I have been a PI/Co-PI for several National 4-H grants over the years, but last spring, I discovered an easier way to manage budgets for county sites that I wanted to share just in case it can help you!
Creating a Google Sheet for each county site’s budget and expenses made it is easy for everyone to work together in the same spreadsheet and at the same time, if needed. It also helped the county sites stay within their budget and keep their expenses up-to-date. As a PI/Co-PI, it was easier for me to help the counties know where they are at with their budget since sometimes it takes a little while for receipts to get turned in and be processed for my monthly financial reports.
Each Google Sheet included the following information for the county site: grant’s cost object number, budget, program & budget details, and expense sheet for their county site. Some sites had up to 3 people enter their receipts into the program, so having it on a Google Sheet versus an Excel spreadsheet came in handy. I would setup each site’s sharing preferences based upon their needs. 
To help keep track of expenses, I asked each county site to add “Date of Purchase”, “Location of Purchase”, “Purchase Amount”, and “Items Purchased” in the Google Sheet. In the “Items Purchased”, I recommended not listing out every item purchased, but at least a general idea. The “Running Balance” category automatically updated once a purchase amount was added. I go through my monthly financial report and highlight the amounts in yellow for each county budget sheet if they have been processed. Sometimes it can take awhile for receipts to be processed, so I find this to be a helpful step.
Follow these easy steps to create your own budgets and expenses Google Sheet for each county site:
- Open the County Grant Budget & Expense Sheet Template by clicking the photo below.
- Make a copy of the template by going to “File” and selecting “Make a copy”
- Type in a different “Name” and select what folder you would like your Google Sheet to be stored, if you would like. Click “Ok” when finished.
- Modify the document for your needs based upon the grant before creating the budget and expense Google Sheet for each county site.
- You will need to update the formula in cell D7 if you change the dollar amount per participant budgeted. Right now, formula for D7 is =C7*8, but if we had $10/youth, then I would want to change D7 formula to =C7*10.
- If you delete estimated youth, budget per participant, and additional supplies budget cells, then you will need to insert a dollar amount for the budget instead of the current formula in cell A7 for the running balance column to update correctly.
- You will need to update the formula in cell D7 if you change the dollar amount per participant budgeted. Right now, formula for D7 is =C7*8, but if we had $10/youth, then I would want to change D7 formula to =C7*10.
- Once you have your template created based upon your needs, then create a Google Sheet for each county by going to “File” and selecting “Make a copy.” Change the name for each site.
- Examples:
- 2017-2018 Gage County 4-H FSF Budget & Expense Sheet
- 2017-2018 Lancaster County 4-H FSF Budget & Expense Sheet
- 2017-2018 Gage County Healthy Living Budget & Expense Sheet
- Examples:
- Update each county’s budget and expense sheet based upon their grant deliverables.
- Share the county budget with specific people by following these steps:
- Click “Share.” Enter names or email addresses. Set file sharing preferences. Make sure “edit” is selected, so they can add their expenses to the sheet. You can select “view” for somebody if you only want them to view it. Click “Done” when finished.
- Click “Share.” Enter names or email addresses. Set file sharing preferences. Make sure “edit” is selected, so they can add their expenses to the sheet. You can select “view” for somebody if you only want them to view it. Click “Done” when finished.
- Provide instructions for the county on what you would like them to include on their budget and expense sheet.
- Look at your monthly financial report and highlight purchase amounts in yellow once they have been processed.
Let me know if you have any questions about this process. Please give me some feedback about this blog post by filling out this quick survey below, thanks!
