The Award Letter Intake Checklist

Pull the hard dates out of the letter

• Record the period of performance start and end datesWrite both dates exactly as the letter states them. Costs incurred outside that window are usually unallowable, and the end date drives your closeout clock.
• Copy every reporting due date word for wordList each interim and final report with its due date and whether it is financial, narrative or both. Do not summarize the schedule from memory of a previous award from the same funder.
• Note the payment schedule and any conditions attachedSome payments release only after a report is accepted or a match is documented. Flag every condition, because a missed condition looks like a cash flow problem months later.
• Flag the budget modification and extension rulesCapture the threshold for moving money between line items and whether a no cost extension is available. Both are far easier to arrange before you need them.
• Write down the renewal or reapplication pathIf the letter names a next cycle, an invitation process or a limit on consecutive years of funding, that sentence belongs on the calendar as a dated task.

Check the compliance clocks this award starts

• Decide whether this is federal money or a pass throughState and local awards often carry federal funds underneath. If they do, the Uniform Guidance rules follow the money into your organization and change what you owe.
• Record the assistance listing and award identification numbersFor any federal or pass through award, capture these on the grant record now. You will need them for every report and for your schedule of expenditures at audit time.
• Check your SAM.gov registration expiration dateRegistration lapses on an annual cycle and renewal is not instant. Put the expiration on the calendar with a reminder at least sixty days ahead of it.
• Test whether this award crosses your audit thresholdAdd this award to your expected federal expenditures for the year. Crossing the single audit threshold changes your fiscal year plan and your auditor's fee, so finance needs to know now.
• Confirm how the award treats indirect costsNote whether it accepts your negotiated rate, the de minimis rate, or caps administrative costs. Getting this wrong is a budget error you carry for the whole grant period.

Build the internal deadlines backward

• Set a program data pull date before every reportPut it two to three weeks ahead of the funder deadline. Program staff need lead time, and chasing numbers in the final week is what turns a six hour report into a lost weekend.
• Set a finance reconciliation date for each financial reportSchedule it after the month close that covers the reporting period. Financial reports that disagree with your books create funder questions you do not want.
• Give every report a named ownerA person, not a shared inbox and not the development team. When two people could file it, experience says nobody does until the week it is due.
• Add a signature and submission bufferLeave at least three business days for review, an authorized signature and portal upload. Portals are slowest and least forgiving on the afternoon of the deadline.
• Schedule a portal login test before the first submissionConfirm one week ahead that your account works and your roles are current. Locked accounts and expired credentials are the most avoidable late submission there is.

Protect the next cycle

• Diary a relationship touch between reportsOne short update at the midpoint, with a program story and a number. Funders who hear from you only when something is due decide renewals with less to go on.
• Put the next invitation or application window on the calendarWork back from the funder's published cycle and set an internal decision date six weeks ahead of it, so a go or no go choice is made deliberately.
• Set a reminder to raise the next cycle at the final reportThe final report conversation is the natural moment to ask what comes next. Attach the question to the report task so it is not left to memory.
• File the letter and attachments where the team can find themStore the signed letter, the approved budget and any conditions together, linked from the grant record. The next person to hold this grant will thank you.
• Set the record retention date for the closed fileFederal awards carry a retention period that starts at final report submission. Put that date on the calendar so old files are kept as long as required and no longer.