How to Prepare and Reconcile the SF-425 from QuickBooks Online

The Federal Financial Report (SF-425) is a cumulative award report, not a copy of a QuickBooks profit and loss statement. As of August 2, 2026, Grants.gov identifies the current form as SF-425 version 3.0. Use the form and instructions supplied by the awarding agency or its reporting portal: not every federal award requires an SF-425, and the award controls the due dates, reporting basis, submission channel, level of detail, and any agency-specific interpretation.

QuickBooks Online (QBO) should remain the accounting source of truth. A controlled report workbook bridges QBO to the form, award records, draw system, obligation schedule, and program records. GrantLink can help organize QBO-backed grant activity and reporting support; it does not submit an SF-425. Its Money received label may represent relevant income or revenue records, not necessarily deposited cash.

Read the award before opening the form

Create a one-page reporting profile from the notice of award, amendments, and portal instructions:

• Assistance Listing, award number, period of performance, reporting period, report frequency, and final-report deadline
• whether SF-425 is required and whether reporting is award-level, program-level, or consolidated
• cash or accrual basis, program-income method, recipient-share commitment, approved indirect-cost rate, and special terms
• treatment of subawards, rebates, refunds, credits, equipment, indirect costs, and unliquidated obligations
• portal validation rules and required attachments

Do not assume another agency's instructions apply. In particular, some agencies direct recipients to handle line 10f or final reports in a particular way. The standard form defines 10f as the federal share of unliquidated obligations; the award and reporting instructions determine what is reportable for this award.

What fields 1 through 14 mean

Use the official SF-425 page on Grants.gov and its current PDF/instructions rather than a saved legacy form.

Field	What to enter or verify
1. Federal agency and organizational element	The awarding agency/component shown in the award or portal.
2. Federal grant or other identifying number	The exact award identifier; do not substitute an internal QBO customer/project name.
3. Recipient organization	Legal recipient name and address.
4a. Unique Entity Identifier (UEI)	The recipient UEI associated with the award.
4b. Employer Identification Number (EIN)	The recipient EIN associated with the award; follow portal masking and formatting rules.
5. Recipient account number or identifying number	Recipient's optional internal identifier, when applicable—not the federal award number repeated by default.
6. Report type	Quarterly, semiannual, annual, or final, as required.
7. Basis of accounting	Cash or accrual, as required and consistently applied. This selection affects expenditure and obligation reporting; it is not merely the QBO report setting.
8. Project/grant period	Award period start and end dates, including effective amendments.
9. Reporting period end date	The end date covered by this cumulative report.
10. Transactions	The cumulative cash, federal expenditure/obligation, recipient-share, and program-income blocks explained below.
11. Indirect expense	Rate type, rate, period, base, amount charged, and federal share for each applicable rate.
12. Remarks	Explanations required by the agency and concise descriptions of material reconciling items or attachments.
13. Certification	Authorized certifier's name, title, contact information, signature, and date. Certification is a control, not a clerical step.
14. Agency use only	Leave for the federal agency unless portal instructions say otherwise.

Lines 10a–10c: federal cash

• 10a Cash receipts: cumulative federal cash received from the start of the award through the reporting date.
• 10b Cash disbursements: cumulative federal cash paid out for authorized program purposes, as defined by the instructions—not simply expenses booked.
• 10c Cash on hand: 10a minus 10b. Investigate a positive balance under the cash-management rules and explain or resolve it as instructed.

Cash is distinct from expenditures. An accrued eligible cost can be an expenditure without a cash disbursement; an advance can create cash on hand before expenditure. Tie 10a to bank deposits and draw-system history, not revenue accounts.

Lines 10d–10h: federal funds

• 10d Total federal funds authorized: cumulative federal funding authorized for the reporting scope, including effective amendments.
• 10e Federal share of expenditures: cumulative allowable federal share on the selected accounting basis.
• 10f Federal share of unliquidated obligations: federal share of valid obligations incurred but not yet paid or accrued as expenditures under the chosen basis and applicable instructions. Avoid double counting 10e and 10f.
• 10g Total federal share: the form calculates 10e plus 10f.
• 10h Unobligated balance of federal funds: 10d minus 10g.

An internal budget reservation is not automatically an obligation. Maintain an award-specific obligation schedule with vendor/subrecipient, commitment evidence, date, total, liquidated-to-date, remaining amount, federal share, eligibility, and period-of-performance assessment. Final-report treatment is especially agency-specific; do not force line 10f to zero or carry it forward without the governing instructions.

Lines 10i–10k: recipient share

• 10i Total recipient share required: cumulative required match or cost share for the reporting scope.
• 10j Recipient share of expenditures: cumulative allowable recipient-share expenditures actually contributed on the report basis.
• 10k Remaining recipient share to be provided: 10i minus 10j.

Recipient share is not the organization's total nonfederal spending. Include only allowable, allocable, documented contributions accepted under the award, and do not use the same contribution for more than one federal award.

Lines 10l–10o: program income

• 10l Total federal program income earned: cumulative gross program income earned under the award.
• 10m Program income expended using the deduction alternative and 10n using the addition alternative: report use under the method authorized by the award.
• 10o Unexpended program income: 10l minus 10m minus 10n.

Under 2 CFR 200.307, program income may use the deduction, addition, or cost-sharing method. The standard SF-425 has no separate cost-sharing-method program-income line: do not force that amount into 10m or 10n. Follow the award, agency, and portal instructions for how authorized cost-sharing program income affects lines 10j and 10l–10o.

Do not classify all grant revenue, donations, refunds, rebates, or credits as program income. Determine program income under § 200.307 and the award. Applicable credits generally reduce costs under 2 CFR 200.406; they are not automatically program income.

Field 11: indirect expense

For each rate and period, report 11a type of rate, 11b rate, 11c period from/to, 11d base, 11e amount charged, and 11f federal share. Recalculate from the approved negotiated rate, authorized de minimis election, or award limitation. Reconcile the base to eligible direct-cost detail, remove excluded items, and account for rate or base changes by separate rows. QBO indirect-cost entries alone do not prove that the correct base and federal share were used. See Setting Up Indirect Cost Rates.

Build the QBO-to-SF-425 reconciliation

1. Freeze the population. Record QBO company, report basis, as-of date, grant dimensions, accounts, transaction status, and export timestamp. Reconcile bank and credit-card accounts first.
2. Export transaction detail. Include transaction ID, date, account, payee, amount, class/customer/project, memo, and corrections. Preserve the unchanged export.
3. Map and test costs. Map each line to award category, federal share, recipient share, indirect base/exclusion, and reporting status. Document allocation methods and remove unallowable, out-of-period, duplicate, unsupported, or misclassified items.
4. Add non-ledger schedules. Tie draw receipts to deposits; build cash-disbursement, unliquidated-obligation, recipient-share, program-income, applicable-credit, and indirect-cost schedules. These concepts cannot be derived reliably from one P&L.
5. Roll forward cumulatively. Beginning cumulative amount + current-period activity ± corrections = ending cumulative amount for every applicable line. Tie the beginning to the last accepted report and explain restatements.
6. Cross-check the form. Verify 10c = 10a − 10b; 10g = 10e + 10f; 10h = 10d − 10g; 10k = 10i − 10j; and 10o = 10l − 10m − 10n. Compare 11f with federal indirect cost included in 10e/10f as applicable.
7. Resolve, do not plug. Maintain an exception log with amount, cause, owner, correction, and retest. Never post a journal entry solely to make the form agree.

For transaction-level tie-out mechanics, use How to Reconcile a Grant Report to the QuickBooks General Ledger. For mismatches, follow Why Your Grant Report Doesn't Match QuickBooks.

Reviewer-ready package

Retain the signed/portal-accepted report and receipt; award and amendments; reporting profile; prior accepted report; immutable QBO exports and reconciliation reports; bank reconciliations; draw/deposit history; line mapping and cumulative rollforward; cost, obligation, match, program-income, credit, and indirect schedules; material invoices/payroll/allocation support; exception log; review checklist; and evidence of preparer and authorized certifier approval.

The reviewer should independently verify award identity and dates, trace samples both from form to QBO and QBO to form, inspect manual adjustments, test formulas, compare cash with the draw system and bank, and confirm that portal warnings and agency-specific instructions were resolved. Follow the award's record-retention terms and 2 CFR 200.334.

Official sources

• Grants.gov: Post-Award Reporting Forms — current SF-425 version and official form/instructions.
• 2 CFR 200.328: Financial reporting — federal financial-reporting framework.
• 2 CFR 200.1: Definitions — obligations, expenditures, program income, and related terms.
• 2 CFR 200.302: Financial management — source documentation, award identification, and financial controls.
• 2 CFR 200.414: Indirect costs — negotiated and de minimis rate rules.

Current as of August 2, 2026. This operational guide does not replace the award, agency instructions, or professional accounting or legal advice.