Period of performance
The window during which funded work may happen and costs may be charged. Spending before it opens or after it closes is normally unallowable, however clearly the work served the project.
Part of the GrantTrove grant funding glossary — one entry for every field the catalogue stores.
Also called Project period · Grant period · Performance period
In detail
The period is the boundary that turns a budget into a schedule. Costs incurred outside it are typically disallowed at closeout, which makes a short period as real a constraint as a small award — a twelve-month period on work that needs eighteen is a design problem, not a paperwork one.
It rarely begins at the award announcement. There is usually a gap between notification and the start of the period, and on reimbursement programs that gap is when an organisation carries the cost itself.
Where we hold award history, start and end dates are stored per award, which is what makes typical period length visible on programs that never published one.
Against a deadline
A deadline governs the application; the period of performance governs the work. They are frequently confused because both are dates on the same page, but they constrain different things — one decides whether you may apply, the other whether an expense can be charged. Missing the first costs you a cycle; misreading the second costs you money already spent.
How GrantTrove stores it
- Start and end dates are stored on award records, so where history exists the real length of a program’s periods can be seen rather than assumed.
- Where an opportunity does not publish a period, the field reads Not stated rather than being inferred from a fiscal year.
Common questions
Can I be reimbursed for work done before the period starts?
Normally no. Pre-award costs are allowable only when a program explicitly permits them, and that permission has to be in writing.
Does the period start when I am notified?
Usually not. A gap between notification and start is common, and on a reimbursement program it is a cash-flow problem worth planning for.
What if a project needs longer?
Extensions exist on many programs but are never guaranteed. Planning a project that only works with one is planning on a decision that has not been made.