Grant and contract award inventory
What this is: Per-award compliance requirements, reporting calendar, budget-to-actual tracking, drawdown workflow, and a closeout checklist.
It assumes: More than one restricted funding source.
Change before use: Award types and any funder-specific reporting your inventory must carry.
The inventory
One entry per award, opened the day the award letter arrives and closed by the closeout checklist. The entry is the single place where everything the award requires is written down — because the alternative is that it lives in the memory of whoever wrote the proposal, and that person leaves.
The award record
| Field | Entry |
|---|---|
| Funder / award number | |
| Type | ☐ Federal direct ☐ Federal pass-through ☐ State ☐ County ☐ Foundation ☐ Other |
| If federal: assistance listing number and pass-through entity | |
| Period of performance | |
| Total award / this year | |
| Payment mechanism | ☐ Cost reimbursement ☐ Advance/drawdown ☐ Fixed price ☐ Unit rate |
| Budget as approved (attach) and rebudgeting rules — what % or line moves need prior approval | |
| Match / cost share required, and how it is documented | |
| Reports due — every one, with dates (also entered on the reporting calendar) | |
| Special conditions — verbatim from the agreement | |
| Records retention required by this award | |
| Award owner (person) / fiscal owner (person) |
The reporting calendar
Every report from every award record, in one dated list, each with an owner and a "submitted" evidence link. Reviewed monthly at close. A missed report is the cheapest possible finding to prevent.
Budget-to-actual, by award
Monthly, per award: approved budget by line, spent to date, % spent vs. % of period elapsed, and projected end-of-award position. Underspending is caught here in month seven, when it can still be fixed — not in month twelve, when it becomes a give-back.
Drawdown / invoicing workflow
- Costs posted to the award in the ledger, allocated per the methodology.
- Draw or invoice prepared from the ledger — never from a spreadsheet maintained beside it.
- Reviewed against the approved budget and remaining balance by a second person.
- Submitted; confirmation filed; receivable tracked to payment at the funder’s actual historical lag.
Closeout checklist
- Final report and final invoice/draw submitted and confirmed; final rebudgeting reconciled.
- Match/cost-share documentation complete and filed.
- Equipment or property disposition rules followed and recorded, where applicable.
- Records boxed or foldered under the award’s retention period, with a destroy-after date.
- A one-paragraph lessons entry: what this funder asked for that surprised us — read before the next proposal to the same funder.
Free to adapt and use. No registration, no fee, no attribution required. This is a working template, not legal, tax, or accounting advice — the requirements that apply to your organization are confirmed by your own counsel, auditor, and licensing authority.