Obligation
A binding commitment to spend — a signed contract, a placed order, a payroll liability incurred. Costs must be obligated inside the period of performance even if they are paid after it, which is what makes the last month of an award a scheduling problem.
Part of the GrantTrove grant funding glossary — one entry for every field the catalogue stores.
Also called Obligated funds · Encumbrance
In detail
The distinction between obligating and paying is what allows an award to end cleanly. An order placed on the final day is obligated in the period; an order placed the day after is not, however sensible it would have been.
Recipients get a liquidation window after the period ends in which to pay off obligations already incurred. The window is finite and stated in the award, and unliquidated obligations at the end of it are a closeout problem.
Against an expenditure
An obligation is the commitment; an expenditure is the cash leaving. Financial reports ask for both and they are rarely equal. Neither is a field on an opportunity record: we hold what a funder published about applying, and obligation reporting belongs to an award already made.
How GrantTrove stores it
- We publish no financial reporting fields at all, and say so rather than shipping empty columns that would read as zeroes.
- What the record does carry is the source and the date we last confirmed it — `source_url` and `last_verified_at` — so the document that defines the award terms is one click away and dated.
Common questions
Can I obligate on the last day of the award?
Generally yes, and you then have the liquidation window to pay it. Placing the order a day later does not work.
Do you track obligations?
No. We hold opportunities, not awards you already have.
Is an unliquidated obligation a problem?
At the end of the liquidation window, yes. Before it, no.