Running Indirect Cost Calculations

GrantLink calculates indirect costs from the expenses allocated to a grant. Each calculation is saved as a run for one period. GrantLink keeps the draft and approval history of each run, prevents runs with overlapping periods, and limits the total to the grant's indirect cost cap.

Important: GrantLink can't currently post an indirect cost journal entry to QuickBooks. Approved runs show Post to QuickBooks, but selecting it returns an error, and the run stays Approved. Record the journal entry in QuickBooks through your normal accounting process, and don't describe the GrantLink run as posted.

Before you start

Check these points:

• The grant's status is Active or Closeout.
• The grant has an indirect cost rate. Enter it in the grant details as Indirect Cost Rate (%), and enter an optional Indirect Cost Cap.
• The grant uses the right indirect cost base. The grant details form doesn't have a base field. A grant with no saved base uses MTDC, and the Base Type on the configuration card shows the base in use. You can ask the GrantLink assistant to change a grant's indirect cost base.
• The grant's expenses are allocated in GrantLink for the period, and their budget categories have the right indirect cost base group.
• The period you plan to calculate doesn't overlap another run that isn't voided.
• Your role is Member or Admin. Viewers can't calculate or change runs.

The Calculate New Period button is available only when the grant itself has a rate. GrantLink can fall back to the funder's default indirect rate during a calculation, but you can't start a calculation from this screen with only a funder rate. Add the rate to the grant instead.

How each base works

GrantLink leaves indirect cost allocations out of every base. A cost with no budget category has no base group, so it counts in TDC, MTDC, and Custom. Categorize costs before you calculate if you don't want that result.

For MTDC, GrantLink adds up subaward costs for each QuickBooks vendor across the grant's earlier activity. The subaward limit is $25,000 for a grant that GrantLink recorded as awarded before October 1, 2024. The limit is $50,000 for a grant recorded as awarded on or after that date, or with no awarded date. Subaward costs with no vendor are added together as one vendor. Check the award date and vendor coding against the actual award terms.

Calculate a draft run

1. Open the grant, then select Budget > Indirect costs.
2. Select Calculate New Period.
3. Choose Period Start and Period End. GrantLink suggests the most recent full calendar quarter, limited to the grant dates. You can choose any range inside the grant period that doesn't overlap another run.
4. Optionally edit the Period Label.
5. Select Calculate.

GrantLink uses the grant's current allocated expenses with a QuickBooks transaction date in the period. It applies the rate and then limits the result to the cap that remains. Approved and posted runs use up the cap, and drafts don't.

A period with no qualifying costs still creates a $0 draft. When the cap is used up, the button reads Calculate (Cap Reached), and a new run shows the calculated amount with a final amount of $0. GrantLink stops the calculation if the grant has more than 500 runs or more than 500 allocated expenses, or if the cap history mixes currencies.

Review the draft

The runs table shows each run's:

• Period
• Base, which is the base type and rate
• Base Amount
• Calculated
• Final (Capped)

The configuration card above the table shows the rate, base type, cap, the posted total, and the cap that remains.

GrantLink saves totals for each exclusion, for example equipment, excluded categories, and subaward amounts above the limit. The runs table doesn't show those totals. Before you approve a run, compare the base amount with the grant's categorized allocations yourself.

Each saved run keeps the figures from the time you calculated it. Later allocation changes don't update the run. To include changes, delete the draft and calculate the period again.

Approve, return, void, or delete a run

Open the run's action menu:

• Approve changes a draft to Approved and records who approved it and when.
• Move to Draft returns an approved run to draft and clears the approval details.
• Void marks a draft or approved run as voided. You must enter a reason. A voided run no longer blocks its period or uses up the cap.
• Delete permanently removes a draft run. GrantLink records the deletion in the activity log. Use Void instead if you want to keep the run.

Any Member or Admin can take these actions. GrantLink doesn't have a separate approver role, and it doesn't stop the person who calculated a run from approving it. If your policy requires a second approval, record it outside GrantLink.

QuickBooks posting

Don't use Post to QuickBooks to record the entry. When you select it, these things happen:

1. GrantLink shows an error.
2. No journal entry is created in QuickBooks.
3. The run stays Approved.

Selecting Post to QuickBooks again gives the same result. Turning on Post indirect cost journal entries in Settings > QuickBooks > Permissions doesn't change that result.

If you record the journal entry in QuickBooks yourself, GrantLink has no field to link that entry to the run. Keep the QuickBooks reference with your close documents.

Audit trail and reconciliation

GrantLink records calculating, approving, returning to draft, voiding, and deleting a run in the activity log. You can review it in Settings > Activity log. Each run also stores its period, rate, base, results, status, creator, and approval details.

At close, follow these steps:

1. Reconcile the base to the grant's allocated expenses.
2. Check exclusions, subaward totals by vendor, the rate, and the cap.
3. Approve the GrantLink run under your policy.
4. Record and approve the journal entry separately in QuickBooks.
5. Reconcile the QuickBooks entry to the approved GrantLink amount, and keep both references.

Indirect cost recovery and releases from donor restriction are separate accounting events. See Understanding and Using Restriction Releases in GrantLink for the release workflow.