Grant Budget Enforcement & Amendments

Grant budget enforcement checks a transaction against the grant's approved budget before it posts, and either warns you, blocks the save, or lets an admin override with a reason. When a budget genuinely needs to change, the amendment workflow lets someone request the change and an admin approve it — so there's a record of who authorized it and why. This feature requires a Standard plan or higher.

Most overspending isn't a decision — it's an accident. A travel expense gets coded to a grant that's already at its limit, nobody notices until the quarterly report, and now you're explaining a $700 overrun to a funder. For a foundation grant that's awkward. For a federal award it's a compliance finding: Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200.308) expects your internal controls to catch unauthorized line-item transfers and over-expenditures before they happen.

Enforcement moves that catch to the moment of entry, where it's cheap to fix. The amendment workflow gives you the paper trail auditors ask for.

Every grant carries an enforcement mode. You set it once and change it whenever you like.

New grants start with a mode that matches their funder type, because a private foundation and a federal agency don't carry the same risk:

• Federal and state awards → Block with override
• Local government awards → Block
• Foundation, corporate, and other → Warn

These are starting points, not verdicts. Tighten or loosen any grant to fit how you actually work.

Enforcement runs everywhere a grant-coded expense can enter your books, so there's no back door:

• Manual Entry and Quick Entry — the banner appears above the form; a blocked entry keeps your rows so nothing is retyped.
• Voice Entry — a voice-captured entry is confirmed through Quick Entry, so it's checked there too.
• Spreadsheet Import — over-budget rows are flagged in the preview. In block mode the row turns red and is left out of the import; in warn mode it imports with a note.
• Bills — a bill is checked when you approve it (that's when it hits the ledger), not when you draft it.
• Payroll Import — if the fund you're importing into is a grant's restricted fund, the pay run is checked before it posts.

A quick gloss: a restricted fund is money a funder gave you for a specific purpose. NP Ledger identifies a grant by its restricted fund and the budget lines attached to it. If an expense doesn't touch a budgeted grant line, enforcement leaves it alone.

Changing a grant's enforcement mode

1. Open the grant from the Grant Dashboard.
2. Find the "Budget Control" card and click Edit enforcement.
3. Pick a mode and save. The change is recorded in the audit log so there's a record of who set it.

Requesting a budget amendment

Use this when the budget itself needs to change — the funder approved a shift from Supplies to Contractors, say — not for a one-off entry.

1. Click "Request budget amendment" — it's on the grant's Budget Control card, and it's also the primary button on any block screen.
2. Adjust the line amounts to the new approved figures.
3. Write a justification. A short sentence on why, ideally naming the funder authorization behind it. This is required.
4. Submit. The amendment goes to pending and every admin is emailed.

Approving an amendment (admins)

1. Open the amendment from the approver inbox at Grants > Budget Amendments, or from the email link.
2. Review the diff — old amount versus new amount for each line, plus the requester's justification.
3. Approve or Reject (a rejection asks for a note). On approval the budget lines update at once, the old amounts are kept for the record, and the requester is emailed. The Grant Dashboard reflects the new budget right away.

The Grant Dashboard shows you an overrun after it's already in the books — a rear-view mirror. Enforcement is the guardrail: it acts before the entry posts. They work together. The dashboard tells you where a grant stands; enforcement keeps it from quietly going over in the first place.

• New grants have the right mode. The funder-type default is a starting point — confirm it matches your risk on each award.
• Federal awards are set to block or override, not warn. A silent overrun on a federal grant is the expensive kind.
• Amendments carry a real justification. "Funder approved 6/14 email" is worth far more at audit than "adjust budget."
• Store the funder's written approval where your compliance docs live, and reference it in the justification.

• Treating override as routine. If you're overriding the same grant every week, the budget is wrong — request an amendment instead. Every override is logged against your name.
• Expecting a block on an unbudgeted category. If a grant has no budget line for an account, there's nothing to overrun, so enforcement stays quiet by design. Budget the category if you want it controlled.
• Approving a bill without noticing the block. The check runs at approval. If a bill won't approve, read the banner — it names the grant, the line, and the overrun.
• Drafting an amendment for a single entry. Amendments change the approved budget. For a one-time authorized overrun, an admin override in block with override mode is the lighter tool.

Accountant note: Enforcement compares an entry against the approved budget line for the transaction's own fiscal year, using the same spent-to-date figures as the Grant Dashboard, so the two never disagree. It checks against the budget line's annual amount, not a pro-rated period figure — a multi-year award budgeted per year is enforced year by year. Federal grantees should still file the formal budget-revision request through the awarding agency's process; NP Ledger records your internal authorization, it does not replace the funder's prior-approval requirement under 2 CFR 200.308.