Preparing Source Files Before a Funder Site Visit

Funder monitors rarely ask for every invoice. They ask for a sample, then follow threads: purchase order to invoice to payment to activity report. If those four pieces live in four systems with different naming, the visit stalls.

Create a visit binder—digital or paper—indexed by award number, then by month. Place the agreement and amendments first, then drawdown history, then the sampled transactions with attachments already clipped.

Brief whoever will sit with the monitor: which costs were reclassified, which subrecipients submitted late reports, and which findings from prior years remain open. Surprises during the visit damage more than the finding itself.

A pre-visit grant compliance audit from an independent reviewer is useful precisely because it rehearses those threads under less pressure and gives you time to correct files before the funder arrives.