How to submit a contract claim using RPW Online

This guide explains how to complete a contract claim for the following schemes:

• Woodland Creation Grant (WCG)
• Small Grants – Woodland Creation

For other schemes, check the scheme page.

You must ensure you submit your contract claim form by the deadline contained in your contract. If you fail to claim by this deadline, you will not receive payment.

Note for Woodland Creation Grant (WCG) customers: if you indicated your intention to claim for the groundworks advance payment in your WCG application, please ensure that you have submitted your groundworks claim before attempting to start your contract claim. If not, this will result in no claim items being available in your contract claim. 

Customer Contact Centre

If you are encountering problems or are unable to access your RPW Online account, please contact the Customer Contact Centre where staff are on hand to provide information and answer queries.

You can use the "Messages" page in your RPW Online account to send an enquiry to the Customer Contact Centre. Alternatively, you can call on 0300 062 5004 (Open Monday to Friday 09:00 to 16:00).

The contract claim is initiated from the contracts area of your RPW Online account. From your homepage menu, click "Contracts and Small Grants", then choose "Contracts" from the pop-up menu. This will take you to your contracts page where any offered and active contracts will be listed. 

Schemes available to claim via the contract claim will show a blue "Start Claim" button. Click "Start Claim" to begin. 

Note that if you have previously started a contract claim and saved your progress without submitting, the button will change to "Continue Claim". If you are continuing a claim, the system will offer you the choice to continue from where you previously left off or start again. If you wish to start again, please follow the on-screen instructions.

The contract claim will show your Customer Reference Number (CRN) at the top left corner of the page. 

A menu of pages for viewing or information entry will be shown on the left side of the screen. The currently active page will be highlighted in blue. You may click a page to move directly to that page or click the "Next" / "Previous" buttons to move between pages. Pages requiring data entry will be marked with a red cross or a green tick. The red cross signifies incomplete data entry on that page, whereas a green tick indicates that all required information has been successfully entered.

A number of buttons are shown on screen to help with navigation of the contract claim as follows:

Help: should assistance be required with completion of the form.

Print: to print a copy of the form in its current state.

Cymraeg/English: to switch between languages.

Save: to save your current progress.

Next: to move to the next page in the list.

Previous: to move to the previous page in the list.

Exit: to save and exit the form.

The "Introduction" page summarises key information of the contract under which you are making a claim, including contract type and contract reference. Please pay particular attention to the key messages in this area as they may change from scheme to scheme. Ensure the details shown are correct before continuing. Click "Next" to move to the next page.

The "Privacy Notice" page outlines how we handle personal data relating to grant applications and funding requests. It explains how we process submitted information for eligibility, fraud prevention, and identity verification. It also details how data may be shared with regulatory authorities and fraud prevention agencies, retention periods for personal information, and individuals' rights under data protection laws. After viewing, click "Next" to move to the next page.

Any contracted standard costs claim items that are available to claim will be shown on this page. To claim an item you must tick the claim activity box and provide details of claim quantity and date of activity completion. A full description of each element on this page is as follows:

• item code: this is the item code reference relating to each individual standard costs item in your contract. Note that this may refer to the option code or unique ID in some schemes
• name / description: this is the name or description of the item to be claimed
• approved quantity: this is the quantity approved in your contract
• claim this activity: you must tick this box to indicate you have completed work for this item and wish to include in your claim
• claimed quantity: when claiming an activity you must indicate the quantity that you are claiming in this box
• date activity completed: when claiming an activity you must indicate the date of activity completion in this box

Searching your claimable items

A box labelled "Find Items" is located at the top of the claim items list which can be used to easily search for items in a large list. Simply enter a few characters of your search criteria and the list will automatically filter to show results containing the criteria entered. Click the "X" button to clear the search filter.

Completing entry of data on this page

When claim data entry is complete, you may select "Save", "Next", or navigate directly to another page via the menu. During this process, the data you have entered will be validated. Any errors detected will be highlighted in red, accompanied by on-screen instructions detailing the necessary steps to rectify the issue. While errors remain, a red cross will be shown against this page in the menu list on the left of the screen. If data entry is correct, a green tick will be shown.

Please note that this page may not be included in your claim depending on the scheme type.

Use this page to add any supporting documents required to evidence your claim. Not all schemes require document upload therefore please refer to the relevant scheme rules booklet on our website to check requirements. Please be aware that where evidence is required but not provided, payment will be withheld.

How to add documents

To add a document, click the "Add Documents" button. Note that you may select multiple documents to upload at one time. After a document has been uploaded successfully, the document will appear in the list. 

How to delete documents

To delete an unwanted document, click the "Delete" button next to the item for removal.

Searching your uploaded documents

A box labelled "Filter Documents" is located at the top of the documents list which can be used to easily search for documents in a large list. Simply enter a few characters of your search criteria and the list will automatically filter to show results containing the criteria entered. To clear the search filter, delete the criteria entered into the "Filter Documents" box.

Document upload restrictions

This page can only accept submissions of the following types of document - PDF (pdf), Microsoft Office (xls, xlsx, doc, docx, ppt, pptx, mpp, vsd, rtf), pictures (jpg, jpeg, tif, tiff) or zip (zip).

Completing entry of data on this page

When upload of documents is complete, you may select "Save", "Next", or navigate directly to another page via the menu. A red cross will be shown against this page in the menu list on the left of the screen until you have visited this page. If document upload is not required for the scheme being claimed, once visited, a green tick will be shown against this page in the menu.

As part of your grant award letter under the chosen scheme, if completion of schedule 6 is required you will need to complete a schedule 6 assurance statement. 

As part of the assurance statement, you will indicate if you are in receipt of any funding from other organisations to support the purposes as detailed in schedule 1 of your grant award, as well as information of the personnel and supervisors within your organisation in respect of financial management responsibility.

You must also declare that employees, officials, directors, trustees and board members where applicable, fully understand their duties, have sufficient knowledge about governance issues to carry out their roles in a manner which is fully compliant with the relevant legislation and properly scrutinise and oversee the work of those with primary responsibility for your financial management.

Individual items on this page that require your input are as follows:

1. Are you in receipt of any other funding from any other organisation to support the purposes as detailed in schedule 1 of your grant award? 
   
   You must indicate "Yes" or "No" to this question. If you answer "Yes", a table will appear at the bottom of the screen to allow entry of the following:

   type of funding and purpose 
   amount of funding received
   % of post cost/capital item
   source of funding

   If multiple lines are required for entry of data, click the "+Add Funding" button. 
   You may delete lines by clicking the "Remove" button next to the applicable line.

2. Please name the personnel within your organisation who has/have specific responsibility for financial management in respect of the purposes as detailed in schedule 1 of your grant award.
   
   Please enter the full name of each person and their position in the business. Click "+Add Individual" to add more entry lines. Click "Remove Individual" to delete lines.
    

3. Who is responsible for the supervision of the personnel named above?

   Please enter the full name of each person and their position in the business. Click "+Add Individual" to add more entry lines. Click "Remove Individual" to delete lines.

4. I confirm the above declaration
   
   You must tick this box to confirm the details entered.

Completing entry of data on this page

When data entry on this page is complete, you may select "Save", "Next", or navigate directly to another page via the menu. During this process, the data you have entered will be validated. Any errors detected will be highlighted in red, accompanied by on-screen instructions detailing the necessary steps to rectify the issue. While errors remain, a red cross will be shown against this page in the menu list on the left of the screen. If data entry is correct, a green tick will be shown.

This page summarises the data you have entered into your contract claim. Any errors found within the data will be listed at the top of this page and the location of those errors will be indicated in the menu with a red cross against each page. You must correct any errors before you can submit the claim form.

Information messages may also be shown on this page. These are to prompt you on any action you may need to take, but do not prevent you from submitting your claim.

When you are content that all data entered is correct, click "Next" to move to the "Declarations and Undertakings" page.

This page lists the declarations and undertakings you must agree to when claiming for grant aid. Please read this page thoroughly to confirm your understanding of the grant guidance, compliance with scheme requirements, the need to retain invoices, and the requirement for co-operation with any inspections required. You also guarantee that the provided information is accurate, claimed items meet grant conditions, no duplicate funding has been sought, and you understand that payments may be recovered if objectives aren't met. 

Tick the box at the bottom labelled "I have read and agree to the above Declarations and Undertakings" and click "Next" to go to the submit page.

Note that if you do not agree to the declarations and undertakings you will not be able to submit your claim.

Your contract claim is now ready for submission. Please click the "Submit" button. 

After submission, a summary document containing details of the submitted information will be added to your messages area.