Many organizations use charitable donations to fund grants. This topic describes how to manage and track grants using Aptify's Grant management services.
This topic contains the following sub-topics:
- How to Use the Grant Services
- Tracking Grant Information
- Recording Due Diligence Progress and Results
- Managing Grant Disbursements
How to Use the Grant Services
The following is an overview of the typical grant process and how an organization can use the Grant services in Aptify to facilitate grant procedures:
- The organization or foundation identifies an opportunity to offer a grant in a specific field of interest to the organization.
- The organization accepts application for the grant from interested parties.
- The organization raises money to fund the grant.
- The organization selects a grantee.
- At this stage, a user can create a Grants record in Aptify. See Tracking Grant Information.
- The organization performs due diligence to confirm that the grantee is a suitable recipient. Then, the board of directors or another decision-making body approves the grant based on satisfactory due diligence results.
- See Recording Due Diligence Progress and Results for information on how to track due diligence efforts for a grant in Aptify.
- The organization provides the grant funds to the grantee based on the grant's payment schedule. In turn, a grantee provides periodic reports of the grant's progress and financial position to the organization.
- See Managing Grant Disbursements for information on how to track grant payments made to the grantee and reports received from the grantee.
- See About the Balance Information for Grants Evaluating a Grant's Available Balance for information on how to review the available balance of the grant and the total payments made to the grantee to date.
- When all funds for the grant have been distributed and the grantee's project is complete, a user marks the Grants record as Closed.
Tracking Grant Information
Follow these steps to create a new Grant record in Aptify to track information about a grant provided by an organization:
- Open a new record from the Grants service.
- Specify a Grant Name.
- Specify the employee who oversees the grant in the Manager field.
- This field links to the Employees service.
- If needed, modify the currency in which you want the Grant to be based in the Currency Type field.
- When opening a new Grants record, the Currency Type field defaults to your organization's functional currency or the system's default currency if an organizational currency is not specified. You can modify the currency type as needed to create grants in a different currency.
- If the grant is a subsidiary of a larger grant, specify the parent in the Parent Grant field.
- Specify the grant's current status from the Approval Status drop-down list.
- Note that Aptify automatically updates the status as the grant moves through its phases (for example, when a due diligence record is added, the status changes from Awaiting Funds to Awaiting Funds/Due Diligence Begun). You can also manually update the status as needed.
- Standard options include:
- Awaiting Funds: The Grant is waiting for funding.
- Awaiting Funds/Due Diligence Begun: The Grant is waiting for funding and due diligence has already started for the grant.
- In Progress: The Grant is currently in progress.
- Paid/Payments: Payments have been made towards the Grant.
- Closed: The Grant has been closed and is no longer Active.
- Cancelled: The Grant has been cancelled and is no longer Active.
- On the General tab, modify the Grant Record Started date, if necessary. By default, Aptify populates this field with today's date.
- Specify information about the grantee (the company or individual receiving the grant) and identify the appropriate contact people.
- The available fields vary depending on whether the grantee is a company or an individual. To specify that the grantee is a company, select the Organization Grantee option.
- Specify information about the donor who is providing the grant funding.
- If there are multiple donors, select the Multiple Donors option and specify the primary donor contact in the Donor Main Contact field.
- Specify the person or company on whose behalf the donor has provided funding in the Donor Credit field, if applicable.
- Specify the date the grant agreement was received in the Date Agreement Received field, if applicable at this stage of the grant process.
- If applicable, select the location of the agreement from the Agreement Location drop-down list. The standard options are Electronic and Hard Copy.
- Click the Purpose tab.
- Select the Purpose Type. Standard options include General Charitable Operations, Specific Project or Program, and Subgrantee(s).
- Select the location of the proposal from the Proposal Location drop-down list. Standard options include Electronic and Hard copies.
- Enter the Country where the grantee is located or where the grantee will conduct the grant's project.
- This field links to the Countries service and must be filled in to save the record.
- Specify additional information about the grant's purpose in the Field of Service and Purpose Detail fields.
- Click the Grant Agreement tab and specify information concerning the current status of the grant agreement, including Approval Status and dates relevant to the agreement.
- Note that the Request Grant Agreement Approval and Send Agreement options and the fields on the Notification tab do not drive system functionality by default but are provided to be used in conjunction with Aptify's Process Pipeline technology to automate processes related to grant management. See Managing Process Pipelines for more information.
- Note that the Request Grant Agreement Approval and Send Agreement options and the fields on the Notification tab do not drive system functionality by default but are provided to be used in conjunction with Aptify's Process Pipeline technology to automate processes related to grant management. See Managing Process Pipelines for more information.
- Click the Comments tab and enter any additional information about the grant.
- Save the record.
- As the grant is processed through the Due Diligence stages, record the progress on the Due Diligence tab. See Recording Due Diligence Progress and Results for details.
- After a grant is approved to make disbursements from the donor to the grantee, create Grant Disbursements to allocate funds to the grantee and create Disbursement Reports to record information about the period reports received by the grantee on the grant's current status at the time the disbursement was made. Then, if applicable, link the report to the Grant and the corresponding payment on the Grants record's Disbursements tab.
- See Managing Grant Disbursements for details.
- Track Grant's available balance and the total amount that has been disbursed to the grantee on the Grants record's Balance tab. See Evaluating Grant's Available Balance for details.
- When the grant is closed and all disbursements have been made, change the Approval Status field in the Grants record's top area to Closed, specify the Grant Completed date (on the General tab), and save and close the record.
- If the grant is canceled for any reason rather than closed, change the Approval Status to Cancelled and enter a reason on the Cancellation tab. Then, save and close the record.
- Note that saving a grant with a status of Closed or Cancelled locks down the field and prevents further updates.
Recording Due Diligence Progress and Results
Follow these steps to track due diligence progress when confirming that a proposed grantee is a suitable recipient for the grant:
- Open the Grants record.
- Click the Due Diligence tab.
- Click the New icon to open a new Due Diligence record.
- Enter the due diligence step in the Step field.
- This field links to the Due Diligence Steps service. See About the Grant Due Diligence Steps Form.
- Enter the Location where the supporting documentation for this step is stored from the drop-down list. The standard options are blank (i.e., not received yet), Electronic, and Hard Copy.
- Select the step's current Status from the drop-down list. The standard options are Awaiting, Received, and Approved.
- If the grantee has passed this step in the review process, enter the Date Approved.
- Click OK to save and close the record.
- Add additional Due Diligence records as necessary and modify existing records when the result for a particular step changes.
- Save and close the Grants record.
- If the Grant's current Approval Status is Awaiting Funds, Aptify automatically updates the status to Awaiting Funds/Due Diligence Begun when you save the record following the addition of the first Due Diligence record.
Managing Grant Disbursements
This topic describes how to track payments to the grantee. It also describes how to track information about progress reports filed by the grantee, if applicable.
This topic covers the following sub-topics:
Creating Grant Payments
Follow these steps to record a disbursement to a grantee:
- Open a new record from the Grant Disbursements service.
- Specify the main grant in the Grant field.
- If needed, modify the currency in which you want the disbursement to be paid in the Currency Type field.
- When opening new a Grant Disbursements record, the Currency Type field defaults to your organization's functional currency or the system's default currency if an organizational currency is not specified. You can modify the currency type as needed to create disbursements in a different currency.
- Select the Payment Type from the drop-down. Available options are Interim and Final.
- Select the payment's current Status from the drop-down. Available options are Pending, Request Payment Approval, Approved Notify Bookkeeper, and Paid.
- Note that the Request Payment Approval and Approve Payment options do not drive system functionality by default but are provided to be used in conjunction with Aptify's Process Pipeline technology to automate processes related to grant management. See Managing Process Pipelines for more information.
- If the payment is for a sub-grant of the grant specified in the Grant field, enter the sub-grant's name in the Sub-Grant field.
- Note that if a Sub-Grant is specified, Aptify includes this disbursement in the Total Estimated Payments or Total Completed Payments field (depending on the status) for both the Grant and the Sub-Grant.
- See Evaluating a Grant's Available Balance for information on a grant's Balance tab.
- Under the Payment tab, specify the dollar amount of the payment in the Amount (USD) field.
- If some or all of the funds are paid in a currency other than U.S. Dollars, enter the amount in the Amount (Other Currency) and select the currency in the Other Currency drop-down list.
- Note that the Pay Other Currency option does not drive system functionality by default but is provided to be used in conjunction with Aptify's Process Pipeline technology to automate processes related to grant management. See Managing Process Pipelines for more information.
- Note that the Pay Other Currency option does not drive system functionality by default but is provided to be used in conjunction with Aptify's Process Pipeline technology to automate processes related to grant management. See Managing Process Pipelines for more information.
- Click the Accounting tab.
- Enter information about the payment, including relevant payment dates and payment methods in the fields provided.
- Click the Reports tab.
- Specify the grant payment made previous to this one, if applicable, in the Previous Payment field. This field links to another record in the Grant Disbursements service.
- If applicable, specify the grantee report received in conjunction with this payment in the Grant Report field. This field links to the Grant Reports service. See Tracking Grant Reports.
- If applicable, specify the next payment for this grant in the Next Payment field (if the next payment's record already exists in Aptify). This field links to another record in the Grant Disbursements service.
- Enter any additional information about this disbursement on the Comments tab.
- Save and close the Grant Disbursements record.
Tracking Grant Reports
Follow these steps to create a new Grant Reports record to track the receipt and review of a report submitted by a grantee:
- Open a new record from the Grant Reports service.
- Enter the grant to which the report applies in the Grant field.
- Select the Report Type from the drop-down. Available options are Interim and Final.
- Select the Report Stage from the drop-down. Available options are Not Yet Received/Incomplete, Received/Under Review, Approved, and Rejected.
- Specify the Due Date for the report.
- Specify the Date Received (if the report has been received).
- Specify the Date Approved (if the report has been approved).
- Specify the date when the grantee was sent a reminder that a report is due in the Date Sent field.
- Select how the report will be submitted from the Report Location drop-down list. The standard options are Electronic and Hard Copy.
- Note that the Send Grant Report and Send Reminder options do not drive system functionality by default but are provided to be used in conjunction with Aptify's Process Pipeline technology to automate processes related to grant management. See Managing Process Pipelines for more information.
- If applicable, specify the next grant report due and the previous grant report received in the Next Grant Report and Previous Grant Report fields.
- These fields link to other records in the Grant Reports service.
- If this report corresponds to a financial report, select the Is Financial Grant Report field.
- If this report corresponds to a narrative report, select the Is Narrative Grant Report field.
- If this report corresponds to a project report, select the Is Project Grant Report field.
- Note that the Send Overdue Notice option does not drive system functionality by default but is provided to be used in conjunction with Aptify's Process Pipeline technology to automate processes related to grant management. See Managing Process Pipelines for more information.
- Note that the Send Overdue Notice option does not drive system functionality by default but is provided to be used in conjunction with Aptify's Process Pipeline technology to automate processes related to grant management. See Managing Process Pipelines for more information.
- Enter any additional information on the Comments tab.
- Save the Grant Reports record.
- If available in electronic format, click the Attachments tab and add the report as an attachment to this record.
- Save and close the Grant Reports record.
- When the Final report for a Grant is saved as Approved, Aptify automatically inserts the current date and time in the Grants record's Grant Completed field.
Linking Grant Payments and Reports
Depending on the requirements of the organization, a grantee may be required to submit a report in conjunction with the recipient of scheduled grant payment. Follow these steps to link together a particular Grant Disbursement with a particular Grant Report and track this information on the Grants record:
- Open the Grants record.
- Click the Disbursements tab.
- Click the New icon to open a new Grant Report Payment Links record.
- Enter the report in the Report field. This field links to the Grant Reports service.
- Enter the payment in the Payment field. This field links to the Grant Disbursements service.
- Click OK to save and close the record.
- Save the Grants record.
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