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Grants

Managing Multi-Year Grants

Set up one multi-year award, build its budget-period schedule, review period actuals, and carry unspent budget into future periods without changing the award.

Use one GrantLink grant when one award covers several years and you need a combined view of the whole award. The grant record holds the full award and grant period. Its budget can be split into monthly, quarterly, or funder budget year periods.

Create separate grant records when each renewal is a separate award or must be tracked on its own. GrantLink doesn't link annual grant records into one schedule, and it doesn't move budget between grant records.

Important: Budget periods and reporting cycles are separate. A budget schedule sets the planning columns and actual amounts on Budget. The Reporting Schedule settings create report due dates. Changing one doesn't update the other.

Before you start

Confirm that:

  • You know whether the funder issued one multi-year award or separate annual awards.
  • You have the grant's Period Start, Period End, and full Award Amount.
  • You have the approved amount for each budget year, if the budget isn't spread evenly.
  • You understand the funder's rule for carrying unspent funds forward. GrantLink can re-plan future period amounts, but it doesn't get funder approval or decide whether carrying funds forward is allowed.
  • You have the Member or Admin role. Only an Admin can approve budget changes from GrantLink AI, including a new budget schedule.

Choose the record structure

One grant with several budget periods

Use one grant when the award agreement gives one total award for the full period.

  1. Create the grant with the full award amount and the full grant period.
  2. Add the approved budget lines on the grant's Budget tab. See Setting Up Grant Budgets.
  3. Set up the budget schedule as described below.

All allocations, income, budget actual amounts, documents, and reports for the award then stay on one grant.

Separate grants for annual awards

Use separate records when the funder awards each year separately, when renewal isn't guaranteed, or when the funder requires separate award records.

  1. Create one grant for each award year.
  2. Use consistent names, e.g., "Community Program 2026" and "Community Program 2027."
  3. Select the same funder on each record when that's correct.
  4. Keep any link between the awards, and any approved transfer, in your accounting and compliance records.

GrantLink doesn't link a renewal to an earlier grant, and it doesn't calculate a carryforward between grants.

Set up the budget schedule

The grant's Budget tab doesn't have a button that creates budget periods. Ask GrantLink AI to set up the schedule instead.

  1. Open the grant, and then open GrantLink AI.
  2. Ask for the schedule you need, e.g., monthly periods for the grant period, calendar quarters, or funder budget years with their labels and dates.
  3. Say whether GrantLink AI should spread each line evenly across the periods or use the approved amount for each year.
  4. Review the periods and amounts that GrantLink AI explains.
  5. If you're an Admin, choose Approve or Do not approve.

Each period needs a label, a start date, and an end date. Periods can have gaps between them, but they can't overlap. A schedule can have at most 120 periods.

Review period budgets

On Budget, each period is a column in the worksheet. Use the views to review the budget:

  • Budget shows the planned amount in each period.
  • Actuals shows the grant's allocations in each period, based on the transaction date.
  • Variance shows the period budget minus the period actual amount.
  • Cumulative shows the running budget through each column minus the running actual amount.

The Total column includes actual amounts that have no date or that fall outside every period. Undated and outside amounts don't appear in a period column, and the Cumulative view leaves them out. If the grant has no budget schedule, the worksheet shows only the Total column.

Adjust an uneven multi-year budget

If the approved period amounts aren't equal, edit the period cells in the Budget view to match the funder's approved budget. Then confirm that each line's period amounts still add up to the line total. See Setting Up Grant Budgets for how to save cell edits.

Replacing a schedule: Ask GrantLink AI before you replace or remove a schedule, and review its explanation. Replacing periods replaces the amounts stored in those periods. Export the budget with Export to Excel first if you need a record of the current schedule.

Carry unspent budget forward

Use Carry unspent forward only after the earlier periods' actual amounts and allocations are current.

  1. Sync QuickBooks, and resolve the allocations that should count as grant expenses.
  2. Review the grant's Budget tab, including the Uncategorized row and the Total column.
  3. Open Grants > Budget vs actual and select the By month view.
  4. In the grant's row, open the actions menu and select Carry unspent forward….
  5. Choose how GrantLink spreads the unspent amount over the periods that haven't ended:
    • Match remaining shape spreads it in proportion to the existing budget in those periods.
    • Evenly spreads it in equal amounts.
  6. Enter the required Reason.
  7. Select Carry forward, and then review the revised budget.

GrantLink applies the change to every line of the grant. For each line, GrantLink treats a period whose end date has passed as complete. GrantLink sets each completed period's budget to the actual amount spent, and it moves the total unspent amount into the periods that haven't ended. Overspending and underspending in completed periods offset each other.

The line total doesn't change. GrantLink leaves a line unchanged when its completed periods are overspent in total, when no future period exists, or when nothing is left to carry.

Check the multi-year budget

After you set up a schedule or carry funds forward:

  1. Confirm that the period labels and dates match the award agreement.
  2. Confirm that each line's period amounts add up to its approved line total.
  3. Compare Actuals with the grant's Allocations, and review the Uncategorized row and any actual amounts outside the periods.
  4. Review Variance for the current period and Cumulative for the award to date.
  5. Confirm that the overall budget still matches the approved budget and award.
  6. Keep the reason for carrying funds forward and any funder approval with your grant records. GrantLink records the change in each line's history, but GrantLink isn't the funder's approval record.

Reporting due dates are separate

Set the reporting cadence under Reporting > Setup in the grant's Reporting Schedule section. A budget year doesn't create a reporting cycle. See Reporting Cycles and Deadline Workflow for how GrantLink creates reporting cycles and their current limits.

GrantLink can track one award across budget periods, assign expenses to periods by transaction date, calculate period and cumulative variances, and re-plan future budget amounts. GrantLink doesn't:

  • Decide whether separate award notices should be combined into one grant
  • Decide whether carrying funds forward is allowed
  • Ask for or record funder approval of a carryforward
  • Move budget between separate grant records
  • Change the award or a line total when it carries funds forward
  • Treat a budget period as a reporting cycle or a submission record

Use the award agreement, approved amendments, QuickBooks, and your organization's accounting policy as the official records for those decisions.

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