Generating Funder Reports

Use GrantLink Chat to assemble a grant-, program-, or funder-scoped report from reviewed GrantLink data. The result can be a rich web report, a PDF, or a sponsor workbook when a saved Excel template is available.

Important: GrantLink drafts and formats the deliverable; it does not approve it, submit it to a funder portal, certify its accuracy, or record funder acceptance. A published report is a shareable web page, not proof of submission.

Before You Start

Confirm that:

• You are an organization member with Chat access. The Viewer role cannot open Chats or create, edit, or publish reports.
• Your organization has a Professional, Enterprise, or qualifying agency plan for the rich web report workspace and PDF generation. Report creation is also subject to the organization's monthly usage limit.
• QuickBooks has completed its latest needed sync. Chat reads GrantLink's synced QuickBooks mirror, not live QuickBooks.
• Allocations, budget mappings, fund receipts, funding shares, and reporting-cycle dates have been reviewed for the period.
• You know the audience, exact period, required sections, and whether the funder supplied a workbook or other instructions.
• Program staff can provide outcomes and narrative facts that are not stored in GrantLink.

If the funder requires Excel, open the grant's Details tab first and upload the original workbook under Excel templates. A saved sponsor template takes precedence over a generic spreadsheet export.

Start with the Correct Scope

A report can have exactly one scope entity:

• Grant report: one grant. Open Grants, select the grant, open Reports, and select Create Report.
• Program report: one program and its included grants. Open Programs, select the program, open Reports, and select Create Report.
• Funder report: one funder and its included grants. Open Funders, select the funder, open Reports, and select Create Report.

Each shortcut opens Chats > New Chat with the entity already scoped and a draft prompt filled in. You can also start at Chats > New Chat, but identify one grant, program, or funder clearly. The old Reports route redirects to Chat; it is not a separate report builder.

For program and funder reports, GrantLink defaults to current grants: grants in Awarded, Active, or Closeout status that are linked to that program or funder. Ask for all grants or name an exact custom set when that default is not correct. A custom set can include only grants actually linked to the selected program or funder.

Create the Draft

1. In the scoped new chat, replace the suggested prompt with the exact request if needed.
2. State the reporting period with dates. Do not rely on phrases such as "last quarter" when the award uses a non-calendar schedule.
3. State the audience and purpose, such as a progress report, final report, reimbursement package, or internal review.
4. List the required financial views and narrative sections.
5. Identify the source of any program outcomes or explanations, and attach the supporting document when appropriate.
6. Send the request.
7. If GrantLink asks a necessary scope question, answer it before report creation continues.
8. Wait for the report record and preview workspace to be created.

Example:

Create a progress report for the Community Health grant covering April 1 through June 30, 2026. Show period and inception-to-date budget versus actual, fund receipts, major variances, and transaction detail in an appendix. Use the attached program update for activities and outcomes, but flag any claim the source does not support.

Expected result: Chat creates one Draft report attached to the conversation and opens a live Preview beside it. The report also appears in the scoped grant, program, or funder Reports tab. One chat reuses its existing report; follow-up edits do not create another report.

If GrantLink displays an upgrade or monthly-limit message, no report is created. Upgrade or wait for the applicable usage period before trying again.

Review and Revise

Use the Chat, Split view, and Preview controls to compare the conversation with the rendered report. Ask for focused edits in the same chat, for example:

• "Change the table to inception-to-date through June 30, 2026."
• "Remove the internal allocation exception from the funder-facing page."
• "Mark the outcomes section for program-staff completion instead of inferring results."
• "Move transaction detail to an appendix."

Before delivery, verify:

1. Scope: the correct entity and, for program or funder reports, the exact included grants.
2. Period: every table says whether it is period activity or inception-to-date.
3. Source freshness: the QuickBooks sync covers the reporting cutoff.
4. Reconciliation: report totals agree with the budget workbook, allocations, receipts, and any prior submitted figures.
5. Narrative support: activities, beneficiaries, outcomes, variance reasons, certifications, and sponsor requirements come from an identified source.
6. Audience: internal notes, unresolved data issues, projections, and action items are removed from funder-facing content.
7. Presentation: the web preview and print layout are readable and repeated figures agree.

GrantLink has no report-specific Ready for Review or Approved state. Report records are Draft or Published. Complete your organization's review and approval outside that status model before selecting Publish.

Export a PDF or Sponsor Workbook

PDF

1. In the report chat, ask GrantLink to generate a PDF after the preview has been reviewed.
2. When the artifact card appears, select Download PDF.
3. Open the downloaded file and check page breaks, tables, footers, and totals.

The current PDF path uses the standard report renderer and supports Letter or A4 output. A PDF is a snapshot of the current report workspace; later report edits do not update an already downloaded file.

Sponsor workbook

1. Confirm the correct workbook is saved in the grant's Details > Excel templates area.
2. Ask Chat to generate the report from that saved template for the exact period.
3. Download the generated copy and review populated and missing fields.

GrantLink does not overwrite the stored template, infer unsupported sponsor fields, file the workbook, or request a reimbursement draw. Generic chat exports are available as Download .xlsx and Download .csv, but they do not preserve a sponsor's form.

Publish and Share

1. Finish internal review while the report is in Draft.
2. Select Publish in the page header.
3. If your plan supports passwords, choose no password, the grant's saved default password for a grant report, or a custom password.
4. Select Publish to Production.
5. Wait for Published successfully, then select View your deployment and copy the live URL from the browser.
6. If a custom password was generated, save it immediately; GrantLink states that it will not be shown again.

Publishing deploys the current report as a web page and changes the report to Published after deployment succeeds. Republish updates the deployment after later edits.

Treat the URL as sensitive. Without a password, anyone who receives the link can open it. Password protection is available on Professional, Enterprise, and qualifying agency plans. The visible Visibility and Customize Domain controls do not currently establish working access restrictions or a custom domain, so do not rely on them.

The current report screen does not expose an unpublish control. If access must be revoked, do not promise that archiving the chat or changing its status will remove the published site; contact GrantLink support for the current removal process.

For prompt patterns, see Best Prompts for Grant Reporting. For the differences among report scopes and outputs, see Understanding Report Types.