Preparing and Tracking Reimbursement Claims

Use Claims to group grant expenses into a reimbursement claim. GrantLink saves the selected allocation amounts and their transaction details as claim lines. Each claim has one of four statuses, Draft, Submitted, Paid, or Canceled.

Important: GrantLink can't currently create invoices in QuickBooks. Draft claims show Submit to QuickBooks, and Settings > QuickBooks > Permissions lists Create claim invoices, but submission fails with an error even when that permission is on. The claim stays a Draft, and QuickBooks doesn't change. Create the invoice directly in QuickBooks under your normal accounting controls.

Before you start

Check these points:

• QuickBooks is connected. GrantLink needs an active QuickBooks connection to create a claim, even though the claim is saved only in GrantLink.
• The grant has the status Active or Awarded. The Create Claim dialog lists only those grants.
• Each expense has an allocation to that grant with the status Approved or Posted. The allocation must come from a QuickBooks transaction, so committed allocations that aren't matched to QuickBooks yet don't qualify.
• The allocation isn't on another claim that is still active. When you cancel a draft claim, its allocations become available again.
• Your role is Member or Admin. Viewers can see claims but can't create or cancel them. You don't need the Admin role to work with claims.
• Your plan has claims left for the current calendar month.

Some allocations can't be claimed at all. For example, GrantLink rejects an allocation for a release from restriction and an allocation whose QuickBooks transaction was deleted.

For the work that comes before a claim, see Allocating Transactions to Grants and Reviewing and Correcting Grant Allocations.

Create a draft claim

1. Open Reporting > Claims.
2. Select Create Claim in the page header, or in the empty page if you have no claims yet.
3. Under Grant, choose the grant.
4. Under Unclaimed Allocations, select one or more rows. Use Select All only after you review the whole list for that grant.
5. Check the date, vendor or memo, and amount on each row.
6. Optionally fill in Period Label, Claim Label, and Internal Notes.
7. Check Total Amount, then select Create Claim.

A claim can include up to 200 allocations. GrantLink sets the claim period from the earliest and latest transaction dates you selected.

Each claim line keeps a copy of the allocation details as they were when you created the claim. The copy includes the amount, the transaction and line IDs, the transaction date, the vendor, the memo, the budget category, and the program. The claim total is the sum of the selected allocation amounts. Creating a claim doesn't create an invoice, request money from a funder, record accounting entries, or change QuickBooks.

GrantLink checks every allocation again when you save. If an allocation was claimed or changed after you opened the dialog, the save fails instead of adding an allocation that no longer qualifies.

Claim statuses and actions

Open the row menu on a claim to see its actions:

You can't add lines, remove lines, or edit the details of a draft claim from the Claims page. To change a draft, cancel it and create a new claim. You also can't cancel a submitted claim from this page.

Refresh from QuickBooks works only for a claim that already has a linked QuickBooks invoice, for example a claim submitted before invoice creation became unavailable. It can't submit a draft or find an invoice that you created separately in QuickBooks.

Find and review claims

Use the view buttons at the top of the list:

• All claims
• Draft
• Submitted
• Paid
• Canceled

All claims groups claims by status. The Draft and Submitted groups start open. Each row shows Claim, Created, Grant, Amount, and Submitted when the screen is wide enough. The Claim column shows the claim label, or the claim number if there is no label, or a short record ID. Select the grant name to open the grant.

You can sort the list by newest, oldest, or highest amount. Select a row to open Claim details, which shows the status, amount, created, submitted, and paid dates, the grant, and the claim number.

The Claims page has no text search and no date or amount filters, and it doesn't list the individual claim lines. To check the expenses behind a claim, open the grant and review its allocations.

Roles and monthly limits

• Members and Admins can create and cancel claims. Viewers can only view them.
• GrantLink checks that the grant, the allocations, the claim, and the QuickBooks connection all belong to your organization.
• Only Admins can change Settings > QuickBooks > Permissions. Turning on Create claim invoices there doesn't make invoice submission work.
• Each claim you create counts toward a monthly limit. The default limits are 2 claims for Free, 10 for Starter, 30 for Professional, and 30 for each agency plan. Enterprise and Government Reporting have no limit.
• A canceled claim still counts toward the month in which you created it.

When you reach the limit, Create Claim opens an upgrade message instead of creating the claim.

Prepare the claim package

Before you treat a draft claim as ready, follow these steps:

1. Compare the claim amount with the selected approved or posted allocations.
2. Confirm that every cost belongs to the grant and to the reimbursement period you intend to claim.
3. Review budget categories and supporting documents for the grant's allocations.
4. Confirm that none of the selected allocations is a release from restriction.
5. Create and send the invoice through your organization's approved process outside GrantLink.
6. Track the invoice status separately. A claim you create today stays a Draft in GrantLink, because GrantLink can't submit it.

For more on how GrantLink and QuickBooks divide the work, see Welcome to GrantLink and Working with Your Accountant.