The European Commission has published an updated template of the Certificate on the Financial Statements (CFS) also known as the ‘audit certificate’. The main change concerns the addition of the “agreed-upon procedures checklist” specifying general eligibility conditions and ineligible costs for each cost category.
As a reminder, a CFS is obligatory for all Horizon Europe beneficiaries (and Affiliated Entities) that request an EU contribution of at least €430,000 for the entire duration of the project. It does not apply to MSCA grants (using unit costs) and for projects receiving lump sum funding.
The cost for a CFS is eligible under “other goods, works or services” (category C.3) and should be budgeted at the proposal stage.