Split-Funded Staff? How to Track Time Across Multiple Grants

A program coordinator spends Monday on a youth employment grant, Tuesday on a foundation-funded mentoring program and Wednesday covering intake for the core operating budget. Her salary is split three ways on paper. The question every funder eventually asks is simple: can you show the time actually went where the money says it did?

For most nonprofits, the honest answer lives in a spreadsheet someone fills in at the end of the month, from memory. That works until an audit. This guide covers what records split-funded positions need, why the budgeted split isn't enough, and a practical way to capture the hours as the work happens.

A split-funded position is a job paid from more than one funding source, such as two grants, or a grant plus general operating funds. The employee's salary is allocated across those sources, usually by percentage. The allocation is only defensible if there's a record of the time the employee actually spent on each one.

A budget says how you planned to spend a person's time. An auditor wants to know how it was actually spent. If a grant budget assumed a 60/40 split but the work drifted to 45/55, charging the grant 60% overstates what it paid for.

For organizations with U.S. federal awards, this is written into the rules. Under the Uniform Guidance, 2 CFR 200.430(g)(1), salary charges must be "based on records that accurately reflect the work performed." Those records must support how salary is distributed when an employee works on more than one federal award, or on federal and non-federal work, and "budget estimates alone do not qualify as support for charges to Federal awards." [1]

In Canada, there's no single equivalent rule across all funders. Record-keeping and reporting requirements are set in each grant or contribution agreement, so read the financial reporting and records clauses in yours. If your agreement allows the funder to audit, expect to show dated, approved records of the time spent on the funded work.

Whatever the funder, records that hold up share the same traits.

• Captured as the work happens: hours are logged daily or weekly, not reconstructed at month-end.
• Tied to a specific funding source: each entry names the grant or program, not just "program work."
• Approved by someone who knows the work: a supervisor signs off, so the record isn't the employee's word alone.
• Covering all of the employee's time: funded and unfunded work are both recorded, so percentages add up to 100.
• Easy to pull by funder: you can produce one grant's hours for a period without rebuilding a report.

Spreadsheets and paper timesheets cost nothing to start, which is why most organizations begin there. They break down as the number of grants, sites and staff grows, because every record depends on someone remembering to fill it in and someone else collecting it. Allocating from the budget in payroll alone is the fastest method, and it's the one auditors push back on hardest, because it has no record of actual time behind it.

1. List every funding source that pays salaries. Include general operating funds, so that 100% of each person's time has somewhere to go.
2. Identify which positions are split-funded, and between which sources.
3. Give each funding source its own code, project or contract in your time system, so staff choose where the time goes when they log it.
4. Set a logging and approval rhythm: weekly entries and supervisor approval within a few days.
5. Allocate salary from actual hours each pay period or month, and reconcile against the grant budget so drift shows up early, not at year-end.

Sincron HR Pro builds this into the HR system instead of a separate spreadsheet. Each grant or program becomes its own contract, and an employee whose time is split holds a contract for each. Staff are scheduled and log hours against the contract they're working on, and timesheets go through automated manager approval workflows. That contract-level data flows into HR Analytics, so you can pull program-by-program labor reporting for a specific funder.

Those approved hours are then sent to your payroll system by contract. Sincron HR Pro doesn't process payroll, so your payroll or accounting system applies the salary split, but it does so from actual hours by grant instead of the budgeted percentage. Sincron connects to the payroll system you already use, with a live connection to Sage 300 ERP and Sage X3 today.

See grant and volunteer management for nonprofits, time and attendance and how Sincron works with your existing payroll.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you track staff time across multiple grants?

Log hours against each grant as the work happens, have a supervisor approve them, and allocate salary from those actual hours rather than from the budgeted split. Giving each grant its own code or contract in your time system makes this automatic.

Can salary be charged to a grant based on the budget?

For U.S. federal awards, budget estimates alone don't qualify as support for salary charges under 2 CFR 200.430(g)(1). They can be used for interim accounting only if they're reviewed against actual activity and adjusted. Other funders set their own terms, so check your agreement.

What is a split-funded position?

A split-funded position is paid from more than one funding source, such as two grants, or a grant plus general operating funds. Its salary is allocated across those sources, which needs records of the time actually spent on each.

Does Sincron HR Pro allocate salary costs across grants?

Sincron HR Pro supplies what the allocation is based on: staff log time against a separate contract for each grant, managers approve it, and those hours are sent to your payroll system by contract. Your payroll or accounting system then applies the salary split, so each grant is charged from actual hours rather than the budget.

Track Every Grant Hour in One System

Schedule a free demo to see grant-level time tracking in Sincron HR Pro, or set it up around your own funders during a free 60-day Implementation Trial (FIT).

References & Legal Citations

[1] U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR), 2 CFR 200.430, Compensation—personal services, paragraph (g)(1), Standards for documentation of personnel expenses. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200/subpart-E/subject-group-ECFR56b10a1f4ee5c4e/section-200.430