The Financial Report Template
Submit the Financial Report
Redraft the Financial Report
The Financial Report Template
CERF Financial Reports are composed 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 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 on the right, lists all 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.
Hovering over the Delay information tooltip icon (
) displays the number of days the report was delayed past the submission due date.
The section also displays the following:
- 1.1 Report Name (no action required for this field)
- 1.2 Report Submitted Date: This field will be populated by the system when the report is submitted (no action required for this field)
- 1.3 Report Due Date (no action required for this field)
- 1.4 Reporting Period. For Interim Financial Reports, Agency HQ Financial Team will 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 tooltip information icon (
) will display the normal reporting period.
Section 2: Expenditures and Others
2.1: Interest income: The Agency will indicate the amount of income generated from interest income and, in the second field, the amount of any other income from the project.
The income fields are mandatory and the fields will need to be filled out for a valid submission. A value of 0 is valid for submission. Any reported income will require an accompanying comment in the narrative comment fields.
2.2: Expenditures: The financial reporting requirement breaks project expenditure down to the Budget Category level. The Agency HQ Financial Team user will enter a value in the Cumulative Expenditures column indicating cumulative expenditure up to the current reporting period, and in the Firm Commitment column, the user will indicate any remaining expenditure commitments.
The table columns, from left to right, list the following:
- 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 Approved Budget and the Cumulative Expenditure now being reported, and is automatically calculated based on the information provided.
- Change from Previous Report – This 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 a PSC value below 7% percent of the total amount currently being reported.
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. Performing a mouse hover-over of the formula icon reveals the formula.
Formulas:
If the K column (Outstanding Refund) is non-zero, (positive or negative), the Financial Reporting will be tagged as “not complete.”
The Signed Financial Report tab
Section 3: Steps to upload the signed financial report
The Agency HQ Financial Team user may follow the four listed steps to upload the signed financial document.
- Fill in the Financial Report tab: The Agency HQ Financial Team user may use the redirect icon (
) to return to the Financial Report tab if not yet completed. - Download the Unsigned Financial Report: The Agency HQ Financial Team user may click the button here to download the Unsigned Financial Report in Excel format.
- Check-mark: The Agency HQ Financial Team user will need to check-mark the box to certify that the information in the report is correct.
- Upload the Signed Financial Report: The Agency HQ Financial Team user will upload the signed downloaded Excel file report in .pdf form here. The Agency signatory should be the implementing Agency’s Headquarters-level Chief Financial Officer.
Following the outlined steps will clear the red line on the tab.
A newly uploaded and signed Financial Report will appear under the Signed Financial Reports section.
Any previously uploaded financial reports related to the project will appear in the Previous Signed Financial Reports table in the section below. Users may view the current upload and any historic document uploads by clicking on the view icon (
). Agency HQ Financial Team users may delete the most recent document by clicking on the delete icon (
), available to them in the Action column. This feature may also be used if the wrong document is uploaded.
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 will again appear on the tab, indicating that the tab is invalid for submission; a new unsigned document will need to be downloaded, signed, and uploaded (i.e. a repetition of Steps 2-4 listed on the page).
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] (on the right of the page) returns to the reporting template
- [Submit signed Financial Report] initiates the report submission steps, allowing the Agency HQ Financial Team user to leave a comment, and click [Save & Finish] to complete submission. Confirmation of submission will be indicated with an on-screen notification of status change.
Please note: While an active Project Revision is underway (which has not yet been overwritten into the project, or has not been rejected), the Agency HQ Financial Team user will not be able to submit any financial reporting. The Project Revision will need to be either approved or rejected to submit a finance report.
Redraft the Financial Report
Financial Reports sent back by the CERF Finance Officer for redraft, will be returned the Agency HQ Financial Team user, and be accessible for editing on their homepage.
The Agency HQ Financial Team user may click the hyperlinked report name to open the reporting template. Once the report is consolidated, the Agency HQ Financial Team user 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 the signature is in alignment with the latest expenditure information.
To submit the redraft, Agency HQ Financial Team may click on the [Continue=>] button above the tabs to access the Task Options menu which will present the following button options:
- [<=Go Back] (on the right) to return to the template
- [Resubmit Financial Report] to send the report to CERF Finance. 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 the Agency homepage.