The Ledger Workflow

Open Ledger to review synced QuickBooks transactions and decide which grant each expense belongs to. Ledger doesn't replace your general ledger. QuickBooks stays the record of each transaction's date, vendor, account, amount, and QuickBooks tracking.

QuickBooks changes: Most Ledger actions change GrantLink only. Your organization can allow two reviewed updates. The first applies a grant's Class, Customer, or Project to a transaction after a one-grant assignment. The second posts a journal entry for a saved split. Each update needs the right setting in Settings > QuickBooks > Permissions and your approval of a preview. Check QuickBooks itself to confirm what changed.

Before you start

• Connect and sync QuickBooks.
• Make sure the grant and any budget lines you need already exist.
• Gather the supporting documents for your allocation method.
• Use a Member or Admin role. Viewers can look at Ledger, but GrantLink rejects their changes. Ledger may still show some controls to Viewers, so a visible button doesn't mean you can use it.

Choose a Ledger view

Ledger has six views:

GrantLink builds the Ledger list in the background. If the list is missing or the build failed, GrantLink starts a rebuild. Don't treat a list that is still building, or that failed to build, as the complete set of transactions.

Select a row to open the transaction details. Review the transaction, its lines and accounts, its QuickBooks Customer, Project, Class, and Location, and any linked records before you act.

Filter and sort the list

You can filter by these fields:

• Transaction date
• Transaction type, which covers bills, purchases, checks, expenses, and journal entries
• Vendor
• Dimension, which searches Class, Project, and Customer names
• Location, which uses your QuickBooks name for locations or departments
• Amount, as a range

You can sort by newest, oldest, vendor name, or highest amount. Filters and sorting apply to the whole result, not only the rows on screen. If a transaction you expect is missing, clear the filters, and then check the sync and Ledger build status.

Which expenses you can allocate

Ledger sorts each transaction before it offers allocation actions. Operating expense lines can be allocated, and income and cash movements appear in their own views. You can't allocate a deleted or dismissed transaction, a transaction GrantLink created, or a transaction with no expense line that has an amount.

A transaction can have one or several parts that you can allocate:

• For a simple expense, GrantLink uses the whole transaction.
• For a transaction with several lines, or with both expense lines and other lines, choose one expense line with a nonzero amount. The split dialog lists each eligible line with its amount, currency, account or item, QuickBooks tracking, and debit or credit.
• GrantLink doesn't allocate an income line or another non-expense line because the same transaction also has an expense line.
• You can't allocate an expense that another active allocation or a restriction release already covers.

GrantLink saves allocations only to grants with the status Active or Closeout. The transaction date must fall inside the grant period and any expense date limits on the grant. A budget line must belong to the selected grant.

Grant list in the Classify dialog: The Classify Transaction dialog lists Active and Awarded grants. Choose an Active grant. If you choose an Awarded grant, the save fails. A Closeout grant accepts allocations but doesn't appear in this list.

Reconcile journal entries and payments

A balanced journal entry can have a total of $0.00 and still contain real expense, payroll, correction, or reclassification lines. Ledger shows a journal entry when it has any line with an amount. The Hide journal entries without activity setting in Settings > General, under Ledger display, hides only journal entries where every line is zero.

Open a journal entry to see Journal reconciliation:

• Debits to expense accounts increase Net expense, and credits to expense accounts reduce it.
• Debits and credits to other accounts stay visible, but they don't count in Net expense.
• Journal difference should be zero when the synced lines balance.
• Remaining to allocate is the expense amount that isn't assigned to a grant yet. It can differ from both the journal total and Net expense.
• If GrantLink can't confirm a figure, it marks the figure as unverified instead of showing it as exact. For example, GrantLink may not be able to confirm an account type, a debit or credit side, or whether all lines synced.

Bill payments, credit card payments, and transfers appear with their own transaction types. A bill payment pays the linked bill and isn't a second expense, so allocate the bill instead. A recorded payment doesn't prove that the bank cleared it, and a credit card payment doesn't always reduce bank cash right away.

Fix allocations whose QuickBooks line is missing

Sometimes an approved or posted allocation points to a QuickBooks line that is gone, belongs to a deleted transaction, or can't be checked because the latest sync is incomplete. The grant overview then shows a notice such as "1 allocation needs source review." GrantLink leaves these allocations out of recorded spending until you resolve them. Leaving them out doesn't mean spending fell, and it doesn't create an accounting reversal.

1. Select Sync and verify source, and make sure the latest QuickBooks sync is complete.
2. If the original line comes back, check that the allocation and recorded spending return without a duplicate.
3. If the line is gone or the transaction was deleted, select Review removal of old treatment when it appears. Review every grant in a split, enter the required reason, and submit. GrantLink submits only if the transaction hasn't changed since your review.
4. Review any replacement line separately in Ledger. Removing the old allocation doesn't choose a replacement or change QuickBooks.

GrantLink doesn't offer removal when the sync is incomplete, because a missing line in an incomplete sync doesn't prove the line was deleted. Older allocations that GrantLink can't review this way stay listed for you to investigate, but you can't remove them from the grant overview.

Assign one expense to one grant

From Unallocated, follow these steps:

1. Choose a grant in the row's Grant column. You can also open the row details and select Classify if GrantLink shows it there.
2. In the Classify Transaction dialog, select the expense line if GrantLink asks for one.
3. Confirm the grant in Select Grant.
4. Optionally choose one of the grant's budget lines and add a memo or business rationale.
5. Select Classify, and then check that the row moved to the right view.

In Read-only reporting, GrantLink confirms that QuickBooks was not changed. The allocation affects GrantLink totals, grant reports, dashboards, and exports only.

Your organization can also allow a reviewed QuickBooks update. It needs Selected writebacks with grant tracking updates allowed, or Full writeback / automation, in Settings > QuickBooks > Permissions. The grant needs a QuickBooks writeback destination, and the transaction must be a bill, purchase, journal entry, or vendor credit. GrantLink is making QuickBooks changes available in stages, so this update may not be available yet. GrantLink then saves the allocation and shows Review QuickBooks changes with the lines and the Class, Customer, or Project values before and after. Select Apply to QuickBooks to queue the update. If you close the review instead, the allocation stays saved in GrantLink, and nothing is sent to QuickBooks.

If your organization uses Selected writebacks without grant tracking updates, you can't assign grants in Ledger.

Split an expense and handle the remainder

Use Split from the row menu when one expense belongs to several grants, or when only part of it belongs in grant reporting:

1. Select the expense line if more than one line is eligible.
2. Select Add grant for each grant.
3. Optionally choose a budget line for each grant.
4. Enter an Amount or a Percentage for each grant. GrantLink fills in the other value.
5. If the grants don't add up to the full expense, select Leave the remaining amount outside GrantLink reporting.
6. Check the Allocated and Remaining totals. Add a memo if it helps, and enter a business rationale when you replace an earlier decision.
7. Select Split transaction.

GrantLink rejects a split in these cases:

• A grant has a zero amount.
• The total is more than the expense.
• The same grant and budget line appear twice.
• A grant can't accept the expense.
• The grants don't add up to the full expense, and you didn't choose to leave the rest outside grant reporting.

Amounts are exact to the cent. When you enter percentages, GrantLink rounds each amount and puts any rounding difference on the last grant or on the part left outside grant reporting.

Saving a split changes GrantLink only. When you open a saved split with Edit reporting split, the dialog shows Review QuickBooks journal. GrantLink posts a journal entry only if Settings > QuickBooks > Permissions allows allocation journal entries, your organization keeps its books in US dollars, and you approve the previewed entry. See Splitting a QuickBooks Transaction Across Multiple Grants for rounding and editing examples.

Assign and correct budget lines

The grant and the budget line are separate choices:

• An allocation with no budget line is still grant spending. It shows as Uncategorized.
• The budget line control in a row is available after you assign a grant. It lists budget lines only when the transaction belongs to one grant.
• Choosing a budget line changes GrantLink budget-to-actual reporting. Clearing it returns the allocation to Uncategorized.
• A budget line must belong to the assigned grant. If the line you need doesn't exist, add it in the grant's Budget section.

Budget lines exist only in GrantLink. Changing a budget line never changes QuickBooks.

Fix problems instead of forcing them

Common reasons you can't assign a row include these:

• The transaction is income, a cash movement, zero, deleted, dismissed, or otherwise not an operating expense.
• The transaction has no eligible expense line, or you need to choose one line.
• The grant's status or expense dates don't allow the expense.
• Another allocation or a restriction release already covers the expense.
• The budget line belongs to another grant.
• The amounts are more than the expense, a grant rounds to zero, or you didn't choose to leave the remainder outside grant reporting.
• The grant links match more than one grant, or the transaction changed in QuickBooks after you assigned it.
• Your organization's QuickBooks settings turn off Ledger assignments, or your role is Viewer.

If the accounting data is wrong, correct it in QuickBooks. If QuickBooks is right but the grant assignment is wrong, correct the assignment in GrantLink. Don't create an offsetting allocation to hide an incorrect one.

Use bulk actions and review partial results

Select rows to show the action bar:

• Grant assigns the selected unallocated expenses to one grant and can set one budget line.
• Split applies the same grant percentages to every selected transaction. The percentages must total 100%. A bulk split can't use amounts, choose lines, set budget lines, or leave part of the expense out of grant reporting.
• Budget Line updates selected rows that are already assigned to one grant.
• Ask GrantLink adds the selected rows to the assistant's context. It doesn't change accounting data.

In Read-only reporting, bulk Grant checks each transaction on its own. Valid rows save, and rows with problems stay for you to fix.

When your organization allows reviewed QuickBooks updates, bulk Grant first shows each eligible line, its amount, the QuickBooks change, and the rows that can't be updated, with the reason. When you approve, GrantLink saves each eligible transaction's allocation together with its update. Rows that can't be updated stay unchanged, and the other rows still go through. If GrantLink can't confirm that it received a request, the row shows Receipt unconfirmed. Retry only those rows. GrantLink recognizes a repeated request and doesn't create a duplicate.

In Read-only reporting, a bulk split can partly succeed. In Selected writebacks or Full writeback / automation, a bulk split saves the allocations in GrantLink, but the related QuickBooks change fails, so QuickBooks stays unchanged. Always read the result counts instead of repeating the whole selection.

Use the single-row dialogs when lines, grants, percentages, amounts, budget lines, or remainders differ between transactions.

Edit or remove a decision

To change a saved split, open the row menu in Split, choose Edit reporting split, change the grants, and enter the required reason. GrantLink replaces the earlier split and keeps its history.

To move a one-grant expense to another grant, remove the allocation and then assign the correct grant. To change only the budget line, edit or clear it.

To remove allocations, follow these steps:

1. Choose Remove, or Remove all if the row has more than one allocation.
2. Enter a Reason for removal. If you cancel or leave the reason blank, nothing changes.
3. Reopen the row and check its new state.

GrantLink removes several allocations one at a time. If a later removal fails, the earlier removals stay in effect, and GrantLink reports the partial result. Removing an allocation doesn't change QuickBooks. You can't directly remove an allocation that was posted to QuickBooks with a journal entry. Correct a QuickBooks entry through your normal accounting process.

Check the result in GrantLink and QuickBooks

After each action, follow these steps:

1. Reopen the transaction details and check the expense line, grants, assigned amount, and remainder.
2. Open each grant's Transactions > Allocations and check the amount and budget line.
3. Review the allocation history and, if you have access, Settings > Activity log.
4. For a queued QuickBooks update, check its status in the Ledger row or in Settings > Background jobs. If the outcome is unclear, use Check status. It checks QuickBooks without sending the change again.
5. Reconcile the GrantLink allocation to the QuickBooks transaction and your supporting documents.
6. Check QuickBooks itself before you say that its coding changed.

For QuickBooks settings, see QuickBooks Permissions and Current Writeback Availability. For review steps, see Reviewing and Correcting Grant Allocations.