Grant management

GrantSpark

Turn Deadlines Into Funding

GrantSpark is a lightweight grant-management SaaS that centralizes calendars, documents, tasks, version control, and submission workflows for nonprofit program managers, academic researchers, and small grant teams. AI instantly generates funder-aligned templates, automates deadline alerts, and eliminates duplicate drafts so teams meet deadlines faster and win more funding.

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GrantSpark

Product Details

Explore this AI-generated product idea in detail. Each aspect has been thoughtfully created to inspire your next venture.

Vision & Mission

Vision
Empower grant-seeking nonprofits, researchers, and small teams to secure more funding through funder-aligned proposals, coordinated workflows, and deadline reliability.
Long Term Goal
Within 3 years, empower 10,000 organizations to submit $1B in grant requests and increase users' funded application rates by 20%, eliminating missed deadlines and duplicate drafts.
Impact
Enables small nonprofit program managers, academic researchers, and compact grant teams to reduce missed grant deadlines by 70%, cut proposal drafting time by 40%, and increase funded application rates by 15% within six months—eliminating duplicate drafts and accelerating submissions.

Problem & Solution

Problem Statement
Small nonprofit program managers, academic researchers, and compact grant teams miss funding deadlines and waste days reconciling duplicate drafts because spreadsheets and generic CRMs lack funder-specific proposal guidance, integrated version control, and shared submission workflows.
Solution Overview
GrantSpark centralizes calendars, documents, and tasks and uses AI to produce funder‑aligned proposal templates while offering shared timelines with automated deadline alerts to eliminate duplicate drafts and prevent missed submissions.

Details & Audience

Description
GrantSpark is a lightweight grant-management SaaS that centralizes calendars, documents, tasks, version control, and submission workflows. Nonprofit program managers, academic researchers, and small grant teams use it to coordinate applications and deadlines across organizations. It prevents missed deadlines, eliminates duplicate drafts, and shortens proposal prep so teams win more funding. Its AI instantly generates funder-aligned proposal templates that map funder priorities to your project and produce tailored drafts in seconds.
Target Audience
Nonprofit program managers and academic researchers (28–55) managing grants, deadline-obsessed collaborators needing streamlined workflows
Inspiration
Standing over a cluttered desk, I watched a nonprofit program manager miss a major foundation deadline because one spreadsheet column was hidden; later that afternoon two teams emailed different proposal drafts and spent days reconciling them. That moment—papers scattered, deadline red on a calendar—sparked GrantSpark: a lightweight hub that merges calendars, version control, and AI-guided proposal prompts so small teams never lose funding to chaos.

User Personas

Detailed profiles of the target users who would benefit most from this product.

B

Budget Balancer Blake

- 38–45, Grants Accountant or Finance Manager at midsize research nonprofit or university. - CPA or CMA preferred; advanced Excel user; familiar with 2 CFR 200 guidelines. - Manages 10–25 active budgets; coordinates 3–8 internal approvers per proposal. - Tools stack: Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Workday/Oracle ERP, DocuSign.

Background

Started in audit, then moved into grants finance after wrangling a chaotic multi-year federal budget reforecast. Learned painful lessons from broken formulas and conflicting versions before deadlines. Now champions structured approvals and guardrails to avoid rework and audit findings.

Needs & Pain Points

Needs

1. Fast budget builder with sponsor-specific guardrails. 2. Automatic fringe and indirect rate calculations. 3. Approval routing with audit-ready change history.

Pain Points

1. Spreadsheets break when scope changes late. 2. Conflicting versions across emails and drives. 3. Uncertainty on allowable costs and caps.

Psychographics

- Compliance over charisma; numbers must reconcile. - Craves clarity, hates hidden assumptions. - Efficiency hunter; automates repeatable steps. - Accountability advocate; paper trails matter.

Channels

1. Outlook email alerts 2. Microsoft Teams chat 3. SharePoint budgeting folders 4. LinkedIn finance groups 5. Grants.gov updates

S

Solo Starter Sienna

- 26–44, Founder/Executive Director at emerging nonprofit, staff 1–3. - Bachelor’s in social impact or education; self-taught grantwriter. - Operates on <$1M budget; relies on volunteers and interns. - Tool stack: Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Zoom, Slack.

Background

Began as a program coordinator who won a small local grant with a scrappy proposal. Grew into leadership without formal grants training, surviving on templates and late-night edits. Missed a portal cutoff once—vows never again.

Needs & Pain Points

Needs

1. Instant funder-aligned narrative templates. 2. Unified calendar with automated reminders. 3. Lightweight collaboration for volunteers.

Pain Points

1. Scattered documents across drives and emails. 2. Forgotten portal micro-deadlines. 3. Version chaos in shared Google Docs.

Psychographics

- Mission-first, paperwork-second pragmatist. - Embraces AI to overcome bandwidth. - Values transparency with donors and staff. - Thrives on quick visible progress.

Channels

1. Gmail inbox prioritization 2. Google Calendar mobile 3. LinkedIn nonprofit groups 4. YouTube grant tutorials 5. Submittable portal notifications

C

Consortium Conductor Cameron

- 32–50, Grants Coordinator at lead institution or research center. - Manages 5–20 subrecipients per complex, multi-year proposal. - Bachelor’s or MPH/MPA; certified research administration coursework. - Tools: Outlook, Slack shared channels, Box, DocuSign, Research.gov.

Background

Cut teeth on an NIH multi-site submission where a late subaward sank a cycle. Built playbooks for routing tasks, naming files, and deadline staging. Seeks systems that make accountability obvious to partners.

Needs & Pain Points

Needs

1. Limited-access subrecipient portals with task deadlines. 2. Sponsor-specific checklist automation. 3. Bulk reminders and late-chase workflows.

Pain Points

1. Chasing documents through endless email threads. 2. Subrecipient delays jeopardize submissions. 3. Inconsistent file formats and naming.

Psychographics

- Orchestrates people with calm authority. - Obsessed with transparency and status. - Preempts risk with structured checklists. - Values respectful but firm follow-ups.

Channels

1. Outlook shared mailboxes 2. Slack shared channels 3. DocuSign routing 4. Box partner folders 5. Research.gov notices

R

Reporting Wrangler Rina

- 27–45, Grants/Impact Reporting Manager at midsize nonprofit. - Oversees 10–40 active reporting schedules across funders. - BA/MPA; data-friendly, not a data scientist. - Tools: Salesforce, Excel, Google Drive, Outlook, GivingData.

Background

Moved from monitoring and evaluation into development after rescuing a delinquent quarterly report. Experienced a near-miss with an outdated template that almost violated terms. Now builds libraries and timelines to avoid repeats.

Needs & Pain Points

Needs

1. Calendarized reporting schedules and owners. 2. Evidence library tagged by outcome. 3. Version control with approver checkpoints.

Pain Points

1. Template changes unnoticed until submission. 2. Metrics scattered across systems. 3. Reviewers miss windows, slowing delivery.

Psychographics

- Data-to-story translation evangelist. - Deadline-driven, color-codes everything. - Quality control perfectionist. - Collaborative, invites cross-department input.

Channels

1. Salesforce dashboards 2. Outlook calendar reminders 3. Google Drive folders 4. Slack team threads 5. GivingData notifications

S

Systems Stitcher Samir

- 30–55, Operations/IT Manager or Systems Admin. - Owns SSO, device management, and vendor vetting. - Works across departments at nonprofit or university. - Tools: Okta/Azure AD, Slack, Google Workspace, SharePoint, Salesforce.

Background

Former sysadmin who tamed tool sprawl after a data leak scare. Built lightweight integrations to eliminate double entry. Now guards security while enabling practical productivity.

Needs & Pain Points

Needs

1. SSO, SCIM, and granular roles. 2. Robust APIs and webhooks. 3. Exportable, encrypted data at rest.

Pain Points

1. Shadow IT and unsanctioned workarounds. 2. Duplicate data entry across systems. 3. Unclear data residency and compliance.

Psychographics

- Security-first, zero-trust mindset. - Pragmatic, favors battle-tested standards. - Automation enthusiast, hates manual swivel-chair. - Advocates clear admin ownership.

Channels

1. GitHub discussions 2. Stack Overflow tags 3. LinkedIn IT groups 4. Vendor docs portals 5. G2 security reviews

C

Consultant Collaborator Casey

- 29–60, Independent consultant or boutique agency principal. - Handles 6–12 active clients across sectors. - Works fully remote; travels for kickoffs and workshops. - Tools: Gmail, Zoom, Google Drive, Dropbox, LinkedIn.

Background

Left an agency to serve mission-driven clients with flexible retainers. Learned the hard way after sending a draft to the wrong client. Now prioritizes clean boundaries and repeatable systems.

Needs & Pain Points

Needs

1. Workspace switching with strict permissions. 2. Reusable template and snippet library. 3. Client approval checkpoints and logs.

Pain Points

1. Cross-client file mix-ups risk reputation. 2. Context switching drains focus. 3. Clients slow returning documents.

Psychographics

- Reputation-obsessed, zero tolerance for sloppiness. - Time optimizer, batches similar tasks. - Client-service, proactive communicator. - Open to AI that respects voice.

Channels

1. LinkedIn DMs 2. Gmail threads 3. Zoom calls 4. Dropbox client folders 5. Upwork invitations

Product Features

Key capabilities that make this product valuable to its target users.

Smart Scope Builder

Auto-generate precise upload scopes from sponsor templates or checklists. Preconfigure allowed file types, naming rules, size limits, required metadata, and signature roles. Save and reuse presets per sponsor or subaward type to set up requests in minutes and prevent wrong-file submissions.

Requirements

Template Ingestion & Field Extraction
"As a grant coordinator, I want to upload a sponsor checklist and have the system extract the required items and constraints so that I can configure the submission scope in minutes with fewer mistakes."
Description

Accept sponsor templates and checklists (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, HTML) and parse them to identify deliverables, allowed file types, size limits, naming conventions, required metadata fields, due dates/milestones, and signature roles. Provide a review screen that highlights extracted elements with confidence scores and allows quick correction or confirmation. Normalize extracted data to GrantSpark’s scope schema for downstream use in tasks, calendars, versioning, and submission workflows. Support OCR for scanned PDFs, handle multi-section forms, and map common sponsor terminology to internal field names to reduce manual setup time and errors.

Acceptance Criteria
Visual Scope Builder
"As a program manager, I want an intuitive builder to define all upload rules and metadata for each deliverable so that our team’s submissions are consistent and compliant with sponsor requirements."
Description

Provide a drag-and-drop editor to assemble the upload scope, with per-item controls for allowed MIME types, max file size, naming rules (tokenized patterns and regex, e.g., {sponsor_code}-{pi_last}-{project}-{YYYYMMDD}-v{N}), and required/optional status. Enable definition of metadata fields (types, validation, defaults, and conditional visibility), signature role requirements, and item dependencies (e.g., Budget Justification required when Budget > threshold). Offer live preview of the submitter experience and instant validation of rules. Persist scopes to projects with version control and audit history.

Acceptance Criteria
Preset Library & Sponsor Profiles
"As a research administrator, I want to save and reuse sponsor-specific scope presets so that recurring proposal setups take seconds and stay aligned with evolving sponsor guidelines."
Description

Allow saving complete scopes as reusable presets linked to sponsor, program, and subaward types. Support versioning, change logs, and tags (e.g., NIH R01, NSF Equipment, Corporate Matching). Provide organization-level sharing controls and the ability to clone and tweak presets. Auto-suggest relevant presets based on sponsor profile selection and historical usage. Include migration tools to update existing projects when a preset is revised, with a diff view to accept or reject changes per item.

Acceptance Criteria
Real-time Upload Validation & Autofix
"As a submitter, I want instant validation and autofix suggestions when I upload documents so that I can resolve issues immediately and avoid last-minute submission failures."
Description

Enforce scope rules at the point of upload with immediate feedback on file type, size, naming compliance, required metadata, and signature role readiness. Provide one-click autofix options (e.g., auto-rename using the naming template, prompt to convert DOCX to PDF if allowed, prefill metadata from project records). Offer a “Validate All” dry run to produce a completeness report before submission. Block submission until all required items pass validation and log all validation events for auditing. Prevent duplicate drafts by locking unique document slots per scope item.

Acceptance Criteria
Workflow & Calendar Auto-Generation
"As a project lead, I want the scope to auto-generate tasks and calendar deadlines so that our team stays on track and required approvals happen in time."
Description

Automatically create tasks, deadlines, and reminder schedules from the scope (per item and per milestone), syncing to GrantSpark calendars and team task lists. Support lead/lag offsets (e.g., PI signature due 3 days before submission), escalation rules, and watchers. Link each task to its scope item status and version history, updating progress as validations pass and approvals are completed. Lock finalized files post-approval to prevent accidental changes prior to submission.

Acceptance Criteria
Signature Roles & Approval Routing
"As a compliance officer, I want to configure signature roles and approval order for each deliverable so that submissions meet institutional and sponsor authorization requirements."
Description

Define required signature roles per scope item (e.g., PI, Co-PI, Department Chair, Signing Official) and configure ordering, parallel vs. sequential approval, and delegation rules. Assign roles to users or placeholders at project kickoff, track completion status, and integrate approvals into the validation gate. Provide reminders and escalation for pending signatures and maintain a full approval audit trail. Support integration with existing e-sign or acknowledgement workflows where available.

Acceptance Criteria
Scope Import/Export API & Webhooks
"As an IT integrator, I want APIs and webhooks for scopes and validation events so that we can sync GrantSpark with our internal systems and automate reporting."
Description

Expose REST/GraphQL endpoints to programmatically create, read, update, and export scope definitions and presets in a documented JSON schema. Provide import from CSV/JSON for bulk setup and webhooks for scope changes, validation results, and approval events to integrate with institutional systems. Enforce permissions and rate limits, and include sandbox/test modes for safe integration.

Acceptance Criteria

Guided Intake

Give subrecipients a clean, step‑by‑step wizard with examples, tooltips, and live validations (file type, naming, missing fields). Includes progress tracking, save‑and‑resume, and mobile‑first screens to boost first‑pass completion and reduce support emails.

Requirements

Multi-step Wizard with Conditional Logic
"As a subrecipient, I want a simple step-by-step wizard that adapts to my answers so that I only see what’s relevant and can complete the intake confidently."
Description

Implement a step-by-step intake flow that groups related questions into clear stages, displays a persistent progress indicator, and supports conditional branching based on prior answers to hide or reveal fields and steps. Provide back/next navigation with autosave-safe transitions, required/optional field indicators, and per-step completion checks before advancing. Integrate prefill from known organization/applicant data, map collected inputs to GrantSpark’s submission schema, and create corresponding tasks and document placeholders in the workspace. Ensure robust client/server validation on step transitions and resilience to refreshes or network hiccups without data loss.

Acceptance Criteria
Real-time Validation and File Guardrails
"As a subrecipient, I want instant feedback on incorrect entries and files so that I can fix issues immediately and submit successfully on the first try."
Description

Provide live, inline validations for text, numbers, dates, and selections with immediate, human-readable error messages and examples. Enforce file constraints at upload time (allowed MIME types, max size, page limits) and configurable naming rules (e.g., programID_org_docType_YYYYMMDD), with real-time feedback and auto-suggested filenames. Detect duplicate uploads via content hash and prevent re-submission of identical files. Validate presence of required attachments before submission, and re-check server-side to prevent bypass. All rules must be configurable per intake version and logged for audit. Surface a consolidated validation summary at review/submit.

Acceptance Criteria
Inline Guidance: Examples, Tooltips, and Help Panel
"As a subrecipient, I want clear examples and tips next to each question so that I understand what’s expected and avoid guesswork."
Description

Deliver context-aware guidance for each field via inline examples, tooltips, and an optional expandable help panel. Examples should include sample narratives, acceptable ranges, and formatting tips tailored to the funder’s expectations. Allow admins to manage guidance content per field and per intake version, including rich text and links to templates. Track which guidance items are viewed to refine content over time. Ensure content is accessible (screen-reader friendly, keyboard focusable) and localized-ready for future i18n. Provide a compact mode for mobile to avoid visual clutter while keeping help one tap away.

Acceptance Criteria
Save-and-Resume with Magic Link and Autosave
"As a subrecipient, I want my progress saved automatically and a secure link to resume later so that I can complete the intake on my own schedule without losing work."
Description

Persist draft responses automatically on field blur and at regular intervals, with conflict-safe merges across devices. Offer save-and-exit with a secure, expiring magic link to resume without creating an account, plus optional email verification to confirm identity. Support resuming on mobile and desktop, maintaining wizard position and validation state. Provide draft recovery for accidental closes, and allow admins to invalidate links when intake versions change materially (with guided migration or re-validation). Implement token signing, short TTLs, IP throttling, and audit logs for access attempts to protect sensitive data.

Acceptance Criteria
Mobile-first and Accessibility Compliance
"As a subrecipient on my phone, I want an accessible, responsive form so that I can complete the intake quickly anywhere without technical barriers."
Description

Design the intake UI mobile-first with responsive layouts, large touch targets, native input types, and optimized file pickers/camera capture on iOS/Android. Ensure WCAG 2.2 AA compliance: proper color contrast, focus states, semantic landmarks, ARIA where needed, form labels/associations, error identification, and keyboard-only navigation. Provide reduced-motion and high-contrast modes and support screen readers with meaningful guidance ordering. Optimize performance for low-bandwidth/older devices and implement lightweight offline tolerance to preserve unsent changes during brief connectivity drops.

Acceptance Criteria
Admin Intake Builder and Versioning
"As a grant manager, I want to configure and version the intake wizard myself so that I can adapt requirements per funder without engineering help."
Description

Create an admin console for grant managers to design and maintain intake flows: add/edit steps, fields, validations, conditional logic, file constraints, guidance text, and example content. Support draft/publish versioning with effective dates, change diffs, rollback, and per-version rule sets to avoid breaking in-progress drafts. Provide schema mapping to GrantSpark’s data model and attachments library, plus a preview mode that simulates conditional paths and validations. Include permission controls, audit trails of changes, and the ability to clone templates across programs/funders.

Acceptance Criteria
Deadline-aware Reminders and Progress Nudges
"As a subrecipient, I want timely reminders with a clear list of what’s missing so that I can finish before the deadline."
Description

Send automated reminders to subrecipients based on grant calendar deadlines and individual progress (e.g., missing required fields/files, incomplete steps). Provide configurable schedules (e.g., 7/3/1 days before due), quiet hours, and timezone-aware delivery. Include a dynamic checklist of outstanding items and a one-click resume link directly to the next incomplete step. Surface gentle in-wizard nudges (e.g., banners and toasts) when deadlines approach. Log all notifications for compliance and allow recipients to manage notification preferences per intake.

Acceptance Criteria

Conditional Gates

Enforce prerequisite steps and sequencing inside a single link (e.g., COI form before budget upload, budget before signature). The link reveals only the current allowed action, keeping collaborators on the right path and ensuring compliance without back‑and‑forth.

Requirements

Visual Gate Builder
"As a grant coordinator, I want to visually define and publish a sequenced set of prerequisites in one link so that collaborators follow the correct path without manual policing."
Description

Provide a drag-and-drop editor to define a sequenced set of gated steps within a single shareable link. Each step can be typed (form completion, document upload, budget review, signature), assigned to specific roles or users, given due dates, and bound to prerequisite rules. Support step metadata (instructions, required files/fields), validation hooks, and dependency mapping, with automatic checks for configuration errors such as circular dependencies or missing assignees. Include a live preview of the collaborator experience and safe publishing of versioned gate configurations so updates do not disrupt in-flight workflows.

Acceptance Criteria
Rule-based Prerequisite Validation
"As a program manager, I want the system to block progression until objective prerequisites are met so that we maintain compliance and avoid rework."
Description

Implement a rules engine that evaluates completion criteria before unlocking the next step. Rules include specific form field presence/values, required document types and naming patterns, file size/type limits, budget line-item checks, e-signature completion, and approvals. Integrate with GrantSpark forms, document storage, and e-sign providers, supporting synchronous validation on submit and asynchronous webhooks for external completions. Provide clear, actionable error messages, block advancement until criteria are met, and persist validation results for auditing and reporting.

Acceptance Criteria
Smart Single-Link Workflow
"As a collaborator, I want a single link that only shows me my current task with clear guidance so that I can complete it quickly without confusion."
Description

Deliver a guided single-link experience that reveals only the current permitted action, with future steps hidden or read-only and a clear progress indicator. Persist state per participant, allow resume on reentry, and ensure responsive, accessible interactions (WCAG 2.1 AA). Handle edge cases such as expired steps, reassignment, and updated gate definitions without breaking the link. Secure access with signed, tokenized URLs, configurable expiry, and optional SSO enforcement.

Acceptance Criteria
Per-Step Roles & Approvals
"As an admin, I want to assign who can act or approve each step so that the right people are involved at the right time."
Description

Enable administrators to assign actors for each step (individuals, email addresses, or roles such as PI, Finance, Director) and optional approvers whose sign-off is required before progression. Support conditional assignment (e.g., COI required for all key personnel), delegation, and reassignment with auditability. Enforce least-privilege visibility so participants see only their step and necessary context, and support organization policies such as domain restrictions and 2FA for sensitive steps.

Acceptance Criteria
Gate Templates Library
"As a grants lead, I want to reuse and adapt gate templates for different funders so that setup is fast and consistent."
Description

Provide a library of reusable gate templates for common funder workflows (e.g., COI → Budget → PI Signature). Allow saving, versioning, and permissioned sharing of templates with variables for funder name, deadlines, required forms, and default assignees. Enable quick instantiation on new opportunities with parameter prompts, reducing setup time and ensuring consistency with organizational policies.

Acceptance Criteria
Gate Notifications & Escalations
"As a project owner, I want timely notifications and escalations tied to gate status so that deadlines are met and blockers are surfaced."
Description

Configure automated alerts for step unlocked, upcoming due dates, overdue status, rejection, and reassignment. Support multiple channels (email, Slack/Teams), digest modes, snooze, quiet hours, and rate limiting to prevent notification fatigue. Include deep links to the single-link action, localized timestamps, and escalation rules to managers or alternates when thresholds are exceeded.

Acceptance Criteria
Immutable Gate Audit Log
"As a compliance officer, I want a complete audit trail of gate activity so that we can demonstrate adherence to funder and institutional policies."
Description

Capture a tamper-evident, time-stamped record of gate configuration changes, step transitions, validation outcomes, uploads, signatures, approvals, and access events, including actor identity and source IP. Provide exportable reports (PDF/CSV/JSON) and filters by opportunity, funder, and timeframe to support compliance reviews and funder audits. Honor data retention policies and legal holds while maintaining integrity guarantees.

Acceptance Criteria

Audit Chain Ledger

Create a tamper‑evident timeline of every event—opens, OTP verification, IP/device fingerprint, uploads, eSign actions, and file hashes. One click exports an auditor‑ready packet proving chain of custody and consent.

Requirements

Immutable Event Ledger
"As a compliance officer, I want an immutable, cryptographically verifiable event ledger so that I can prove chain of custody and consent without relying on internal trust."
Description

Tamper‑evident, append‑only ledger capturing all Audit Chain events across GrantSpark (document opens/downloads, uploads and version hashes, eSign actions, OTP verifications, consent acknowledgments, IP/device fingerprints). Each event is written with a canonical schema and chained via cryptographic hashes (prev_hash → hash) and server‑trusted timestamps, producing an immutable sequence per object and tenant. Integrity is enforced by write‑once semantics; corrections are modeled as compensating events, never mutation. The ledger supports time‑stamp authority signing, Merkle roots for batch verification, and periodic anchor checkpoints. Integrates with existing services via an internal event bus.

Acceptance Criteria
Unified Event Capture & Schema
"As a program manager, I want every relevant action recorded in a consistent format so that audits and exports are complete and trustworthy across all grants and collaborators."
Description

A normalized event schema and instrumentation library to consistently emit required signals from all modules—submissions, tasks, comments, reminders, version control, sharing links, authentication, and eSign. Fields include event_id, tenant_id, actor and role, action, object_type/object_id, timestamp_utc, ip, user_agent, device_fingerprint, otp_method/status, file_hash, signature_id, and metadata. Guarantees idempotency and ordering keys; supports async flows, retries, and backfill without duplication. Enforces UTC clocks and RFC 3339 formatting for interoperability with exports and verification.

Acceptance Criteria
One‑Click Auditor Packet Export
"As a grant administrator, I want to export a complete, auditor‑ready packet in one click so that I can quickly satisfy compliance reviews and funder due diligence."
Description

Generates an auditor‑ready export for a chosen scope (grant, funder, project, submission, or date range) including a PDF summary, CSV/JSON ledger, cryptographic chain proofs (hash chain and Merkle root), file hash manifests, eSign certificates, OTP logs, consent records, policy/version references, and a detached checksum/signature. Exports are available in the UI and via API, are access‑controlled and watermarked, and include a lightweight verifier and QR/link to an online verification page.

Acceptance Criteria
Role‑Based Access & Redaction Controls
"As a data protection officer, I want role‑based access and redaction policies applied to audit data so that we meet privacy regulations while preserving evidentiary integrity."
Description

Fine‑grained permissions restrict who can view, query, and export the ledger by tenant, project, and field. Configurable redaction/masking policies for PII (e.g., IP truncation, device fingerprint hashing, geolocation rounding) are applied consistently across UI, API, and exports, with jurisdiction‑aware rules and consent gating. All ledger access is itself audited. Supports retention schedules, legal holds, and privacy‑compliant deletions that emit tombstone events while preserving chain integrity.

Acceptance Criteria
Integrity Verification API & UI
"As an external auditor, I want to independently verify the ledger and exports so that I can trust the chain of custody without accessing internal systems."
Description

Endpoints and an in‑app page to validate timelines and export packages by recomputing hash chains, verifying time‑stamp authority signatures, and checking chain continuity. Produces a signed verification report with anomaly diagnostics and exposes webhooks/alerts for verification failures. Provides public verification using published keys and supports key rotation with backward‑compatible trust bundles.

Acceptance Criteria
Performance, Ordering, and Reliability SLOs
"As an operations lead, I want the audit ledger to scale and remain reliable under peak load so that no evidentiary gaps occur during critical submission periods."
Description

Near‑real‑time recording and query at scale with explicit SLOs (e.g., ≥1,000 events/sec/tenant, p95 write <200 ms, p95 query <500 ms over 90 days). Ensures exactly‑once ingestion via idempotency keys and deduplication, monotonic per‑scope sequencing to tolerate clock skew, durable buffering/retry, and backpressure handling. Provides pagination, time‑range filters, and indexed search; partitions by tenant/project; archives to cold storage without breaking verification. Includes dashboards and alerts for throughput, latency, integrity checks, and error rates.

Acceptance Criteria

Smart Expiry

Timebox links with intelligent reminders, grace windows, and one‑click extend/pause/revoke controls. Auto‑expire on completion or use burn‑after‑upload for sensitive documents. Keeps timelines tight while minimizing data exposure.

Requirements

Configurable Timeboxes & Expiry Policies
"As a grant manager, I want to define expiry policies by document type and funder so that sensitive materials automatically expire without manual tracking."
Description

Enable administrators and project owners to define granular expiry policies for documents, tasks, and submissions. Policies include start triggers (e.g., on upload, last view, last edit, approval), durations, and expiry actions (restrict, archive, purge). Support inheritance from funder/program/folder templates with explicit overrides and conflict resolution. Respect user time zones, display countdowns in UI, and sync key dates to calendars. Policies cascade to linked items while preserving version history and do not regress submission locks. Provide a policy editor, preview of effective policy, and validation to prevent impossible configurations.

Acceptance Criteria
Intelligent Reminder Engine
"As a researcher, I want smart reminders that adapt to my deadlines so that I’m warned in time without being spammed."
Description

Deliver adaptive pre-expiry notifications that adjust lead times based on proximity to deadlines, item sensitivity, and user engagement. Support multiple channels (email, in-app, Slack/Teams), batching to reduce noise, snooze options, escalation rules to owners and approvers, and quiet hours/timezone awareness. Provide per-user and per-project preferences, localized content, ICS attachments for key dates, and de-duplication across channels. Include delivery analytics and opt-in summaries while honoring RBAC and privacy settings.

Acceptance Criteria
One-Click Extend/Pause/Revoke (RBAC)
"As a program director, I want to extend or pause an expiring item with one click so that my team can finish reviews without losing access."
Description

Add inline controls to extend, pause, or revoke access from item and list views with preset increments and custom durations. Enforce role-based permissions and optional approval workflows for high-risk actions. Capture justification notes, reflect changes immediately in countdowns, and propagate updates to dependent tasks and submission timelines. Provide bulk actions, guardrails to avoid violating submission locks, and API endpoints for automation. All actions must be idempotent and auditable.

Acceptance Criteria
Auto-Expire on Completion & Burn-After-Upload
"As a compliance officer, I want burn-after-upload for sensitive files so that exposure is minimized after they are used."
Description

Automatically trigger expiration on task completion or submission and support burn-after-upload for sensitive files with options for single-view, limited-views, or fixed window access. On burn, enforce secure purge with storage provider object lifecycle rules, metadata scrubbing, and backup deletion requests where supported. Present redacted stubs post-expiry for audit context without content exposure. Honor legal holds and retention exceptions to prevent accidental destruction.

Acceptance Criteria
Grace Window Management
"As a project coordinator, I want a short grace window after expiry so that urgent last-minute edits don’t block a submission."
Description

Provide configurable grace periods following scheduled expiry where access is limited (e.g., read-only) and new uploads are blocked. Trigger targeted reminders when entering grace, auto-revoke at grace end, and allow override extensions with justification and optional approval. Display clear UI badges and countdown banners, and support per-role exceptions defined at the policy level.

Acceptance Criteria
Audit Trail & Compliance Logging
"As an admin, I want a comprehensive audit trail of expiries and overrides so that we can pass security reviews and funder audits."
Description

Record immutable, signed events for policy changes, reminder deliveries, views during burn phases, extend/pause/revoke actions, expiries, and deletions. Provide searchable timeline views, export to CSV and SIEM, and configurable retention for logs. Link events to version control snapshots and generate evidence packs for funder audits and security reviews without exposing underlying content.

Acceptance Criteria
Policy Templates, Bulk Operations & API/Webhooks
"As an IT lead, I want policy templates and APIs so that we can standardize expiries across teams and integrate with our internal systems."
Description

Offer reusable policy templates by funder, program, and document type with default durations, reminders, grace windows, and burn settings. Enable bulk assignment and migration of policies across folders and existing assets with dry-run previews. Expose APIs for CRUD on policies and actions, plus webhooks for pre-expiry, grace-start, and expired events. Provide SDK examples, pagination, rate limiting, and idempotency keys for reliability.

Acceptance Criteria

Multi‑Sign Cascade

Configure signer order and parallel groups for budget and compliance forms. ESIGN/UETA‑compliant signatures, automatic routing to the next signer, and submission locks until all required signatures are complete—no separate e‑sign tool needed.

Requirements

Signer Order Builder
"As a grant program manager, I want to define who signs and in what order so that budget and compliance forms follow our internal approval flow without errors."
Description

Interactive configuration for sequential signing order with role assignment. Supports drag-and-drop reordering, required/optional signers, conditional steps (e.g., only if budget > threshold), and reusable “cascade templates” tied to GrantSpark form templates. Validates that all required roles for a given submission type are included. Provides APIs to create/read/update/delete cascades and to attach a cascade to a submission workflow. Integrates with version control so updates to the cascade on an in-flight submission create a new signing revision with clear diffs.

Acceptance Criteria
Parallel Grouping Rules
"As a research administrator, I want to send forms to a department group in parallel so that approvals that don’t depend on each other can proceed faster."
Description

Ability to configure parallel signing groups where multiple signers receive the document simultaneously. Supports completion rules (all must sign vs. at least N of M), per-group timeouts, and escalation logic (auto-reassign to delegate or escalate to manager if timeout). Gates progression to the next step until the group’s completion rule is satisfied. Prevents deadlocks by detecting circular dependencies and conflicting rules at configuration time.

Acceptance Criteria
ESIGN/UETA-Compliant Signature Capture
"As a compliance officer, I want signatures collected in a legally valid manner so that audits and legal reviews are satisfied without relying on a separate e-sign product."
Description

Built-in signature capture that satisfies ESIGN and UETA requirements: explicit consent capture, clear intent-to-sign actions, signer identity attribution, record retention policy, and tamper-evident sealing. Generates a cryptographic hash of the signed document and binds it to a time-stamped signature certificate. Captures evidentiary data (timestamps, IP, user agent, geolocation if permitted) and supports optional SMS/email OTP for stronger authentication. Fully accessible UI (WCAG 2.1 AA) and localized consent text. No external e-sign tool required.

Acceptance Criteria
Auto-Routing & Smart Reminders
"As a project lead, I want forms to automatically route and remind signers so that approvals keep moving and we meet funder deadlines."
Description

Automatic routing to next signer(s) based on the configured cascade, with real-time status updates. Sends email and in-app notifications, calendar event holds aligned to GrantSpark deadlines, and adaptive reminders (increasing frequency as deadline approaches). Supports out-of-office detection with temporary delegation, escalation after configurable inactivity, and digest summaries to reduce notification fatigue. Includes a monitoring dashboard with retry logic for bounced emails and webhooks for external integrations.

Acceptance Criteria
Submission Lock & Access Control
"As a grants coordinator, I want submissions locked until all required signatures are captured so that no unapproved changes slip through before submission."
Description

Enforces submission locks until all required signatures are complete. While in-flight, fields covered by a pending signature become read-only to non-signers; after final signature, the document is sealed and immutable. Supports controlled corrections via a new revision that invalidates prior signatures as required by policy and records the reason. Integrates with GrantSpark RBAC to restrict who can view, sign, void, or reopen a signing process. Provides clear UI indicators and API flags for lock state.

Acceptance Criteria
Signature Audit Trail & Evidence Package
"As an auditor, I want a complete evidence package for each signing event so that authenticity and compliance can be independently verified during reviews."
Description

Generates an immutable audit trail for each signing event, including signer sequence, timestamps (UTC with timezone normalization), IP addresses, OTP verification records, document hash chain, and certificate details. Produces an exportable evidence package (PDF and JSON) attached to the submission and available via API. Stores records with WORM semantics and supports retention policies aligned with funder and institutional requirements. Exposes a public verification endpoint to validate document integrity and certificate authenticity.

Acceptance Criteria
External Signer Access & Guest Verification
"As a principal investigator, I want external partners to sign forms securely without creating accounts so that cross-institution approvals don’t delay submissions."
Description

Allows external stakeholders (e.g., subaward partners) to sign without a full GrantSpark account via secure, expiring magic links. Requires consent and lightweight identity verification (email or SMS OTP, optional org code), with configurable data collection for name/title/organization. Sessions are sandboxed with least-privilege access to only the assigned document. Supports revocation, link regeneration, and domain restrictions. Compliant with GDPR/CCPA data minimization and consent logging.

Acceptance Criteria

Q&A Pins

Let collaborators ask or answer item‑specific questions inline, attach clarifications, and reference examples—without creating accounts. All exchanges are timestamped and added to the audit log, eliminating scattered email threads.

Requirements

Inline Pin Anchoring
"As a collaborator, I want to drop a question exactly where I’m unsure in a document or task so that others can see the context and answer quickly."
Description

Enable users to place Q&A pins inline on specific items (document text ranges, file previews, tasks, calendar events, and submission form fields) with robust anchoring that survives edits and version updates. Implement content-aware anchors (e.g., text range + checksum + DOM selector/file coordinate fallback) to maintain position through revisions; show unobtrusive pin markers and counts in editors and viewers on web and mobile. Provide graceful degradation when anchors cannot be perfectly restored (e.g., ghost pins with nearest-context hint) and support cross-links between pins and their host items. Integrate with GrantSpark’s document editor, file viewer, task detail pane, and calendar event views to keep questions context-rich and discoverable.

Acceptance Criteria
Threaded Q&A with Attachments and References
"As a grant coordinator, I want a threaded place to ask and answer item-specific questions with attachments so that our team can resolve issues without email back-and-forth."
Description

Provide per-pin threaded discussions supporting question, answer, and clarification posts with rich text, code/quote blocks, and inline formatting. Allow attaching files and linking references (e.g., funder guidelines, prior winning proposals, example language) from local upload or connected repositories, with preview where possible. Support marking an accepted answer, editing with visible edit history, and lightweight reactions. Ensure threads are compact, readable, and optimized for both desktop and mobile, replacing scattered email chains and centralizing institutional knowledge within the grant workspace.

Acceptance Criteria
Accountless Contributor Access
"As an external reviewer, I want to ask or answer a question via a secure link without creating an account so that I can provide timely input with minimal friction."
Description

Allow external collaborators to participate in Q&A without creating full GrantSpark accounts via secure, scoped share links tied to specific items or projects. Configure permissions per link (view, ask, reply, attach, resolve), optional name/email capture, link expiration, rate limiting, CAPTCHA, and domain allowlists/denylists to mitigate spam. Present a frictionless guest UI with clear identity disclosure in-thread and consent to logging. Ensure data residency and privacy compliance while maintaining a minimal barrier to collaboration with funders, PIs, and partner orgs.

Acceptance Criteria
Immutable Timestamps and Audit Logging
"As a program manager, I want Q&A activity to be timestamped and recorded in the audit log so that we can demonstrate compliance and trace decisions during reviews."
Description

Automatically timestamp every Q&A post, edit, resolution, and permission change with author identity (account or guest attribution) and append entries to the project’s audit log. Normalize to project timezone, store original event time, and expose an audit view with filters and export. Provide tamper-evident logging (e.g., event hashing) and include Q&A activity in submission workflow histories to satisfy compliance and reporting needs.

Acceptance Criteria
Pin Permissions and Resolution Workflow
"As a project lead, I want clear ownership and statuses for each pin so that questions are resolved before submission deadlines."
Description

Define role-based controls for who can create, reply, edit, delete, and resolve pins, with support for assigning an owner, setting status (Open, Needs Info, Answered, Resolved, Archived), and locking threads. Allow converting a pin into a task, linking a pin to existing tasks, and merging duplicate pins. Surface resolution state and ownership in item headers and roll-ups, and restrict edits after resolution based on policy. Integrate due dates and SLA reminders aligned with grant submission deadlines.

Acceptance Criteria
Smart Notifications and Mentions
"As a team member, I want targeted notifications when I’m mentioned or when a question I own changes so that I stay responsive without notification overload."
Description

Support @mentions, watchers, and role-based auto-watch rules; deliver real-time in-app notifications and configurable email digests with deep links to the pinned context. Provide notification throttling, quiet hours, and per-thread unsubscribe controls. For guests, offer one-click verify-and-view links that respect link scope and expiration. Tie escalations to upcoming grant milestones to prompt timely responses.

Acceptance Criteria
Pin Search and Filters
"As a research administrator, I want to search and filter questions across projects so that I can find unresolved blockers and monitor team responsiveness."
Description

Enable full-text search across Q&A pins and attachments, with filters for status, assignee/owner, author (including guests), date ranges, item type (document, task, calendar), funder, grant cycle, and project. Provide saved views, export to CSV/PDF, and result highlighting that jumps to the pinned context. Expose API endpoints for retrieving pin metadata and content to support reporting dashboards.

Acceptance Criteria

Sponsor Rule Packs

Centralize each sponsor’s caps, salary limits, F&A rates, and exclusions into reusable rule sets with effective dates and mechanisms. Pick a pack at budget start to get instant, consistent validations—no manual lookup—so every line item aligns with the right policy from day one.

Requirements

Rule Pack Schema & Versioning
"As a research administrator, I want sponsor policies captured with versions, mechanisms, and effective dates so that the system can always apply the correct rules without manual lookup."
Description

Design and implement a normalized data model for Sponsor Rule Packs that captures sponsor identity, applicable mechanisms (e.g., R01, foundation grant, contract types), effective start/end dates, cost categories, salary caps, F&A/indirect rates (by base type), cost-sharing rules, exclusions/prohibitions, and conditional rules (e.g., per-role salary caps, category-specific ceilings). Include versioning with immutable published versions, draft state, change history, and deprecation flags. Support tenant isolation and inheritance/overrides (institutional defaults vs. sponsor specifics). Provide APIs for retrieval by sponsor, mechanism, and date, enabling other GrantSpark modules (budgeting, templates, validations) to query a single source of truth.

Acceptance Criteria
Admin CRUD & Bulk Import
"As a compliance manager, I want to create, clone, and publish sponsor rule packs with approvals so that only vetted rules are used across teams."
Description

Provide an admin UI and APIs to create, edit, clone, review, and publish Sponsor Rule Packs. Enable CSV/Excel import and field mapping for bulk load of rates, caps, and exclusions; validate inputs with previews and error reporting before publish. Include role-based access control (only authorized users can publish or deprecate), draft workflows (review/approve), and cloning from prior versions or templates. Support bulk edits (e.g., update F&A across mechanisms) and guardrails (no edits to immutable published versions—require new version).

Acceptance Criteria
Effective Date & Mechanism Resolver
"As a budget owner, I want the system to resolve which rule pack version applies based on start date and mechanism so that my budget is validated against the right policy."
Description

Build a resolution service that, given a sponsor, mechanism, and budget start date, selects the correct rule pack version and applicable rule subsets. Implement precedence rules (mechanism-specific overrides general sponsor rules), fallbacks (nearest prior effective version), and conflict detection with deterministic tie-breaking. Expose a stateless API for other services to request the active ruleset at compute time and cache results with TTL to maintain performance and consistency.

Acceptance Criteria
Real-time Budget Validation & Auto F&A
"As a grant coordinator, I want inline validations and auto-calculated F&A on each line item so that I can correct issues early and avoid rework."
Description

Integrate rule packs into the budgeting UI and engine to perform real-time validations on each line item: enforce caps (per-person salary, per-category ceilings), block excluded costs, and display inline errors/warnings with clear rationale and rule references. Automatically calculate F&A/indirects based on the defined base and rates; handle exceptions (e.g., equipment excluded from base). Provide batch validation on save/submit and a summary panel of issues. Allow configuration of severity (blocking vs. advisory) per rule.

Acceptance Criteria
Pack Selection in Budget Workflow
"As a proposal creator, I want to select a sponsor rule pack when starting a budget so that defaults and validations are consistently applied from day one."
Description

Add a step to proposal/budget creation to select a Sponsor Rule Pack (auto-suggested from selected sponsor and mechanism). Lock selection to a specific published version, displaying effective dates and change notes. Pre-fill budget defaults (e.g., standard fringe, F&A base type) from the pack and optionally restrict editing of rule-derived fields based on tenant policy. Persist the selected pack reference for downstream tasks, templates, and submissions to ensure cross-module consistency.

Acceptance Criteria
Audit Trail & Compliance Export
"As an auditor, I want an export showing the applied rule pack and all validations so that I can demonstrate compliance to the sponsor."
Description

Record the selected rule pack version and all validation outcomes at key milestones (save, submit). Provide an exportable compliance report (PDF/CSV) that lists applied rates, caps, exclusions, and any waivers, with timestamps and user actions, suitable for sponsor or internal audit. Include hash/signature of the pack version for traceability. Allow linking the report to the submission package in GrantSpark’s document management.

Acceptance Criteria
Expiry Alerts & Change Subscriptions
"As a pack owner, I want notifications when a rule pack is expiring or changes impact active budgets so that I can update packs and budgets proactively."
Description

Implement notifications for upcoming rule pack expirations and newly published versions. Allow users, teams, or workspaces to subscribe to sponsors or specific packs and receive alerts in-app and via email. Provide an impact assessment view listing active budgets affected by a new version and offer a controlled update workflow (retain old version or migrate with change log).

Acceptance Criteria

Cap Proration Engine

Automatically prorate salary caps across budget periods, appointments, and effort percentages, including multi-fund splits and cost share. Prevents over-the-cap allocations in real time and removes error‑prone spreadsheets, saving finance reviews from rework.

Requirements

Cap Rules Engine & Proration Calculator
"As a grant budget analyst, I want the system to automatically calculate allowable salary under sponsor caps across periods and effort so that I can build compliant budgets without manual spreadsheets."
Description

Implement a centralized rules engine that computes allowable salary under sponsor-specific caps by prorating across budget periods, appointment fractions, and effort percentages. The engine ingests institutional base salary, cap tables with effective dates and roles, appointment FTE, effort %, budget period dates, funding source, and currency, then returns capped allowable amount, disallowed over-the-cap amount, and proration breakdowns. It must handle mid-period changes (e.g., cap updates, salary or appointment changes) by auto-splitting into sub-periods, support configurable proration granularity (monthly or daily), correctly account for leap years and partial months, and honor organization-defined rounding rules. Provide deterministic, idempotent results via a stateless service used by the budget builder UI, bulk recalculation jobs, and public API endpoints, with performance suitable for real-time entry (<250 ms per calculation) and scalable batch processing. Outputs include machine-readable diagnostics to power downstream alerts and cost-share suggestions.

Acceptance Criteria
Real-Time Validation & Blocking Alerts
"As a grant coordinator, I want immediate warnings and blocks when allocations exceed a cap so that I don’t submit noncompliant budgets."
Description

Provide inline, real-time validation that prevents saving or submitting allocations that exceed salary caps. As users edit effort, appointment, or amounts, the system re-evaluates proration on each change and displays contextual warnings, error states, and suggested fixes (e.g., reduce effort, shift to cost share, adjust dates). Violations must be summarized at the person, fund, and period levels, with deep links to offending line items. Validation results propagate to workflow gates (e.g., submission cannot proceed while critical over-the-cap errors exist) and generate deadline-aware tasks/notifications in GrantSpark. Support accessibility-compliant messaging, localization, and configurable severity thresholds (info/warn/block).

Acceptance Criteria
Multi-Fund Split Support
"As a finance manager, I want to split personnel salary across multiple funding sources while still respecting the cap so that allocations reflect real funding plans without violations."
Description

Enable allocation of a single individual’s salary across multiple funding sources (sponsor, internal, other grants) by percentage or fixed amount while preserving global cap compliance. The engine must evaluate the combined allocation across all funds within each period, ensure totals do not exceed allowable capped salary, and auto-balance rounding across splits. Provide UI controls for defining split rules, visualize period-by-period distributions, and cascade updates when dates, effort, or splits change. Ensure compatibility with budget versioning, export to sponsor formats, and API-based integrations. Edge cases include overlapping project dates, split changes mid-period, and currency differences across funds.

Acceptance Criteria
Cost Share & Over-the-Cap Redistribution
"As a research administrator, I want excess salary above the cap to route to designated cost share accounts automatically so that sponsored funds are never overcharged."
Description

Automatically identify disallowed over-the-cap amounts and reallocate them to designated cost share accounts according to organization-defined rules (priority order, max limits, default accounts). Support both proactive reservation of cost share in the budget and reactive redistribution when a violation is detected. Maintain clear line-item audit links between sponsor-funded and cost share portions, prevent sponsor funds from paying above-cap amounts, and present recommended redistributions with one-click apply/undo. Respect sponsor-specific policies (e.g., disallow cost share for certain mechanisms) and flag when no valid cost share account is available.

Acceptance Criteria
Appointment & Salary Data Sync
"As an HR-integrated admin, I want appointments and base salaries to sync with the proration engine so that calculations reflect current personnel data and mid-period changes."
Description

Integrate the proration engine with authoritative personnel data sources to keep institutional base salary, appointment dates, and FTE current. Support direct API connectors (e.g., HRIS/ERP), secure CSV imports, and manual entry with role-based overrides. Handle effective-dated changes by re-splitting periods and triggering targeted recalculations and impact summaries. Provide field mappings, data validation, and error handling for missing or stale records. Changes propagate to affected budgets with preview diffs and user-controlled apply windows, and generate review tasks to ensure stakeholders acknowledge material impacts before submission.

Acceptance Criteria
Audit Trail & Recalculation History
"As a compliance auditor, I want a detailed history of cap calculations, overrides, and changes so that I can verify compliance and support audits."
Description

Record all inputs, rules versions, and outputs used in each proration calculation, including cap tables, exchange rates, appointments, efforts, overrides, and resulting allocations. Persist immutable snapshots on significant events (edits, imports, cap updates) with human-readable diffs and machine-readable JSON for export. Provide drill-down views from a budget line to its calculation history and a reconciliation report summarizing over-the-cap detections, redistributions to cost share, and validations over time. Support retention policies, role-based access, and tamper-evident hashing to satisfy internal and sponsor audits.

Acceptance Criteria

F&A Smart Split

Apply the correct indirect rate and base automatically (e.g., MTDC vs TDC, on/off‑campus, first $25k of subawards, equipment and tuition exclusions). Inline math shows users what counts toward the base, ensuring precise indirects without back‑and‑forth with finance.

Requirements

Configurable F&A Rate Library
"As a research admin, I want to maintain an authoritative library of F&A rates and bases so that budgets always apply the correct rates without manual lookup."
Description

An organization-scoped, versioned repository of F&A (indirect) rates and bases with effective dates, on/off‑campus variants, sponsor- and program-specific overrides, and applicability rules. Admins can create, update, and retire rate records via UI or import (CSV/API). The library exposes a read API to the budget engine, ensuring budgets always reference current, authoritative rates. Validation prevents overlapping effective periods and inconsistent configurations. Integrates with GrantSpark’s org settings, role permissions, and audit logging.

Acceptance Criteria
Base Selection & Exclusion Engine (MTDC/TDC)
"As a grant budget owner, I want the system to automatically pick MTDC or TDC and exclude ineligible costs so that indirects are calculated correctly the first time."
Description

A rules-driven engine that determines the correct F&A base (e.g., MTDC vs TDC) per funder/opportunity and applies sponsor-required inclusions and exclusions automatically. It classifies budget line items (e.g., salaries, fringe, equipment, tuition, participant support, subawards) and computes the eligible base accordingly. The engine supports multi-period budgets, multi-currency rounding rules, and per-line overrides with justification. It integrates with the Rate Library, opportunity metadata, and budget line taxonomy to calculate indirects in real time and on submission.

Acceptance Criteria
Subaward Threshold Handling (First $25k)
"As a PI or budget analyst, I want the first $25k of each subaward to be counted toward the F&A base and the remainder excluded so that our indirects comply with sponsor policy."
Description

Automated detection of subaward line items and application of the sponsor-standard threshold (e.g., first $25,000 included in base per subrecipient, remainder excluded) across the life of the project. Supports multiple subrecipients, partial-year obligations, carryforward, and exceptions for non-standard thresholds. Displays how much of each subaward is counted toward the base by period and cumulatively. Integrates with the Base Engine and Inline Breakdown to show the capped portion clearly.

Acceptance Criteria
On/Off‑Campus Auto-Selection & Split
"As a project manager, I want the correct on- or off‑campus rate to apply automatically based on project location so that I don’t have to manage split rates manually."
Description

Automated selection of on- or off‑campus F&A rates based on project location metadata, facility usage, or sponsor terms. Supports mixed projects by allowing line-item or period-level splits where appropriate, and aggregates results into a single budget view. Provides guardrails and validations to avoid conflicting selections. Integrates with the Rate Library for campus variants and allows finance-authorized overrides with required justification.

Acceptance Criteria
Inline Base Calculation Breakdown
"As a user building a budget, I want to see an inline breakdown of what’s included in the F&A base so that I can verify the math and fix issues immediately."
Description

Real-time, inline display of the F&A base composition and indirect calculation within the budget UI. Shows which line items are included or excluded, subaward capped portions, period totals, applied rate(s), and resulting indirect amounts. Provides hover tooltips with rule citations (e.g., MTDC exclusions) and highlights discrepancies or missing classifications. Supports copy-to-clipboard and export to justification. Accessible and responsive for desktop and mobile.

Acceptance Criteria
Validation & Finance Override Workflow
"As a finance approver, I want to review exceptions and override F&A settings with justification so that we stay compliant while meeting sponsor-specific nuances."
Description

Pre-submit validations that flag missing classifications, conflicting rate/base selections, or sponsor non-compliance. Provides a review workflow for finance to approve or override rate/base decisions with mandatory justification and attachments. Changes are tracked, notify stakeholders, and lock post-approval unless reopened by finance. Integrates with tasks, notifications, permissions, and audit logging.

Acceptance Criteria
Audit Trail & Exportable Justification
"As a compliance officer, I want an auditable history and exportable calculations so that we can substantiate our indirects to sponsors and auditors."
Description

Comprehensive, versioned audit trail of F&A rules applied, base computations, overrides, and outcomes for each budget version. Generates exportable justification artifacts (PDF/CSV) that include the inline breakdown, subaward threshold detail, on/off‑campus selections, and rule references for sponsor submissions and audits. Integrates with GrantSpark Documents for filing and with Submission Workflows for attachments.

Acceptance Criteria

What‑If Sandbox

Experiment with salaries, effort, and line items while seeing instant compliance feedback and suggested fixes. One click snaps a budget into compliance with sponsor caps and rates, accelerating iterations and teaching users the ‘why’ behind the rules.

Requirements

Real-time Compliance Engine
"As a grant manager, I want instant compliance validation while I adjust a budget so that I can iterate confidently without creating invalid budgets."
Description

Delivers instantaneous validation of budget edits against sponsor-specific caps and rates, internal policies, and period-of-performance constraints. Evaluates each change to salaries, effort percentages, line items, indirect and fringe calculations in under 200 ms, flagging violations at the field and line level with clear messages and severity levels. Supports a centralized, versioned rules library keyed by sponsor, program, and fiscal year, with effective dates and multi-year budget handling. Exposes a reusable service within GrantSpark so the same compliance logic powers the What‑If Sandbox, template generation, and submission checks, ensuring consistent results across the product.

Acceptance Criteria
One-Click Snap to Compliance
"As a program officer, I want to fix violations with one click so that my budget meets sponsor rules without manual recalculation."
Description

Provides an automated “snap to compliance” action that computes the minimal set of adjustments needed to meet sponsor caps and organizational rates while preserving user-defined constraints such as protected salaries, fixed totals, or required cost-share. Presents a preview showing before/after values, rationales, and the net impact on totals by period, allowing users to accept all or apply changes selectively. Handles rounding rules, multi-year allocations, and rebalancing across line items, and logs applied changes for traceability and easy reversal.

Acceptance Criteria
Explain-the-Rule Guidance
"As a new grant coordinator, I want to understand why a change is noncompliant so that I learn the rules and avoid repeating mistakes."
Description

Displays contextual explanations for each violation and suggestion, including plain-language reasoning, examples, and citations to the specific sponsor policy sections and internal guidelines that drove the result. Surfaces inline tooltips and a side panel that aggregate all active rules affecting the current field or line, helping users learn the “why” behind caps, rates, and allowability. Maintains a maintainable knowledge base that administrators can update, ensuring explanations stay aligned with current policies.

Acceptance Criteria
Scenario Save, Compare, and Share
"As a team lead, I want to save multiple budget scenarios and compare them side by side so that I can choose the best option with my team."
Description

Enables users to create named sandbox scenarios, snapshot versions, and compare differences across scenarios at the line and total levels, including percent and dollar deltas by budget period. Supports sharing scenarios with teammates using role-based access, in-line comments, and mention notifications, and allows promoting a selected scenario into the active proposal without duplicating documents. Preserves links to tasks and deadlines so collaboration stays synchronized with the broader grant workflow.

Acceptance Criteria
Effort & Salary Calculator
"As a PI, I want to adjust effort and salaries and see accurate totals instantly so that I can tune budgets without spreadsheet errors."
Description

Offers an interactive editor for salaries and effort percentages that automatically computes monthly and annualized costs, applies salary caps, enforces effort minimums/maximums, and recalculates fringe and indirect costs in real time. Supports time-phased effort, partial months, and multi-appointment staff, with lockable fields to prevent changes to protected values. Ensures totals remain balanced and highlights downstream impacts of edits across budget periods.

Acceptance Criteria
Policy & Rates Sync
"As an admin, I want policy caps and rates to stay current so that compliance checks and auto-fixes reflect the latest rules."
Description

Synchronizes sponsor policy data, salary caps, indirect and fringe rates, and allowability rules from administratively curated sources into a versioned policy library used by the sandbox. Supports effective dating, sponsor-program overrides, and organization-specific exceptions, with audit history and rollback. Provides an admin UI and API to update rates and rules, with validation and staged publishing to prevent breaking changes in active proposals.

Acceptance Criteria
Export & Workflow Integration
"As a proposal manager, I want to export and promote a compliant scenario into our submission workflow so that we can file on time with the correct forms."
Description

Maps sandbox scenarios to GrantSpark’s budget templates and sponsor-specific export formats (CSV/XLSX/PDF as applicable) and lets users push an approved scenario into the submission workflow. Creates or updates associated tasks, deadlines, and documents, attaches the budget artifact to the proposal record, and records a link back to the originating scenario for traceability. Ensures exports preserve rounding and formatting rules required by sponsors.

Acceptance Criteria

Exception Flow

When a violation is justified, generate ready‑to‑edit rationale text and route it for approval with evidence. Track decisions, attach approvals, and lock the final numbers—creating an audit‑ready trail without stalling progress.

Requirements

AI Rationale Generator
"As a grant manager, I want auto-generated, funder-aligned rationale text for a justified violation so that I can submit a consistent, audit-ready explanation quickly."
Description

When an exception is initiated for a detected rule violation, the system generates a ready-to-edit justification aligned to the specific funder’s policies and the organization’s tone. It pulls context from the active grant (budget lines, amounts, timelines, roles, prior communications, and previously approved exceptions), cites relevant policy excerpts, highlights affected fields and deltas, and inserts placeholders where evidence is missing. Users can regenerate with different emphases, edit inline, and save versioned drafts that remain attached to the exception record. The generator respects data privacy settings, avoids unsupported claims, and flags ambiguous statements for review, producing consistent, audit-ready text that accelerates approvals without stalling grant progress.

Acceptance Criteria
Evidence Attachment and Redaction
"As a compliance officer, I want evidence attached and redacted within the exception record so that sensitive data is protected while approvers can verify the justification."
Description

Users can attach supporting evidence—such as emails, PDFs, spreadsheets, and screenshots—directly to the exception record, where the system classifies each file, extracts metadata (source, date, author), computes a content hash for integrity verification, and offers automatic PII redaction with side-by-side preview. Redacted and original versions are stored with granular permissions aligned to the grant workspace’s access controls, and attachments can be referenced inline from the rationale. All file operations are versioned and logged, ensuring sensitive information is protected while providing approvers immediate, trustworthy access to the proof required for decision-making.

Acceptance Criteria
Dynamic Approval Routing and Escalations
"As a program director, I want exceptions routed to the right approvers with clear deadlines and escalations so that decisions happen quickly and don’t jeopardize submission timelines."
Description

Exception requests are routed automatically based on configurable rules that consider violation type, amount thresholds, funder requirements, grant stage, and organizational roles. The workflow supports single or multi-step routes, parallel reviewers, quorum rules, delegations, and out-of-office forwarding. Service-level timers align with submission deadlines, triggering reminders and escalations when approvals are at risk. Approvers receive contextual notifications with the rationale, evidence, and impacted figures, and can approve, request changes, or reject with required attestation. All transitions sync with tasks and calendars to drive timely, correct decisions without blocking submissions.

Acceptance Criteria
Immutable Decision Log and Audit Report
"As an auditor, I want an immutable, exportable record of exception decisions so that I can verify compliance without requesting additional artifacts."
Description

Every action taken on an exception—generation, edits, comments, evidence changes, approvals, rejections, and number locks—is captured as an append-only, tamper-evident entry with timestamp, actor, role, and change diff. The approved snapshot consolidates the final rationale version, approver attestations, and evidence references, enabling a complete chain of custody. Teams can export the audit as PDF or JSON with checksums and indexes, or share a time-limited, read-only link scoped to specific exceptions. Integration with GrantSpark’s activity feed and version control ensures a single source of truth that satisfies auditor and funder verification without additional work.

Acceptance Criteria
Number Lock and Cross-Artifact Sync
"As a finance lead, I want approved exception numbers to be locked and synced across all artifacts so that there is a single source of truth and no accidental changes before submission."
Description

Upon approval, the system locks the affected numeric fields—such as budget line items, milestones, and target metrics—across the grant workspace and linked documents to prevent accidental or unauthorized edits. Locked values display a clear status with the approval reference and reason, and attempted edits prompt users to initiate a new exception or seek an authorized override with justification. The approved figures propagate to all relevant templates, forms, and versions, with pre- and post-change comparisons available for review and reporting, ensuring consistency and audit readiness across the submission.

Acceptance Criteria
Exception Overview Dashboard and Filters
"As a project coordinator, I want a dashboard of all exceptions with statuses and deadlines so that I can prioritize follow-ups and keep submissions on track."
Description

A centralized dashboard lists all exceptions by grant, funder, owner, and status (Draft, In Review, Approved, Rejected, Locked), with filters, saved views, and exports to CSV or PDF. Key indicators include SLA risk, days in stage, amount at stake, rule severity, and average approval time, enabling proactive management. Inline actions allow users to nudge approvers, upload missing evidence, open the record, or generate a summary for stakeholders. The dashboard integrates with notifications and calendars, providing visibility that keeps teams aligned and submissions on track.

Acceptance Criteria
Policy Rules Mapping and Violation Types
"As a system admin, I want to model funder rules and map them to exception workflows so that violations are detected consistently and routed with the right requirements."
Description

Administrators can define and version funder policy rules, violation categories, thresholds, and required evidence types in a structured catalog that drives validation and exception pathways. Rules can be imported from structured sources or extracted from semi-structured documents with AI assistance and human review, then mapped to specific fields and forms within GrantSpark. Each rule specifies permissible exception routes, approver roles, and SLA targets, and when a rule changes the system prompts re-evaluation of in-flight exceptions. Consistent, current policy mapping ensures violations are detected accurately and routed with the correct requirements.

Acceptance Criteria

Rule Drift Alerts

Continuously monitor rule packs for expiring caps or sponsor updates. Flag impacted drafts and let users apply changes with a change log so teams avoid last‑minute surprises and stay aligned with the latest policies.

Requirements

Continuous Rule Monitoring
"As a grant operations manager, I want the system to continuously monitor sponsor rules and detect changes so that our team is alerted early to policy shifts and expiring caps."
Description

Background service that continuously polls and ingests sponsor rule sources and uploaded rule packs to detect expiring caps and policy updates. Supports pluggable connectors (sponsor portals/APIs, manual uploads), configurable polling intervals, incremental fetch, idempotency, and retry with exponential backoff. Normalizes raw inputs to the GrantSpark rule schema, validates against JSON schema, and timestamps each intake. Emits standardized change events to the internal event bus for downstream processing and provides observability (metrics, logs, health checks) to ensure reliability at scale.

Acceptance Criteria
Rule Change Versioning & Diff
"As a compliance lead, I want to see precise diffs between rule versions so that I can quickly assess impact and document compliance decisions."
Description

Persist every rule pack version with source, checksum, and effective dates, and compute structured diffs at the field level (e.g., budget caps, page limits, eligibility terms, attachments). Provide a human-readable and machine-readable diff view that highlights additions, removals, and modified values, including effective-from/to. Maintain a complete audit trail for traceability and expose the diff via UI and API for downstream consumers (alerts, workflows, exports).

Acceptance Criteria
Impact Analysis & Severity Scoring
"As a proposal manager, I want impacted drafts automatically identified and scored by severity so that I can prioritize remediation before submission deadlines."
Description

Automatically evaluate detected rule changes against all active drafts, templates, and tasks to determine which artifacts are affected. Map rules to draft attributes (budget totals, narrative lengths, eligibility answers, attachment lists) and compute severity levels (critical/blocking, warning, informational) with rationale. Generate a consolidated impact report per sponsor/opportunity and per workspace, with direct links to affected items and recommended actions.

Acceptance Criteria
Alert Delivery & Preferences
"As a team member, I want configurable, low-noise alerts about rule drift so that I receive timely updates that I can act on without being overwhelmed."
Description

Deliver rule drift alerts across channels (in-app, email, Slack/Teams) with actionable summaries, severity badges, and links to impacted drafts. Provide a preferences center to configure alert types, severity thresholds, digest cadence, quiet hours, channel routing, and sponsor/opportunity filters. Implement batching and deduplication within configurable windows to reduce noise, and support escalation for unresolved critical impacts.

Acceptance Criteria
Apply Changes Workflow & Change Log
"As a grant writer, I want a guided workflow to apply rule changes with a clear change log so that our drafts remain compliant and auditable."
Description

Guided UI to review detected rule changes per impacted draft, preview proposed updates (e.g., adjust budget caps, enforce new page limits), and choose actions: Apply, Snooze (with reminder), or Ignore (with justification). Execute updates atomically with validation, cascade necessary task updates, and capture a detailed change log (who, what, when, why) linked to the draft’s version history. Support rollback to prior versions and exportable audit records for compliance.

Acceptance Criteria
Rule Source Administration
"As an account admin, I want to configure and monitor rule sources so that Rule Drift Alerts remain accurate and trustworthy."
Description

Admin experience to onboard, configure, and monitor rule sources. Allow adding sponsor feeds or manual rule pack uploads, mapping external fields to GrantSpark’s schema, setting polling frequency and effective-date handling, and securely storing credentials. Provide connection tests, status and latency metrics, error alerts, and permission controls to limit who can view and modify sources.

Acceptance Criteria
Cap Expiry Forecasting & Timeline
"As a project lead, I want upcoming cap expirations forecasted with proactive reminders so that I can plan work and avoid last-minute rework."
Description

Forecast upcoming cap expirations and effective date transitions, surface them on a timeline view, and generate proactive reminders based on configurable lead times. Highlight affected budgets and sections, estimate remediation effort, and offer one-click creation of tasks to adjust drafts before the cutoff. Integrates with the calendar and task system to avoid last‑minute surprises.

Acceptance Criteria

Base Pay Sync

Sync base pay and appointment data from HR/Payroll (or import via CSV) to validate salaries against caps and institutional rates. Alerts users to stale or mismatched figures early, preventing downstream corrections and delayed submissions.

Requirements

HRIS/Payroll API Connector
"As a research administrator, I want to connect our HR system so that salary and appointment data auto-populate and stay current in grant budgets."
Description

Provide native, secure connectors to leading HRIS/Payroll systems (e.g., Workday, PeopleSoft, ADP, UKG) to ingest base pay, appointment dates, FTE, salary basis, titles, cost centers, and employee identifiers. Support OAuth2/API key auth, field mapping and normalization, webhook or scheduled polling, incremental (delta) syncs, retry/backoff, and connection health monitoring. Persist normalized records to GrantSpark’s personnel data store and auto-associate with proposals and budget workspaces. Expose a connection management UI with credential vaulting, environment segregation (prod/sandbox), and detailed sync logs. Ensure data is available to downstream validation and budgeting modules in near real time.

Acceptance Criteria
CSV Import with Smart Mapping
"As a grant coordinator, I want to upload a CSV of salaries and appointments so that we can use Base Pay Sync without a formal HR integration."
Description

Enable users to import base pay and appointment data via CSV when no API integration is available. Provide downloadable templates, a mapping wizard to align columns to system fields, regex-based header detection, and saved mapping profiles per institution. Perform schema validation, required-field checks, data type coercion, and duplicate detection by employee ID and date ranges. Offer a preview with row-level errors and upsert/merge strategies (authoritative vs supplemental). Record import provenance, outcomes, and allow rollback of the last import. Restrict usage via RBAC and integrate imported records seamlessly with budgets and validation workflows.

Acceptance Criteria
Salary Cap Validation Engine
"As a budget analyst, I want automated checks against sponsor and institutional salary caps so that budgets are compliant before submission."
Description

Implement a configurable rules engine to validate salaries against sponsor-specific caps (e.g., NIH), institutional base salary policies, and appointment constraints. Time-slice validations across budget periods and partial appointments, pro-rate by FTE, and detect multi-appointment overlaps. Calculate compliant salary charges, flag over-cap portions as cost share, and surface inline warnings in the budget builder. Provide rule libraries with effective dates, currency conversion support, and institution-level overrides. Integrate with pre-submission checklists and generate a validation report that can be attached to proposals and shared with stakeholders.

Acceptance Criteria
Stale Data & Mismatch Alerting
"As a principal investigator, I want to be notified when pay data is stale or conflicts with my budget so that I can fix issues early and avoid submission delays."
Description

Continuously monitor for stale records (e.g., last sync > X days) and mismatches between HR data and proposal entries (e.g., base pay changed > Y%, FTE conflicts, appointment end date before project start). Generate proactive alerts via in-app notifications, email, and Slack/Teams, with configurable thresholds and suppression windows. Provide an alert center with resolution actions (refresh, reconcile, request update), link alerts to proposal tasks, and escalate based on submission deadlines in GrantSpark’s calendar. Log all alerts, acknowledgements, and resolutions for auditability.

Acceptance Criteria
Change Audit & Version Traceability
"As a compliance officer, I want a detailed audit trail of salary data changes so that we can prove data integrity and resolve disputes."
Description

Create an immutable audit trail for all salary and appointment data changes, capturing source (API vs CSV), user, timestamp, before/after values, and affected proposals. Provide diff views and a side-by-side comparison tied to GrantSpark’s version control for budgets and documents. Support point-in-time restore for records and exportable audit reports for compliance reviews. Enforce retention policies and ensure that audit events are queryable and filterable by person, proposal, and time range.

Acceptance Criteria
Role-Based Access & Data Protection
"As a data privacy steward, I want strict access controls and protections on salary data so that we meet institutional and regulatory requirements."
Description

Enforce fine-grained RBAC to control who can view, edit, import, and connect salary data, with role scopes (institution, department, project) and row/field-level permissions. Provide privacy features such as salary masking for non-privileged roles, access justifications, and consent banners where required. Protect data with encryption in transit and at rest, secret management for connectors, IP allowlisting, and SSO (SAML/OIDC) with SCIM provisioning. Implement comprehensive security logging, anomaly detection for bulk access, and data retention controls aligned to institutional policies and applicable regulations.

Acceptance Criteria

Risk Heatmap

A portfolio‑wide view that color‑codes every grant and task by real‑time slippage risk and time‑to‑deadline. Drill down to see the ‘why’ behind the score—overloaded assignees, blocked dependencies, and historical delay patterns—so you can focus attention where it prevents misses.

Requirements

Real-time Risk Scoring Engine
"As a program manager, I want a single, up-to-date risk score for each grant and task so that I can quickly prioritize attention and prevent deadline slippage."
Description

Compute and persist a 0–100 slippage risk score for every grant and task using multi-signal inputs: time-to-deadline versus remaining effort, task status and blockers, dependency health, assignee workload and capacity, historical delay patterns by assignee/grant/funder, document readiness, and approval-stage progress. Recalculate scores on relevant events (status changes, reassignment, new blockers, schedule changes) and on a scheduled cadence, with target end-to-end update latency under 60 seconds. Store score snapshots for trend analysis and expose scores via a queryable service and subscription stream for the UI and notifications. Backfill scores for imported portfolios and handle incomplete data with sensible defaults and confidence indicators. Integrate with existing GrantSpark entities (grants, tasks, dependencies, calendars, documents) and respect workspace boundaries.

Acceptance Criteria
Heatmap Visualization and Color Rules
"As a research administrator, I want a color-coded heatmap of my portfolio so that I can scan and immediately spot high-risk items before they escalate."
Description

Provide a portfolio-wide heatmap that color-codes grants and tasks by current risk and time-to-deadline. Support list and grid layouts with grouping and pivot options by funder, program, assignee, phase, or status. Implement accessible color rules (color-blind safe palettes) with legend and thresholds (e.g., green/amber/red bands) and optional pattern overlays for high-contrast modes. Enable sort, filter, search, and saved views, with responsive design, pagination/virtualization for large datasets, keyboard navigation, and screen-reader labels. Show inline tooltips with score, time-to-deadline, confidence, and top contributing factors. Provide deep links to filtered views and specific cells, and loading/empty/error states that align with GrantSpark UI patterns.

Acceptance Criteria
Root Cause Drill-down Explorer
"As a team lead, I want to drill into a risky grant and see the specific causes and owners so that I can resolve blockers and rebalance work effectively."
Description

Enable drill-down from any heatmap cell to a side panel detailing the why behind the risk score: weighted factor breakdown, current blockers, dependency graph and status, assignee workload and recent activity, historical score trend, and an audit timeline of events influencing risk. Provide recommended next actions (e.g., reassign, unblock dependency, request document) with quick links to the underlying grant/task, approvers, and documents. Include data freshness timestamp and confidence indicator, and allow exporting the drill-down as a shareable link or PDF while honoring permissions.

Acceptance Criteria
Risk Alerts and Subscriptions
"As a grant coordinator, I want to be alerted when an item enters the red zone or becomes blocked close to its deadline so that I can act immediately without constantly checking the dashboard."
Description

Offer threshold-based notifications when risk crosses configured levels or when time-to-deadline meets critical windows with unresolved blockers. Support real-time and digest modes, batching to reduce noise, snooze/mute per item, and escalation paths based on roles. Deliver via email, Slack, and Microsoft Teams with deep links back to the relevant heatmap view or drill-down. Provide per-user and workspace-level defaults, with granular filters (by funder, assignee, program, phase) and audit logs of sent alerts. Ensure alerts respect permissions and only include data the recipient can access.

Acceptance Criteria
Admin Calibration and Threshold Management
"As a workspace admin, I want to tune the risk model and thresholds to our process so that scores and alerts reflect our reality and drive the right actions."
Description

Provide an admin console to configure the risk model: adjust weights per signal, choose preset profiles (e.g., compliance-heavy, research-intensive), define color thresholds and alert triggers, and map phases to deadlines. Include a sandbox to simulate model changes on sample data before publishing, version configurations per workspace, and rollback. Show the expected impact of changes on a subset of grants, and document the active configuration for auditability. Restrict access to workspace admins and maintain safe defaults.

Acceptance Criteria
Performance, Scalability, and Freshness SLAs
"As an operations manager, I want the heatmap to load quickly and stay fresh as data changes so that I can trust it during peak deadline periods."
Description

Meet defined performance targets for portfolios up to 500 grants and 5,000 tasks: heatmap initial render under 2 seconds P95 with virtualization and server-side pagination; incremental updates pushed via WebSockets/SSE with polling fallback; risk recalculation pipeline under 60 seconds P95 from event to UI. Implement caching, efficient queries, and backpressure handling. Provide monitoring dashboards, tracing, and alerts on SLA breaches, plus graceful degradation states (e.g., stale badges, retry prompts) when services are unavailable.

Acceptance Criteria
Access Control, Privacy, and Export
"As a portfolio director, I want to share risk views with stakeholders without exposing restricted information so that we remain compliant while coordinating work."
Description

Enforce role-based access so users only see scores and factors for grants/tasks they can access. Redact sensitive notes in tooltips and drill-downs based on permission scopes. Provide exports (CSV/PDF) and a read-only API endpoint that honor current filters, saved views, and permissions, with pagination and rate limits. Log access and export events for audit and support data retention policies and PII handling consistent with GrantSpark’s compliance framework.

Acceptance Criteria

Load Forecaster

Predicts capacity conflicts by combining task effort, assignee availability, PTO, and meeting load. Suggests reassignments, micro‑deadlines, and parallelization to smooth spikes before they become crunches, helping teams finish on time without burnout.

Requirements

Unified Availability & Effort Ingestion
"As a program manager, I want the system to automatically consolidate task efforts, calendars, and PTO into a single capacity view so that I can trust load forecasts without manual spreadsheets."
Description

Aggregate task effort estimates from GrantSpark tasks with assignee working hours, PTO/holidays, and external calendar events (Google/Outlook) to produce a normalized per-assignee capacity model by day and week. Support OAuth-based calendar connections, delta syncing, conflict/overlap resolution, recurring events, time zone normalization, and meeting load buffers. Persist availability and effort as versioned snapshots aligned to grant submission timelines, with retries and monitoring for sync failures. Ensure deduplication across multiple calendars, partial allocations across projects, and mapping of task effort to time windows based on due dates and dependencies within GrantSpark.

Acceptance Criteria
Forecasted Load & Conflict Detection
"As a team lead, I want early detection of over-allocation with clear explanations so that I can take action before deadlines slip."
Description

Compute projected utilization versus capacity per assignee, team, and grant over rolling time windows. Identify conflicts where forecasted load exceeds configurable thresholds, and quantify severity, timing, and contributing tasks/events. Calibrate forecasts using historical completion rates, estimate variance, and meeting volatility to produce confidence ranges. Recalculate in near real-time upon data changes. Expose conflict objects with structured explanations (drivers, assumptions, and risk levels) and deep links to affected tasks, grants, and submission milestones in GrantSpark.

Acceptance Criteria
Auto Suggestions: Reassign, Split, Parallelize
"As a grant coordinator, I want the system to suggest concrete ways to de-risk crunch periods so that we finish submissions on time without overworking anyone."
Description

Generate actionable recommendations to resolve capacity conflicts by reassigning tasks to qualified and available teammates, splitting work into micro-deadlines, or parallelizing subtasks where dependencies allow. Enforce eligibility rules based on skills/tags, role permissions, workload caps, and grant submission constraints. For each suggestion, display predicted impact on utilization, risk reduction, and timeline changes, with one-click application that drafts changes to tasks, assignees, and due dates for review. Capture accept/decline feedback to continuously improve suggestions.

Acceptance Criteria
Interactive What‑If Capacity Simulator
"As a research PI, I want to test different staffing and deadline options so that I can pick the least risky plan for our grant pipeline."
Description

Provide a sandbox to simulate changes such as adding PTO, modifying task estimates, shifting deadlines, changing assignees, or altering work hours. Visualize before/after utilization, conflict counts, and risk scores at assignee, team, and grant levels. Allow saving, naming, sharing, and comparing scenarios, with non-destructive application and rollback. Integrate with GrantSpark’s task and submission models to validate dependency constraints and prevent infeasible plans. Support exports for stakeholder review.

Acceptance Criteria
Proactive Conflict Alerts & Digest
"As a nonprofit PM, I want timely, actionable alerts about upcoming overloads so that I can intervene before workloads become unsustainable."
Description

Deliver configurable alerts when forecasted load approaches or exceeds thresholds, when deadlines become at risk, or when new conflicts arise. Support channels including email, in-app, and Slack/Teams with time zone-aware quiet hours. Provide batched digests (daily/weekly) and real-time notifications with clear explanations and suggested actions, linking to the simulator and affected tasks/grants. Include subscription controls per team, grant, and assignee, plus an auditable history of alerts and resolution outcomes.

Acceptance Criteria
Role‑Based Visibility & Data Privacy
"As an operations admin, I want to protect sensitive calendar and PTO information while still enabling accurate forecasting so that we maintain trust and compliance."
Description

Implement RBAC to control who can view detailed calendars, PTO reasons, and individual capacity versus aggregated team views. Support anonymization/redaction of meeting titles and sensitive notes, consent flows for calendar connections, and data retention policies aligned with GDPR/CCPA. Provide admin controls for standard working hours, holidays, and visibility policies, and enforce permissions across forecasts, suggestions, alerts, and scenarios.

Acceptance Criteria
Load Trend Reports & Win‑Rate Correlation
"As an executive director, I want visibility into workload trends and outcomes so that I can justify process changes and staffing decisions."
Description

Offer dashboards and exports showing historical and forecasted utilization trends, frequency/duration of crunch periods, on-time submission rates, and correlations between balanced load and grant win rate. Enable filtering by team, role, grant, funder, and time period. Provide CSV export and APIs for BI tools, with definitions consistent with the forecasting engine to ensure metric integrity.

Acceptance Criteria

Priority Shifter

Dynamically reorders checklists as risk changes, moving critical items earlier and deferring low‑impact work. Keeps dependencies intact, updates due dates, and posts a clear change log so everyone stays aligned without manual triage.

Requirements

Real-time Risk Scoring Engine
"As a grant program manager, I want task risks to update automatically as circumstances change so that the most critical work always surfaces without manual triage."
Description

Compute and continuously update a per-task risk score that drives dynamic ordering of checklist items. The engine ingests signals such as time-to-deadline, dependency criticality, effort estimate, owner capacity, funder priority, submission portal blackout windows, historical slippage, and AI-inferred risk from task content. Workspace-level weighting is configurable, with manual risk overrides captured with reason codes. Recalculation is event-driven (status/date changes, dependency updates, calendar syncs) and time-sliced (e.g., every 15 minutes). Risk snapshots are stored for trend analysis. Must process up to 500 tasks within 2 seconds and expose risk deltas to downstream components. Integrates with GrantSpark’s alerting to escalate deadlines and with AI de-duplication signals to down-rank redundant work.

Acceptance Criteria
Dependency-Aware Reordering
"As a project coordinator, I want the checklist to reorder without breaking dependencies so that the plan remains executable while prioritizing high-risk tasks."
Description

Reorder tasks using a dependency graph to preserve sequence constraints and avoid introducing violations. Perform topological sorting with stability to maintain relative order among tasks with equal risk and no dependency relation. Detect and block circular dependencies, flag blocked tasks, and propose alternative sequencing when high-risk items are constrained. Support cross-checklist dependencies within a grant and display before/after position mapping. Provide constraint validation feedback and highlight critical path impacts to maintain plan integrity during reordering.

Acceptance Criteria
Due Date Recalculation & Calendar Sync
"As a principal investigator, I want due dates to update accurately when priorities shift so that my team’s calendars always reflect the latest plan and we don’t miss funder deadlines."
Description

Automatically recompute start and due dates when order changes, respecting working days, holidays, owner availability, lead/lag times, and hard submission deadlines. Maintain baseline vs current schedule with variance tracking and propagate updates to GrantSpark’s deadline alerts. Sync changes to connected calendars (Google/Microsoft) with OAuth, handling time zones and daylight savings. Guard against moving tasks beyond immovable milestones and highlight schedule constraint conflicts. Provide batch updates and idempotent sync to prevent duplicate calendar entries.

Acceptance Criteria
Change Log & Stakeholder Notifications
"As a team member, I want a concise explanation of what changed and why so that I can quickly adapt my work without searching through the entire plan."
Description

Generate a clear, versioned change log after each reorder, detailing moved items, previous/new positions, risk score deltas, due date changes, affected dependencies, and reason codes. Present human-readable summaries in-app and distribute via Slack/Teams/email with batching to reduce noise. Support immediate alerts for critical shifts and scheduled digests for routine changes. Include deep links to impacted tasks, one-click acknowledge, and rollback references to prior schedule versions for transparency and alignment.

Acceptance Criteria
Preview & What‑If Simulation
"As a grants operations lead, I want to preview and compare reordering scenarios so that I can choose the approach that best protects critical deadlines."
Description

Provide a sandbox mode to simulate risk parameter adjustments (weights, owner capacity, new deadlines) and preview the resulting reorder and schedule changes before applying. Show side-by-side diffs, predicted on-time submission probability, and impacted milestones. Allow saving and sharing named scenarios, exporting previews, and setting auto-expiry for stale simulations. Apply at the level of a single checklist or an entire grant, with safe rollback on apply failures.

Acceptance Criteria
Guardrails, Overrides, and Audit
"As a compliance officer, I want controlled overrides and a full audit trail so that priority shifts remain compliant and traceable during audits."
Description

Enforce role-based permissions for editing risk models and applying reorders across scopes (project, grant, workspace). Require approval when changes affect more than a threshold of items or critical milestones. Allow locking specific tasks/milestones from auto-shift while still updating their dependents appropriately. Maintain an immutable audit trail capturing actor, timestamp, inputs, outcomes, and rationale for compliance. Support export of audit records and configurable retention policies.

Acceptance Criteria
API & Webhook Events for Priority Changes
"As an IT integrator, I want programmatic access and event hooks for priority shifts so that our existing tools stay in sync without manual updates."
Description

Expose REST endpoints to retrieve risk scores, reordered task lists, and change logs, with filters by grant, checklist, assignee, and timeframe. Provide webhooks for reorder events, due date updates, and high-risk escalations to integrate with external PM tools (e.g., Jira, Asana) and data warehouses. Ensure idempotency keys, rate limits, OAuth 2.0 scopes, and tenant isolation. Include versioning and backward compatibility guarantees to support partner integrations.

Acceptance Criteria

Adaptive Nudges

Personalized reminder schedules that learn each teammate’s response patterns. Bundles related tasks, picks the best time and channel, and escalates gently when risk rises—reducing notification fatigue while increasing on‑time completion.

Requirements

Adaptive Send-Time & Channel Selection
"As a program manager, I want reminders to reach teammates when they’re most likely to respond on their preferred channel so that tasks get done on time without overwhelming them."
Description

Build a learning scheduler that selects the optimal time and channel for each teammate’s reminders based on historical engagement signals (opens, clicks, snoozes, completions), time zone, working hours, and calendar availability. The engine must be calendar-aware (Google/Microsoft), avoid meetings and focus blocks, and respect organization-wide blackout windows. It should maintain per-user/channel efficacy scores, apply decay to stale data, and use fallback heuristics when data is sparse. The scheduler integrates with GrantSpark tasks and submission deadlines to prioritize time-sensitive items and ensure reminders include deep links to tasks/documents. It exposes a policy layer for frequency caps, max daily sends, and compliance with user preferences and quiet hours.

Acceptance Criteria
Smart Task Bundling Digest
"As a team member, I want related tasks combined into a single clear reminder so that I can act efficiently without getting spammed by separate notifications."
Description

Implement logic to bundle related tasks into concise digests that reduce notification volume while preserving urgency. Group by grant, due date proximity, owner, and workflow stage; deduplicate cross-referenced items; and surface the highest-impact actions first. Include contextual summaries (e.g., upcoming submission, missing documents, blockers) and links to relevant records. Support daily/weekly digests and on-demand rebundling when multiple tasks become due within a short window. Ensure bundling respects per-user frequency caps, quiet hours, and channel formatting constraints, and is compatible with the adaptive scheduler.

Acceptance Criteria
Risk-Triggered Escalation Ladder
"As a grant coordinator, I want reminders to escalate only when a submission is at risk so that we avoid last-minute scrambles while keeping routine noise low."
Description

Create a risk scoring model that increases when deadlines approach, tasks remain untouched, dependencies block submissions, or prior nudges go unanswered. Define an escalation ladder that gently intensifies outreach: adjust message tone, switch to higher-signal channels, increase cadence within safe limits, and notify grant owners when thresholds are crossed. Provide configurable rules per workspace (e.g., escalate 48 hours before hard deadline) and automatic de-escalation once progress is recorded. All escalations must honor user preferences, quiet hours, and organization policies.

Acceptance Criteria
Personal Preferences & Quiet Hours
"As a researcher, I want control over when and how I’m reminded so that I stay focused and still meet critical deadlines."
Description

Deliver a self-serve settings panel where users can set preferred channels, working hours, do-not-disturb windows, PTO dates, language/locale, frequency caps, and snooze durations. Support channel-level opt-in/out and legal compliance (unsubscribe links, consent tracking). Provide organization-level defaults and overrides. Expose an API for admins to bulk-manage settings. All preferences must be enforced consistently across the scheduler, bundling, and escalation components.

Acceptance Criteria
Multi-Channel Nudge Delivery
"As an operations lead, I want nudges to arrive on the channels my team actually uses so that they see and act on them quickly."
Description

Enable delivery across email, in-app, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and SMS with a unified sending service. Include provider integrations (e.g., SES/SendGrid for email, Slack/Teams apps, Twilio for SMS), templating per channel, brand styling, link tracking, idempotency keys, retries with exponential backoff, and delivery status webhooks. Ensure secure OAuth installation for chat apps, workspace scoping, and per-user channel availability detection. Store send/receive metrics for analytics and feed them back to the adaptive scheduler.

Acceptance Criteria
Nudge Analytics & Learning Loop
"As a product owner, I want to see which nudges drive completions so that we can optimize timing, content, and channels over time."
Description

Provide dashboards and exports that report send volume, open/click rates, snoozes, dismissals, and completion conversion by channel, user, grant, and timeframe. Include cohort comparisons and A/B tests for subject lines, timing, and bundling strategies. Feed these outcomes back into the scheduler to update efficacy scores. Offer privacy-aware aggregation, role-based access, and data retention controls. Expose metrics via API for BI tools and include guardrails to prevent over-notification (e.g., alert when frequency caps are frequently hit).

Acceptance Criteria

Slip Simulator

Run ‘what‑if’ scenarios to see the ripple effects of a delay across signatures, subrecipient deliverables, and portal windows. Get auto‑generated mitigation plans—split tasks, add reviewers, or shift buffers—and apply changes with one click.

Requirements

Dependency Graph & Critical Path View
"As a grant program manager, I want to visualize downstream impacts of a timeline slip so that I can quickly identify at-risk signatures, deliverables, and submission windows."
Description

Provide an interactive, real-time dependency graph that maps tasks, required signatures, subrecipient deliverables, and submission portal windows across a grant’s lifecycle. The view should highlight critical path, slack, and buffer intervals, and dynamically recalculate when a slip is introduced. Integrates with GrantSpark calendars, tasks, and version control so nodes reflect current owners, due dates, and document states. Supports filtering by workstream, organization, or role; color-codes risk levels; and exposes tooltips with upstream/downstream impact details. Enables export and snapshotting to attach to scenarios and approvals.

Acceptance Criteria
What‑if Scenario Builder
"As a project coordinator, I want to build and compare multiple what‑if scenarios so that I can choose the plan with the least risk to submission."
Description

Allow users to create what‑if scenarios by selecting one or more tasks and applying delays or constraints (e.g., duration shift, start-no-earlier-than, resource limits). The engine propagates effects incrementally across dependencies, respecting lead/lag, approval gates, and portal windows. Users can save multiple named scenarios per opportunity, compare metrics (days late, risked milestones, added cost, resource overallocations), and pin a baseline. Provides side-by-side diffs versus the current plan, including changed dates, buffers, and responsible parties.

Acceptance Criteria
AI Mitigation Plan Generation
"As a principal investigator, I want AI‑generated mitigation options that respect our constraints so that I can recover schedule without manual re‑planning."
Description

Leverage AI to generate mitigation plans tailored to the active scenario and organizational constraints. Suggestions include splitting tasks, parallelizing subtasks, adding reviewers/approvers, shifting buffers, reassigning workloads, and resequencing non‑critical activities. Each option includes projected schedule recovery, risk, required resources, and assumptions. The system validates suggestions against permissions, availability, and funder rules, and outputs a structured, selectable plan the user can preview and refine. Supports explainability via rationale and learns from accepted/rejected actions over time.

Acceptance Criteria
One‑click Apply with Undo
"As a grant administrator, I want to apply a selected scenario with a single click and have an immediate undo so that I can safely implement changes."
Description

Enable users to apply a selected scenario and its mitigation plan to the live workspace in a single action. Changes are committed atomically across calendars, tasks, documents, and notifications, with automatic version tags and an audit log entry. Provide immediate undo/rollback and conflict detection if the live plan changed since simulation. On apply, update assignments, due dates, buffers, and approval gates; trigger reminders; and sync to external calendars. Enforce approval policy checks before finalizing when configured.

Acceptance Criteria
Portal Window Compliance
"As a submission lead, I want the simulator to validate against funder portal windows so that we avoid missing eligibility due to shifted dates."
Description

Maintain authoritative metadata for funder portal open/close windows, time zones, blackout periods, and submission rules. During simulation and apply, validate that projected submission and prerequisite dates fall within allowable windows, flag violations, and propose alternatives such as earlier internal deadlines or shifting to the next window. Support automatic ingestion from GrantSpark’s funder library and manual overrides, with provenance and effective dates. Display localized times and daylight‑saving adjustments to prevent off‑by‑one errors.

Acceptance Criteria
Scenario Sharing & Approval Workflow
"As a team lead, I want to share scenarios for review and capture approvals so that changes are vetted before being applied."
Description

Provide collaboration tools to share scenarios with teammates, sponsors, and subrecipients for review. Include role‑based visibility, comment threads anchored to changes, @mentions, and tracked decisions (approve, request changes, reject) with timestamps. Support multi‑step approval chains and required sign‑offs before apply. Generate shareable links, PDF/CSV exports of diffs and impact summaries, and maintain a history of revisions. Integrate notifications with email and Slack, and ensure approvals are auditable.

Acceptance Criteria

Drift Guardrails

Configurable thresholds that trigger proactive actions when drift crosses limits: highlight at‑risk items, require approver review, or lock scope changes. Ensures consistent governance and faster interventions across large portfolios.

Requirements

Threshold Configuration Center
"As a grant portfolio admin, I want to configure drift metrics and thresholds across portfolios, funders, and grants so that governance policies are enforced consistently and automatically."
Description

A configurable rules interface that lets administrators define which drift metrics to monitor and the thresholds that constitute warnings and breaches at portfolio, funder, and grant levels. Supports metrics including schedule variance, budget variance, scope-change volume, document version divergence, and AI alignment-to-RFP scores. Rules are hierarchical with inheritance and local overrides, include time windows, severity levels, effective dates, and map to specific actions upon crossing thresholds. Integrates with GrantSpark RBAC, calendars, tasks, budgets, document versioning, and AI analysis services to ensure accurate inputs and secure administration. Establishes a single source of truth for governance limits that scales across large portfolios.

Acceptance Criteria
Drift Detection Engine
"As a platform engineer, I want a reliable engine to detect and emit drift events in near real time so that downstream actions and dashboards stay accurate and timely."
Description

A scalable service that computes drift metrics in near real time by listening to domain events such as task updates, document edits, budget changes, and calendar updates, supplemented by scheduled backfills. Normalizes and aggregates signals per grant and portfolio, compares them to configured thresholds, and emits deterministic drift events with severity and context. Includes debouncing, idempotency, and robust error handling to prevent alert storms and duplicate processing. Integrates with core data stores and AI scorers for alignment measurements and produces auditable outputs for dashboards, notifications, and policy enforcement.

Acceptance Criteria
Action Orchestrator and Policy Engine
"As an operations lead, I want drift events to trigger the right actions and escalations so that at-risk grants receive timely intervention without manual coordination."
Description

A centralized engine that translates drift events into ordered, configurable actions such as highlighting at-risk items in the UI, auto-tagging, creating follow-up tasks, sending notifications, requiring approver reviews, or locking scope changes. Supports prioritization, conditional branching, suppression windows, escalation paths, retries, and deduplication to minimize noise and ensure timely responses. Actions are configuration-driven and extensible, with connectors for email, Slack or Teams, and webhooks. Enforces policies consistently across API and UI interactions to reduce missed deadlines and drive standardized interventions.

Acceptance Criteria
Approver Review Gate
"As an approver, I want a clear review gate with context and diffs when drift is high so that I can make informed decisions and unblock critical work responsibly."
Description

A gated workflow that, when triggered by a threshold breach, requires review and approval from designated roles before submissions, scope edits, or budget changes can proceed. Provides a review screen with context on the detected drift, diffs of proposed changes, historical activity, and recommended remediation steps. Captures decisions, comments, and rationale; supports SLAs with reminders; and allows controlled overrides with justification. All decisions and timestamps are written to the audit log to support governance and compliance across large portfolios.

Acceptance Criteria
Scope Change Locking with Exceptions
"As a program manager, I want scope changes to be locked when risk is high with a path to request exceptions so that we maintain compliance without halting necessary work."
Description

A locking mechanism that enforces read-only state on sensitive fields and actions such as milestones, budget line items, narrative sections, and submission settings when configured policies indicate a lock. Presents clear UI banners and tooltips explaining the lock, offers a request-unlock flow with approver routing and time-bound exceptions, and enforces locks at the API level to prevent bypass. Emits events and notifications when locks start, end, or are overridden to maintain portfolio-wide consistency and traceability.

Acceptance Criteria
Drift Dashboard and Heatmap
"As an executive stakeholder, I want a dashboard that surfaces drift hotspots and trends so that I can allocate resources and prevent missed deadlines."
Description

A portfolio and grant-level dashboard that visualizes drift status and trends, highlighting at-risk items with severity, time to deadline, and affected dimensions such as schedule, budget, scope, and alignment. Includes filtering by funder, owner, due window, severity, and rule; drill-down to item detail with event timelines; and exportable reports. Updates in near real time as events arrive from the detection engine and provides accessibility-compliant views for all stakeholders to enable proactive triage and capacity planning.

Acceptance Criteria
Simulation and Tuning Sandbox
"As a governance analyst, I want to simulate rule changes against historical data so that we tune guardrails to minimize noise while catching true risk."
Description

A safe workspace to test and calibrate guardrail rules against historical data before deploying them. Allows users to adjust thresholds, preview which items would have been flagged, estimate alert volumes, and compare precision and recall against desired targets. Supports versioned rule sets with staged rollout and rollback to reduce risk. Improves signal-to-noise ratio and accelerates adoption of Drift Guardrails across large portfolios.

Acceptance Criteria

Safe Compose

An AI-assisted writer that only draws from the selected client’s vault or the sanitized library. Hard fences prevent cross‑client contamination, while a live source panel shows exactly which snippets informed each sentence. One-click “genericize” rewrites replace client‑specific phrasing with neutral language, letting consultants draft faster without risking leakage.

Requirements

Provenance Ledger

A tamper‑evident lineage trail that records where every template and snippet originated, who edited it, and which client contexts it’s cleared for. Line‑level citations travel with exports, simplifying audits, resolving IP questions, and building client trust that their materials aren’t repurposed inappropriately.

Requirements

Identity Scrub

Automatic redaction and replacement of client identifiers—names, logos, addresses, program titles, and tracked phrases—when creating generic templates. Review side‑by‑side diffs, approve placeholder sets, and run a final ‘stray brand token’ scan so sanitized assets are safe to reuse across clients.

Requirements

Reuse Gatekeeper

Policy‑based approvals for cross‑client reuse. Set similarity thresholds, required approvers (e.g., account lead or legal), and allowed destinations. When a draft crosses a policy line, it routes for sign‑off with context and suggested edits to drop risk, ensuring governance without slowing delivery.

Requirements

Intake Quarantine

A staging area for inbound uploads that runs malware checks, PII/brand scans, license tagging, and cross‑vault collision detection before admitting files to the CleanRoom. Flagged items get auto‑routed for review, stopping contamination and mislicensed content at the door.

Requirements

Similarity Budget

Define per‑deliverable overlap budgets (e.g., max 8% from any single prior client and 15% overall). A live meter tracks reuse as you write, highlighting risky passages and offering ‘de‑similarize’ rewrites and alternate examples. Stay compliant while preserving velocity.

Requirements

Delta Cards

Breaks the one‑page brief into tappable cards that summarize every change—budget deltas, scope edits, and compliance gaps—with “what changed, by how much, and why.” Line‑level citations link back to the source so executives can verify in a tap, scan faster, and eliminate back‑and‑forth.

Requirements

Smart Delegate

When you tap Delegate, the system recommends the best owner based on role fit, availability, and past responsiveness. It pre‑fills the request with context, a due date, and the exact ask, then tracks accountability and routes results back to you—no hunting for the right person or ping‑ponging tasks.

Requirements

Risk One‑Liner

Condenses red flags into plain‑language single‑sentence summaries with severity and a suggested remedy (e.g., “High: biosketches outdated—auto‑refresh available”). Executives get instant clarity without reading long threads, reducing clarifying questions and speeding decisions.

Requirements

Impact Forecast

Before Approve, Request Changes, or Defer, see the downstream effect on portal windows, dependent tasks, and cost exposure. Get one‑tap mitigation options (split review, add reviewer, shift buffer) so leaders decide with context and keep timelines intact.

Requirements

Quick Markups

Thumb‑friendly mobile annotations: highlight, strike, and drop pre‑written comment chips like “shorten to 200 words” or “cite FOA 2.b.” Supports voice notes with auto‑transcription. Produces crisp, actionable guidance in seconds—perfect for on‑the‑go reviews.

Requirements

Conditional Approve

Approve contingent on specific fixes. Auto‑creates micro‑tasks, holds submission until conditions are met, and pings you for a final glance or auto‑release on deadline. Maintains momentum while preserving quality and compliance.

Requirements

Format Auto-Mapper

Automatically detects the funder/FOA’s formatting rules—margins, fonts, line spacing, section labels—and normalizes every document in one pass. Shows a clean before/after diff and applies one‑click fixes so teams skip tedious style audits and avoid last‑minute reformatting crises.

Requirements

Portal Ready PDF

Converts the packet to portal‑compliant standards (PDF/A, embedded fonts, flattened comments, sanitized metadata) and runs pre‑submission validations for major portals. Produces a pass/fail checklist with exact fixes, preventing upload rejections and rework at the deadline.

Requirements

Figure Optimizer

Right‑sizes images and charts to meet strict MB and DPI caps without sacrificing readability. Auto‑converts color spaces, removes hidden layers, and preserves vector quality where allowed—keeping packets crisp, compliant, and under size limits.

Requirements

Smart Stitch

Auto‑orders and merges sections per sponsor schema, inserts required cover pages and a dynamic table of contents, and builds a clean bookmark tree that mirrors FOA headings. Reviewers navigate instantly; teams deliver polished packets without manual assembly.

Requirements

Portal Slicer

Splits the compiled packet into the exact upload parts required by each portal (e.g., separate budget, biosketches, narrative) with compliant filenames and size thresholds. Exports a zipped manifest that maps files to portal slots for frictionless uploading.

Requirements

A11y Pass

Adds accessibility tags and reading order, prompts for missing alt text, checks contrast and table structure, and validates against common accessibility standards. Outputs an accessibility report so submissions are inclusive and compliant from the start.

Requirements

Redact Guard

Scans for PII, restricted identifiers, and disallowed content, then guides permanent, non‑reversible redactions. Logs a redaction summary to the audit trail, protecting sensitive data and speeding compliance approvals before final export.

Requirements

Anchor Shift

Set one or more anchor dates (e.g., FOA release, LOI due, submission deadline) and instantly recalibrate every imported task by its original offsets. Handles weekends/holidays, portal windows, and blackout periods to produce a realistic schedule in seconds. Benefit: turns a past plan into a ready‑to‑run timeline without manual date editing.

Requirements

Owner Mapper

Auto-detect past owners and roles from the imported packet (signatures, headers, tracked changes) and map them to your current team structure. Suggests best-fit assignees by role, availability, and permissions, with one-click reassignment for changes in staffing. Benefit: preserves accountability from day one and eliminates the re-triage scramble.

Requirements

Dependency Lift

Reconstructs the critical path by extracting implied sequencing from past checklists, email timestamps, and document order. Produces a clean dependency graph you can accept, tweak, or simplify, with guardrails to prevent circular links. Benefit: you keep the proven flow of work without rebuilding dependencies from scratch.

Requirements

FOA Diff

Compares the imported plan against the current FOA/sponsor instructions to spot missing steps, new forms, page-count changes, and shifted due windows. Proposes adds/drops and updates labels and filenames automatically. Benefit: ensures the revived plan matches today’s rules, reducing rework and compliance risk.

Requirements

Delay Imprint

Learns where the prior effort actually slipped (from timestamps, task history, and file versions) and pre-inserts right-sized buffers and micro-deadlines at those choke points. Flags historically risky handoffs for early attention. Benefit: bakes realism into the schedule so you avoid repeating the same delays.

Requirements

Cadence Extract

When importing an award packet, detects reporting and invoicing cadence (e.g., quarterly progress, annual RPPR) plus special terms. Seeds recurring tasks with correct lead times, owners, and attachments. Benefit: flips award terms into a living calendar in minutes—no manual setup.

Requirements

Template Snap

Converts the imported plan into a reusable, parameterized template with variables for anchor dates, sponsor type, and subrecipient count. Captures dependencies, durations, and role placeholders so future projects can be spun up with consistent, proven timelines. Benefit: turns tribal knowledge into a repeatable playbook.

Requirements

Product Ideas

Innovative concepts that could enhance this product's value proposition.

ScopeLock Magic Links

Send time-limited, scope-restricted magic links that let subrecipients upload only requested files and sign budget forms—no accounts required. Every action is logged for audits.

Idea

CapSnap Budget Rules

Encode sponsor caps, salary limits, and F&A rates into real-time validations. Inline errors and auto-justifications prevent noncompliant budgets before finance reviews.

Idea

Deadline Drift Radar

Predict slippage using task patterns, assignee load, and past delays. Surface at-risk grants and auto-reprioritize checklists with nudge schedules tuned to each team.

Idea

CleanRoom Library

A segregated template vault for consultants with per-client walls, watermarking, and similarity guards. Reuse safely while AI search respects boundaries and flags risky overlap.

Idea

SwipeApprove Briefs

Auto-build a one-page executive brief with deadlines, budget deltas, and red flags. Approve, request changes, or delegate from mobile; silent approvals escalate on timers.

Idea

Packet Preflight Sprint

One click assembles sponsor-formatted packets, checks page counts, filenames, and biosketch dates, and inserts bookmarks. Export a single compliant PDF ready for portal upload.

Idea

RetroPlan Import

Drop a past proposal or award packet; we auto-extract sections, known deadlines, and owners to seed a reusable timeline with dependencies.

Idea

Press Coverage

Imagined press coverage for this groundbreaking product concept.

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