Managing multiple grants on one program means every funder brings its own budget categories, dates, and rules, and finance has to make every dollar and every hour fit all of them at once. In this webinar, Buu-Linh Tran, CPA, of JMT Consulting and Srikar Chinam of KarmaSuite walked through how finance teams map funder budgets to the general ledger, track burn rates, forecast payroll splits, and decide when spreadsheets have run their course.
For how JMT supports grant-funded organizations, see our nonprofit grant management services.
The short version
- Map first. Tie every funder budget line to GL accounts plus a dimension, such as employee, so each expense lands in exactly one category.
- Track underspending, not just what is left. Compare the percent of the grant period elapsed with the percent spent, line by line.
- Forecast payroll before the work happens. Timesheet splits cannot be changed after the fact, so planning and guidance are the only lever.
- Give staff a coding guide for non-payroll costs that shows which grants allow an expense and what is left on each.
- Spreadsheets work for a handful of grants. Past about five, the panel saw burnout, errors, and key-person risk set in.
Why multi-grant programs multiply the work
Buu-Linh opened with two scenarios JMT hears often. The first is making sure time and costs are charged to a grant that still has money, so one award is not overspent while another sits underspent. The second is that grant budgets rarely match the organization's budget. Some break labor down by position, and the same person can play one role on one grant and a different role on another.
Srikar added the rest of the picture: funder fiscal years that do not match yours, different staff covered on different grants, turnover, and funding cuts.
"It just becomes so complex when every funder uses different nomenclature for their budget categories that don't line up with your chart of accounts."
Srikar Chinam, KarmaSuiteManaging multiple grants starts with the budget-to-GL map
Before any tracking or allocating, finance translates each grant agreement into the accounts it already uses.
- 1
Start from the grant agreement
Copy the funder's categories, sub-categories, and dollar amounts as written, in the funder's own language.
- 2
Map each line to the GL
It is rarely one to one. Materials can pull from office administration and printing, while three salary lines can all post to one payroll account.
- 3
Build in uniqueness
Use account plus employee, program, vendor, or another dimension so any expense falls clearly into one budget category. Check it with every new award.
- 4
Flag underspending
If 25% of the grant period has passed, a line at 9% spent is 16 points behind. One-time costs like equipment can run ahead without alarm.
Skip the uniqueness step, Srikar said, and someone ends up hand-picking which expense goes to which category every month.
Allocating shared costs across funders
The panel split allocation into three kinds of cost, each with its own best practice.
Forecast the split ahead of time
Set each person's percentages from grant budgets, balances, and end dates before the period starts, then reforecast monthly as grants and staff change.
Publish a coding guide
Staff filter by program and GL account to see every grant that allows the expense, its balance, and when it expires. Fewer blank codes land on finance's desk.
Allocate each expense or apply a rate
Code every indirect expense only when a funder requires the backup. Otherwise apply the de minimis rate or your NICRA to the right base, usually MTDC.
On indirect, Buu-Linh said smaller organizations she works with often use a de minimis rate and larger ones a NICRA, and urged teams to also know their actual rate, since remaining grant funds may allow more recovery.
Why payroll has to be planned, not fixed later
Srikar's example: one employee split across three grants, each with its own budget and end date. A 63% split on the first grant still leaves about $10,000 of its salary budget unspent, while the employee's pay goes unfunded months later. An overage and an underage can exist at the same time, and one cannot simply cover the other.
"Once people put their time in their timesheets, their hours, and the split is set, you cannot change it. It's just not compliant. And so the only lever you have is to plan ahead and forecast, and guide your staff on how best to split their time across grants."
Srikar Chinam, Founder and CEO, KarmaSuiteGuidance is not telling staff what to write. Timesheets always record actual work; the forecast helps people plan which work to do. Buu-Linh added that going back to edit timesheets after a grant runs out "gets really messy," especially with program staff who already find time entry a chore.
What finance teams told us
- The scariest thing in the back office this October: compiling multi-grant timesheets and direct splits for an upcoming Single Audit.
- Most attendees allocate shared program costs with fully manual calculations in external spreadsheets.
- The biggest burn-rate challenge was spread fairly evenly across every option offered, from reporting lag to complex grant rules.
- On data flow between grant tracking and the ERP, attendees described semi-automated uploads, and some said grant tracking is completely disconnected.
Four ways to run multi-grant programs
Srikar kept this even-handed: no option is right for everyone.
| Approach | Works when | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheets | A few grants with simple rules | Team burnout and errors from re-keying data every month |
| Accounting software or ERP | Tech-savvy staff, or a partner, can set it up and maintain it | Labor-intensive upkeep, such as custom item IDs for funder reports; forecasting and billing often fall back to spreadsheets |
| Outsourced accountant | You lack in-house grant expertise | Hourly costs that add up as grants get more complex |
| Grants management software | Staff are funded by five or more restricted grants or contracts | Subscription cost and implementation time |
Whatever the tool, Buu-Linh said, "someone has to be able to identify specific transactions and mapping that to those budget codes, and that's the key here." She also noted JMT's own outsourced accounting practice supports clients with grant work. The session closed with a short KarmaSuite demo of grant tracking, funder reports, and payroll forecasting.
Final takeaways
"If I look at any expense in your accounting software, it should clearly fall into one of these budget categories."
Srikar Chinam
"Once you push data into Excel... you actually lose control of the data."
Buu-Linh Tran, CPA
"You're not asking them to lie on their timesheets, you're just guiding them on how they can plan their work."
Srikar Chinam
About the speakers
- Buu-Linh Tran, CPASVP of Financial Solutions, JMT Consulting
- Srikar ChinamFounder and CEO, KarmaSuite
Quotes are from the live session and lightly edited for readability.
Managing multiple grants FAQs
Why is managing multiple grants on one program so time-consuming?
Each funder uses its own budget categories, start and end dates, and staffing rules, and none of them match your chart of accounts or fiscal year. Finance has to fit every expense and every hour to all of those rules at once, then redo the math as grants end and staff change.
How do you map a grant budget to the general ledger?
Start with the categories and amounts in the grant agreement, then tie each line to the GL accounts that feed it. Where several lines share an account, such as payroll, add a dimension like employee, program, or vendor so every expense falls into exactly one budget category.
How can you tell if a grant line is underspent?
Compare the share of the grant period that has passed with the share of each budget line spent. If 25% of the period has elapsed and a line is 9% spent, it is 16 points behind and worth raising with program teams before the grant ends.
Can staff change timesheet grant splits after the work is done?
No. Once time is recorded and the split is set, changing it is not compliant. The fix is to forecast each person's allocation before the period starts and guide staff on how to plan their work, while timesheets always reflect the actual work.
Should indirect costs be allocated expense by expense or with a rate?
Allocate each indirect expense only when a funder requires backup on what indirect dollars paid for. Otherwise, one entry applying the de minimis rate or your NICRA to the correct base, usually modified total direct costs, is far simpler.
When do spreadsheets stop working for multi-grant programs?
The panel put the threshold at about five grants. Beyond that, teams re-key data every month, errors creep in, and often only one or two people understand how the workbooks connect.
Keep reading
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