Innovate UK Audits
Find issues before Innovate UK auditors do.
A practical guide to Innovate UK grant audits — what triggers them, what auditors actually look for, the findings that come up again and again, and how a 7-day mock audit lets you fix them first.
What triggers an Innovate UK audit?
- Project value above £100k — most large awards are audited
- End-of-project final claim sign-off
- Unusual cost profiles or significant variance from your application
- Consortium and collaborative projects with sub-contracted partners
- Risk-based selection from Innovate UK monitoring
What auditors look for
Timesheets
Specific records, signed and approved, reconciling to payroll and the labour rates claimed.
Cost eligibility
Costs incurred within the project window, in scope, on a defrayed basis, and excluding ineligible items.
Apportionment
Overheads and shared resources calculated under an agreed methodology — typically the 20% simplified overhead model — and applied consistently.
Sub-contractor & supplier evidence
Contracts, purchase orders, invoices, proof of payment, and evidence the spend was specific to the funded project, and awarded fairly.
The most common audit findings
Across Innovate UK projects, the same handful of issues account for the majority of audit findings. Catch them early and the audit becomes a formality.
- Missing or unsigned timesheets — the single most common finding
- Labour rates that don't reconcile to actual payroll cost
- Costs claimed outside the project start/end dates
- Overhead methodology applied inconsistently across claim periods
- Sub-contractor invoices without evidence of payment or scope tie-back
- VAT incorrectly treated on partially-recoverable costs
Pre-audit checklist
Run this before your end-of-project claim. If you can't tick every line, a mock audit will surface the gaps in a single week.
- Timesheets exist for every team member claimed, signed and approved
- Payroll reports reconcile to claimed labour costs for each period
- All invoices have matching POs and proof of payment
- Overhead model documented and applied identically every claim
- Costs sit within the agreed project window
- Sub-contract scopes match the original application
- Capital items are correctly depreciated over project life
Get a mock audit report in 7 days.
Independent, evidence-based, prioritised findings — modelled on how Innovate UK auditors actually work. Fix issues before they cost you.
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