Grant status describes where an opportunity or award is in its lifecycle. It also affects active-grant plan usage, expense-allocation eligibility, some QuickBooks link behavior, and which grants appear in portfolio views.

Current interface limitation: GrantLink's backend defines canonical transition operations and checks, but the current grant Details form offers all statuses and saves through a general update path. That form does not universally enforce the graph below or collect every transition confirmation. Treat the graph as the intended lifecycle, not as a guarantee that every UI path blocks an out-of-sequence edit.

Before You Change Status

Use a non-viewer role in the correct organization.
Reconcile the grant's award terms, dates, allocations, reporting obligations, and QuickBooks links.
A class-linked grant must remain Awarded, Active, Closeout, or Closed. Make it app-only or archive its active Class links before moving to another status.
Confirm your plan has active-grant capacity before moving a grant to Active.

Status Overview

Status	Use it when	Expense allocations
Prospect	You are evaluating an opportunity	Not eligible
Applied	The application was submitted	Not eligible
Awarded	The award was received but is not active	Not eligible
Active	Grant-funded work and eligible spending are in progress	Eligible, subject to date rules
Closeout	The period ended or closeout work began	Eligible, subject to date rules
Closed	Program and reporting work are complete	Not eligible
Declined	The funder declined an application	Not eligible
Withdrawn	Your organization withdrew the prospect or application	Not eligible

Status Progression

Prospect → Applied or Withdrawn
Applied → Awarded, Declined, or Withdrawn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

The canonical transition functions enforce these additional rules:

Applied → Awarded: award amount must be greater than zero.
Awarded → Active: an award amount is required. Activating before Period Start requires explicit early-activation confirmation.
Active → Closeout: starting before Period End requires explicit early-closeout confirmation. A closeout deadline may be recorded.
Closeout → Closed: requires confirmation that reporting is complete.
Closeout → Active: reactivation requires a reason and can optionally extend Period End.
Applied → Declined: may record a reason.
Prospect/Applied → Withdrawn: requires a reason.
Closed, Declined, and Withdrawn are terminal in the canonical graph.

Change Status in the Current Grant UI

Open Grants and select the grant.
Open Details.
Under Grant Details, choose Status.
Select the truthful lifecycle state.
Select Save changes.
Open Activity and verify the recorded status change.

Because this general form can bypass transition-specific confirmations and side effects, do not use it to manufacture a lifecycle shortcut. If a supported guided lifecycle action is available through an assistant workflow, review its preview and use that operation for sensitive transitions.

Expense Date Constraints

GrantLink enforces date rules based on grant settings:

Rule	Effect
Status	Only Active and Closeout grants can receive expense allocations
No expenses before	Blocks transaction dates before the configured boundary
No expenses after	Blocks transaction dates after the configured boundary
Grant period	Supplies the normal eligibility window when separate expense boundaries are not configured

The current Details form exposes the grant period but not No expenses before or No expenses after. Those optional boundaries can be set through a supported assistant update; when absent, Period Start and Period End control the allocation window.

An eligible status does not make every expense allowable. The transaction still needs the correct date, amount, accounting source, support, and grant purpose.

Closed Versus Archived

Closed is a lifecycle status. It preserves the grant in the closed portfolio view.
Close / archive is a grants-list row action. It sets the grant to closed, timestamps it as archived, archives its QuickBooks links, and schedules release of allocations so their transactions can be reassigned.

Do not archive merely to indicate that the grant period ended. Use Closeout while final allocations or reporting remain.

Best Practices

Use source evidence — Base Awarded, Declined, and reporting-complete decisions on retained documentation.
Do not confuse status with permission — Income, reports, releases, indirect costs, and QuickBooks writeback each have separate rules.
Use Closeout for final work — Active and Closeout are the only allocatable statuses.
Verify side effects — Review Activity, allocations, reporting cycles, and QuickBooks link state after a consequential change.
Archive only after reconciliation — Archive releases allocation treatment and removes the grant from normal list results.

Quick Status Check

From Grants, use All grants, Active, Pipeline, and Closed views. The Active view includes Awarded, Active, and Closeout records; in All grants, Awarded and Active share the Active grants group while Closeout has its own group. Prospect and Applied appear in Pipeline; Closed, Declined, and Withdrawn appear under Closed. Active-status rows omit the repeated status pill, while other statuses show it.