchange rates, please use those published by the European Central Bank (http://www.ecb.int/stats/exchange/eurofxref/).
• Section 8 - please sign and date. The date cannot be earlier than 1 September 2008.

Table 3: Budget vs Actual costs

Form can be found at
http://ensembles-eu.metoffice.com/project_reporting/year4reporting/PMR_Yr4_appendix2_budget_vs_actual_vn0.1.xls

This is a table containing the budgeted costs and the actual costs for your institute's involvement in the project (not separated into Research Themes) and is itemised by subheadings such as personnel and any other major cost items. 'X' and 'Y' can be renamed to identify the major cost item if you wish to do so. Please complete the column "period 4" for year 4for your institute, noting the following:

• Partners need to take into account what money they have already received, what they have claimed on previous Form Cs and what their total five year budget is. This information is contained in the summary spreadsheet (please note that this is a working document).
• All figures are for total eligible costs, not "requested EC contribution"
• The "BUDGET" column shows the total eligible costs for the 5 years, taken from the DoW
• The "ACTUAL COSTS" column corresponds with the costs reported on your Form C, but with slightly different categories. In particular, check that the cell for the row "Total Costs" under column "Period 4 " is the same as the total eligible cost in cell L38 of your Form C
• The note in red "*) total budget figures - not EC funded" means all figures should refer to each partner's total eligible costs. For FC/FCF partners this will be at least double the requested EC contribution. For AC partners this will be at least equal to the requested EC contribution.
• The EC's guidelines don't specify what constitutes a "major cost", so please use your best judgement.

Table 4: Person Months status table

Example form can be found at
http://ensembles-eu.metoffice.com/project_reporting/year4reporting/Table4_yr4.xls

Provide the total person months used for each WP for your institute in year 4. For AC partners please also include your own staff numbers (i.e. the "additional cost" bit). The form provides an example of the type of information needed, but it doesn't have to be in a table so long as we can identify how many person months for each WP.

http://ensembles-eu.metoffice.com/project_reporting/year4reporting/person_months_table4_37_60.pdf shows your intended person months for the 18-month period Sep07-Feb09 for reference.

Detailed Implementation Plan Budget

Form can be found at
http://ensembles-eu.metoffice.com/project_reporting/year4reporting/Section9.4_DIP.xls

We will need an updated 12 month Detailed Implementation Plan budget for months 49-60 (to replace the A3.3 forms for months 37-54 in section 9.4 of the Description of Work). Remember that each RT and each partner have total budgets for the 5 years which cannot be exceeded without Management Board approval (see Contract Preparation Form A3.1 in the DoW for partners' budgets). All figures should be given to the nearest whole Euro. Do make sure that the total (orange) box at cell L8 is completed if you are requesting money.

Audit Certificate

An audit certificate to accompany Form C is required once a partner's total requested EC contribution from the start of the project (1 September 2004) to the present reaches or exceeds €150,000. For example, if your requested contribution (i.e. the money claimed) for year 1 was €80,000 and the contribution for year 2 was €80,000 then you would need to provide an audit certificate with your Form C for year 2 reports and for all subsequent years.

Those partners who have not yet requested €150,000 or more do not have to provide an audit certificate (applicable through Special Clause 39 to the Ensembles contract) but partners are strongly encouraged to provide an audit certificate anyway for the following reasons:

• All partners receiving an EC contribution will have to produce at least one audit certificate by the end of the project
• The auditing process will help uncover any FP6-related accounting problems as soon as possible and should make subsequent annual reporting easier. Correcting problems for previous years will be difficult; avoiding problems is the best strategy.
• Some partners DID encounter problems with their Form C and audit certificate for year 1, some resulting in no payment for year 2
• It has been agreed by all partners that the cost of the audit certificate shall not be charged to the Ensembles project (please see the Consortium Agreement)

Please use the template featured on page 216 onwards as a model for your audit certificate (http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/fp6/model-contract/pdf/fp6-guide-financial-issues-feb05_en.pdf). Working notes for contractors and certifying entities are available from the Cordis website, ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/documents_r5/natdir0000001/s_6918005_20050727_150035_2521en.pdf. Please follow the instructions contained within the notes very carefully, particularly the wording in Annex 2 (Proposed Model for an Audit Certificate). The EC advised that several audit certificates needed revising after years 1, 2 and 3.

The Commission's Guide to Financial Issues is available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/fp6/working-groups/model-contract/pdf/fp6-guide-financialissues-april04_en.pdf.

The guidelines state in several places that "the expenses needed to implement the indirect action shall be certified by an external auditor or, in the case of public bodies, a competent public officer", but page 94 is slightly more informative, and hopefully will tell you what the rules are in choosing an auditor for your organisation.