Creating a financial statement in the EC Participant Portal with EMDESK

1

First, login to the EU Participant Portal using your credentials. On the left side of the screen, you'll see the tabs "My Organisation" and "My Projects". Click on "My Projects" to view all the projects you are assigned to.

2

Each project has an "Actions" button. Choose the project you want to work on, click "Actions", and select "Manage Project". This will open a separate browser window displaying all open sessions assosiated with the project.

3

Go to the "Periodic Reporting" section. This section contains both technical and financial parts that need to be filled out. All beneficiaries must contribute to the technical part of the periodic report and complete their own financial statement.

Note: After completing these both parts, beneficiaries must e-sign and submit them to the coordinator. The coordinator then has the opportunity to review the submissions. If any corrections are needed, the coordinator can send them back. If everything is correct, the coordinator can submit them to the EU.

4

To fill out the financial statement, click the "Financial Part" link. This will open a new browser window where you can input your financial data.

5

Firstly, review the financial information from the contact – a read-only field that displays information about the bank account where the payment will be made.

6

For the interim or final periodic report, provide the Certificate on the Financial Statement (CFS) for each beneficiary, but only if the CFS threshold is reached (these thresholds vary depending on the EU programme and the type of action).

Tip: The CFS is a factual report created by an independent auditor or a public officer. Its purpose is to allow the European Commission or the grant awarding agency to verify and check if the declared costs are eligible. For the MFF 2021–2027, there is typically a single threshold of EUR 325,000 requested by the EU. Each beneficiary must submit a separate CFS.

7

To submit the CFS, select the "Yes" radio button, fill in the "Name of the Auditor" and "Cost of Certificate" fields, and upload the CFS file.

8

Then, go to the "Financial Statements" section to state eligible costs per category.

Note: For each reporting period, there must be one financial statement, and there is the possibility to make adjustments with the second reporting period. These adjustments may come from the previous period, for which you hadn't declared all the costs and requested contributions for the current periodic report. All the financial statements and the adjustments can be viewed in the "Financial Statements" section.

9

Fill out the financial data with the total costs in the "Total amount" column per cost category for the selected participant for this period.

For some categories, you'll need to report additional information by clicking the "R" (Use of Resources) icon to the right of the input field.

10

To get the necessary data from EMDESK, login to your project workspace on EMDESK and navigate to the "Resources" section. Then click on the "Expenses" tab to display your expense data and click the "Add filter" button to filter data for the required reporting period.

11

In the appeared window, click the drop down menu next to the "Report" section, select the relevant periodic report, and click Apply to set the filter to show only records connected to the required reporting period.

12

Afterwards, follow the instructions below on how to fill out:

• Personnel costs (A)
• Subcontracting costs (B)
• Purchase costs (C)
• Other cost categories (D) do not apply so often and are very call-specific. They include such costs as financial support to third parties, internally invoiced goods and services, transnational access to research infrastructure unit costs, virtual access to research infrastructure unit costs, PCP/PPI procurement cost, euratom cofund staff mobility costs, ERC additional funding and ERC additional funding (subcontracting, FSTP and internally invoiced goods and services).
  
  If such costs occurred in your project, fill them out following the same logic as described below for the rest cost categories.


• Indirect costs (E)

Tip: Should you need to attach any documents, you can easily do so by clicking the "Upload" button at the bottom of the page. Once uploaded, you have the option to either view the document or delete it by clicking the corresponding buttons.

Reporting personnel costs with EMDESK

For personnel costs, you need the following information from EMDESK to be transferred to the Participant Portal:

• The total amount of personnel costs
• The personnel effort per work package (WP)

1

At first, set a table filter in the "Cost Category" column to show records only for the "Personnel" costs and if you have access to more than one participant on EMDESK – set another table filter in the "Participant" column to show data only for the relevant participant.

Tip: If needed, adjust colums in your table views using Table Settings.

2

Copy the total amount of personnel costs from the "Direct Costs" column on EMDESK into the input field for the cost category "Personnel Costs" in the Participant Portal.

3

To report the personnel effort per WP, click the "R" icon next to the input field for personnel costs. This will open a new dialog window, click the "+Add Details" button at the top right to add a new input row for each WP.

4

To get this data from EMDESK, add one more filter in the "Activities" column - each WP at one step.

5

Copy the total person-month from the "Resource (PM)" column on EMDESK into the "Person Months" input column in the dialog window of the Participant Portal and click + next to the reported WP in the "Associated Work Package" column.

Note: If the "Resource (PM)" column is not there, add it with the help of Table Settings.

6

Go back to step 4 above and repeat steps 4 and 5 for every WP to fill out input rows for every WP in your project. Then click Ok at the bottom of the dialog window.

Reporting subcontracting costs with EMDESK

1

Set a table filter in the "Cost Category" column to show records only for the "Subcontracting" costs and if you have access to more than one participant on EMDESK – set another table filter in the "Participant" column to show data only for the relevant participant.

Tip: If needed, adjust colums in your table views using Table Settings.

2

Sort the table to list the expense records starting with the highest by clicking the table column header "Direct costs".

3

Go back to the Participant Portal and click the "R" icon next to the input field for subcontracting costs.

4

A new dialog window will then open. Click the "+Add" button in the top right corner to add a new input row. Transfer the data from EMDESK, starting with the first and largest cost record:

• Subcontract name: Copy the name from the "Description" column on EMDESK.

  

• Foreseen in Annex 1?: Choose "Yes" or "No". If "Yes", you don't need to give any explanations about the subcontract. If "No", you have to give an explanation for the subcontract by clicking on the icon in the "Explanation" column.
  Note: This needs to be communicated with the project officer, which can approve the unforeseen subcontract through the so-called Simplified Approval Procedure, and a formal amendment of the grant agreement may be necessary.
• Costs: Copy the cost for the expense record from the "Direct Costs" column on EMDESK.

  

5

Go back to step 4 and repeat this step for every subcontracting record on EMDESK. Once all records are transferred, click Confirm at the bottom of the dialog window.

Reporting purchase costs with EMDESK

Purchase costs are divided into the following categories:

• Travel and subsistence
• Equipment
• Other goods, works and services

1

Set a table filter in the "Cost Category" column to show records only for the "Travel and subsistence" costs and if you have access to more than one participant on EMDESK – set another table filter in the "Participant" column to show data only for the relevant participant.

Tip: If needed, adjust colums in your table views using Table Settings.

2

Copy the total amount of travel and subsistence costs from the "Direct Costs" column on EMDESK into the input field for the cost category "Travel and subsistence" in the Participant Portal.

3

Go back back to Step 1 and repeat these steps for the "Equipment" and "Other goods, works and services" subcategories.

Note: If the total Purchase costs for your participant exceed 15% of your claimed total personnel costs, you will need to provide additional details about the use of these costs. To check if you reached this threshold, click on the "R" icon (the new dialog window will appear stating the amount of purchase costs to be explained):

4

If the 15% threshold is exceeded, go back to EMDESK, set a table filter in the "Cost Category" column to show records for all purchase costs categories ("Travel and subsistence", "Equipment", "Other goods, works and services" costs) and sort the table to list the expense records starting with the highest by clicking the table column header "Direct costs".

5

Go back to the Participant Portal and click the "R" icon next to the subcategory input field corresponding to the category of the first and highest record on EMDESK.

6

A new dialog window will then open. Click the "+Add" button in the top right corner to add a new input row and transfer the data from EMDESK, starting with the highest cost records:

• Cost item name: Copy the name from the "Description" column on EMDESK.

  

• Work Packages: Select the WP associated with the expense record, you can check this in the "Activities" column on EMDESK.

  

• Foreseen in Annex 1?: Choose "Yes" or "No". If "Yes", you don't need to give any explanations about the cost record. If "No", you have to give an explanation for the cost record by clicking on the icon in the "Explanation" column.
  Note: This needs to be communicated with the project officer, which can approve the unforeseen costs through the so-called Simplified Approval Procedure, and a formal amendment of the grant agreement may be necessary.
• Costs: Copy the cost for the expense record from the "Direct Costs" column on EMDESK.

  

7

Return to step 5 and repeat the process on EMDESK for subsequent cost records until the remaining total purchase costs equal 15% of the total personnel costs claimed for that period. The smallest costs that comprise this 15% can be left unexplained. Once completed, click Confirm at the bottom of the dialog box.

Reporting indirect costs

In Horizon Europe projects, indirect costs will be reimbursed at a flat rate of 25% of the eligible direct costs (categories A-D), excluding volunteer costs, subcontracting costs, financial support to third parties, and any exempted specific cost categories.

The calculation of indirect costs is automated in the Participant Portal. Simply click the "Pen" icon in the row for Indirect Costs to initiate this process.

13

Once you've completed entries for all cost categories, click the "Save" button at the top of the page and then click "Validate" at the bottom to check for validation errors.

Tip: You also have the option to generate a document by clicking "Export the use of references in PDF" in the top left corner, but remember to save and validate it first.

14

Return to the main page and click the "Lock for review" button. The editing of the file will be deactivated and your Project Financial Signatory (PFSIGN) will receive a notification that the finanial statement is ready for review.

15

Your PFSIGN must then unlock the draft by clicking on the "Unlock to draft" button to review the file and make any changes and, afterwards, sign and submit the statement by clicking on the "Sign & Submit" button.

Note: Only the Project Financial Signatory (PFSIGN) can perform this step – participant contacts, coordinator contacts, primary coordinator contacts, task managers, and team members can open the PDF file to view the data, but they cannot unlock the data.

16

Upon confirmation, the system will prompt PFSIGN to enter their EU login password to electronically sign the financial statement.

17

Once your statement has been electronically signed and submitted to the coordinator, you have completed your financial statement. Upon receiving your statement, the coordinator can either click the "Redo" button to return it for further corrections or click the "Include" button to accept it.

18

After accepting reports from all partners, the coordinator must submit them to the European Commission as a part of a periodic report by clicking the "Submit to EU" button. As soon as the coordinator submits the report, the request for payment is issued.

Report adjustments

1

To make an adjustment, click the "Add adjustment" button in the top right corner, select the reporting period for which you want to add costs, and click "OK".

Note: It's possible to make adjustments only for the cost categories requested for the previous period. Therefore, this function is available only from period 2 onwards..

2

This will open a separate financial statement for adjustments with the same cost categories, report all adjustment costs the same way as described above, and then click "Save". To delete an adjustment, simply click the "X" button.