Reporting
After receiving state directed grant funds from OSBM, grant recipients are required to submit Quarterly Performance Reports (PDF) for their grant-funded project until all grant funds are expended.
All reporting is submitted through grant recipients' reporting forms in Smartsheet.com. See "How to Report" for more on how to use Smartsheet to report.
Grant Recipients can subscribe to a monthly email from OSBM with reminders, helpful links, and notices of upcoming training webinars. Please be sure to add NCGrants@osbm.nc.gov to your address book.
April 10 for expenditures made January 1 – March 31
July 10 for expenditures made April 1 – June 30
October 10 for expenditures made July 1 – September 30
January 10 for expenditures made October 1 – December 31
If a report due date falls on the weekend, the submission deadline is automatically extended until Monday.
Grant recipients will report two things every quarter:
- Expenses / Interest Earned
- Quarterly Performance Report (PDF)
A Quarterly Performance Report is due even if there are no expenses and/or interest to report. You do not need to submit supporting documentation (i.e. invoices, receipts, vendor contracts) with Quarterly Reports, but you are required to maintain supporting documentation should our office or the Office of the State Auditor request that information.
Expenses should not be aggregated or grouped together. There must be an individual submission for each expense.
Report individual expenses by sub-recipient. Do not list the disbursement to the sub-recipient as the expense.
Employee expenses should be submitted by each pay period.
Interest should be submitted as it is received.
For approved expenses incurred before receiving funds, report the actual date of the expense and the vendor that was paid for the expense. Do not report as reimbursement to your organization.
Item Descriptions: Include descriptions of items and services purchased and how they relate to your grant’s Scope of Work. Specify which project it relates to, if the grant supports more than one.
In Smartsheet, each grant recipient will find their unique reporting sheet, where they will submit expenses and upload documentation, including Quarterly Performance Reports.
Your Smartsheet login will be provided via email to your organization’s point of contact and contract signer. Additional access to other members of your organization can be provided on request.
NOTE: Your Smartsheet reporting sheet is View Only.
- To submit expenses and reports, you will access the data entry form link on your reporting sheet.
- Click one of the links under “Link to Data Entry Form for THIS Grant” in Column 4 to access.
- Anyone in your organization can use this form to submit expenses and reports.
To make a correction to your reporting sheet, please reach out to your Grant Administrator or send an email to NCGrants@osbm.nc.gov with the corresponding Item#(s) in Column 5.
If you are unsure who the point-of-contact is for your organization, please email NCGrants@osbm.nc.gov.
You must know your organization's tax exemption status to know how to report sales tax paid.
If your organization is not tax exempt, you can use grant funds for sales tax. You would report the full vendor charge including any sales tax paid as the Vendor Total Amount in Smartsheet. Report $0 in the Sales Tax field of your reporting form.
If your organization is tax exempt, you can only charge sales tax to the grant if you have requested a sales tax reimbursement from the state and plan to use the reimbursed funds for the grant project.
You have three options for reporting sales taxes if you are a tax exempt organization:
- Pay the full amount including sales tax. Report the vendor amount in the Vendor Total Amount field. Report the sales tax paid in the Sales Tax field. This is the easiest choice because it matches invoices/receipts from vendors. The sales tax amount will not be deducted from your grant total.
- Pay sales tax using another source of funds (not state grant funds). Report the vendor cost without tax and report $0 in sales tax.
- Request a sales tax reimbursement from the state Department of Revenue and report the refund as income when you receive it. Report the full amount paid in Vendor Total and report $0 in the Sales Tax column. Once your organization is reimbursed by the state for sales tax paid, report that amount as income in your Smartsheet. This money must be used for your grant project.
If you feel like Sales Tax was entered incorrectly in the past, please let your Grant Administrator know and they will walk you through the process of making adjustments in Smartsheet.
Grant Recipients should use the TOTAL amount they received in state directed grants to determine if they have reached the threshold to trigger the requirement to perform a single or program-specific audit prepared and completed in accordance with Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards, also known as the Yellow Book Yellow Book audit. Please see 09 NCAC 03M.0205 for more information.
If your organization's fiscal year ended:
- prior to July 1, 2024, the threshold to trigger a audit requirement is $500,000 in total state funds, per the state administrative rules in place prior to July 1, 2024
- between July 1, 2024 and September 30, 2024 the threshold is $750,000, per federal requirements in place at that time
- October 1, 2024 or later, the threshold is $1 million, per current federal requirements
Any organization that receives, holds, uses, or expends State financial assistance in an amount equal to or greater the dollar amount requiring audit listed in federal code 2 CFR 200.501(a) should have a single or program specific audit completed annually. Audits must be submitted within nine months of the end of the recipient’s fiscal year.
Grant recipients may choose to do a program specific audit that would only include the directed grant funds to meet grant reporting requirements. A program specific audit is more cost effective.
If the organization already conducts a single audit, that may be submitted to meet the annual grant reporting requirement if the grant funds are included in the scope of the audit.
All audits should be done in accordance with the General Accepted Government Auditing Standards.
Please see the provided Compliance Supplement document (PDF) for more detail on how how audits should be performed for OSBM administered grants.
The North Carolina State Treasurer provides guidance to local governments on audits, including sample RFPs and a list of firms offering audit services.
See our Community Colleges and Universities Audit information for requirements specific to those entities.
Use the buttons below to register
Quarterly Reporting Training and Q&A Sessions:
Training on Audits and Q&A
Training on Reporting Sales Tax and Q&A
How to report grant activity to OSBM
Reporting Training Webinar
Review the Reporting Training presentation
How to Upload the Quarterly Performance Report
Maintain good records for expenses, including invoices, cancelled checks. The state can request to review the records at any time. Recipients must keep these records for five years after the completion of the grant contract term.
Recipients are responsible for making sure subrecipients comply with all grant requirements. Recipients are responsible for reporting on all expenditures including those subgrantee funds. OSBM recommends paying subrecipients on a reimbursement basis for this reason. Ensure grant subrecipients maintain required document and records too.