Funding sources and transactions

On the Funding tab of the Project Information window you can include information about your funding sources; list important contractual obligations in terms of reporting, auditing, etc. and create an overview of different financial transactions.

The Funding tab of the Project Information window

Before you can add funding sources, you need to have funders, i.e. organisations that provide funding. If you haven't included donors or other financial providers in your list of partners yet, you have to do this first.

To add a funding source, click into the list. This will select the Items toolbar. Then press the Add button. You will get the following pop-up window:

The Funding Source dialogue

  • In the first drop-down list you have to select the funding organisation. Next you can select a budget line and indicate the call for proposals if you want (you need to add the available options to the funding organisation's information first).
  • In the section below you can add information about the contract with the funder, such as the title of the contract or the contract number.
  • Next you can indicate the value of the contract (and how much you've requested initially).
  • The final section contains important dates such as the date of approval and the actual duration of the contract.

Once you've added a funding source, you can add contractual deadlines that you have to respect, such as the dates of intermediary and final reporting; audits and evaluations; etc.

 

Contractual obligations (deadlines)

For each funding source in the top list, you can add contractual deadlines. These include things like intermediary and final reports, financial reports, evaluations and audits.

Contractual obligations (bottom list) of the funding source selected in the top list

To add a contract date, click into the bottom list. This will select the Items toolbar. Then press the Add button. You will get the following pop-up window:

The Contract Date dialogue

Here you can set the deadline, select the type of contractual obligation and give a short description.

 

Transactions

Transactions are transfers of funds from one partner organisation to another. There are two main types of transactions: planned transactions and actual transactions.

List of planned and realised transactions

To add a transaction, click into the list on the Transactions tab. This will select the Items toolbar. Then press the Add button. You will get the following pop-up window:

Adding a planned transaction in the Transaction dialogue

To make this a planned transaction, choose 'Planned' from the Transaction type list. You will then be able to determine in which period the transaction will take place. Below, you can indicate the (approximate) amount of the planned transaction and the partner organisations that will make and receive the transaction.

Adding an expenditure

For actual transactions, you can also click in the list and then press the Add button to open the same window. You can either have a completely new transaction, or change the Transaction type from 'Planned' to any of the following options:

  • Incoming funds (for instance when you received a payment from a donor)
  • Disbursement (for instance when you transfer money from the main project account to the account of a partner organisation or a local office)
  • Expenditure (when you actually buy something or pay for services)
  • Interest repayment
  • Loan repayment
  • Reimbursement
  • Purchase of equity
  • Sale of equity
  • Credit guarantee
  • Incoming commitment

In most cases you will use the first three. The idea here is not to list every single small purchase, but to focus on the transfer of important sums. In other words, this is not meant to do (or replace) your accountancy but to enhance transparency. Transactions are therefore very important in the framework of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).

IATI and transactions

Transactions are central to the idea of international aid transparency. If you want to create an IATI activity file of your project, it is important that you pay sufficient attention to transactions. Overall, the idea behind IATI is that you can trace the money that donor countries give to recipient countries through transactions. Transactions allow people to see how money flows from one organisation (agency) to the other until it finally arrives in the recipient countries and is spent in the form of investments, delivery of goods and services, provision of credits, etc.

If you want to support the IATI initiative you have to make sure that the transactions that you include in your project file make it clear how the money you received from various sources makes it way to the target groups/beneficiaries it is intended for. IATI asks you to provide certain information for each individual transaction. You must provide this information on the IATI tab of the pop-up dialogue:

The IATI tab of the Transaction dialogue

This image shows the default settings of Logframer for individual transactions. They are optimised for aid delivery by Non Governmental Organisations:

  • Official Development Assistance
  • via aid grants (donor grants)
  • implemented through projects or programmes that have a specific purpose (specific objective/outcome)
  • expenses are made through partially tied procurement, which generally means that for expenses above a certain amount you need to follow a procurement procedure inviting suppliers to make offers and then make a selection based on open criteria (organise a market).

On top you can enter the code of the Sector for which this transaction is destined, although a typical NGO project will focus on one specific sector, which you can also indicate in the Project Description. You can indicate whether this transaction concerns humanitarian assistance - again something that you can also indicate in the Project Description. The Channel field is more suited for assistance from one government to the other (not set by default).