# Setting up WiseCost for the Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200.430) - URL: https://www.usewisecost.com/help/dcaa-compliance/setting-up-wisecost-for-uniform-guidance - Audience: Admins - Last updated: 2026-09-19 - Part of the WiseCost Help Center: https://www.usewisecost.com/help > Set up WiseCost for time and effort reporting under 2 CFR 200.430: the Uniform Guidance preset, a budget and period per award, and expected hours. To set up WiseCost for the Uniform Guidance, apply the **Uniform Guidance** preset in **Company Setup → Company settings → Compliance**, create one Class or Project per federal award with its period of performance and budget, set expected hours so timesheets reflect each person's total activity, and assign approvers who know the work. Then follow each award with the Budget vs Actual by Contract report. **Who can do this:** an Administrator. This path is for nonprofits and other recipients of federal grants and awards. ## What the Uniform Guidance asks for The **Uniform Guidance** is 2 CFR Part 200, the federal rules for grants and awards. Section **2 CFR 200.430** covers compensation: salaries charged to a federal award must be based on records that accurately reflect the work performed. **Time and effort reporting** is the common name for those records. In short, they have to be supported by internal controls, reflect the total activity the employee is paid for (federal, non-federal and indirect), and distribute pay across awards according to actual effort, not budget estimates. WiseCost does this with features you already have. Here is how they fit together. ## 1. Apply the Uniform Guidance preset 1. Go to **Company Setup → Company settings → Compliance**. 2. Click **Uniform Guidance**. 3. Read the dialog. It lists only the switches that will change. 4. Confirm. [Screenshot: Confirmation dialog listing the switches the Uniform Guidance preset will change] The preset turns future-dated entries off, turns self-approval off, requires employee certification before approval, and requires a different approver. It does not touch distributed tracking or entering time on someone's behalf. Turn those on only if your written policy allows them. See [Compliance presets and settings](https://www.usewisecost.com/help/dcaa-compliance/compliance-presets-and-settings). ## 2. One contract per award, with its dates and budget 1. Create a Class or a Project for each federal award, grant or program. Non-federal programs and fundraising get their own, so the whole week has somewhere to go. 2. In **Company Setup → Classes** or **Company Setup → Projects**, set each award's **Period** (its period of performance) and its **Budget** in hours, dollars or both. Time cannot be logged to an award outside its period of performance. The budget is informational and never blocks. See [Contract budgets and period of performance](https://www.usewisecost.com/help/time-tracking/contract-budgets-and-period-of-performance). [Screenshot: Classes table with period of performance and budget columns] ## 3. Reflect the total activity 1. Enable internal time for administration, PTO and holiday in [Internal and indirect time](https://www.usewisecost.com/help/time-tracking/internal-and-indirect-time). 2. Enter each person's **Expected hrs/week** in **Company Setup → Employees**. 3. Turn on **Require expected hours to submit**. Now a timesheet cannot be submitted until it accounts for the person's whole week, and hours above it are flagged for the approver instead of blocked. See [Requiring expected hours](https://www.usewisecost.com/help/time-tracking/requiring-expected-hours). ## 4. Approvers with direct knowledge of the work Assign each employee an **Approver** and a **Backup approver** in **Company Setup → Employees**. A program manager named as approver becomes a Supervisor: they approve their team and see nothing else. See [Approvers and supervisors](https://www.usewisecost.com/help/timesheet-approvals/approvers-and-supervisors). ## 5. Teams in the field If staff work where they cannot reach the application, you can turn on **Allow entering time on someone's behalf**. The approver enters the hours with a reason, such as **No connectivity**, the entry is marked as delegated, and with **Require a different approver** someone else has to approve it. See [Entering time for a team member](https://www.usewisecost.com/help/time-tracking/entering-time-for-a-team-member). ## 6. Distribute pay by actual effort Every payroll period, run [Labor Distribution](https://www.usewisecost.com/help/labor-distribution/running-your-first-distribution). It allocates each person's pay across the awards and internal accounts they actually recorded, and posts the journal entry to QuickBooks Online. You can [import the real payroll](https://www.usewisecost.com/help/labor-distribution/importing-payroll-from-gusto-adp-paychex) and include employer taxes and benefits per award. ## 7. Follow each award Run the [Budget vs Actual by Contract report](https://www.usewisecost.com/help/reports-and-audit-trail/budget-vs-actual-by-contract): logged hours, approved hours and actual dollars from QuickBooks Online for each award, limited to its period of performance. If your organization uses Locations for sites or programs, add them to the entry form. See [Using QuickBooks Locations](https://www.usewisecost.com/help/quickbooks-integration/using-quickbooks-locations). [Screenshot: Budget vs Actual report with logged hours, approved hours and actual dollars per contract] ## What WiseCost does not do for you It does not write your time and effort policy or decide what is allowable on an award. Auditors evaluate your system as a whole, including your written policies. For allowability questions, ask your CPA or your grants officer. ## Common questions ### How do nonprofits do time and effort reporting in QuickBooks Online? QuickBooks Online alone does not record effort. With WiseCost on top, staff log their time per award, approvers certify it, and Labor Distribution posts salaries to each award in QuickBooks Online according to the hours recorded. ### Can salaried staff use percentages instead of daily time entries? WiseCost has distributed tracking for that, and the Uniform Guidance preset leaves it as it is. Turn it on only if your written policy allows it and you can support the percentages. ### How do I track a grant's budget vs actual hours and dollars? Set the award's budget on its Class or Project, then run Budget vs Actual by Contract. ### Does the preset make us compliant with 2 CFR 200.430? No. It sets strict timekeeping controls. Compliance depends on your whole system and your written policies.