Resolve unallocated spending and review spend-down

Spend-down shows whether grants are using their approved budgets as expected. The most important first step is resolving Unallocated expenses, because those transactions count in the grant total but cannot yet explain which category or period used the money.

Availability: Budget and spending views require Grant Pro. Reallocating expenses requires Manage Grant Finances or Administer Grant Center.

What creates an Unallocated expense

An expense is Unallocated when it has no budget line. Common reasons include:

The expense was deliberately entered as Unallocated — decide later.
The grant did not have budget lines when the expense was recorded.
An imported category or period could not be matched.
The import option to create a missing line was left off.
A budget line or period was deleted after expenses had been assigned to it.

Unallocated spending is never silently dropped. It remains in total spending and appears as an attention item until it is assigned.

Find Unallocated spending

Open the grant and select Schedule & work → Budget & spending.
Look for the Unallocated spending row below the budget grid.
Select the row to filter the spending list.

The badge beside Budget & spending counts unallocated expenses, not budget lines. It tells the team how many transactions still need a decision.

Assign an Unallocated expense

Open the expense's actions menu.
Select Edit.
Choose the correct budget line. The list shows each period and category with the amount remaining.
Select Save changes.

If the needed line does not exist, create the category or period if necessary, add the budget line, and then return to the expense.

Read spend-down correctly

Do not confuse budget, award, and cash measures

Several financial figures answer different questions:

Left in budget asks how actual spending compares with the approved expense budget.
Left against the award asks how recorded spending compares with the amount awarded.
Funder still owes asks how the award compares with payments received.
Derived unspent at closeout asks how received cash compares with recorded expenses.

These amounts can differ without any one of them being wrong. For example, the organization may have received only part of a multi-year award while the approved budget covers all years.

Use the portfolio spend-down panel

The Grant Center Overview summarizes awarded grants with spending data. It shows:

Total budgeted
Total spent
Amount left in budget
Portfolio percent spent
Grants over budget
Unallocated expense count
Budgeted grants with no spending recorded

The panel stays hidden when the visible portfolio has no budget or spending data. Its totals follow the user's normal grant scope, so users see only amounts for grants they are allowed to open.

Use the financial reports

Budget Variance

This report provides one row per budget line with the grant, program, period, category hierarchy, account and cost type, budgeted amount, spent amount, remaining amount, percent spent, and expense count. Unallocated spending appears in its own uncategorized row.

Spending by Program

This report shows award, budget, spend, remaining amount, percent spent, Match, expense count, and latest expense by grant, with program subtotals. The portfolio total de-duplicates a grant assigned to more than one program.

Recommended monthly review

Import the latest accounting transactions.
Compare the imported amount with the source export.
Resolve duplicate warnings and failed rows.
Assign all explainable Unallocated expenses.
Review spending against zero-budget lines.
Review overspent categories and grants.
Identify budgeted grants with no recorded spending.
Discuss material variance with the grant owner, program owner, and finance.

At closeout

Reconcile the final accounting-system figure with recorded Grant Center expenses. BetterUnite calculates derived unspent funds only when at least one expense has been recorded. If the organization enters a separate attested amount and the two figures differ by more than one dollar, closeout flags the discrepancy for review rather than choosing one figure.