Reviewing and Correcting Grant Allocations

An allocation's status in GrantLink isn't the same as your organization's review. GrantLink saves new allocations as Approved, and they count in grant reporting right away. The same is true for allocations you make yourself and for allocations from QuickBooks links, allocation rules, and splits. GrantLink doesn't have a queue where staff submit allocations for a manager to approve, a batch approval action, or a rule that a different person must review each allocation.

If your policy requires a second approval, do that sign-off outside GrantLink. Use the transaction details, the allocation history, and the activity log as evidence.

What the statuses mean

Don't read Approved as "reviewed by a second person." Also don't read it as "changed in QuickBooks." Most allocations change GrantLink only. Your organization can allow a reviewed QuickBooks update for some assignments, and you can check that update's status separately. See Allocating Transactions to Grants for when QuickBooks changes.

Find the allocations to review

1. Open Ledger.
2. Review the Unallocated, Allocated, and Split views one at a time.
3. Use the Transaction date, Transaction type, Vendor, Dimension, location, and Amount filters to set the review population.
4. Open a row and compare the GrantLink allocation with the QuickBooks transaction line.
5. Open the grant's Transactions > Allocations to review spending for that grant.

GrantLink builds the Ledger list in the background. If the list is still building or the build failed, wait or retry before you decide that the population is complete.

Review one allocation

Check these points:

• The QuickBooks transaction and line are the operating expense you intended.
• The grant accepted expenses on the transaction date.
• The amount or percentage matches the supporting documents.
• For a split, the grant amounts plus any part left out of grant reporting equal the transaction amount.
• The budget line belongs to the grant, or Uncategorized is intentional.
• The memo and business rationale explain the allocation to a reviewer, without unneeded sensitive data.
• The QuickBooks transaction hasn't changed since the allocation was made. If it has, investigate the change. GrantLink doesn't approve it again automatically.

The allocation details show the current grants, the method, the status, the creator, the rationale, and the history for the whole transaction. Organization activity is in Settings > Activity log. A note or reason appears only when someone entered one or GrantLink required one, so older events may not have one.

Correct the grant, amount, or split

To change a split, follow these steps:

1. In Ledger > Split, open the row menu.
2. Select Edit reporting split.
3. Change the grants, amounts or percentages, and budget lines as needed.
4. Enter the Business rationale for replacing the earlier split. GrantLink requires it.
5. Confirm that the grant amounts plus any part left out of grant reporting equal the transaction amount, and then select Save changes.

GrantLink replaces the earlier split and keeps its history. Saving a split doesn't change QuickBooks.

If an expense assigned to one grant belongs to a different grant, remove the allocation with a reason, and then assign the correct grant. Don't add a second allocation to offset the first one.

Correct only the budget line

1. Open the allocation in Ledger or in the grant's Transactions > Allocations.
2. Choose a budget line that belongs to the grant.
3. Save. To return the allocation to Uncategorized, clear the budget line instead.

In Ledger, the Budget Line bulk action updates several selected rows at once. It works only for rows assigned to one grant. Check the result count after you use it.

Remove an allocation

1. In Ledger, open the row menu and select Remove, or Remove all if the row has more than one allocation.
2. Enter a Reason for removal.
3. Reopen the row and check its new state.

GrantLink removes several allocations one at a time. If one fails, the earlier removals stay in effect. 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. Removing an allocation in GrantLink doesn't change QuickBooks.

Record a separate approval

When your policy requires a second sign-off, keep a record outside GrantLink that shows:

• The reviewer and the review date
• The population and period reviewed
• The exceptions found and how they were resolved
• The evidence used, for example invoices or allocation worksheets
• The GrantLink allocation or transaction references

Don't use an allocation memo in place of an approval record with controlled access, unless your policy allows it.

Finish the review

1. Reconcile GrantLink's allocations to the QuickBooks transactions in scope.
2. Resolve unallocated expenses, mixed transactions, expenses outside the grant period, duplicates, and transactions that changed in QuickBooks.
3. Review Uncategorized spending.
4. Confirm that you retried or documented every bulk action that partly failed.
5. Export or keep the allocation and activity evidence that your policy requires.

See Allocating Transactions to Grants for which expenses you can allocate and how bulk actions work.