Quick Start Guide

Use this workflow to take one representative grant from setup through transaction review and a draft report. Try it with one grant before you set up the rest of your grants.

QuickBooks boundary: GrantLink reads synced QuickBooks Online data, links existing records, and saves grant reporting decisions without changing QuickBooks. A few workflows can change QuickBooks when your saved policy allows it, and each one needs a review and an explicit Apply to QuickBooks step.

Before you start

Have the following ready:

• Access to the correct GrantLink organization
• An Intuit user who can connect the intended QuickBooks Online company
• One representative award, with its dates, amount, funder, status, approved budget, and reporting requirements
• The existing QuickBooks Classes, Customers, sub-customers, Projects, or Locations that identify its expenses and money received
• A sample QuickBooks expense and receipt that you can trace after the sync
• Agreement about who corrects QuickBooks source data and who approves grant assignments in GrantLink

1. Confirm the QuickBooks write policy

Open Settings > QuickBooks > Permissions. The QuickBooks Permissions page offers Read-only reporting, Selected writebacks, and Full writeback / automation. When you choose Selected writebacks, the page also lists individual options under Allowed writebacks.

For a first setup, an Admin should save Read-only reporting so the policy is on record. If no policy has been saved, GrantLink already treats the organization as read-only. The page's notice about legacy writeback behavior doesn't give broader access.

Budgets, links, allocations, notes, and reports in GrantLink never change QuickBooks. If you expect an accounting change, verify it in QuickBooks Online, because a saved setting in GrantLink is not proof of a QuickBooks change.

2. Connect and verify QuickBooks

1. Open Settings > QuickBooks > Sync.
2. If the organization isn't connected, select Connect to QuickBooks in the Connect QuickBooks Online card.
3. Complete Intuit's authorization steps.
4. In the Connection card, confirm that Company and Realm ID identify the intended QuickBooks Online company. Stop if they don't.
5. Select Run first sync, or select Sync now when you need a manual refresh.
6. Confirm that the latest sync finished, and review any partial errors. A connected status alone doesn't prove that current transactions were copied.

If the connection or sync fails, don't create replacement transactions in GrantLink. Fix the connection or the source data, then sync again.

3. Create the pilot grant

Open Grants and select Add Grant. You can fill in the form in one of two ways:

If GrantLink shows Couldn't read the documents, enter the details by hand. Auto-fill only copies values from the documents and doesn't interpret award terms for you.

Select Create grant (or Create grant & set up QuickBooks for an awarded or active grant). The QuickBooks setup step lets you link an existing record, create a new QuickBooks record after a review step, or choose Not now. Creating a grant in GrantLink doesn't create a QuickBooks Class, Customer, Project, Location, or transaction unless you review and apply that change.

See Creating and Managing Grants.

4. Link the grant's QuickBooks records

Open the grant and select Details. In the QuickBooks section, select Manage (or Set up). The QuickBooks tracking dialog has two tabs:

• Expenses, for the existing QuickBooks records that identify grant costs
• Money received, for the existing QuickBooks records that identify grant receipts

Only an organization Admin can add or remove these links. The two tabs can use different records. The record types you can choose depend on your mapping setup, so use only the choices the dialog offers. You can also leave both tabs empty for a grant that doesn't use QuickBooks records.

Links are matching rules in GrantLink. Adding or removing a link doesn't retag a transaction or change a record in QuickBooks Online. If a source transaction uses the wrong QuickBooks record, correct it in QuickBooks Online and sync again.

5. Build and check the budget

Open the grant's Budget section and enter the approved budget periods, lines, and amounts. Then confirm the following:

• The budget total matches the award.
• The period dates match the approved budget periods.
• Every line name and amount matches the approved budget.
• You know which spending has no budget line yet, so you can review it later.

A GrantLink budget supports grant reporting and budget versus actual review. It doesn't create QuickBooks accounts or budgets. See Setting Up Grant Budgets.

6. Review transactions and exceptions

Each page has a different job:

Trace one sample expense:

1. Find it in Ledger and check its date, amount, vendor, account, and QuickBooks coding.
2. Confirm the expected grant match, or assign or split the expense for grant reporting.
3. Open the grant's Allocations page and check the amount and budget line. An allocation without a budget line still counts for the grant but shows as Uncategorized.
4. Confirm that the grant shares add up to the QuickBooks source amount.

Then trace one receipt on the grant's Invoices & receipts page. If either sample is missing, check the latest sync, date filters, grant period, link tab, and the coding in QuickBooks. Conflicting links, dates outside the grant period, unsupported transaction lines, and shared costs can need manual review.

Assigning or splitting a transaction in GrantLink doesn't change the QuickBooks transaction. See Allocating Transactions to Grants and Reviewing and Correcting Grant Allocations.

7. Create and review a draft report

1. In the sidebar, under Chats, select New chat.
2. In the message box, name the grant, reporting period, purpose of the report, and the output you want.
3. Attach supporting files only when you need them, then send the message.
4. Wait for GrantLink to finish its current step before you send another message.
5. Review the result. Saved reports appear under Reporting > Saved reports.

Before you share or submit the report, check the grant and period, reconcile spending and money received, resolve material exceptions, confirm the latest QuickBooks sync, and check the narrative against source documents. Chat output is a draft. GrantLink doesn't approve the report or decide compliance for you.

Final checklist

• QuickBooks Permissions has a saved policy, normally Read-only reporting for a first setup
• The connected company name and realm ID are correct
• The latest sync finished and you reviewed any partial errors
• Grant dates, amount, funder, status, restrictions, and reporting requirements match the award
• Expenses and Money received links are correct, or the grant intentionally has no links
• Budget totals and periods match the approved budget
• A sample expense reconciles from QuickBooks through Ledger to the grant's Allocations page
• A sample receipt appears correctly on the grant's Invoices & receipts page
• Pending items, unmatched items, conflicts, splits, and uncategorized allocations are resolved or have an owner
• The draft report uses the intended scope and has been reconciled and reviewed

If a check fails, pause setup for the rest of your grants. Correct accounting data in QuickBooks Online and sync again. Correct grant details, links, budgets, allocations, and reports in GrantLink.