Google Sheets: download the .xlsx, then in Sheets choose File → Import → Upload (or open it from Drive and choose File → Save as Google Sheets).
Columns
Client · Funder · Grant / program · Award amount · Obligation (LOI, application, interim report, final report, financial report, closeout, site visit) · Period covered · Due date · Inputs due (10 business days earlier, calculated) · Days until due · Where the date comes from · Status · Submitted on · Confirmation / notes · Owner.
Rows due within 30 days turn yellow and overdue rows turn red until you mark them submitted.
Why one row per obligation?
A one-row-per-grant tracker records the award and then goes quiet. But the work, and the risk, is in what you owe afterward. When each report is its own row with its own due date, owner and status, you can sort the whole sheet by date and see exactly what's coming across every client.
Where report dates hide
- The award letter's reporting paragraph, often near the end, sometimes as “a report is due 12 months from the date of this letter”. Calculate the actual date and write it down.
- Attachments and schedules to the grant agreement. Payment schedules are often tied to reports.
- The funder's portal task list, which may not match the letter. Record both and ask.
- Subaward agreements for federal money passed through a state or another organization. Pass-through deadlines are usually earlier than the federal ones.
That's why the tracker has a “where the date comes from” column: when a date is questioned or moved, you know exactly what to re-check.
US federal awards: the defaults in 2 CFR 200
For federal awards (including pass-through funds), the Uniform Guidance sets defaults that your award terms can make more specific:
- Financial reports (usually the SF-425): no later than 30 days after a quarterly or semiannual reporting period, 90 days after an annual one, and 120 days after the end of the period of performance for the final report (subrecipients: 90 days to the pass-through entity). 2 CFR 200.328
- Performance reports: no more often than quarterly and no less often than annually, unless specific conditions apply. 2 CFR 200.329
- Closeout: all required reports within 120 days after the end of the period of performance (subrecipients: 90 days). 2 CFR 200.344
- Records: keep them three years from the submission of the final financial report, with some exceptions. 2 CFR 200.334
Check the current text before relying on these numbers, and always follow the award terms where they differ.
A simple weekly routine
- When an award arrives, add every obligation as a row that day, with its source.
- Each Monday, sort by due date and look 30 days ahead. Request inputs for anything whose inputs-due date is this week.
- When you submit, fill in “submitted on” and keep the confirmation number. That's your proof if a portal loses it.