Managing grants can feel overwhelming, but don’t worry—we’ve got your back! Here at Aplos, we know how important it is for nonprofits to stay on top of their funding, keep records straight, and make sure every dollar is accounted for. Let’s walk through how you can use Aplos to manage your grants like a pro!

Setting Up Grants in Aplos

Create a Grant Fund

Think of a grant as its own bucket of money that needs to be tracked separately. Since Aplos is a fund account software, that mens the only account you need to set up to track your grants would be a fund. To create your Grant Fund follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Fund Accounting > Accounts > Account List.

2. Click Add Fund and name it after the grant (e.g., "XYZ Foundation Grant").
   
   
   

3. *Optional* Assign it a unique fund number down in the equity section—this helps keep everything organized.

   • You could also set up a separate equity grouping specifically for grants if you have multiple grants you are needing to track
     

Create Grant Tags

If you receive multiple grants a year and would prefer to only set up one fund for all grants, you could utilize the tags feature to track each individual grant you receive. To learn more about utilizing tags, check out this resource.

Enter in the Grant Amount

Now you will need to enter in the amount of the grant you received. There are two different options to do this in the system.

Option 1: Use Starting Balances

The first option would be to set up a beginning balance for that fund. To do so:

1. Navigate to Fund Accounting > Accounts > Starting Balances
   
   
2. Locate your grant fund in the row across the top of the screen and follow it down to the asset line item that your grant money was deposited to and enter in the amount received in the corresponding box
   
   
   • If you would like to filter out all other funds to avoid entering the amount in the wrong fund, make select the "filter by fund" dropdown and select your grant fund

Note: This method will affect your equity.

Option 2: Use the Register

Alternatively, you can enter in the amount on your Registers screen. This method will require you to choose an income account in order to record the deposit coming in, so that it will reflect on your income statement. To get started:

1. Navigate to Fund Accounting > Transactions > Registers
   
   
2. Select the asset account the grant was received to in the Account Register dropdown menu
3. Fill out all required fields including:
   • Date: The date you received your grant
   • Payee: The name of the company or federal program you received your grant from
   • Deposit/Payment: Enter in the amount received in the deposit box
   • Account: Enter in an income account you would like to track the grant to (you may want to set up a grant specific income account on your account list)
   • Fund: click on the dropdown menu and click on your "Grants" fund.
4. Click submit when finished
   

Now that you have set up your grant fund, and recorded the amount received, you can begin coding transactions you spend from the grant received. 

Tracking Grant Spending

Now let’s make sure spending gets tracked properly. 

1. Navigate to Fund Accounting > Transactions > Registers.

2. Select the asset account you’re paying from.

3. Input the payee and amount in the payment box.

4. Choose the appropriate Expense Account the money is being spent for. (you can utilize your typical expense accounts as usual)

5. Select your Grant Fund and Tag (if enabled)
6. To create more transparency on spending, enter more details about the expense in the comment box
7. Once complete click submit

Now that you have been tracking your grant spending, you can easily utilize your Aplos reports to get a snapshot of your grant.

Grant Reporting

We know how important it is to report on grant spending, and with Aplos it is easy to see the coming and going of money for your grant fund. Below are a few reports that will be helpful to you when you need to pull reports for your grants.

1. Income Statement by Fund

• Most common report to use to see any income or expense that has been tied to your grant fund.

• Utilize the report filters dropdown to filter by your grant fund to see income and expenses side by side.
  

• Share your report via email or download you report to excel to give access to people who are not user on your Aplos account.
  

2. General Ledger Report

• Run a Transaction Report and filter it by your grant fund and tag.

• This gives you a detailed breakdown of every dollar moving in and out.

3. Budget vs. Actual Report

• If you have a grant budget, use this report to see if you're staying on track.

4. Income Statement by Tag

• If you chose to create tags to further categorize your grant expenses, utilize this report to see the income and expense tied to your grant tags
• Use the report filters dropdown to filter by your grant fund and grant tags

For more on how to run reports, check out our article on the subject Here.

Keeping Everything in Compliance

Grants often come with reporting requirements, so here are a few things we might recommend:

• Keep backup documentation for transactions (invoices, receipts, grant agreements, etc.).

  • you can attach these receipts digitally to your transactions you enter in your Aplos register by selecting the paper clip icon to the right of the transaction
    

• Regularly reconcile your grant fund to ensure your numbers match.

  • to learn more about reconciling in Aplos check out this resource.
    
    
• Use tags to categorize expenses even further, if needed.
  • to learn more about accounting tags in Aplos, click here.

Conclusion

Tracking grants doesn’t have to be a headache! Aplos makes it simple to keep tabs on every grant dollar so you can focus on your mission instead of spreadsheets. If you ever have questions, our customer care team is here to help!

Happy grant tracking!