As our series continues on how to get the best from grant schemes across the North East, John Atkinson looks at how we support you post project and guides you through the claim process. Your funding partner is here to help and good communication is key to successful funding.
Grants are funded from public money and have come from everyone’s tax payments. As such we all want to see that value for money has been achieved and that there has been a benefit to the wider economy.
A grant is a payment to you for work undertaken or a capital purchase made which will help you to grow your business. At some stage you will be ready to submit a claim for payment. This should be straightforward if you follow the guidance that you will have received on the acceptable method of payment – do not ignore this advice – you could risk losing the funding with such an error or indeed could incur delays in payment.
Evidence that payments have been made to your nominated supplier/consultant along with copies of their invoices are usual requirements. Some may ask for project logs, pictures of capital items, item numbers and a number of other elements.
This information needs to be collated and sent within the timescale laid out in the Funding Contract. If this is not in order, there will be delays in getting your payment approved and sent to your bank account.
The funding procedure can be straightforward if you follow the guidelines. As always, if you are in any doubt about the process or what is required, ask the funder and they can help you to get your claim right first time.
With the project complete, the claim submitted and the grant paid, there are still obligations for you as part of the funding agreement.
Grant bodies need to be able to report on the impact of their investment by gathering impact data from recipients after projects have completed. Often this can be several months after the completion of the actual work as the measures are not usually available immediately (jobs created/turnover).
It is vital to continue to supply this information. The deal with any grant is that for the money you receive, you provide information in a timely way to the funders. You may also be asked to acknowledge the grant on a notice in your place of work, if you have received a grant for a capital project.
Don’t forget, the more information you provide, you could increase your chances of being picked for a case study – a great opportunity to show how your business is growing or changing with the chance of getting free publicity in different ways.
NBSL have a number of support programmes available to businesses across the North East.
The North East Business Support Fund is now live for applications and more information can be found here https://www.nbsl.org.uk/nebsf
