Reporting for a Horizon 2020 project

[matthias]

@alberto

What it gives us more is some redundant information like “natural person” and “supervisor name” (they should both be in the contract).

It’s not my fault that this stuff is required. Look into the list and template with the Commission’s minimum requirements for time recording sheets that you posted above.

To add this information to reports generated by FreeAgent, Marina would have to copy & paste it into a word processor document and then use SignRequest without templates. That’s arguably worse.

In addition, the reports generated by (for example) my time tracker do not contain the required information that is already in the FreeAgent report. And I’m not going to switch to FreeAgent because that is pure form filling: copy & pasting numbers daily or weekly from a proper desktop software that can be toggled in the taskbar. So there has to be a way to let people use a time tracker of their choice, and this is so far the best I came up with.

Edit: We also save the form filling for the yearly financial reporting, as we can take over the form data exported from SignRequest. This only works when using SignRequest templates, though. Without a single dedicated tool for time tracking, there will always be some form filling, so the question becomes who has to do it. So far our “policy” with FreeAgent access etc. has been to let collaborators do it, as much as possible.

@marina

When it comes to invoices I attach then both the signed template and the pdf “detailed time reporting data” or just one of those two?

There is no official requirement to attach timesheets to the invoices. We do it to make the work of an auditor simpler. I’m not sure what makes sense here, so I defer to @alberto for this. Options include:

• Attaching only the signed template, which would be enough as it contains all the minimum information for EC time reporting,

• In addition, attaching the “detailed time reporting data” PDF, which would be better as it also explains in more detail to the auditor what was done when.

• In addition to both of the above, also attaching the SignRequest audit log PDF, which means that an auditor would not have to look into SignRequest itself (except he or she is more knowledgeable about computers and knows that any audit log PDF that is not cryptographically signed can be forged and modified).

@marina

This new process with the template now means we need to re-do all the timesheets already signed for May?

Not really, as we certainly don’t want to re-do timesheets signed on paper either. It has to be ok that our process was evolving in the beginning.

[marina]

I sent the example of our timesheet (pdf generated from the FreeAgent) and received feedback from the UCL - it seems fine for them. They also provided a document related to audit procedures (uploaded on the Drive).

[matthias]

Uhm ok, I feel a bit like playing “What the customer really wanted” with the Commision now

So if you want, you can make some changes to the process as it stands, according to that new information. I don’t care too much, as long as the process is ok for the client and works for you and the signed documents are stored orderly.

Ideally the process should also allow people to use a time tracker of their choice rather than locking us in with proprietary SaaS software like FreeAgent. But that’s not essential – right now, I think only me and Daniel use a different time tracker, and since I have full access I can always create the sign requests for the two of us all by myself.

[marina]

ok, let’s try without template+attached timesheet and go only with the timesheet either from the FreeAgent or any other timetracker as long as it contains relevant information such as grant number etc. I’ll edit this step above and make sure I name each file correctly in the signrequest so it’s not messy. Thanks Matt!

[alberto]

@matthias heads up: today I edited this wiki to document a process that I think is useful for monitoring projects. It is based on a combination of FreeAgent’s data export feature and pivot tables on G Sheets.

Maybe this process is “good enough” for reporting, and you can save the time necessary to develop a reporting tool?

[amelia]

@community_wiki

• • No need to attach timesheets. You do not have to attach the signed timesheets to your invoice PDF. Anyone who needs to check your invoice can look at the official version of these timesheets in SignRequest resp. on paper.

@alberto @matthias, @marina, there is contradictory information in this manual. The manual for invoicing says (correctly, I believe) that all H2020 invoices require that timesheets be attached. This says there is no need to do that. I think we should stick to requiring timesheets, for when we get audited and for easier/less error-prone invoice review by the person approving it.

@community_wiki

• Upload in “Attachment” the file of your invoice in PDF file format.If your invoice is about a Horizon 2020 project, note that it has to include a timesheet, according to this process (in there, section “2.2. Creating an invoice for your worktime”).

2.2 also doesn’t exist in the H2020 manual anymore.

[marina]

This happened because at one point we tried to make it easier and drop one step, but I agree after the whole experience it’s important to keep this rule.

Manuals need revision. And that’s on my list for the upcoming month, to improve our management procedures…

[amelia]

I’m revising this now, just wanted to make sure that we are on the same page