How do you report a funded project to the funder?

There is no single act saying how a project must be reported: the rules come from the funding contract and the funder guide. When the money is public, however, Law 350/2005 imposes firm deadlines and conditions.

Short answer

Reporting follows the form required by the funding contract, because each funder sets its own rules.
A report always has two parts: the activity report and the financial report.
For publicly funded projects, both reports are filed within 30 days of the end of the activity.
The final funding instalment is not released before the funder validates both reports.
An expense is eligible only if it is backed by a document and falls within the period set by the contract.

What the law says

The rules below apply to non-reimbursable public funding. For private funders and European programmes, the obligations come from the contract and the programme guide.

Law 350/2005 art. 37 para. (2): the final activity report and the financial report are filed within 30 days of the end of the activity.
Same provision: the last instalment is not released before both reports are validated, and validation has a 30-day term.
Art. 4 letter g): the own contribution is at least 10% of the funding value, not of the total project value.
Art. 13: eligible expenses must be justified, appropriate and contracted in the budget year in which the contract runs.
Art. 25 para. (1) and art. 38 para. (2): the budget stays fixed for the whole contract, and the Court of Accounts may audit the funding.
For cultural projects funded by AFCN, GO 51/1998 applies: the final report is due within 30 days of completion, the last instalment cannot be under 15%, and volunteer work counts as a complementary source, valued against the minimum gross wage.

Practical examples

Public funding of 50,000 lei requires an own contribution of at least 5,000 lei, so a total budget of 55,000 lei.
For a project ending on 30 September, both reports are due by 30 October.
The funder then has 30 days to validate, so the final instalment can arrive at the end of November.
An invoice issued two weeks before the contract was signed is not eligible, because the activity had already started.
A printing budget line of 8,000 lei, spent up to 9,500 lei, leaves 1,500 lei ineligible if the budget was not amended by an addendum.

Common mistakes

The financial report is written in a file separate from the expense records, and the figures stop matching.
The total spent is reported, instead of the consumption per budget line the funder asks for.
Supporting documents are collected only at the end, and some can no longer be found.
The own contribution is not documented separately, although the 10% minimum has to be proven.
The 30 days from the end of the activity are missed, and the final instalment stays unpaid.

How 4ong helps

Every project has a budget by expense line, and the consumption on each line is visible at any time.
Every expense is recorded with its supporting document attached, at the moment it occurs.
The own contribution and the funding received are tracked separately, on the same project.
Logged volunteering hours can document the part of the own contribution brought in as work.
The funder report is generated from the same data the team works with, so the figures no longer diverge.
Interim and final reporting deadlines are tracked on each funding contract.