Contribution Funds for Non-governmental Organizations - a Handbook
4.0 Financial reporting
Each contribution agreement describes the particular financial reporting requirements that apply, but there are some general rules that should always be followed by the recipient when reporting:
- Whether standard forms provided by the Department of Justice Canada (called PA forms – see Appendices) or other forms are used, the reports should always be signed by an authorized representative of the recipient, and they should always be dated. The period covered by the report should be included in the heading.
- Where reporting dates and frequency are specified in the agreement, the recipient must comply with them.
- Where a due date or a frequency is not specified in the agreement, recipients should never wait until the funds are entirely spent to make a formal request for a progress payment, as there is likely to be a delay between the time the request is received by the Department of Justice Canada and the time the recipient gets the payment. The payment request must be assessed and approved by the Department prior to issuing a payment. Prudent financial planning should take this time delay into consideration.
- Whether the standard forms provided by the Department of Justice Canada (PA forms –see Appendices) or other forms are used to report, the amounts included on the forms should come from the recipient’s accounting system and be traceable to the GL. Whenever amounts from different GL accounts are grouped together to determine the amount claimed on one given budget line, or whenever the financial information from the GL is rearranged to fit the different budget lines, any calculations made and GL accounts used should be documented on file. In other words, before submitting financial information to the Department, the amounts claimed and GL accounts should be reconciled and that reconciliation kept on file for future reference.
- When the agreement states that audited financial statements (AFS) can be used for financial reporting purposes, but the expense lines used in the AFS do not match the budget lines from the agreement, the recipient must document all calculations made to translate financial information from the AFS format to the different budget lines and submit it to the Department of Justice Canada with the final claim.
- Financial reports submitted must include revenues from all sources specific to the project, unless the agreement states otherwise. This means that all revenues related to the project should be tracked throughout the year and kept separate from all other revenues of the organization. The reports should clearly identify the different sources of funds and the amount corresponding to each source, and provide information on any in-kind revenues. Interest earned or received from any source related to the project during the period covered by the agreement should be declared and presented as revenue in the financial reports. Any project revenues earned or received during the period of the agreement but not initially expected should be reported immediately to the Department of Justice Canada and included in all subsequent financial reports.
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