---
id: KB-LE-015
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/legal/justifying-a-public-grant
idioma: en
categoria: sector-legal
subcategoria: administrativo
audiencia: usuario
nivel: avanzado
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-CC-013, KB-TZ-011]
citadoPor: [KB-LE-022]
---

# Justifying a public grant

_The hard part is not getting it: it is proving, two years later, that it was spent on what you said._

**Responde a:** grant justification documentation · asked to justify a grant from two years ago · what to keep for a funded project · grant audit what they ask for

A public grant has two widely separated moments: when it is applied for, with everyone paying attention, and when it is justified or reviewed — sometimes years later, with the project finished, the staff changed and the documents split across three places.

## What is asked for at justification, and when it must date from

| Element | What it proves | When it is produced |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Invoices and payments | That the expense existed and was paid | During the project |
| That it matches the grant's purpose | That it was spent on what was awarded | Decided when spending, not when justifying |
| Quotes or comparisons, where required | That the choice followed criteria | Before contracting: it cannot be redone after |
| Publicity or acknowledgements, where required | That the condition was met | During, with photographic evidence |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The third row sinks the most justifications and is the only one that **cannot be reconstructed**. If the call required several quotes before contracting and only one was sought, no document produced afterwards fixes it: the date gives it away. What must be captured is the moment before contracting, which is exactly when nobody is thinking about justification.

## How to organise it from the start

1. **One file per grant, not per project** — The project may include more spend than is funded; mixing them complicates justification.
2. **Each expense linked to its evidence from day one** — Invoice, payment and the criterion by which it falls under the grant.
3. **The call's conditions, inside and visible** — It is what nobody rereads and where the forgotten obligations live.
4. **And evidence of what is not an expense** — Photos of required publicity, minutes, attendance lists: always lost.

> [!WARNING]
> The nuance that surprises years later: **the review is not necessarily done by whoever awarded the grant, nor within the timeframe you expect**. It can come much later, from another body and with different criteria, and what is checked is what is recorded, not what you remember. That is why a grant file is kept well beyond the project's end, and kept complete.

## If something cannot be justified

**En corto**

- Saying so before they find it changes the conversation entirely.
- An expense that does not fit is withdrawn from the justification, not dressed up.
- And if part must be repaid, a voluntary partial repayment beats a review with findings.

That last is not a moral point: a justification that collapses entirely casts doubt on the rest, and the consequences usually reach beyond that particular grant.

> [!NOTE]
> What each call requires, which retention periods apply and how justification works vary by programme and authority, and change with every call. **Read the terms and confirm with your adviser**; this describes what to keep from day one so that justification is possible at all.

**What if the supplier no longer exists when the invoice is requested?**

You hold the invoice: what matters is having kept it, not that they survive.

**Does an email count as a quote comparison?**

It depends on the terms; keep it anyway, dated, and ask before contracting.

**How long must it be kept?**

Longer than the project lasts, and considerably longer than people assume.

## Ejemplos

**A company faces a review of a three-year-old grant and is asked for the compared quotes.**

- On the next grant, files the quotes before contracting

→ Justification stops depending on reconstructing something only capturable at the time.

**The claim is prepared at the end of the project.**

- Stores supporting documents as they are generated

→ The claim is prepared without a campaign.

**A supporting document from a year ago is missing.**

- Records what was requested and what was obtained

→ The gap closes while it is easy.

**Supporting documents are spread across departments.**

- Gathers everything in the project's file

→ What is there and what is missing is visible at once.

**A cost turns out not to fit when claiming.**

- Checks eligibility when recording the cost

→ The problem is caught while it can be corrected.

**A review asks years later.**

- Keeps the complete file with its date

→ You answer from the archive.