Working with Your Accountant

GrantLink keeps your grant records, the activity it syncs from QuickBooks, allocations, budgets, income, restriction releases, exports, reports, and an activity log for your organization. Your accountant stays responsible for accounting policy, period close, entries in QuickBooks, and conclusions in your financial statements. The sections below explain how to share GrantLink with your accountant and what to review together.

Before you start

Agree with your accountant on these points:

• The accountant's role, for example outside reviewer, day-to-day collaborator, or organization administrator.
• Whether the accountant needs to sign in to GrantLink, or will receive reviewed exports instead.
• The reporting cutoff, fiscal year, close schedule, and who reconciles each account.
• Who may change allocations, budget lines, releases, and the QuickBooks write settings.
• How you record restriction releases and indirect cost recovery in QuickBooks.

Choose how to work together

Invite the accountant to your organization

Use this option when the accountant will work directly in your organization:

1. Open the organization switcher at the top of the sidebar, and open your organization's settings.
2. On the Members page, invite the accountant with the most limited role that fits the work:
   • Viewer for read-only review
   • Member for everyday changes in GrantLink and use of chat
   • Admin for organization-wide settings
3. After the accountant accepts, ask them to choose your organization in the organization switcher.

GrantLink has no special role for accountants, and roles apply to the whole organization, not to single grants. A Member can change data. A Viewer can't use chat, open Settings, create new records, or run imports.

Use accounting firm coverage

On an agency plan, an accounting firm can link its own organization to a client organization:

1. A firm admin opens Clients and selects Create invite.
2. The firm sends the invite code, which starts with firm_, to a client admin through a secure channel.
3. The client admin opens Settings > Accounting firm, pastes the code under Accept a firm invite, and selects Accept invite.

The code expires after 30 days. GrantLink rejects the code if it has expired or was already used. It also rejects the code if the client already has active firm coverage, the firm no longer has an agency plan, or the firm has no client slots left. An admin of either organization can end the coverage. The firm selects Remove client, and the client selects Leave firm. Ending coverage frees the firm's client slot and ends the plan coverage the firm provides. It doesn't delete the client organization or its data.

Access limit: Firm coverage links the two organizations and provides the client's plan. It doesn't add the firm's staff as members of the client organization. A staff member can switch into a client organization from the firm's dashboard only when they're also a member of that client organization.

The firm's dashboard sorts covered clients into All clients, Needs attention, Claims in review, Reporting due, and Sync problems. Each client row summarizes the client's setup, QuickBooks sync, claims and reports, missing evidence, deadlines, transaction review, and grant spending pace. Select a row to see its details. To act on a client's records, the staff member still needs membership and the right role in that client organization.

Share reviewed files only

If the accountant doesn't need to sign in, export the Excel, CSV, or PDF files they need, and send them under your organization's secure file policy. A downloaded file shows the data at the time you downloaded it. GrantLink can't update or take back a file after you send it.

What to review together

Period-end workflow

1. Sync and check QuickBooks data. Review Settings > QuickBooks > Sync and Settings > QuickBooks > Verification. Correct errors in QuickBooks, and then sync again.
2. Check that allocations are complete. Allocate expenses that are still unallocated, and look into uncategorized, undated, or outside-schedule amounts.
3. Review budgets and indirect costs. Confirm the budget lines, and review draft, approved, and posted indirect cost runs in the grant's Budget > Indirect costs. GrantLink doesn't choose your accounting policy for indirect cost recovery.
4. Review grant income. Reconcile grant income recognized in QuickBooks and any manual receipts recorded outside QuickBooks. A receipt in GrantLink doesn't by itself decide when you recognize revenue under GAAP or when cash arrived.
5. Review restriction releases. Use the release list and its linked evidence, but apply the grant terms, the restricted balance available, and your accounting policy. The amount spent doesn't automatically equal the amount to release.
6. Prepare or correct QuickBooks entries. The accountant records entries in QuickBooks under your organization's controls. A manual release in GrantLink doesn't post a journal entry to QuickBooks.
7. Export and reconcile. Use Excel on Grants > Budget vs actual, Export on Grants > Restricted funds > Releases, or a chat export. Reconcile each file to GrantLink and to the general ledger as needed.
8. Keep review records. Save the cutoff date, the reconciliation, the approver, and the explanation for any material difference.

How restriction releases relate to QuickBooks

GrantLink keeps its record of restriction releases separate from your QuickBooks entries:

• A manual release in GrantLink records the release and its supporting details only. It doesn't post to QuickBooks.
• For a release that comes from QuickBooks, the QuickBooks entry controls the release. Fix unclear or wrong coding in QuickBooks, and then sync again.
• Linking expense evidence explains a release, but it doesn't create another expense or change the allocation.
• Reversing a release in GrantLink keeps its history, but it doesn't create a reversing entry in QuickBooks.

For detailed steps, see Understanding and Using Restriction Releases in GrantLink.

How indirect costs relate to QuickBooks

GrantLink can calculate indirect costs. When your organization allows and sets up QuickBooks write access, an authorized user can also post them to QuickBooks. Agree with your accountant on these points:

• The approved base and rate
• Exclusions and caps
• The posting period and account mappings
• Whether you show recovery as revenue or as a reduction of expense
• Whether a claim invoice also includes indirect costs

Don't record the same recovery twice, once through an indirect cost journal entry and again through a claim invoice.

Permissions and security

• Settings > QuickBooks > Permissions is for admins only, and it changes the QuickBooks write settings for every member of the organization.
• GrantLink enforces the Viewer role as read-only on its servers.
• The Member role allows everyday changes, so don't give it to a reviewer who must not change data.
• GrantLink keeps each organization's records separate from other organizations, but exported files are outside that protection.
• Published reports are links to share, not accountant sign-ins. Use password protection when your plan allows it, and check the published link before you share it.
• The activity log helps with review, but it doesn't replace separation of duties or the audit controls in QuickBooks.

Special cases

• Ending firm coverage doesn't remove anyone's membership in the client organization. Remove members separately if their access should end.
• Removing someone's membership doesn't end the firm's coverage. End the coverage separately when appropriate.
• If the accountant belongs to several organizations, they must choose the correct organization before they review or change records.
• Changes made after an export don't update the downloaded file, so export a new period-end package.
• GrantLink calculations and evidence don't decide GAAP treatment. Take unusual grant terms, conditions, donor changes, and revenue recognition questions to the responsible accounting professional.