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How-to guide · for nonprofits
How to allocate staff time across grants
Updated August 2026
Most people in a small nonprofit work on several things at once. Here's how to split their time defensibly, without turning it into a second job.
Record where all of someone's time went, express it as a percentage of their total, compare it to what you budgeted, and adjust the charge when the two diverge. That comparison is the part auditors look for and the part most organizations skip.
Start with total activity, not the grant
The instinct is to record grant time. Do the opposite: record everything, then work out the share. If someone's month was 60 hours on the youth program, 30 on the food program, 20 on admin and 10 on fundraising, that's 120 hours, and the youth grant's share is 50%.
Starting from total is what makes the number defensible. A record that says only "40% on this grant" has nothing behind it.
Pick a cost objective for every hour
A cost objective is whatever you're allocating to: a grant, a program, general administration, fundraising. Every hour lands on one. If people can't tell which bucket something belongs to, your buckets are wrong, fix them before rolling out.
Budgeted effort vs. actual effort
When you wrote the grant you committed a percentage, "the program manager will spend 40% of their time on this." That's budgeted effort. What actually happened is actual effort. They will diverge; that's normal.
What matters is that you notice. Charge interim amounts using the budget if you like, then compare to actual and adjust when the gap is material. A gap you found and corrected is good internal control. The same gap found by an auditor is a finding.
Set a threshold and write it down
Decide in advance what divergence triggers an adjustment, many organizations use something in the range of five to ten percentage points, and write it into your policy. Then apply it consistently. A stated threshold you follow is defensible; case-by-case judgment is much harder to explain.
A monthly rhythm that works
Staff record their time
Against cost objectives, as they go.
A supervisor reviews and certifies
Someone with firsthand knowledge, with a date on it.
Compare actual to budgeted
Per person, per grant. Flag anything past your threshold.
Adjust the charge
Where the gap is material, correct it, and keep the record of the correction.
Reconcile to payroll
What you charged and what you paid should agree.
Two things that cause findings
Charging the budget all year. Same percentage every month with no comparison to reality. It's the most recognizable pattern in this area.
Silent edits. Changing a certified record without a trace destroys its credibility. Corrections should be additions with their own date and reason, never a quiet overwrite of what was signed.
This is general information, not legal or accounting advice. Federal grant rules change and are applied differently by different agencies and auditors. Check with your auditor, your grant officer, or an attorney before relying on any of it.
The Ember tool for thisEmber Time
Ember Time lets your team log time by program, and you approve the week. Approved hours for hourly staff become each program's staff cost at the rate you set. Unlimited users on every tier.
Sources: 2 CFR Part 200 (eCFR), §200.430. Verified August 2026.