GrantLink can help you produce a funder report in two ways. First, the Assistant can fill a funder's Excel or PDF template for a grant's reporting obligation. Second, you can draft a web report in chat for one grant, initiative, or funder. The two outputs follow different review and access rules, so this article covers each one separately.

Important: GrantLink drafts and formats the report, but it doesn't approve it, certify it, or submit it to a funder. It also doesn't record that a funder accepted the report. A published report is a web page that you share, and it isn't proof of submission.

Before you start

Check the following items before you ask for a report:

You're a Member or Admin of the organization. The Viewer role can't open chat, so a Viewer can't create, edit, or publish reports.
For a web report and its PDF, your organization has a Professional, Enterprise, or agency plan, or coverage through an accounting firm's agency plan. Web reports also count against your plan's monthly report limit. Filling a funder template doesn't need one of those plans.
QuickBooks has finished a recent sync. Chat reads the QuickBooks data that GrantLink last synced, not live QuickBooks.
You've reviewed allocations, budget lines, receipts, funding shares, and reporting obligation dates for the period.
You know the audience, the exact period, the required sections, and any funder instructions or required template.
Program staff can supply outcomes and narrative facts that GrantLink doesn't store.

Fill a funder's Excel or PDF template

Use this workflow when the funder gives you a form to complete for a grant's reporting obligation.

Confirm that the grant isn't closed or archived. GrantLink can't prepare reports for a closed or archived grant.
Open the grant, select Reporting > Templates, and select Add template. Use an .xlsx or .xlsm workbook, or a fillable PDF form, of 3 MB or less.
Open Reporting > Obligations, select the obligation, and select Prepare in chat. If the obligation already has a preparation, the button is Prepare new report.
In the chat, check the reporting period and due date. Confirm the template, and answer any questions about missing information.
Wait for the review card for the prepared copy. Check the missing fields, warnings, and source evidence, and select Open full review to see the complete record.
After you check the copy, select Mark reviewed, and then select Download copy. Inspect the downloaded file before you submit it yourself.

The Assistant first looks for a template saved on the grant, and then for the template used in the grant's previous preparation. If it finds neither, it asks you to add one. You can also upload the template in the chat. Put a word such as "report" or "template" in the file name. Avoid words such as "budget" or "forecast", because GrantLink treats spreadsheets with those words in the name as budgets to import.

You can also start from a deadline on the dashboard, which opens the obligation's page. If the grant has no saved template, select Prepare in chat. If you choose a saved template, select Prepare copy, or Prepare new copy when an earlier copy exists. Both paths continue in chat.

GrantLink fills a new copy and never changes your template. Fields that GrantLink can't fill stay blank, and GrantLink never adds signatures. You can't download the copy until you mark it reviewed. Marking it reviewed doesn't certify the form, submit it, or record that the funder accepted it. Preparing a copy also doesn't fix accounting errors, so check every financial warning against the records it points to.

GrantLink can't fill password-protected workbooks, XFA forms, or scanned PDFs that have no fillable fields. Ask the funder for an unprotected workbook or a fillable PDF instead. A prepared copy isn't a web report, and you don't need to publish anything to download it.

Start a web report for one grant, initiative, or funder

Each web report covers exactly one record, which can be a grant, an initiative, or a funder:

Grant report: Open Grants, select the grant, select Reporting > Reports, and select Draft report with Assistant.
Initiative report: Open Initiatives, select the initiative, open the Reports tab, and select Draft report with Assistant.
Funder report: Open Funders, select the funder, open the Reports tab, and select Draft report with Assistant.

Each of these buttons opens a new chat with the record already selected and a suggested prompt filled in. You can also start from Chats > New chat, but then you must name one grant, initiative, or funder clearly. Reporting > Saved reports lists all web reports in the organization. Reporting > Obligations lists reporting deadlines and template preparations.

For initiative and funder reports, GrantLink includes current grants by default. Current grants are linked grants in Awarded, Active, or Closeout status. Ask for all linked grants, or name an exact set, when the default isn't correct. A custom set can include only grants that are linked to the selected initiative or funder, and GrantLink leaves out any other grant you name.

Create the web report draft

In the new chat, replace the suggested prompt with your exact request if needed.
State the reporting period with dates. Don't rely on phrases such as "last quarter" when the award doesn't follow calendar quarters.
State the audience and purpose, such as a progress report, final report, reimbursement package, or internal review.
List the financial tables and narrative sections you need.
Say where program outcomes and explanations should come from, and attach the supporting document when you have one.
Send the request.
If GrantLink asks a question about scope, answer it so that report creation can continue.
Wait for the report preview to appear.

For example:

Create a progress report for the Community Health grant covering April 1 through June 30, 2026. Show period and inception-to-date budget versus actual, fund receipts, major variances, and transaction detail in an appendix. Use the attached program update for activities and outcomes, but flag any claim the source does not support.

When the request succeeds, chat creates one Draft report for the conversation and shows a live preview beside it. The report also appears on the Reports tab of the grant, initiative, or funder. Each chat keeps one report, so follow-up edits in the same chat update that report and don't create another one.

If GrantLink says you've reached your monthly report limit, it doesn't create the report. Upgrade your plan, or wait until the next month, and then try again.

Review and revise

Use the Chat only, Split view, and Preview only buttons to compare the conversation with the report. Ask for specific edits in the same chat, for example:

"Change the table to inception-to-date through June 30, 2026."
"Remove the internal allocation exception from the funder-facing page."
"Mark the outcomes section for program-staff completion instead of inferring results."

Before you deliver the report, check each of these points:

Scope: The report covers the correct record. For an initiative or funder report, it includes exactly the right grants.
Period: Every table says whether it shows activity for the period or inception-to-date totals.
Data freshness: The QuickBooks sync covers the end of the reporting period.
Reconciliation: Report totals agree with the budget, allocations, receipts, and any figures you submitted before.
Narrative support: Activities, beneficiaries, outcomes, variance reasons, certifications, and funder requirements each come from a named source.
Audience: Internal notes, open data issues, projections, and action items are removed from content the funder will see.
Layout: The web preview and the printed layout are readable, and repeated figures agree.

A web report has only two statuses, Draft and Published. It has no review or approval status, so complete your organization's approval process before you publish. Template preparations have their own statuses, which are Preparing, Ready for review, Reviewed, and Failed.

Download a PDF of a web report

After you review the preview, ask GrantLink in the report chat to generate a PDF.
When the file card appears, select Download PDF.
Open the downloaded file and check page breaks, tables, footers, and totals.

The PDF uses Letter size by default, and you can ask for A4 instead. Each page has a footer with the report title and page numbers. When GrantLink makes the PDF, it blocks images, fonts, and scripts that load from other websites, so check the pages for anything missing. The PDF is a copy of the report at that moment, and later edits don't change a file you already downloaded.

Chat can also produce general data exports with Download .xlsx and Download .csv buttons. Data exports don't keep a funder's layout. When the funder requires its own workbook or form, use the template steps earlier in this article.

Finish your internal review while the report is a Draft.
Select Publish at the top of the report chat.
If your plan includes password protection, select Password. Choose No password (public access), Use grant's default password, or Custom password, and select Save. The grant's default password option appears only for a grant report whose grant has a default password.
Select Publish to Production.
Wait for the Published successfully! message, and then select View your deployment. Copy the address from the browser.
If you set a custom password, copy it right away. GrantLink shows it once and tells you it won't be shown again.

GrantLink marks the report Published when it starts the deployment. Wait for the success message before you share the link. To update the live page after later edits, select Republish.

Treat the link as sensitive. Without a password, anyone who has the link can open the report. Password protection is available on Professional, Enterprise, and agency plans. The Visibility and Customize Domain settings in the publish window aren't applied when you publish, so they don't limit access or set a custom domain.

GrantLink doesn't currently have an unpublish button. Archiving the chat doesn't take down the published page. If you need to remove access to a published report, contact GrantLink support.

For prompt examples, see Best Prompts for Grant Reporting. For a comparison of report scopes and output formats, see Understanding Report Types.