How do we get the payments and how is it distributed?
Payments is the responsibility of the coordinator.
The way it is done:
- The coordinator creates a project account or use a dedicated account in his/her organisation.
- The EC transfers the project payments to this account
- Each partner informs the coordinator of their project account that they want the money transferred to
- The coordinator distributes the money to each partner from the project account in accordance with their share of the budget
- All payments are in EUR. Any exchange into local currency is the responsibility of the receiving partner
- The coordinator keeps track of the payment dates and amounts
- 5% of the payment is kept by the EC in a guarantee fund until the project is finished
- The 5% is used across all H2020 to pay for losses in projects that creates economic problems
- Your project will get your 5% back at the end of the project so the money is safe
- The EC will send a pre-pay at the start of the project
- The amount may vary between 25 and 60% of the total budget. It depends on the H2020 economy at the time
- When the reporting for the first reporting period is approved, the EC will send an interim payment
- Again, the amount will vary
- The same procedure is repeated for the next Reporting periods
- The EC will hold back 10-20% of the payment until the project is finished and approved
- If the project has created a revenue or got money in any way, the project total may be reduced to a lower sum than in the budget by subtracting the income from the funding
- If the cost claimed are lower than the max contribution you will not get more than the lower sum
- If the cost claimed are higher than the max budget sum you will only get the max in the budget.
- The pre- and interim payments are the property of the EC
- If you have got more money than the reported costs or some of your work is not approved the EC may recover their money
- They will chase you to the end of the world if they start a recovery process
Remember:
The project account must never be exchanged into a local currency. It must be kept in EUR. Loss due to changes in exchange rates or cost of the exchange will not be covered by the EC.
The project can never get more money than the max budget. However, it may get less.