Accounts (EAFRD, EAGF)
PURPOSE OF THIS FUNCTIONALITY
This document describes the specifications of the use-cases related to the electronic submission by the Member States of information for the purpose of the EAFRD/EAGF Clearance of Accounts (known as only 'Accounts' in SFC) procedure as defined in article 30 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014 (laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013)
Article 30
Transmission of information
1. For the purpose of the clearance of accounts pursuant to Article 51 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, each Member State shall send to the Commission:
(a) The items included in the annual accounts, as referred to in Article 29 of this Regulation;
(b) The opinion and reports established by the certification body or bodies, as referred to in Article 5(3) and (4) of this Regulation;
(c) Complete records of all the accounting information required for statistical and control purposes;
(d) The management declaration as referred to in Article 3 of this Regulation;
2. 2. The documents and the accounting information referred to in paragraph 1 shall be sent to the Commission by 15 February at the latest of the year following the end of the financial year to which they relate. The documents referred to in points (a), (b) and (d) of that paragraph shall be sent in one copy together with an electronic copy in accordance with the format and under the conditions established by the Commission pursuant to Article 24.
CONCERNED FUNDS
EAFRD, EAGF
USER ROLES AND PERMISSIONS NEEDED
You need to be an identified user in SFC2014 and you need to have the role of EC Audit Agent with Update access in order to perform the following actions:
- Return Accounts for modification by EC
- Set Modifiable Accounts sections
- Close Accounts
- Reopen accounts
In order to just consult the documents you need to have the role of EC Audit Agent or EC Operational Agent.
For consulting documents defined as containing personal data, you need also the role of EC Account Personal Data.
BEFORE YOU START, CHECK THAT…
The Accounts have been sent to the Commission: The status is set to ‘SENT’ and the current node is 'European Commission'
Workflow
This section shows the lifecycle to create and manage the Accounts for EAFRD/EAGF.
If the Commission rejects a set of accounts, they are returned and a new version has to be created and go through the whole process. However the MS can also decide to create and send a new version of the Accounts immediately after they sent the previous version even if this previous version has not been returned by the Commission
There are no modifying Accounts once they have been submitted by the Member State. The Commission cannot change a set of accounts – only respond.
Documents
Document Types
The following EC document types will be foreseen:
|
Description |
Legal base |
Internal Code |
Direction |
Integral |
System |
Required |
Structured |
Validated |
Pers. data |
Registered |
|
Official Commission's Observations |
|
ACA.OCO |
EC2MS |
Y |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
Y |
|
EC Closure Letter |
|
ACA.CLO |
EC2MS |
Y |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
Y |
|
Other Commission Document |
|
ACA.OC |
EC2MS |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
Y |
|
Other Commission Internal Document |
|
ACA.OI |
ECInternal |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
Y |
|
Acknowledgment of Receipt |
|
ACK.ACASNT |
EC2MS |
Y |
Y |
Y |
N |
N |
N |
Y |
|
EC reply to MS letter to request an extension of the deadline for the accounts |
|
ACA.EEX |
EC2MS |
Y |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
Y |
|
Remark |
In order to download in a zip file the documents uploaded by the MS, you can use the 'Search documents' feature available in the menu Utilities. You can search a document by - document group; - document type; - title; - Commission reference (Ares number); Documents set as containing personal data are not registered in ARES - by attachment title; pattern=Version.Workversion_PAcode_DocType_sequence_WCSVversion Ex: 2017.10_CZ01_FBP.XTAB_005_18.1.01 possibility to use wild card % Ex: 2017.%_CZ01_% |
Upload using Commission/ARES Reference
As a Commission user you can import your document directly from ARES to be uploaded in SFC2014 by entering the ARES reference number in the Commission Reference field (in the documents section). The ARES number will be immediately validated.
1. Enter the following information:
(1) Enter the Document Type (if applicable)
(2) Enter the Title
(3) Enter the Document Date
(4) Enter the Commission Reference ARES number
The system will detect the document(s) from ARES and the attachments will be automatically uploaded
(5) Click Update or Update & Send to confirm the action
The "Update & Send" button will only be shown for documents which are not integral part of the Accounts and after at least one attachment was added. Clicking "Update & Send" will update the data, set the Document as being sent and closes the window.
|
Remark |
If you get an "invalid ARES number" (the number cannot be found in ARES), check the ARES number has been entered correctly: Ares(2015)+digits with no space. If the ARES reference has been entered correctly, then check that the Document has been filed correctly in ARES. If the problem persists, please provide us with the document ARES number, the 'type' of document you are trying to upload in SFC2014, and the CCI of the Programme. We can then verify if there is a problem with the registration. |
Hiding Attachments Uploaded from ARES
Attachments can also be hidden once the Commission Documents have been imported from ARES, so that the receiver will not be able to view them:
2. Scroll right and select the Hide Content option and click on Update to hide the attached file
|
Remark |
If the ARES document has already been sent it cannot be deleted, but the sender can decide to hide the content for the Member State in case of an erroneous and/or accidental send. The ARES document must be a non-integral document. |
Action Options
1. Login to https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/sfc2014/frontoffice/ui
2. To access into the Accounts (EAFRD, EAGF) section, first click on the Execution link in the menu and then on the Accounts (EAFRD, EAGF) link .
Choose the Accounts EAFRD, EAGF Accounts version you want from the list in the search screen and click on Show accounts link
A number of Action Options are available:
Return for modification by commission
Return Accounts for modification by EC
An EC Audit Agent with Update access is allowed to return for modification the Accounts EAFRD, EAGF version containing missing elements or found incorrect and needs to be modified by the MS. The Accounts have been Sent to the Commission by the Member State.
The version can be returned for modification by EC only if it is the last version sent for this Accounting Year (no new version created by the MS).
1. Click on the Return for modification by commission link:
The system will ask you to confirm the action.
During return by the Commission, you can optionally add a document "Official Commission's Observations" with attachments that will be send together with the return action to the Member State.
This can be done either by using the Commission Reference ARES number OR by manually uploading the documents.
During return by the Commission, you can also indicate the sections for which the documents can or cannot be modified anymore by the MS in the next version(s). (See 'Set Modifiable' action)
Attach EC Official Commission’s Observations
After clicking on the Return for modification link the confirmation screen appears:
2. Enter the following information:
Enter the Reason for return
Select the modifiable elements in next version
Enter the Title
Select the document date
Enter the Commission Reference ARES number
The system will detect the document(s) from ARES and the attachments will be automatically uploaded
OR (to manually upload attachments):
Click on the Add button 
to add
the incomplete submission documents
Enter the Title
Enter the Language
Select the file to upload from your PC
Click Yes to confirm the action and send the return for modification documents to the Member State.
The status will be 'Return for modification by EC'.
Set Modifiable
As soon as least one document is submitted to EC within a Clearance of Accounts version (for instance version 2017.0) by a MS, the section to which the document belongs become 'not modifiable' in the next Accounts versions (2017.1; 2017.2, etc...) This prevents the MS to submit new version of a document whereas the previous is under analysis by EC.
However, a Commission user with the role of EC Audit Agent with Update access has the possibility to set the sections that can or cannot be modified by the MS in their next Clearance of Accounts version(s) for this Accounting Year.
|
Remark |
The Clearance of Accounts version is in a status 'Sent' to EC node or 'Returned for modification by EC', The Clearance of Accounts version is the latest one at EC node for this Accounting Year. When the Clearance of Accounts version is not the last version for the Accounting Year, then elements can only be set, not un-set because un-setting could interfere with actions by the MS on enabled elements. The MS can always send new version for documents that belong to 'X-Table data' and the 'General>Documents' sections (These sections are always set as modifiable). Non-modifiable section are is displayed in light grey (see example below). |
1. Click on the Set modifiable link by opening the last version:
The Edit modification settings pop-up window appears:
2. Enter the following information:
Tick the checkbox for the modifiable elements in next version.
Click Yes to confirm.
The system displays the detailed view of the Accounts version with a message informing of the success of the action
On success, the checkboxes indicate the sections for which the documents can be modified in a next version. The status doesn't change.
Close Accounts
This situation can occurs when a Commission user with the role of EC Audit Agent Update wants to close a Clearance of Accounts Version created by the Member State.
|
Remark |
The Accounts must be in a status ‘Open’. During the close by the Commission, you can optionally add a document "EC Closure Letter" with attachments that will be send together with the return action to the Member State. |
1. Click on the Close link:
The Confirm close pop-up window appears:
2. Enter the following information:
Enter the Reason for clousure.
Enter the Title
Select the document date
Enter the Commission Reference ARES number
The system will detect the document(s) from ARES and the attachments will be automatically uploaded
OR (to manually upload attachments):
Click on the Add button to add
the incomplete submission documents
Enter the Title
Enter the Language
Select the file to upload from your PC
Click Yes to confirm the action and send the return for modification documents to the Member State.
SFC2014 displays the detailed view of the Clearance of Accounts version with a message informing of the success of the close action.
On success, the Accounts version status was set to 'Closed'.
Reopen Accounts
An EC Audit Agent with Update access is allowed to reopen the Accounts version in order to undo the last action performed on the Accounts by returning to the previous status of the Accounts version.
The Accounts version is in a status ‘Closed’ and no more recent Accounts Version Financial Year exist.
1. Click on the Reopen link:
The system will ask you to confirm the reopen action:
2. Click Yes to confirm the action and return to the previous status.
On success, the Accounts version has been reopened and its status was set back to ‘Open’.