Starting in July of 2023, all TerraFund partners must submit a simple annual financial report. In the article below, you can find more information on how to complete your reports. After reviewing this article, if you have any questions about this process, please reach out to our team via WhatsApp or at info@terramatch.org.
DOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE HERE:
Why are we asking for a financial report?
For its first cohort, TerraFund for AFR100 is distributing $15,000,000 USD in loans and grants over the course of 7 years, and it is important that both project developers and donors have a collective view on how this money is spent. This information will allow us to analyze spending across the AFR100 portfolio in a more consistent and standardized way.
When do I need to fill it out and how often?
Reports are to be filled out and submitted in July every year. This report covers expenses between Jan 1 through Dec 31 during the previous calendar year and is submitted during each year of the TerraFund project. Partners are to submit a financial report every year for the duration of their grant or loan, whether that is 6 or 7 years.
Can I add lines to the budget template or modify the categories in any way?
No, you are required to fill out the financial report and map your expenses according to the category definitions found in the "definitions" tab of the template. We understand that each organization tracks expenses in a different way, but we need to analyze the data and therefore need a comparable format across each project.
Do you require receipts or any other proof of payment with the financial report?
No. While TerraFund reserves the right to ask for additional financial documentation, we do not require project developers to submit receipts or other proof of transactions.
For guidance on how to complete your financial report, please review the instructional video below:
Step-by-step guide for the TerraFund for AFR100 Financial Report Template workbook:
- Insert your organization’s name and project information (rows 6-10)
- Insert the appropriate reporting period (line 15)
- Insert the total approved budget (inclusive of Years 1-6/7) in USD in column B.
- Enter the annual expenses for the following categories on the summary page in the Year 1 column.
Personnel/Salaries
This includes the salaries and benefits associated with staff officially and legally employed by the implementing organization. This should cover only those staff who are actively working on the project.
Community Engagement & Capacity Building
This line includes all work to mobilize smallholder farmers and other community members that will contribute to the project, along with any conference or training costs.
Monitoring & Reporting
This line includes costs associated with collecting the information needed to establish sites and submit reports on the TerraMatch platform, along with expenses related to data collection, in-field monitoring and evaluation work. Crucially, this includes expenses related to producing high-quality geospatial shapefiles of each restoration site. There should be a modest budget for this line for each year of the project. Note that monitoring professionals will independently analyze progress within each site; this budget line should not include that data analysis.
Communications
This line includes all communications and marketing expenses related to the project, e.g., printed materials and website development.
Local Transportation
This line includes the costs of local travel undertaken within the project area, including per-diems for staff and drivers, fuel, mileage etc. External travel, including all flights and international conferences, must be either covered by the organization's overhead or by requesting additional funding from the assigned project manager.
Administrative Expenses & Indirect Costs
This line includes all the costs that will go toward the management of your organization. It is expected that these expenses will be shared across multiple projects, but the reported cost should only include the relevant proportion of the costs for this TerraFund project. It is expected that many partners will include different types of costs in this section but some examples would be office space, phones, internet, etc.
- Enter the individual expenses for the following categories in the 'YR1_Detailed Expense Report' tab. Within each category, list the line item, cost per unit, and quantity. The “total cost” will auto calculate and auto populate into the summary tab. *Repeat this step annually utilizing the appropriate “YRX_Detailed Expense Report” tab found in the workbook*
External Contractors
This includes any work that may be outsourced to other organizations or individual contractors and must involve formal contracts for goods or services rendered. This should not be a significant portion of the budge and must be justified.
Seedlings Cost
This line includes the costs of growing seedlings in a nursery or purchasing them from a third party. This should include payments to community members that care for seedlings but are not formally employed. For natural regeneration projects, this cost should be 0.
Tree Nursery Management
This line includes all construction, management, and expansion costs of nurseries managed by this project. If the project does not operate its own nurseries, this cost should be 0. This should include payments to community members that construct or manage nurseries but are not formally employed.
Site Preparation
This line includes all of the start-up costs related to work within the project's restoration sites, including clearing vegetation, fencing, buidling infrastructure, and preparing the ground for planting. This should include payments to community members that work on preparation but are not formally employed by the organization. Note that this can include buying land, but projects that do not have access to land already are less likely to be selected for funding.
Tree Planting
This line includes all of the costs associated with planting trees on prepared sites. For natural regeneration projects, this cost should be 0. This should include payments to community members that work on planting but are not formally employed by the organization.
Tree & Site Maintenance
This line includes all work on the site after the initial restoration work is complete to ensure that the trees grow to full health, in line with the proposal. This should include payments to community members that work on maintenance but are not formally employed by the organization. There should be a modest budget for this line for each year of the project.
Material Inputs
This line includes expenses for materials that improve the livelihoods of communities but are not related to nursery management, site preparation, or tree management, e.g., processing machinery, bee hives, and water pumps. This should be a modest portion of the budget.
Other Project Costs
Other costs must remain less than 5% of the total project costs and be directly related to implementation, but they must not be included in one of the above categories. They must be clearly defined in the project proposal.
- Following the instructions at the top of the tab, fill in the “Employee Registry” tab. Every employee working on this project should be listed along with the relevant information asked for in columns B-L. You will be asked to provide the following information about each employee:
Hired Before or After Funding Received
You will indicate if the employee in question was hired before you received funding for this project.
Name
Indicate the legal name of the employee, as it appears on your organization's ledger.
Age Range
Indicate if the employee is between 18 and 35 years old, between 36 and 64 years old, or older than 65 years old.
Employment Type
Indicate if the employee is a full-time and permanent employee, a part-time and permanent employee, a temporary/casual/seasonal employee, or an unpaid volunteer.
Remuneration Type
Indicate how the employee is paid, either through 1) an hourly or daily wage, 2) a monthly or yearly salary, 3) a commission [paid percentage from sales or work done by an employee], or 4) an incentive [monetary or non-monetary compensation, often irregular].
Amount Paid
Please convert this into USD, at the official exchange rate at the time of the report.
Payment Terms
Indicate how often the amount paid is provided to the employee.
Percentage of Total Labor Allocated to This Project
Indicate the percentage (%) of this employee's work was dedicated to this project in particular.
Start Date of Employment
Indicate the day when the employee started working at your organization.
End Date of Employment
If an employee was not longer employed by the organization during the reporting period, indicate the date when employment ended.
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