A grant's status shows where the opportunity or award is in its life. The status also affects these things:

Your plan's active grant count
Whether the grant can receive expense allocations
Which QuickBooks links the grant can have
Where the grant appears on the Grants list

Current limitation: The Status field on the grant's Details page offers every status. It doesn't check whether the change follows the usual order shown below, and it doesn't ask for the confirmations described below. Use the order below as a guide, and check each status change before you save it.

Before you change status

Use the Member or Admin role in the correct organization.
Reconcile the grant's award terms, dates, allocations, reporting obligations, and QuickBooks links.
A grant with linked QuickBooks Classes must stay Awarded, Active, Closeout, or Closed. Remove the Class links before you move the grant to another status.
Confirm that your plan has room for another active grant before you move a grant to Active. GrantLink counts grants with the Active status that aren't archived.

Status overview

Status	Use it when	Expense allocations
Prospect	You're evaluating an opportunity	Not allowed
Applied	You submitted the application	Not allowed
Awarded	You received the award, but the work hasn't started	Not allowed
Active	Grant work and spending are in progress	Allowed, subject to date rules
Closeout	The period ended or closeout work started	Allowed, subject to date rules
Closed	Program and reporting work are complete	Not allowed
Declined	The funder declined the application	Not allowed
Withdrawn	Your organization withdrew the opportunity or application	Not allowed

Usual order

Prospect → Applied or Withdrawn
Applied → Awarded, Declined, or Withdrawn
Awarded → Active → Closeout → Closed
                     └→ Active

Follow these checks when you change status:

Applied to Awarded: Record an award amount greater than zero.
Awarded to Active: Record an award amount. Before you activate a grant earlier than Period Start, confirm that early activation is correct.
Active to Closeout: Before you start closeout earlier than Period End, confirm that early closeout is correct.
Closeout to Closed: Confirm that all required reporting is complete.
Closeout to Active: Record the reason for reopening the grant, and extend Period End if needed.
Applied to Declined: Record the funder's reason if you have one.
Prospect or Applied to Withdrawn: Record the reason.
Closed, Declined, and Withdrawn are final statuses in the usual order.

Change status

Open Grants and select the grant.
Open Details.
Under the grant details, choose a Status.
Select Save changes in the bar at the bottom of the page.
Open Activity and confirm that GrantLink recorded the change.

GrantLink blocks the change when your plan has no room for another active grant, or when Class links require a different status. Otherwise, it saves any status you choose, so record the reason and support for the change in your grant file.

Expense date rules

GrantLink applies these rules when it allocates expenses:

Rule	Effect
Status	Only Active and Closeout grants can receive expense allocations.
Earliest expense date	Blocks transactions dated before this date.
Latest expense date	Blocks transactions dated after this date.
Grant period	Sets the allowed dates when the grant has no separate expense dates.

The Details page shows the grant period but not the separate expense dates. GrantLink AI can set them when you ask it to update the grant. When a grant has no expense dates, Period Start and Period End set the allowed dates.

An allowed status doesn't make every expense allowable. The transaction still needs the correct date, amount, accounting source, support, and grant purpose.

Closed compared with archived

Closed is a status. A closed grant stays on the Grants list in the Closed group.
Close / archive is an action in the row menu on the Grants list. It sets the status to Closed, marks the grant as archived, archives its QuickBooks links, and releases its allocations so that the transactions can be assigned to other grants.

Don't archive a grant only because its period ended. Use Closeout while final allocations or reports remain.

Recommended practices

Base the Awarded, Declined, and reporting complete decisions on documents that you keep.
Don't treat a status as a permission. Income, reports, releases, indirect costs, and QuickBooks changes each have their own rules.
Use Closeout for final work, because Active and Closeout are the only statuses that accept allocations.
After an important status change, review Activity, allocations, reporting cycles, and QuickBooks links.
Archive a grant only after you reconcile it, because archiving releases its allocations and removes it from the list.

Find grants by status

The Grants list has the views All grants, Pipeline, Active, and Closed.

Pipeline shows Prospect and Applied grants.
Active shows Awarded, Active, and Closeout grants.
Closed shows Closed, Declined, and Withdrawn grants.

All grants groups the grants under Pipeline, Active, Closeout, and Closed. A row shows a status label only when its status differs from its group name, e.g., an Awarded grant in the Active group.