D.3 - Horizon Europe/2020 Master of Finance and Administration

Tre-dagers kurs: Dette er det ultimate kurset for deg som er interessert i å få full og detaljert oversikt over alle finansielle sider ved Horisont 2020, fra budsjettering, rapportering av kostnader og til prosjektrevisjoner i regi av Europakommisjonen.

Dette kurset, som går over to dager, inneholder:

• En introduksjon til de finansielle reglene i Horisont 2020 – fra basis til de mest avanserte problemstillinger, med en praktisk vinkling.
• En workshop på avansert nivå, hvor deltakerne får utlevert en pakke bestående av timelister, lønnsslipper, fakturaer, kontrakter og annet materiale for et virtuelt Horisont 2020-prosjekt. Deltakerne skal så kalkulere godkjente kostnader (eligible costs) og sende en finansiell rapport (financial statement).
• Diskusjoner om hvordan finansielle problemstillinger skal håndteres i prosjektrapporteringen, inkludert avvik, feil og andre flaskehalser.
  En introduksjon til prosjektrevisjoner (audits), prosedyrer, hva som er hensikten med dem og hva som kan være potensielle risiki.
• En workshop on prosjektrevisjoner. Deltakerne får en rolle som proskjektrevisor for en dag, og skal gjøre en revisjon av finansielle rapporter og komplett dokumentasjon av et EU-prosjekt.

Kurset blir holdt på engelsk.

Horisont Europa-kursene våre er delt inn i fem overordnede kategorier (A-E) og i tre nivåer (1-3). Les mer om de ulike kursene.

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Our Horizon Europe seminars are distributed into 5 topics (A-E) on three knowledge levels (1-3). Read more about the different courses.

Fra kursbeskrivelsen

Training course outputs:

• Learn everything about the financial rules of H2020 - find out what is new, what has changed and how to get the most out of your budget.
• Participate in Europa Media's well-known Financial Reporting and EC Audit workshops and prepare your financial statement (Form C) and simulate a real-life audit.
• Discover the mistakes you made during the workshops and find out how to avoid making them again.

Prerequisite: participation on a Level 2 management course, or experience in H2020 financial reporting.

DAY 1

8:45 – 09:00 Registration and Welcome

09:00 – 09:15 Event Opening, Zoom user guide

09:15 – 10:15 Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Financial Rules Part 1: Warming Up

Detailed introduction to the financial rules of Horizon Europe and H2020 with real-life examples:

• Basic facts – funding schemes: cost reporting vs lump-sum funding
• Importance of the budget and of the resources considering reporting
• Basic financial principles in theory and practice
• Form of Grants, Forms of Costs
• Eligible and non-eligible costs with comparison and all exceptions
• Direct and indirect costs

(10:15 – 10:30 Coffee Break)

10:30 – 11:30 Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Financial Rules Part 2: Direct Personnel Costs

• Introducing the cost categories Changes of cost categories in Horizon Europe
• Personnel costs calculations – showing the possible ways:
• Employees and other employment contracts
• Financial year based vs monthly calculation vs daily rate calculation
• Number of productive hours to consider
• Measuring days (HE) and hours (H2020) – how to handle?
• Transforming hours into days?

(11:30 – 12:30 Lunch Break)

12:30 – 13:30 Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Financial Rules Part 3: Direct Personnel Costs

• Personnel cost calculation showcase for employees – how to maximise costs?
• Additional and project-based remuneration
• Bonuses, fringe-benefits, and other complements
• Unit-based personnel costs calculation
• Missing resources in personnel? - In-house consultants and seconded employees
• SME-owner rates

(13:30 – 13:45 Coffee break)

13:45 – 14:00 Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Financial Rules Part 4: Subcontracting and Purchase costs, Research facility costs

• Subcontracting and other third parties – what is what?; Special third-party protocols
• Purchase costs vs. Other direct costs – what’s the difference?
• Travel costs – what to consider?
• Consumables and small services
• Equipment and assets – calculating the costs of the research infrastructure
• Internally invoiced items

(14:00 – 14:15 Coffee Break)

14:15 – 15:00 Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Financial Rules Part 5

• Indirect costs – does it need to be proved?Funding Rates and Receipt calculations
• Certificates on Financial Statements, Certificate on Methodology, etc.
• System and Process Audits
• Guarantee Fund vs Mutual Insurance Mechanism; Payments and Exchange rates

15:00 – 16:00 Intro to Day 2, extended Q&A session, f2f consultancy

DAY 2

09:00 – 12:00 Workshop – Financial Reporting of Horizon projects

Introduction - Participants will prepare a financial statement for a virtual Horizon Europe project, based on “mock-up” invoices, salary slips, receipts and bills, time records and certificates, which are generated individually for each participant. The full package will be downloadable or sent to the participants on Day1 and shall be solved individually as homework.

(12:00 – 12:45 Lunch Break)

12:45 – 14:00 Understanding the Financial Reports – Part I

Pragmatic approaches in reporting; Point-by-point assessment of the prepared financial reports: Format, content; overall principles, possible bottlenecks, what should and should not be included.

(14:00 – 14:15 Coffee Break)

14:15 – 15:00 Understanding the Financial Reports – Part I

Showing the effect of different calculation protocols on personnel costs (employees), pros and cons of the different approaches

How to report “tricky” costs? Unforeseen subcontracting, exceeding expenses, reallocation of costs during reporting

15:00 – 15:30 How to submit the perfect Cost statement?

Step-by-step guide on how to report costs, deal with deviations, and internal allocation issues. Handling the EC requests for clarification, suspension of payments and other issues with

15:30 – 16:00 Q&A session

DAY 3

09:00 – 09:15 Workshop: The EC Audit – Kick-off Meeting: Briefing of the "Auditors"

The Participants (now as Auditors) are briefed about the Workshop – introducing the audited company, its accounting and management principles, and the project that is being audited. Defining the scope of the Workshop – beware, it’s a competition! 😊

09:15 – 12.00 Workshop: The EC Audit

Participants become EC Auditors – all participants in small group of 4-5 each receive a tailor-made HE/ H2020 project documentation, including Financial Statements (Form Cs), full financial background documentation, a project periodic report and other supporting documentation for a virtual H2020/ HE project.

The primary objective is to identify the mistakes and/ or miscalculations in favour of both the EC and the Beneficiary, and to summarise them in a Draft Audit Report.

(10:30 – 10:45 Coffee break) / (12:00 – 13:00 Lunch break)

13:00 – 14:15 Analysis of the Workshop

Discussing the findings of the audit process, finalising the Draft Audit Report. Possible consequences and outcomes of the EC Audits. Announcing the winner group of the workshop

14:15 – 15:00 EC Financial Audits in theory and in practice

Learn how to avoid errors in the financial administration and reporting of your H2020/ HEU project; and about the typical mistakes and systematic errors in personnel costs that may lead to significant losses. Understand the processes before, during and after of EC financial audits; and get an insight to the on-site audit process and to managing it successfully

15:00 End of course