Funding stack calculator: what a monitoring project costs after the instrument

Enter the project split and the instrument. The model returns the eligible base, the award, the net cost and the effective subsidy rate — and the cash-flow gap between a grant and a tax deduction.

The question this answers

The headline rate is not what you pay. A 45% grant on a €120,000 project does not leave €66,000 on your P&L. Three things move the number: lines the call does not consider eligible, a cap on how much of the eligible base may be hardware and training, and a maximum award. A fourth thing moves the timing: a grant arrives after the claim, a tax deduction arrives with the tax return. The calculator turns a quote and an instrument into four figures you can take to a finance director — eligible base, award, net cost and the effective subsidy rate against the total project cost.

Inputs

All amounts net of recoverable VAT. Keep local currency (CHF, DKK, TRY) and do not convert inside the model.

The method, step by step

These are the formulas the calculator implements, in order. Nothing is hidden, and every step can be reproduced in a spreadsheet.

1. Total the projectC = C_sw + C_srv + C_hw + C_tr. This is what leaves the company, before any award. Everything downstream is measured against C, not against the eligible base.
2. Strike out the ineligible linesSplit what survives into two groups, because the cap in step 3 applies to one of them.
   S = e_sw·C_sw + e_srv·C_srv (software and services)
   H = e_hw·C_hw + e_tr·C_tr (hardware and training)
3. Apply the hardware-and-training capThe call states that hardware plus training may not exceed a share k of eligible costs. That is a constraint on the base itself, so it has to be solved, not just multiplied:
   H_allowed = min( H , k·S / (1 − k) ) for k < 1; H_allowed = H where there is no cap.
   Eligible base B = S + H_allowed
   Over-cap excess E = H − H_allowed, which the company carries at full cost.
   Check: H_allowed / B equals k exactly when the cap bites.
4. Compute the raw award, by instrumentGrant: A_raw = i · B
   Tax deduction: A_raw = d · B · t — the cash value of an extra deduction at rate d against a corporate tax rate t. For a tax credit, set t = 1 and let d be the credit rate. For a super-depreciation with an uplift u, the extra deduction is u·B, so A_raw = u · B · t.
   Subsidised loan: A_raw = L · s · (n + 1) / 2 — the sum of the interest contribution over a loan repaid in n equal annual instalments, where the outstanding balance in year y is L·(n − y + 1)/n. Where the agency computes on a conventional plan rather than the bank's actual schedule, use the conventional n and s.
5. Apply the floor and the ceilingA = 0 if A_raw < A_min; otherwise A = min( A_raw , A_max ). The floor matters more than people expect: a minimum eligible investment or a minimum award turns small projects into zero, not into a small cheque.
6. Net cost and effective subsidy rateN = C − A
   σ = A / C
   Report σ next to the headline rate i. They differ whenever a line is ineligible, the cap bites or the ceiling binds — which is most of the time. σ is the number a finance director should see.
7. Cash-flow difference between the routesΔ = m_tax − m_grant months, and the carrying cost of that delay at your borrowing rate r is K = A · r · Δ / 12. A grant is claimed after completion and paid after verification. A deduction lands with the tax return for the year in which the asset enters service, which can be well over a year after the invoice. Two instruments worth the same A are not worth the same money.

A worked example

Illustration with assumed numbers, not a quotation and not a case study. Project: software and licences €45,000; services €25,000; hardware and sensors €40,000; training €10,000. C = €120,000. The call treats all four lines as eligible, caps hardware plus training at 40% of eligible costs, pays 35%, and states a maximum award of €30,000.

• S = 45,000 + 25,000 = €70,000; H = 40,000 + 10,000 = €50,000
• H_allowed = min( 50,000 , 0.40 × 70,000 / 0.60 ) = min( 50,000 , 46,667 ) = €46,667
• B = 70,000 + 46,667 = €116,667; over-cap excess E = €3,333
• A_raw = 0.35 × 116,667 = €40,833, above the ceiling, so A = €30,000
• N = 120,000 − 30,000 = €90,000; σ = 30,000 / 120,000 = 25.0%
• Headline rate 35%. Effective subsidy rate 25%. The gap is the ceiling and the cap, not a mistake.

Now the timing. If the same €30,000 came as a deduction landing 14 months after the asset entered service, against a grant paid 9 months after completion, Δ = 5 months; at a 6% borrowing rate, K = 30,000 × 0.06 × 5/12 = €750. Small on one project, and not small across a rollout of eight lines.

What the calculator cannot know

• Whether your line items are eligible at all. Several agency pages do not itemise eligible costs — the Portuguese SITCE and SICE pages, the Spanish FNEE page, the Swedish Klimatklivet pages. In the Netherlands the Energielijst 2026 has no stand-alone code for an energy-monitoring or submetering system. The eligibility flags are yours to set from the call document, and they are the single biggest driver of the result.
• The rate, where the agency does not publish one. Austria's Energiemanagement — Flexibilisierung call, the Swiss ProKilowatt project route and the regional Spanish FNEE calls state no intensity on the pages read. Denmark's own portals disagree with each other: up to 60% on statens-tilskudspuljer.dk, up to 50% on Virksomhedsguiden. Enter a range and look at both ends.
• Grants scored on a saving, not on a cost. Erhvervspuljen is calculated at DKK 1,000 per tonne of CO₂ or 20 øre per kWh saved, not as a percentage of your invoice. For those, the intensity input is a ceiling, and the real award is the smaller of the intensity result and the saving-based calculation.
• Cumulation and de minimis. De minimis awards cumulate over three fiscal years against a €300,000 ceiling. Some instruments cannot be combined — the Dutch EIA cannot be used with the milieu-investeringsaftrek. Run the model once per instrument, then ask the granting body in writing whether they can be stacked.
• Tax position. A deduction is worth d·B·t only if there is taxable profit to absorb it. Carry-forward rules, quota limits and monetisation caps are national, and the Spanish page read for this work did not state the percentage-of-cuota limits at all.
• Accounting treatment. A capital grant may reduce the depreciable base or be taxable in the year received. A three-year subscription may not be capitalisable at all, which changes both the eligible base and the tax route.
• Procedural gates. Advance notification to RVO for the EIA, a GSE prenotazione for the Italian iperammortamento, ProKilowatt's exclusion of measures started before approval, a DDX or SIRI maturity assessment before the Turkish KOSGEB loan. None of these change a formula; all of them can reduce A to zero.

• Funding map: Western Europe and Türkiye, status 22 September 2026
• Micro-stops: sizing the loss before you spend anything
• Western Europe Funding &amp; Tax-Credit Pack (xlsx)

Questions

Why does the calculator report a subsidy rate lower than the programme's rate?

Because the programme's rate applies to the eligible base, and you pay for the whole project. Three things open the gap: lines the call does not cover, a cap on the hardware and training share, and a maximum award. In the worked example a 35% grant becomes an effective 25% of total project cost. That is the number to budget with.

How do you model a tax deduction against a grant?

A grant of intensity i is worth i·B in cash. An extra deduction at rate d is worth d·B·t, where t is the corporate tax rate, because a deduction reduces taxable profit rather than tax due. A tax credit is modelled by setting t = 1. A super-depreciation with an uplift u is modelled as A = u·B·t. The three routes are then comparable, before the timing adjustment.

How is the subsidised-loan route valued?

As the sum of the interest contribution over the life of the loan: A = L · s · (n + 1) / 2, where L is the principal, s the contribution in percentage points per year and n the term in years. The (n + 1)/2 factor is the sum of the outstanding-balance fractions for a loan repaid in n equal annual instalments. Where the agency calculates on a conventional plan rather than your bank's schedule, use the conventional figures — the agency's calculation is the one that pays.

Can I trust the rates that come pre-filled?

Treat them as a starting point read from the agency's own page on 22 September 2026, and check them against the current call before you commit. Rates move, budgets run out mid-year, and at least one country in this set — Denmark — has two official portals publishing different aid intensities for the same scheme. This is a calculator, not grant advice.

Sources

1. BAFA — EEW Modul 3, eligible cost list (read 22 Sep 2026)
2. Belastingdienst — Energie-investeringsaftrek 2026 (40%, min €2,500)
3. RVO — EIA Energielijst 2026 brochure
4. MIMIT — Nuova Sabatini, contribution on a conventional 5-year plan
5. statens-tilskudspuljer.dk — Erhvervspuljen (DKK 1,000/t CO₂, 20 øre/kWh)
6. Virksomhedsguiden — Erhvervspuljen (up to 50%)
7. AEAT — deducción por innovación tecnológica, 12% (19 Jun 2026)
8. KOSGEB — KOBİ Dijital Dönüşüm, DDX/SIRI assessment required

Published by TEEPTRAK SAS, which makes production-monitoring and OEE software. Every figure is sourced on the page. Funding rules, standards and reporting duties change: check the official documents before you budget or commit.