-The Reporting Template
-Submit the Financial Reporting
-Redraft
The Reporting Template
The CERF Financial Reports consist of four tabs, in addition to the header section, which is auto-populated with key information on the project and report.
Some tabs will be marked with a red line until all mandatory parts of the page are completed. If any tabs display a red line, it will not be possible to submit the report. Enter all required information and save the page by clicking the [Save] button to clear the red line for a valid submission.
The financial reporting templates are composed of the following tabs:
The Financial Report tab
The Financial Report tab is divided into two sections.
Section 1. Report Information displays information about the current financial report, as well as the history of any financial reporting submitted for the project.
The Financial Reporting History lists all past and current financial reports for the project.
Any submitted reports may be opened as read-only from here, by clicking on the redirect icon (
) beside the report name
The section also displays the following:
- 1.1 Report Name (no action required by Agency HQ Financial Team for this field)
- 1.2 Report Submitted Date: This field will be populated by the system when the report is submitted (no action required by Agency HQ Financial Team for this field)
- 1.3 Report Due Date (no action required by Agency HQ Financial Team for this field)
- 1.4 Reporting Period. For Interim Financial Reports, Agency HQ Financial Team may be required to enter the end-date for the period that the report covers.
For Final Financial Reports the full project implementation period that the report covers, is displayed. A mouseover of the information icon (
) will display the normal reporting period.
Section 2: Expenditures and Others
2.1: Interest income: indicate the amount of income generated from Interest and, in the second field, the amount of any other income from the project.
The income fields are mandatory and will need to be filled out for a valid submission, including if the value is 0. Any reported income will require an accompanying comment in the narrative comment fields.
2.2: Expenditures: breaks project expenditure down to the Budget Category level.
Agency HQ Financial team will enter a value in the Cumulative Expenditures column indicating the cumulative expenditure up to the current reporting period, and in the Firm Commitment column, indicate any remaining expenditure commitments.
Working through the table columns, the table lists
- Budget Category – These are the 7 budget categories, listed by letter, from A through G, as represented in the Project Proposal. The reporting requirement doesn’t require a breakdown by item, but the amounts per budget category.
- Approved Budget – This is the amount that was approved for each budget category
- Previously Reported – These are the cumulative figures from all previous reporting until the current report
- Cumulative Expenditures – This is all cumulative expenditure being reported in this current report
- % of Variance – The percentage indicates the variance between the current Cumulative Expenditure value and the Approved Budget value and is automatically calculated based on the information provided. (Formula for % of Variance: (Cumulative Expenditure for the budget category) - (Approved Budget for the budget category) / (Total Approved Budget)
- Variance – This indicates the USD amount of variance between the Cumulative Expenditure for a budget category now being reported, and the Approved Budget, for the budget category, and is automatically calculated based on the information provided.
- Change from Previous Report – Indicates the USD amount of variance between the Previously Reported column and the current Cumulative Expenditure column and is automatically calculated based on the information provided.
- Firm Commitment – In this column indicate the USD amount that is firmly committed
For the PSC Amount, Agencies may enter the reported amount including any variance from the calculated amount, but they cannot report PSC amounts above the 7% expenditure to date, as indicated the current report.
The [Show All Expenditures] button (below the table) opens the table in an Excel file for offline review.
2.3: Unspent Allocation and Balance: displays the amount of unspent funding, the amount of income generated, and whether a refund is required.
The Signed Financial Report tab
Section 3: Steps to upload the signed financial report
The section lists the four steps to upload the signed financial document.
- Fill in the Financial Report tab. Agency HQ Financial Team may use the redirect icon (
) to return to the Financial Report tab. - Agency HQ Financial Team will need to click and download the Unsigned Financial Report in Excel format here.
- Agency HQ Financial Team will need to check-mark the box to certify that the information in the report is correct.
- Agency HQ Financial Team will the downloaded Excel file, the authorized signatory will sign the document offline, and then scan and upload the report in .pdf form here.
Following the outlined steps will clear the red line on the tab.
Any signed, uploaded financial reports will appear in the Signed Financial Reports table in the section below.
Agency HQ Financial Team may view the current upload and historic document uploads by clicking on the view icon (
), and delete the current document by clicking on the delete icon (
) in the Action column.
Please note: if any changes are made and saved in the Financial Report tab, after a signed Financial Report has been uploaded on this page, a red line on the tab will again indicate the tab as invalid for submission; a new unsigned document will need to be downloaded, signed, and uploaded (i.e. please repeat Steps 2-4).
The Report Tracking tab
The Report Tracking tab displays the status changes of this Financial Report, including drafts, redrafts, review, and final processing.
The Documents tab
The Documents tab allows the CERF Finance Officer to upload documents to an active report.
Submit the Financial Report
After completing, saving, and validating all tabs in the financial reporting template, with no tabs marked with a red line, Agency HQ Financial Team may submit the report to the CERF FAU by clicking the [Continue] button above the template tabs.
The task option menu presents the following button options:
- [<=Go Back] returns to the reporting template
- [Submit signed Financial Report] initiates the report submission steps, by allowing Agency HQ Financial Team to leave a
comment, and click [Save & Finish] to complete submission.
Confirmation of submission will be indicated with a notification of status change.
Please note: While an active Project Revision is underway (one which has not yet been overwritten into the project, or has not been rejected), the Agency HQ Financial Team will not be able to submit any financial reporting until after the Project Revision has been approved or rejected.
Redraft
Financial Reports sent back by the CERF Finance Officer for redraft, will be returned to the Agency HQ Financial Team and be accessible for editing on their homepage.
The Agency HQ Financial Team may click the hyperlinked report name to open the reporting template. Once the report is consolidated, the Agency HQ Financial Team may save any changes in the Financial Report tab and upload a new signed financial report on the Signed Financial Report tab.
Please note: Any changes to the report in the redrafted version will require a newly uploaded signed financial report, to ensure alignment with the latest expenditure information.
To submit the redraft, the Agency HQ Financial Team may click on the [Continue=>] button above the tabs to access the Task Options menu which presents the following button options:
- [<=Go Back] to return to the template
- [Resubmit Financial Report] to send the report to CERF Finance.
The Agency HQ Financial Team may add an additional comment and click [Save & Finish] to finalize submission.
A notification of change of status will confirm successful submission.
The report will no longer be listed on their homepage.