Connect Payroll Work to Initiatives

In GrantLink, you allocate payroll by first recording where the employee worked. You do not start with the grant you want to charge.

An Initiative represents a program or another body of work, and grants can fund an Initiative. When funding changes, or when several grants support one program, you keep the same Initiative and change only its grant links.

You start with the employee cost and record work evidence for it. The evidence names an Initiative, and the Initiative determines the eligible grant or grants.

Record work evidence

1. Open Allocations > Payroll.
2. Choose Needs attention.
3. Select an employee cost.
4. Under Where did this work happen?, choose the Initiative. If the Initiative does not exist yet, you can create it from the same list. GrantLink does not add a grant to a new Initiative.
5. In Evidence, name the person or record and describe the work, for example: "Jordan Lee confirmed on September 13 that this work supported Family Intake."
6. Choose Save evidence.

You can also attach an evidence file in chat and ask GrantLink to record it for a payroll cost. GrantLink uses the exact file you attached, and the file becomes visible only to admins.

GrantLink requires an evidence note before it saves. Write a note that names a person or record, because a note without a source does not support the allocation. GrantLink keeps the note, the person who saved it, and the time in the cost's History.

How GrantLink finds eligible grants

A grant is eligible for a payroll cost when all of these are true:

• the grant is linked to the Initiative, and the link is still active;
• the grant status is active, and the grant has a start date and an end date; and
• the pay date falls within the dates when the grant allows expenses.

When you save evidence, GrantLink checks the eligible grants:

• One eligible grant: GrantLink assigns the full cost to that grant.
• Several eligible grants: the cost stays in Needs attention until you enter the percentage for each grant. See Review Payroll Allocations.
• No eligible grant: the cost stays unresolved. You can link a grant to the Initiative, correct the work evidence, or leave the amount outside grant reporting.

If you link a grant to the Initiative after you save the evidence, GrantLink does not assign the cost automatically. Open the cost and enter the grant's percentage in Grant allocation.

An Initiative does not make a linked grant eligible forever. The grant status and dates still apply on each pay date.

What counts as evidence

Use the records and internal controls that fit your organization and your award. Examples include an activity record, an approved allocation worksheet, a supervisor confirmation, or a case or service record made at the time of the work.

Do not assign work based only on an employee's job title, a budget target, or the funds left on a grant. GrantLink does not decide whether a cost is allowable, compliant, or reimbursable.

See Creating and Managing Programs and Initiatives to set up Initiatives and grant links. For federal rules on personnel costs, see Time and Effort Reporting for Federal Grants.

Change evidence after you save it

The Save evidence form appears only for a cost that has no evidence yet. After you save evidence, you can change the grant percentages on the payroll page. See Review Payroll Allocations.

To change the Initiative or correct the evidence itself, ask GrantLink in chat. Describe the change and name its source. GrantLink shows the dollar amounts before and after the change, and you must approve the change before GrantLink saves it. See Correct a Payroll Allocation.