Financial Management, Budgeting and Audit of Donor-Funded Projects

Course overview

Donor-funded projects bring vital resources to governments, NGOs and community organisations, but they also bring demanding rules on budgets, eligible costs, procurement, reporting and audit. Weak financial management leads to disallowed costs, delayed disbursements and lost funding. This donor-funded projects financial management course gives finance and programme staff the skills to manage grants with confidence.

Over two weeks, participants work through the full grant cycle: understanding donor requirements, preparing project budgets and proposals, setting up accounts and cost codes, managing cash and disbursements, procurement under donor rules, and safeguarding project assets. They then cover financial reporting to donors, reconciliations, cost allocation and shared costs, fraud prevention, monitoring of compliance and preparing for donor and statutory audits. Practical work uses realistic grant agreements and budgets from health, agriculture and governance projects.

Participants leave able to plan, manage, report and audit donor-funded projects to the standard development partners expect.

What you will be able to do

• Interpret donor financial and compliance requirements
• Prepare project budgets and financial proposals
• Set up accounting systems and cost codes for grants
• Manage cash, disbursements and procurement under donor rules
• Allocate shared costs fairly and defensibly
• Prepare accurate financial reports for donors
• Prevent fraud and manage project assets
• Prepare for and respond to donor and statutory audits

Who should attend

For finance, grants and programme staff in government projects, NGOs and community organisations that receive donor funding.

• Project accountants
• Finance managers
• Grants managers
• Programme managers
• Procurement officers in projects
• Internal auditors
• NGO directors
• Project implementation unit staff

Course outline

Week 1

Week 2

Fees are per participant in US dollars and cover tuition, course materials and your certificate. Travel and accommodation are not included.