Grant Claims: Build the Evidence as You Work

Convert the approval into a working checklist

Read the approval as a set of obligations. Record the applicant, activity, market, vendor, approved costs, deliverables, qualifying period and claim deadline. Identify any additional conditions that affect the project. If a term is unclear, resolve it before the team makes assumptions that later become expensive to correct.

Create one row for each deliverable. Add the evidence needed, who will supply it, when it will be available and who will review it internally. For a marketing project, this may include campaign materials and market adaptation records. For partner identification, it may include profiles and meeting documentation. For setup, it may include filings or tailored professional outputs.

Distinguish a task being finished from its evidence being complete. A meeting may have happened, but the record could still lack participants, discussion outcomes or follow-up. A registration may have been filed, but the company might not yet hold the relevant acknowledgement. Tracking those gaps during delivery is much easier than asking several people to reconstruct the project after it ends.

Use a folder structure that follows the review

Organise the file around a small number of purposes: approval, scope and vendor records, deliverables, invoices, payments, correspondence and claim submission. Use consistent names that identify the project, date and document type. Retain originals and keep explanatory summaries separate, so a reviewer can distinguish source evidence from your interpretation.

Maintain a simple index linking each approved cost to the invoice, payment reference and relevant deliverable. If one invoice contains several work items, show the allocation using the actual itemisation and agreed scope. Avoid making the reviewer infer which page or transfer belongs to which part of the claim.

Keep version control for proposals and reports. Mark the final accepted version and archive earlier drafts without mixing them into the completion pack. Store the project in a company-controlled location with appropriate access. If an employee or supplier leaves, the evidence should remain accessible. This structure also helps management understand what the business bought and whether the output can be reused operationally.

Choose evidence that demonstrates the actual activity

Evidence should establish what happened, where, when and for whose benefit. For overseas marketing, preserve the creative work and context showing adaptation to the intended audience. For trade fairs, record participation and branding. For business matching, keep meaningful partner assessments and meeting notes. For setup, retain the relevant final documents and ownership records.

The April 2026 MRA activity framework gives detailed examples, but the Letter of Offer remains central to an approved legacy project. Current EDGE activity pages and approvals define their own requirements. Use them to tailor the checklist rather than copying every possible evidence item into a large, unfocused archive.

Add concise explanations where the connection is not obvious. A brand name may differ from the applicant's registered name. A foreign-language document may require an English translation. A meeting photograph may need a dated record to establish context. Keep those explanations factual. Do not alter evidence to make the project appear different from what actually occurred, and never create attendance or performance records for events that did not happen.

Reconcile the invoice to the money that actually moved

Check each invoice against the approved supplier, scope, currency and period. Then connect it to the bank or payment record. Confirm that the payer, recipient and transaction reference can be identified. If a payment settles several invoices, prepare a reconciliation showing how the total is allocated rather than leaving the connection implicit.

Foreign-currency transactions need an intelligible trail. Preserve the original invoice and transaction record, and explain the conversion used in the claim according to the applicable instructions. Keep bank charges and other items distinct where they are not part of the approved expense. Credit notes, refunds and discounts should be reflected accurately rather than hidden inside a gross figure.

If an overseas group company is involved, establish the permitted treatment before using an intercompany arrangement. Maintain records showing which entity ultimately bears the cost and how any recharge or reimbursement occurred. Do not assume a group relationship makes all payment routes equivalent. Finance should be able to follow the money without relying on a verbal explanation from the project manager.

Resolve changes before they become a claim problem

At every milestone, compare actual delivery with the approved plan. Look for changes in supplier, country, dates, work scope and cost. A project can drift gradually as commercial decisions are made, even when nobody intends to change the grant basis. Keep a short issues log so that the team sees the cumulative effect.

Current EDGE change requests are limited to project end and claim due dates. Do not assume a vendor or market can simply be replaced within the existing approval. The scheduled portal opening for change requests is 1 November. Escalate a material issue through the appropriate programme channel and establish the correct route before committing further work.

For legacy MRA projects, consult the original procedure and approval instead of importing EDGE rules. Where evidence is missing, first locate the genuine source: the organiser, adviser, agency account or company records. Record unresolved gaps honestly. A clear explanation supported by available documents is preferable to presenting a reconstructed item as an original record.

Treat audit and grant assessment as separate stages

An audit is part of the control process; it does not turn an ineligible activity into an eligible one. The business still needs to demonstrate that the work matches its approval and that the claim is complete. Prepare the evidence file so both expenditure and delivery can be assessed on their own merits.

For the current EDGE internationalisation activities, the published process requires engagement of a panel auditor before claim submission, with submission within 14 working days of signing the audit engagement letter. Coordinate that step when the file is ready. These EDGE claims are scheduled to open from 1 December 2026; approved legacy MRA projects follow their own claim process and deadlines.

Assign an authorised company user to the portal work and keep time for internal review. A consultant can help prepare the pack, but company staff must own submissions. Record what was submitted and retain the final acknowledgement. If questions arrive, answer against the project record, reference the relevant evidence and address each issue directly rather than uploading an unexplained collection of additional files.

Close the project commercially as well as administratively

Before submission, ask a colleague unfamiliar with the work to follow the file from approval to output to payment. Their questions are useful: inconsistent names, unexplained totals and missing dates become visible quickly when someone is not relying on memory. Resolve those issues while the supplier remains available.

Keep the claim deadline separate from the project completion date in the calendar. Allow room for document collection, reconciliation and the required audit steps. After submission, monitor the named company contact and respond promptly to legitimate queries. A pending claim should remain on the finance team's working list until its outcome and any payment are reconciled.

When the project is closed, retain the records for the period required by the applicable terms. Transfer useful outputs to the people who will use them: sales contacts to the commercial team, brand assets to marketing and setup documents to the responsible administrator. The overseas project planning guide helps connect this final review to the next expansion decision. Good evidence should support the business beyond a single claim.

Frequently asked questions