Accounting Reporting France

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

More bout the problem:

In Fund 6 (2021), together with other team members, we got 2 proposals funded, I also got rewards being a CA at that fund. 

This situation was a simple use case of an initial relatively small amount of founding. Yet reporting it was quite complex. Here are some of the questions that came when discussing with the accountant:

• What is Blockchain/Cardano/Catalyst 
• They obviously heard about blockchain and have some clients that are trading crypto but not earning money in Crypto
• Where the money is coming from? Who is the entity that should be on the invoice?
• Who owns the wallet? The team working on the project? Me as a person? Or my company?   
• Is it a personal income or a company income?
• How do we deal with ADA price volatility? Do we calculate also financial gains and losses?
• The laws are different for students? 
• How do get funds to our bank account? What will be the process for it?

Each answer above has a different path to follow and also brings more questions such as:

• How do we manage the wallets?
• If needed, how do we convert ADA to Euro? The exchange account needs to be a private one or a company one, or do we need both?
• If the project is done with other companies, and I am a project lead/or not how the accounting is done between the companies. In each case how to report the projects revenue?
• How do we deal with staking income?
• Should I report a wallet address as any bank account I need to officially report?
• How do we report payments in ADA for services provided by other community members and who prefers to receive ADA?

For 2021 reporting the accountet suggested a temporary path which is not very beneficial for me over time and we are aiming to work in Q4 on the path for the reporting of 2022. One major complication of the reporting is the volatility of the market which is obliged to keep track of the exchange rate for reporting while transferring funds between different platforms. I.e. project is $ but we receive ADA, transfer to an exchange, convert ADA to Euro, and send to the bank account. 

If 2021 reporting was challenging with initial revenue, 2022 is going to be extremely challenging. As part of the team is working full time on Catalyst, we are grateful to be involved in many exciting funded projects, but this will be very challenging for the 2022 reporting and tax payments.  

Here are some examples:

• Geneva Business development hub: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/384221 where I am a lead proposer
• C4C hub operation: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/404971 where I am part of a community 
• Traveler ID: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/399697 and the project was done with 2 companies eRevMax.com and Proofspace.io 

These different proposals provide different scenarios that need to be evaluated.

The Solution:

In France, there are two main types of financial reporting. 1. Reporting as a company, in case you have one 2. Reporting as an individual - is obligatory for every French residence.       

The solution will be to work together with my accountant and as needed also engage a lawyer and define the various pathways for the revenue and expenses declaration both as an individual with resilience in France as well as a company registered in France 

The solution will include building tools and processes that could apply also for other countries. For example, a process to send funds to a bank account.

We will also reach out to teams working in other countries as well as with IOG and Cardano foundation teams to coordinate best practices. For example, around invoicing.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

How can we build effective solutions to explore and provide legal & financial services and support to funded Proposers.

The process I am going through now will be relevant for individuals and companies in France both from an accounting perspective as well as legal. It will also be helpful information for other countries as a basic model that can be adjusted per country.

Providing funded proposals with solutions and services to operate legally in their residing country will open new possibilities and provide peace of mind to the project owners. Many projects will broaden their horizons and increase their impact on the Ecosystem once legal and financial frameworks are explored and established. This will in turn promote adoption and improve product ownership. There is a need to get accountants and lawyers into the Cardano & Catalyst Ecosystem.

The above is defined in the challenge setting, and this is exactly my status and the solution we wish to provide to others.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

Risk 1: French regulation regarding crypto - having crypto trading and revenue from work at the same regulation. To mitigate this issue, we will try to work together with the accountant on a pathway and terminology that meet possible processes that are already in practice.  

Risk 2: The source of funds is not clear and therefore will make it more complicated to define the process or will categorize the revenue is not an advantageous tax situation. To mitigate it, we will coordinate with CF and IO as well as with other proposals for other countries that are working on the same issue 

Risk 3: The French system is complex and we might not cover all the use cases. What we will do is define the status and pathways for the various scenarios so it will be possible to track in case any scenario was not covered.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

The timing is perfect, as the results of fund 9 are expected by September and Q4 2022 and Q1 2023 will be the months to coordinate the 2022 reporting. 

The road map is as follows:

Past

• Q4 2021 - initial revenue proposals Fund 6, CA
• Q1 2022 
• initial discussions with the accountant and explanation of the situation
• More revenue from Catalyst activities fund 7, CA, VCA
• Q2 2022
• Finalize with the accountant 2021 reporting (relatively small amount and not that complex yet)
• More revenue from Catalyst activities fund 8, CA, VCA
• Starting to be more complex to manage the accounting of multi-project and staking rewards
• Starting to implement a multi-wallet approach per project 
• Recording ledger of all financial activities

Going forward - this proposal

• Q3 2022
• Continue ledger recording and develop procedures for recording income based on various scenarios of revenue and expenses
• Q 4 2022
• A 2 hours Bi-weekly meeting with the accountant to map and coordinate best ledger recording practices based on various scenarios (keeping in ADA, sending to the private account, sending to company account, expenses, or invoice partner companies…)
• Between meetings - verification by the accountant of best practices with authorities and colleagues
• Between meetings - preparation of materials and information based on the accountant's request
• 2 sessions with legal advice
• Q 1 2023
• Monthly meeting with the accountant 
• Finalize recording all required information for 2022 
• Design with the accountant multiple pathways
• Final report presenting the results of the research and the tools used to register the information

• Q1 2023 - Q2 2023
• Have a weekly office hour to support other community members in need of advice from France or other countries. The office hours will be at 8 am UTC every Tuesday and based on specific needs will be adjusted to members in other time zones.
• Identify and coordinate with other teams/proposals working on the same issues for other countries to build best practices 

 Through the process, we will coordinate activities with the Treasury Guild so the information provided regarding the French system could be aligned with other sources as well. The Treasury guild will also use the information to further design their services and automation of transactions and reporting.

Treasury Guild: offers a 1 to 1 accounting and treasury service to projects within the Catalyst ecosystem. Setting up and managing Project Wallets and the distribution of funds. Keeping track of all budget items and the exchange rate at which the funds were released to ensure that the budget is spent correctly. Including metadata in the transactions enables future dapps to pull data and create dynamic tailor-made dashboards & templates. 

For additional information visit: https://treasuryguild.github.io/Gitbook/

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Accountant fee: Q4 2022 X 6 two hours meetings, Q1 2023 3 X 2 hours meeting = 18 hours X $200 per hour = $3600

Accountant research: $1000

Team time participation in accountant meeting: 18 hours x $50 per hour = $900

Team time dedicated to documentation and preparation of materials including final report: 2 hours per week for 24 weeks x $50 per hour = $2200

Weekly office hours to support other community members in their process: 20 weeks (Q1-Q2 2023)x $50 = $1000 

Treasury guild support and collaboration: $50 for 30 hours = $1500

Extra for admin fee, a second opinion if needed, and legal if needed: estimated $1000

Total budget $ 11,200

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Yoram Ben Zvi: 

Impact Entrepreneur and mentor with the international board, operations, and startup experience. F6 CA, F7 CA-VCA, F8 CA-VCA, Funded Proposer, Community co-host at Cardano4Climate. F8 New member onboarding challenge team. Full-time with Catalyst. 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoram-ben-zvi-446836/

Company: https://www.connectality.com/

Yoram is already involved in initiatives related to supporting the funded proposals and is active in acceleration and mentorship catalyst groups. Here is one example:

Mentors & accelerators board: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVO7zZsHU=/ 

https://www.leman-ec.com/ is a small and private boutique accounting firm that I am working with for the last 5 years and will support me in the process. 

Benjamin Ben Zvi :

Young International student, studying at the Grenoble management school, https://www.grenoble-em.com, involved in Cardano and in the Catalyst community. Working as a coordinator for two fund 8 funded proposers where we will also collaborate with 

Cole & Raz from SustainableADA.com 

United Caricature: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/403636

CaricatureADA: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/403307 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-ben-zvi-1ab635222/

As I am presenting multiple proposals in this fund as well as in previous funds here is a link for an explanation of the workload management.

This specific proposal is a need I face (and risk for being part of Catalyst) while dedicating full time to Catalyst and the results will serve many others.

The Treasury Guild team

Miro

has 20 years of experience in managing finances and organising the business of NGOs and the University. He also worked as a Human Resources Manager (HRM). Joined the Catalyst Circle Admin team together with Andre as treasurer in Nov 2021. Currently he is recording, documenting and managing all transactions for CC Admin Team, Swarm, Cardano4Climate, Community Governance and Bridge Builders. LInkedin

Andre 

has experience in small business operation and accounting. Joined the Catalyst Circle Admin team as treasurer in Nov 2021 and has expanded this role by starting the Treasury Guild alongside Miroslav to support projects in the Catalyst community as well. Currently using and documenting GitHub Actions to help automate some of the tasks in Catalyst Circle and treasury work. Linkedin

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

We do not expect that this specific proposal will need any additional funding.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

Key deliverables :

• Summary of key sessions with the accountant
• Make each important information/idea visible and easily understandable 
• Design the reporting process and tools (i.e. excel, miro) which will be available for the community - all files will be saved in a google folder 
• Make a final report describing the various frameworks and potential pathways 

KPIs

• Develop 3-5 reporting pathways for multiple use case 
• 3-5 tools/forms to support the reporting process
• Support 10 other people/companies with their reporting process

We will measure how helpful the process and tools for the annual reporting needs and how useful is the information for other members in France and in other territories. We will also try and measure how many people are using the forms we developed and even as a base for adjustments and further developments.

A dedicated google drive will be opened and available for the community to use and follow up on the progress.

We will also collaborate and share the information with CF, IOG and community initiatives such as Treasury Guild, Bridge builders, the Cardano Smart business hub initiatives and others, so the information will be available for the community and aligned resources.

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

The challenge states: A direct access to solutions that provide financial and legal services, support, and guidance to emerging Projects in the Catalyst Ecosystem

Being able to develop a framework that will be helpful for individuals as well as companies registered in France. As mentioned above there are two types of reporting and this proposal will cover both based on a concrete personal use case. Having a young student scenario gives additional perspective to the solution as there are some special tax rules for young students. 

Success will also be when we evaluate that the solution is reasonable and acceptable for the authorized in France reducing the risk of business for working on Catalyst & Cardano and therefore more accessible.

Finally, our work will be considered a success by having other community members use the materials for their tax reporting.

The shared information will be base for ongoing improvements as the regulation and use cases around Cardano and Crypto evolve.    

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

A new one