16 Sep Taking the Fear out of Grant Management: Time and Effort by: Kellie Brungard, GPC

If you have ever flinched at the mention of policies and procedures, conflict of interest, or grant reporting, we may be able to help take the fear out of grant management. Too often, grant management is seen as scary and messy, with staff hesitant to learn because they may uncover more than they know how to handle. In the nonprofit field, it’s common for staff to be put in a role where they manage grants but might not have the knowledge or resources to understand what that entails. With this grant management series, we aim to outline some of the commonly seen issues and provide resources to learn more. Check out the previous post on conflict of interest policies and procedures! Now, we are diving into time and effort reporting and staff allocation.

To recap, the National Grants Management Association (NGMA) defines grant management as “the comprehensive process of overseeing all activities related to a grant.” NGMA divides the grant lifecycle into three phases: pre-award, award, and post-award. A grant manager is anyone involved in the management and administration of a grant (e.g., finance staff, grant writers, program staff, consultants, and grant administrators). Compliance and best practices in grant management is usually associated with federal grant awards, but it equally applies to state and local government funding, pass-through funding (which likely originated at the federal level), and foundation and corporate grants (though maybe not as stringent). Best practices in grants management indicate an organization should follow the same processes for all grant funding, regardless of the source. By doing so, the organization strengthens its capacity for more complex funding streams and reduces the risk posed by human error and confusion over which process to follow.

There are two essential things to remember when broaching grant management:

1. You don’t have to change everything overnight, so take learning piece by piece, and you will continue to grow your understanding and application.
2. It doesn’t have to be scary. Sure, you may learn that something has been done wrong in the past, but making changes now will prepare your organization for future success.

Time and Effort

Understanding the time and effort staff spend on activities is ideal for a nonprofit and is a good practice in general. If you allocate grant funding to salaries and wages, you will need this information for planning and management. In managing grants, time and effort refer to the policies, processes, and practices for allocating staff to grants, staff tracking their time spent on grant activities, and the accurate reporting and documentation of this time. AGS recommends organizations adopt a federally compliant policy and procedure for all grants, which makes tracking consistent regardless of the funding stream. In layman’s terms, this means staff must regularly complete time sheets indicating where and how much of their time was spent on grant-funded activities.

A brief overview of the time and effort regulations found at 2 CFR 200.430:

• All employees paid in part or in whole with grant funds will maintain time and effort documentation;
• Compensation policies must be consistent for grant-funded and non-grant-funded employees;
• Time and effort reports must be supported by internal controls that provide reasonable assurances that charges are accurate, allowable, and properly allocated; and
• Time and effort reports must document the total activity for which an employee was compensated, not to exceed 100%.

Accurate time and effort reporting requires implementing and diligently maintaining a system of internal controls. Incorporate supervisory staff in the reporting process by building in responsibilities such as: certifying that time and effort records are accurate and allocated to the correct activities, signing or approving staff time sheets, and monitoring the allocated time so that resources aren’t spent too quickly. Use clear and consistent communication with staff, leadership, and auditors and provide training when needed. And lastly, check to see if current processes can be modified rather than adding something new. For example, if you use a payroll system, can staff be added as users and create electronic timesheets that accurately track time at the project level? Whichever comes first – the chicken or the egg – understanding how staff spend their time is necessary for accurate reporting.

Staff Allocation

Consider how employees’ time is allocated across your organization’s active grants. How many employees are 100% grant-funded? Do you have employees who are allocated to multiple grants? The grant development team must be aware of and track allocations to ensure you don’t exceed 100% effort for any employee. Ensuring staff spend their time on the correct activities is equally important. For example, if they are grant-funded for data entry but spend their time completing client intake assessments, or if they only spend 30% of the allocated 60% of their time on activities for the specific grant, these will need to be addressed with the funder. This can become messy if there are multiple concurrent grant awards. A tracking sheet that includes the grant period, staff name, title, allocation, and specific activities for each grant can help organize this information.

Additional Resources:

• Office of Justice Program’s time and effort tracking guide sheet
• NGMA blog post “Getting it Right – Federal Grant Time and Effort Reporting”
• A Foundant webinar on staff time tracking by Julie Assel
• AGS Time and Effort Requirements Checklist
• Time and Effort Tracking templates developed by Assel Grant Services are available for purchase as a bundle or individually here

Strong grant management practices ensure grant funds are used appropriately across an organization and in accordance with funder requirements. AGS’s expanded grant management team is here to help with the full lifecycle of grant management needs. With our custom training, we can create and facilitate time and effort training for staff. If you are interested in learning more about grant management services, Julie Assel, CGMS, GPC, President/CEO, will be happy to talk with you about this opportunity and provide you with a quote for grant services.

This blog post is aligned with the Grant Professional Certification Institute’s Competencies and Skills.

Competency #5: Knowledge of post-award grant management practices sufficient to inform effective grant design and development

Skill 5.1: Identify standard elements of compliance

Skill 5.2: Identify effective practices for key functions of grant management