Key Actions by:

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Standard 8: Timely and comprehensive project financial set-up.

Set up a project financial management system based on updated activity plans that supports a quick start-up and effective financial management throughout the project.

Phase:

Category:

Financial management

Key Action 1	Review the draft donor agreement to make sure that CRS can meet the donor's financial requirements.
Who	Head of operations, or finance manager if there is no HoOps, for country program-administered projects; IDEA staff for centrally-signed agreements; finance manager and other relevant country program/HQ subject-matter experts, depending on the nature and value of the award and as required by the Agreement Process Map; the deputy regional director for management quality (DRD MQ), or the IDEA staff’s supervisor; agreement owner; and regional finance officer, if requested by the DRD MQ.
When	Immediately after the donor shares the draft agreement

Key Action 2	Work with partners to assess their financial management capacity and develop improvement plans.
Who	Head of operations; project manager or chief of party; finance manager or other assigned finance or compliance staff; head of programming or other assigned programming staff; country representative.
When	For new sub-recipients or other sub-recipients requiring an updated assessment: Conduct sub-recipient financial management assessments before preparing the sub-recipient agreement, since assessment results will affect the reporting frequency specified in the agreement. Assessments may be conducted during the design stage (see Standard 3, key action 4 for more information); for externally-funded projects, it’s more common to conduct the assessment during start-up. If assessments were not completed during the design phase, complete the assessment(s) in the pre-award start-up period if possible, once there is a strong indication of a likely win.

Key Action 3	Refine the project budget based on changes in the operating context and detailed implementation planning, including all program and operations activities.
Who	Project manager/chief of party (PM/CoP); finance manager and/or finance officer or accountant; head of operations; supply chain management staff including procurement, as needed; human resources; and CRS partners
When	For budget refinements related to the operational context: Shortly after project approval and before detailed budget entry. For budget refinements related to detailed activity planning: Immediately after the detailed implementation plan development.

Key Action 4	Enter the budget into the financial system in a way that facilitates analysis and reporting.
Who	Budget manager (typically the project manager/chief of party); finance manager, head of programming, head of operations, regional staff (e.g., deputy regional director for management quality or regional finance officer)
When	Immediately after signing the agreement or receiving a pre-award letter, with updated budgets entered at the beginning of each subsequent fiscal year.

Key Action 5	Review and document project-specific financial management requirements, roles and responsibilities.
Who	Project manager/chief of party; head of operations; head of programming; finance manager and other finance staff assigned to the project (e.g. accountant, finance officer); other project staff with specific financial management responsibilities (e.g. deputy chief of party)
When	After completion of the handover from the proposal development team to the project start-up/implementation team, but before project implementation begins; ideally before the project start-up workshop.

Key Action 6	Work with partners to set up project-specific financial management and reporting processes, formats, and schedules, and orient partner staff on them.
Who	Project manager or chief of party (PM/CoP); finance manager and/or other assigned finance staff; partner staff; regional finance officer (RFO) and/or deputy regional director for management quality if needed; IDEA staff as applicable.
When	As part of signing sub-agreements and prior to transferring project funds to partners; early in the start-up phase if partners are scheduled to implement activities in the first few months of the project. For externally funded projects: Start the process upon receipt of the draft donor agreement.