Reporting period

The project is divided into reporting periods, usually 12 or 18 months. At the end of each, the consortium submits a periodic report: a technical part describing the work done against Annex 1, and financial statements from every beneficiary declaring their costs for the period.

The deadline is short (typically 60 days after the period ends) and it lands when everyone is busy with the next phase of work. The coordinator must collect, check and consolidate contributions from every partner inside that window, which in practice means asking for them well before the period closes.

The technical part is judged against what Annex 1 promised, not against what turned out to be interesting. Deliverables due in the period must be delivered or explained; deviations must be described honestly and justified. Reviewers are generally reasonable about changed circumstances and unforgiving about silence.

The financial statements are per beneficiary and each partner certifies its own. The coordinator cannot fix a partner's numbers, only chase them, which is why a partner with weak internal accounting delays payment for everyone in the consortium.

Payment follows acceptance, not submission. Questions from the project officer suspend the clock, and a report that needs revision can add months to the payment date. The consortium that treats reporting as an administrative afterthought discovers the consequence in its own cash flow.