How to submit a Big Local spend report

We send spend report forms to you to fill in according to your payment schedule, which is in your offer letter – usually every five to six months. They allow you to report on the spend of your most recent payment. Once we receive the report we let you know by email whether we will release or hold the next payment. This depends upon different factors, including whether payment has been requested, how much underspend you are holding, what your commitments are for the coming period, and whether conditions set out in your offer letter have been met.  

At the end of a grant, and once the first payment of your next grant has been made, we will send an end of spend report form. This allows us to confirm the total spend of the grant. Once we receive this we calculate how much is either underspent (which we ask you to return to us for the partnership’s future use) or overspent/committed (which we can pay to you if the partnership has not drawn down all of the grant amount). We’ll inform you by email and will close the grant once the outstanding funding has been settled. We do not cover any spend above the amount of a grant.  

If you find that you need the next payment earlier than scheduled, please let us know at least 2-3 weeks in advance. We’ll send you a spend report form to fill out. 

1. Finding the report  

In the month before the next payment is due, you will receive an email with a request to complete a spend report. This will be copied to the chair of your Big Local partnership and your rep. If you click on the link in the email it will take you to the Community where you will be asked to log in. Enter your username and password as normal.  

Alternatively, you can also log in to the Community at any time and if there is a spend report due soon this will appear on your “To-do list” on the Community homepage.  

2. Open the report

On your To-do list you will see funding conditions, spend reports and plan reviews which are due for your Big Local area(s).

Open the report by clicking on the text in green, this will take you through to the first page of the report which explains the reporting process. Click ‘Save and Continue’ in the bottom right to go to the next page.

3.  Enter the reporting dates

Select your start and end dates of the report by clicking the calendar icon in the relevant box and selecting the date.

• Your report should start from the day after your last report ended, so there are no gaps. You will be reporting against a £0 payment if we did not release your last payment for any reason.
• For the end date, you can choose a recent convenient date. Note that you should only report to a date in the past.

Your progress will be saved when you click ‘Save and Continue’ in each section, and you can navigate to the previous page by clicking ‘Back’. You can save and return to the form at a later time at any stage.

4.  Enter the spend figures

Tell us how much has been spent against the budget during the period in question. You’ll see a read-only overview of your entire budget and a second budget table below for the specific payment you are reporting on.

In the second budget table you’ll see the amount that was paid to you and a box to enter the spent figure, the variance column displays how much has been over or under-spent. The total spent and variance columns at the bottom will calculate as you enter your spent figures.

On this page tell us your projected spend for the next 6 months, or 3 months where your grant is on quarterly reporting and payments basis. This doesn’t have to be exact but is to give an indication of how much payment you need and whether there are any variations to your budget.

Similarly, to the previous page you will see a read-only overview of your budget and second budget table below for you to enter your projected spend for the next two payments. Note you’ll be able to amend the projected spend for future payments when you report again.

5.  Answer the questions

Answer the four questions on this page, if you have any supporting information you can upload it on the next page.

Please state clearly in question 6 if you would like us to agree a significant variation to your budget. You can also apply for a variation under the “Manage your funding” section of the Community.

This includes: moving large amounts between budget headings, adding a new budget heading, requesting additional funding or extending the funding period by up to 6 months. We will check that the change is in line with your plan, ask for evidence the partnership has agreed (such as minutes from a Partnership meeting or an email from the Chair) and ask how we should reflect the change in your payment schedule.

6.  Upload files

If you have any supporting documents that you want to send us, upload them here.

Please do attach your more detailed budget, this could be for example a spreadsheet, financial information you’ve shared with the partnership or a report from your finance management system showing a breakdown of expenditure against the payment.

7. Preview and submit

On this page you can preview the information submitted in the spend report before submitting. Note you can download a printable version of the report by clicking on the print icon.

If you need to make any changes, click the ‘Back’ button and you can return to previous pages. Otherwise click ‘Submit’.

When we receive your report we’ll get in touch with you with any questions and to discuss making the payment (usually via email).

You should allow at least a couple of weeks for the payment to be processed, but this may take longer. You should flag it with us if a payment is urgently needed.

If you have any questions about new reports, please contact the funding team on biglocal@localtrust.org.uk.