Payroll in GrantLink

GrantLink connects payroll costs to the work your employees performed, the grants that can support that work, and the reports you need. It does not run payroll, pay employees, or replace your payroll provider.

There is no payroll month to close or reopen. Your live allocation view changes as payroll registers, work evidence, corrections, and QuickBooks support arrive. When you need a fixed record, save a report snapshot for the date range you choose.

The Complete Flow

1. Import a payroll register in GrantLink chat. Attach your payroll CSV and ask GrantLink to import it. Your existing export will often work without renaming its columns.
2. Review what GrantLink understood. The assistant summarizes the employee, date, entity, currency, and earnings fields. It asks only when a required fact is missing or ambiguous.
3. Describe where the work happened. In Allocations → Payroll, open a cost that needs attention and associate it with an Initiative. Name the person or record that supports the answer.
4. Let eligible grants narrow the choice. An Initiative connects the work to its eligible grants. If exactly one grant is eligible, GrantLink assigns it. If several are eligible, enter the supported percentages. Any unassigned cents remain visible.
5. Review the live result. All payroll shows employee costs, work evidence, grant allocations, and history. Needs attention shows only costs that still need a factual answer or allocation decision.
6. Match the payroll run to QuickBooks. Ask GrantLink to find the exact QuickBooks expense lines that support the imported run. This is a read-only match; GrantLink does not change QuickBooks.
7. Use or preserve the report. Report shows employees by grant for any pay-date range. Save a Supported snapshot when all included costs are assigned and matched. You may save a clearly labeled Working snapshot while questions remain.

Chat and the Payroll Workspace Work Together

Use normal GrantLink chat to import files, ask questions, explain a cost, and request a correction. Use Allocations → Payroll when a list, row details, or employee-by-grant table is easier to review.

Both surfaces use the same saved records. Chat is not a separate payroll system, and the workspace is not a batch approval queue.

What “Current” Means

“Current through September 13,” for example, means GrantLink has received payroll through that pay date and is showing its present allocation state. It does not promise that a future payroll run has arrived.

GrantLink keeps these conditions separate:

• Received: a payroll cost came from an imported register.
• Allocated: the cost has work evidence and a supported grant distribution.
• Matched: the imported run ties to exact QuickBooks expense lines.
• Supported report: all payroll in the selected range is allocated and matched.

Who Can Use Payroll

Payroll is currently available only to organization admins. Ordinary members and viewers cannot read or change payroll detail. Do not copy Social Security numbers, bank details, home addresses, birth dates, tax elections, or unrelated HR information into GrantLink.

Next: Import a Payroll Register.