Procedure is required action to be followed: Procedure is the established way of doing something; a series of actions conducted in a certain order; and/or steps necessary to meet the terms of a grant agreement.

Guidance is supporting information or recommended action: Guidance consists of recommended best practices; helpful context; and/or tools, resources and examples.

Effective Date: 7/1/2025

I. Procedure

BWSR is responsible for oversight of the state grant funds that are issued to grantees and following the policies for grants oversight prescribed by the state’s Office of Grants Management (OGM). Monitoring and financial reconciliations are a way to provide guidance to the grantee; increase transparency within the grants process; and help to ensure public funds are spent for the purposes that they were given and are in compliance with the terms and conditions of the grant agreement.

Monitoring

BWSR monitors grants annually. Monitoring is a procedure of reviewing and documenting progress towards grant agreement implementation and compliance with grant agreement provisions. It happens at the beginning, when staff work with projects for application and approve work plans. It happens with the annual reporting. And it happens at the end, during grant close out, when staff assess progress on planned versus actual results. Additional monitoring occurs through technical assistance, desk review, on-site review, or ongoing communications with the grantee. Monitoring may include a sampling of documentation provided.

Financial reconciliations

BWSR typically reconciles payments on grants $50,000 and over either when a request for a payment is made and/or before the grant is closed out. It is a procedure of reconciling a grantee’s reported expenditures for a given period with supporting documentation, such as purchase orders, receipts, and payroll records. Reconciliations can occur either on-site in your office or through a desk review of documents submitted and are initiated based on the grant spending reported. The process is as follows:

Documentation is required to support claimed expenses and the following flow chart provides an outline of documents needed for the reconciliation process. When submitting information, no “not public data” should be included. There are two broad expenditure categories for reconciliation: staff time, and direct costs.

Staff time

Direct costs

Direct costs are program costs which can be identified specifically with a particular final objective.

History