What are the most common budget monitoring and reporting mistakes?

Not adhering to the budget template when creating budget monitoring and reporting can lead to confusion and misunderstandings between the grant receiver and the funders. It is crucial to follow the provided budget template or draft one that aligns with the funders' expectations to communicate effectively and ensure the smooth closure of the project.

Not just doing projections in your budget, but reviewing them monthly. You need to ensure that what you're projecting is close to what you are spending. If not, it can tell you that either activities are not being carried out on time and you need to address that or that your projections are not accurate enough. Also, after reviewing, take some time to move what was not spent from your projections to the upcoming months accordingly to have an updated idea of what might be spent every month.

Make a budget review (even if it's only by email!) a set part of your grant launch. Don't wait for the program team to set meetings. Establish a cadence from the start. It'll be far easier to escalate to more oversight from even a little than it will be to unravel months of mistakes when it's time to report!

Time tracking can be a huge help when it comes to in-kind contributions--and to monitoring program expenses, too. Staff and volunteers can feel like tracking and reporting their time leans towards micromanagement. Start the conversation off by helping them understand that their time is equivalent to money and that the time tracker is more a receipt for their work than it is about internal concern over their effectiveness. Use free digital tools (there are many!) and collect reports regularly. Or pay a premium to have a multi-user service from which you can pull reports without additional requests of your team.

Your logic model is the *perfect* place to put your budget, activities, and outcomes all in one place. Account in dollars for your inputs (including staff & volunteer time!) for all activities. This format can clearly realign the budget from the "line-item" format we typically see to an outcome-focused perspective. Consider what elements are most important to YOUR mission and what elements are most important to the FUNDER's mission. Are their investments in your work paying off the way you said they would?

Ein ganz h?ufiger Fehler im Grant-Management ist die fehlerhafte Kommunikation zwischen F?rdermittelgeber und -nehmer. Das Hauptproblem besteht darin, dass die Wirtschaft meist schnelle Entscheidungen trifft und Pl?ne gerne mal schnell ?ndert, die F?rdermittelverwaltung jedoch bürokratisch denkt und sich das oft gegenübersteht. Da hilft nur Kommunikation und frühzeitige Kontaktaufnahme, um Probleme und Abweichungen festzustellen und zielgerichtet das Problem aus der Welt zu schaffen. Oft werden hier Unternehmensberater eingesetzt, um genau diese Lücke zu schlie?en.

Not having a sustainability plan. Grants are meant to supplement programs and often clients forget to include that in their budget.

Transparency is the heart and soul of successful grant administration as well as establishing and maintaining credibility with stakeholders and beneficiaries. Budget monitoring and reporting is one of the cornerstones of assuring transparency. Whether a grant or funding source requires it, a maximum effort should be made to make public in as many forms as possible the status and progress of a grant budget as well as the policies and procedures which govern budget tracking.