Adding Existing Grants and Budgets

GrantLink supports two distinct setup paths:

1. Create one grant manually.
2. Auto-fill one grant from PDF award documents.

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

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.

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.

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 Admin Preview → Apply action; importing allocations never writes to QuickBooks.