This video guide addresses the financial aspects of the mobility project.
The financial administration of a mobility during its enactment can be a fairly simple or complex process, that depends on the sending organization’s experience and the preparations taken in earlier stages. For example, if an organization has carefully calculated all aspects of the mobility in regard to transportation, accommodation, diet but also the educational and cultural activities then the administration of the mobility’s finances becomes easier.
If for some reason this approach is not viable then well-organized supervision and financial management is needed during the mobility’s course.
For this reason, the sending organization appoints a person who partakes in the mobility (as a participant, or an attendant) to take on the role of the financial officer of the mobility. The officer in conjunction with the project’s administrator are the two persons responsible for the financial management of the mobility. It is advised to schedule a meeting between the two prior to the mobility to discuss matters such as the available budget per category, which aspects of the mobility have been paid beforehand and the expected use of budget on expenditures. For example, if the plane tickets have been paid before the mobility but the travel expenditures of going from the airport to the hotel have hot. In this instance the person responsible for the mobility knows that he will have to get 10 tickets costing 2 euros each, so the total expenditure accumulates to about 20 euro after arriving at the country.
In most cases payments can be issued through a credit card, which is also helpful considering the records of purchase history greatly benefits our monitoring process. Unfortunately, not all payments can be made in with a credit card, for this reason the person responsible should have reserve a portion of the total expenditures budget in the form of cash.
For this reason, an excel file is created beforehand, in which the person responsible can keep a record of all transactions. The recording process takes place mostly at the end of the day. This file should be available in the cloud storage space, in our case we use OneDrive, so we can instantly and efficiently update all information and provide access to both. This allows us to simplify the budget’s monitoring and the immediate application of corrective measures. For example, if for some reason in one of the mobility’s dates spending surpasses the pre-calculated amount, there will be a readjustment of the available budget so we can stay within limits. On the other hand, if a day’s spending amounts to less than the pre-calculated amount, then we can use the remaining budget for food or other activities the next days.
The excel file includes two tabs.
The first one is split in half and contains the original budget per category but also an estimation of requirements per category.
The second tab, which we’ll talk about in detail, includes the actual spending that occurs during the mobility. Each row represents an expense. There we record specific information for the given expenditure, such as company’s name, the type of company, date of transaction, the amount, cost per unit, overall cost and the method of payment used. The expenses are categorized as such: Main transportation – usually this section includes records of airplane tickets, local transportation – transportation from and to the airport, metro tickets, bus tickets etc. expenses on things such as snacks, café and finally food expenses. These categories are divided between and are recognizable by their assigned color.
Furthermore, there is the possibility for the automated recognition of a transaction regarding the payment method (credit/debit card or cash).
The result of this process is the instantaneous monitoring of expenses regarding the payment method. In practice, this tool gives us real time information at any moment and helps in keeping track of the balance between cash and credit card transactions.
Finally, at the bottom of the sheet, there is a sum of all expenses, in which we can create different calculation and logical statements for the most efficient financial administration.
