Quick Start Guide

Use this workflow to take one representative grant from setup through transaction review and a draft report. Pilot one grant before onboarding the full portfolio.

Current writeback boundary: GrantLink can read synced QuickBooks Online data, link existing QuickBooks Online entities, and save GrantLink reporting decisions. The backend currently blocks all QuickBooks Online company-data mutations globally. Choosing a writeback mode in Settings > Permissions does not override that block.

Before You Start

Have the following ready:

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

1. Confirm the Permission Boundary

Open Settings > Permissions. The QuickBooks Permissions page exposes Read-only reporting, Selected writebacks, and Full writeback / automation, plus individual options under Allowed writebacks when selected mode is chosen.

For current operation, save Read-only reporting as the explicit policy. Two details matter:

1. If no policy exists, the backend defaults to read-only. The page's legacy-policy notice does not mean that missing policy currently grants broader access.
2. All QuickBooks Online company-data writes are currently disabled in the backend, including writes represented by the selected and full configuration options.

GrantLink-only budgets, links, allocations, notes, and reports are not QuickBooks Online company-data writes. Still verify any expected accounting change directly in QuickBooks Online; a saved GrantLink configuration is not proof of writeback.

2. Connect and Verify QuickBooks

1. Open Settings > Sync.
2. In Connect QuickBooks Online, select Connect to QuickBooks if the organization is not connected.
3. Complete Intuit's authorization flow.
4. Confirm that the displayed company name and realm ID identify the intended QuickBooks Online company. Stop if they do not.
5. Select Sync now when a manual refresh is needed.
6. Confirm the latest sync succeeded and review any partial errors. A connected status alone does not prove that current transactions imported successfully.

If the connection or sync fails, do not create replacement transactions in GrantLink. Resolve the connection or source issue, then sync again.

3. Create the Pilot Grant

Open Grants and select Add Grant. Complete the form in one of two ways:

Setup method	Use it when	Required review
Manual entry	You have structured award details	Compare every field with the award
PDF auto-fill	You have an award letter, RFP, or agreement	Use Browse or drop PDFs anywhere, wait for extraction, then review every applied value and suggestion

If GrantLink reports Couldn't read the documents, continue manually. Extraction is an aid and does not interpret award terms on your organization's behalf.

Save the grant, then complete the QuickBooks-linking step or skip it for an app-only grant. This creates a GrantLink grant; it does not create a QuickBooks Online Class, Customer, Project, Location, or transaction.

Separate path: Import from QuickBooks

Use Import from QuickBooks only when existing QuickBooks Online Classes, Customers, Locations, or Projects should become GrantLink grants. This is a separate path from Add Grant and PDF auto-fill. It may be offered through a Todos item with Import grants, and it requires compatible QuickBooks Online mapping. An app-only mapping cannot supply import candidates.

Import creates GrantLink records from synced entities; it does not prove that GrantLink changed QuickBooks Online. Review imported award dates, amounts, funders, restrictions, and reporting requirements because QuickBooks Online tracking entities may not contain complete award metadata.

See Creating and Managing Grants.

4. Configure Grant Matching

Open the grant, select Details, and open QuickBooks links. Configure:

• Expenses for the existing QuickBooks Online records used to identify grant costs
• Money received for the existing QuickBooks Online records used to identify grant receipts

The two purposes may differ. Revenue tracking does not accept every entity type that expense tracking accepts, so use only the choices offered by the control. You may also leave both empty for an app-only grant.

QuickBooks links are GrantLink matching rules. Adding or removing one does not retag a transaction or alter an entity in QuickBooks Online. If the wrong QuickBooks Online record is attached to a source transaction, correct the source in QuickBooks Online and sync again.

5. Build and Check the Budget

Open Budget and enter or import the approved budget periods, lines, and amounts. Confirm:

• Budget total against the award
• Period dates against the approved budget periods
• Every line name and amount against the approved schedule
• Whether uncategorized spending should remain visible for later review

A GrantLink budget supports grant reporting and budget-versus-actual review. It does not create QuickBooks Online accounts or budgets. See Setting Up Grant Budgets.

6. Review Transactions and Exceptions

Use these surfaces for different jobs:

Surface	Use it for
Ledger	Review synced source transactions, find unallocated or split items, and make GrantLink reporting assignments
Allocations	Review allocations across the organization and filter lifecycle or exception details
Grant Allocations	Verify spending assigned to one grant and categorize it to budget lines
Grant Income	Verify money received for one grant
Todos	Follow queued work such as unclassified transactions or QuickBooks Online entities ready to import

Trace one sample expense:

1. Find it in Ledger and verify date, amount, vendor, account, and QuickBooks Online dimensions.
2. Confirm the expected grant match or assign/split it for GrantLink reporting.
3. Open the grant's Allocations tab and verify the amount and budget line. An allocation without a budget line remains allocated but appears uncategorized.
4. Confirm the combined shares reconcile to the QuickBooks Online source amount.

Then trace one receipt in the grant's Income tab. If either sample is missing, check the latest sync, date filters, grant period, link purpose, and QuickBooks Online source coding. Conflicting links, out-of-period dates, unsupported transaction lines, and shared costs may require manual review rather than automatic matching.

Reporting assignments and splits do not rewrite the QuickBooks Online source transaction. See Allocating Transactions to Grants and Reviewing and Correcting Grant Allocations.

7. Create and Review a Draft Report

1. In the sidebar, open Chats and select New Chat.
2. In Describe the report you want to create..., name the grant, reporting period, report purpose, and desired output.
3. Attach supporting files only when needed, then send the prompt.
4. Wait for the current tool to finish before sending another message.
5. Review the generated result and any saved report in the grant's Reports tab.

Before sharing or submitting, verify the grant and period, reconcile spending and Income, resolve material exceptions, check the latest successful QuickBooks Online sync, and review narrative claims against source documents. Chat output is a draft; GrantLink does not approve the report or determine compliance for you.

Final Verification Checklist

• QuickBooks Permissions has an explicit Read-only reporting policy
• The connected company name and realm ID are correct
• The latest sync succeeded and partial errors were reviewed
• Grant dates, amount, funder, status, restrictions, and reporting requirements match the award
• Expenses and Money received links are correct, or the grant is intentionally app-only
• Budget totals and periods match the approved budget
• A sample expense reconciles from QuickBooks Online source through Ledger to grant Allocations
• A sample receipt appears correctly in Income
• Material Todos, unmatched items, conflicts, splits, and uncategorized allocations have been resolved or assigned an owner
• The draft report uses the intended scope and has been reconciled and reviewed

If a check fails, pause portfolio-wide setup. Correct accounting facts in QuickBooks Online and sync again; correct GrantLink-owned grant metadata, matching links, budgets, allocations, and reports in GrantLink. Never infer that a selected permission option caused a QuickBooks Online write while the backend write block remains in place.