Adding Existing Grants and Budgets

GrantLink supports three ways to add existing grants:

1. Create one grant manually.
2. Auto-fill one grant from PDF award documents.
3. Review QuickBooks grant proposals during first-time setup in an eligible new workspace.

GrantLink does not bulk-create grants from a CSV or spreadsheet. Budget data is managed within each grant after creation.

Important: Linking a grant to existing QuickBooks Online records tells GrantLink which synced activity belongs to the grant. It does not import an award document, funder decision, approved budget, cash receipt, or every QuickBooks transaction as a grant expense.

Before You Start

For manual or document-based entry, confirm that:

• You have a non-viewer role and are in the correct organization.
• You have the award name, donor-restriction type, lifecycle status, period, amount, funder, reporting terms, and approved budget.
• If you plan to link grants to QuickBooks Online records, an active QuickBooks connection exists and a current sync has loaded the records.
• Your plan has capacity for each grant you add.

Ways to Add Existing Grants

Method 1: Enter One Grant Manually

Manual entry is useful when you already have the approved details:

1. Open Grants > Add Grant.
2. Enter the required name, donor-restriction type, status, and period; then add known award, funder, indirect-cost, and reporting terms.
3. Select Save & continue to linking.
4. Select Add QuickBooks link and choose the primary record or Class records, then select Link · [selected count]. Alternatively, select Skip for now for an app-only grant.
5. Verify the new grant before adding the next one.

Method 2: Auto-Fill from Grant Documents

From Grants > Add Grant, drop or browse for up to five PDF award letters, RFPs, or agreements. Each PDF can be up to 20 MB, with a 25 MB combined limit. GrantLink reads the documents and applies extracted details to fields you have not edited.

Review every extracted field against the source documents before creating the grant. The uploaded files are attached to the resulting grant. After creation, complete the same QuickBooks linking step used for manual entry.

Method 3: Review QuickBooks Proposals During First-Time Setup

QuickBooks-first setup is for eligible new workspaces, not an import command for an established workspace. Connect the intended company and let Read books load its lists and recent transaction history.

GrantLink proposes Classes and Projects with observed activity in the setup window. It uses Customers as a fallback when neither Classes nor Projects have observed activity. A catalog entry alone does not establish a grant, and Locations are not proposed by this detection step. These proposal rules do not remove the separate per-grant linking choices.

On Confirm, select only proposals that represent your grants. Projects can appear under Classes with shared spending; review those selections to avoid overlapping scopes. Review the displayed date range, amounts, and missing terms before the final Create [count] grants action.

Proposals are not approved awards or complete accounting results. During an incomplete sync, amounts and suggestions may change. If detection cannot finish its read, return to Read books and retry rather than treating an unavailable result as proof that no grants exist.

QuickBooks Linking Edge Cases

• Projects not synced: Run a full sync from Settings > QuickBooks Sync and confirm projects exist in the connected company.
• Record already linked: One active grant cannot own the same QuickBooks Online record, including customer/project mirror identities. Review the existing grant before linking.
• Transactions outside the grant period: Correct the grant period on Details and review allocation eligibility; do not assume out-of-period costs were backfilled.

Add the Approved Budget

Open each grant's Budget tab and add budget lines manually, map synced QuickBooks expense accounts, or use the available GrantLink AI budget workflow. There is no general bulk budget-spreadsheet import button in the current grant setup flow. See Setting Up Grant Budgets.

Importing Historical Transactions

Adding an expense link schedules backfill for matching synced activity inside the grant's eligible period. Use the full-sync controls in Settings > QuickBooks Sync if the needed history is not present, then review Allocations.

Backfill is a GrantLink reporting assignment. It does not correct source dates, accounts, vendors, classes, customers, projects, locations, or amounts in QuickBooks. Correct source-controlled errors in QuickBooks and sync again.

Import Historical Allocations from CSV

If historical allocation detail is available in an accounting CSV but not yet linked to synced QuickBooks activity, import it from the upload action in the organization Allocations header or the grant's Allocations toolbar. The organization action asks you to select one grant; the grant action preselects the current grant. Every accepted row is assigned entirely to that grant.

The file must be a non-empty UTF-8 .csv, use USD amounts, and contain no more than 2,000 transaction rows or 10 MB. GrantLink recognizes QuickBooks Transaction Detail by Account and General Ledger layouts directly. For another accounting CSV layout, it can infer the header, dates, columns, and amount signs with AI; review the displayed mapping and sign convention rather than assuming debits and credits were interpreted correctly.

1. Select the file and choose Preview import.
2. Reconcile the expense, credit/refund, and net totals to the source report.
3. Review included, outside-period, and excluded rows. Invalid dates, zero or invalid amounts, and non-USD rows remain excluded; outside-period rows are warnings and remain included unless you remove them.
4. Apply the reviewed revision within seven days.

Apply is atomic and creates immediately approved, manual GrantLink allocations; it does not write to QuickBooks. Imported rows retain file and row evidence and count in grant spending immediately. If a later sync finds one matching QuickBooks transaction or line, GrantLink links the evidence without counting the expense twice; ambiguous or conflicting matches require review. Open an imported allocation's details to inspect the retained evidence, attach a nearby unallocated QuickBooks transaction or line manually, or keep a flagged source as GrantLink-only. The attachment picker searches within 90 days and orders candidates by date and amount proximity.

Verifying Your Setup

After adding each grant, verify everything is correct:

1. Details: correct type, status, period, award, funder, reporting terms, and QuickBooks links.
2. Budget: reconcile category and line totals to the approved budget.
3. Allocations: verify matched transactions, dates, amounts, and Uncategorized items.
4. Income: confirm expected synced receipts or record valid non-QuickBooks receipts separately.
5. Activity: confirm creation, link, and subsequent correction history.

Tips for a Smooth Migration

1. Start with one representative grant and reconcile it end to end.
2. Keep a migration crosswalk from old grant identifiers to GrantLink and QuickBooks records.
3. Do not treat matched QuickBooks spending as proof of grant allowability.
4. Use Read-only reporting unless the organization has approved a specific QuickBooks writeback workflow. Supported grant entity and linked transaction tracking changes require a separate Preview → Apply action by a user permitted by that workflow; importing allocations never writes to QuickBooks.