Milestone reports and payments

Learn how to submit milestone reports and how Austrade makes grant payments.

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Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) grantees must provide a milestone report before we make a milestone payment. Your grant agreement will specify:

  • when milestone reports are due
  • details and evidence you need to provide in your milestone report. 

To help you complete your milestone report, see our EMDG online milestone report example (DOCX 1065KB).

If you submitted a milestone report for the 2021-22 reporting period, you’ll notice improvements to the report’s online format. This is to make it easier to complete. Improvements include:

  • additional guidance text
  • drop down lists 
  • simplified questions. 

You must submit a milestone report for the financial year regardless of the amount you have spent. Submit the report through the EMDG online portal.

Record keeping for eligible expenses

You need to document evidence for eligible expenses you incur for your grant agreement. Your grant agreement will specify what evidence you will need to provide with your milestone report. We may ask you for further evidence such as:

  • supporting documents
  • invoices and payment details for expenses
  • invoices for export earnings.

We may contact your overseas representative (in person or by phone) to confirm details of any activities they have conducted on your behalf.

More information is presented in the guide EMDG milestone reports - How to input eligible expenses (DOCX 1087KB)

Milestone payments

A milestone payment is your grant payment. The timing of your milestone payments is set out in your grant agreement.

We will make milestone payments to the bank account you specified in your agreement. The bank account listed in your agreement must belong to, or be under the control of, the grantee.

Austrade made upfront payments on execution of grant agreement to eligible Tier 1 and Representative Body grantees in 2021-22 financial year. Please note this was a one-off occurrence and no further upfront payments will be made this year or in future years.

You must submit a milestone report using the online portal to request a grant payment for expenditure incurred in 2022-23 financial year from July 2023. We will then assess milestone reports and if eligible make payments. In line with feedback, we are working towards providing a broader and earlier window for report submission. Further details will be provided once known.

Eligibility for milestone payments

You will not get a milestone payment until we accept the milestone report. An assessor may ask you for more information if needed so you could keep good records for all eligible expenditure even though the report does not require you to provide them all. Audits are also undertaken randomly to ensure integrity and an absence of fraud in the program.

We will only make milestone payments if:

  • you meet the eligibility requirements
  • your expenses are eligible expenses in relation to an eligible product
  • you meet your commitments under your grant agreement, particularly those that relate to the type of grant you are receiving (Tier 1, 2 or 3 or representative body).

To allow us to assess your milestone report, you need to show us that you:

  • did your planned activities
  • met the goals identified in your plan to market
  • can report your export sales and employment so we can determine whether the program was effective.

Matched funding

You must show your spending on eligible expenses for double your grant amount. If you:

  • spend more than double, you won’t get more grant money
  • spend less than double, you will only get an amount equal to the amount you contributed.

Examples of matched funding

Example 1

ABC Pty Ltd has a Tier 2 grant agreement. It is up to $18,000 per financial year over 2 years. In this case ABC Pty Ltd must spend up to $36,000 per financial year on eligible expenses. This is so the company can get a milestone payment of up to $18,000.

Example 2

XYZ Pty Ltd’s grant agreement states that the company can access $60,000 in a given financial year. They must match that amount to get the full amount in the grant agreement. This means the total amount spent on marketing activities must be at least $120,000 in that financial year for XYZ Pty Ltd to get the full $60,000 milestone payment.

Note that $60,000 is the maximum they will get for that financial year. If the company spends $100,000 on eligible activities in that financial year, they will get a $50,000 milestone payment. If they spend more than $120,000, for example $140,000, they can only get up to the maximum $60,000 grant amount. This is as per the company’s grant agreement.

When to expect grant payments

Each grant agreement determines the timing of your payments. Grant agreements set out a reporting and payment schedule. They describe how you can seek a milestone payment.

The agreement will also include the maximum grant amount that you would be eligible to get. This is provided that you:

  • do eligible promotional activities
  • incur eligible expenditure.

Nominated bank accounts

The bank account listed in your agreement must belong to, or be under the control of, the grantee. Please ensure your bank account details are accurate. Errors will delay payments.

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