Selecting grants management software is a significant decision — the system your organisation adopts will shape how applicants experience your process, how staff manage their work, and how your board and stakeholders receive information about your programme.
A structured evaluation — comparing systems against a defined feature set — produces better decisions than ad-hoc demos and salesperson presentations. This checklist covers the key features to assess.
Online application portal
- [ ] Applicants can create accounts and save progress
- [ ] Mobile-friendly design
- [ ] Save-and-return functionality
- [ ] Application history accessible to returning applicants
- [ ] Clear error messages and help text
Application forms
- [ ] Configurable question types (text, number, file upload, dropdown, checkbox)
- [ ] Conditional logic (show/hide questions based on answers)
- [ ] Character/word count limits
- [ ] File upload capability (financial statements, supporting documents)
- [ ] Form preview before submission
Eligibility screening
- [ ] Pre-eligibility questionnaire before full application
- [ ] Automatic eligibility checking
- [ ] Clear ineligibility messaging
Communication
- [ ] Automated acknowledgement emails
- [ ] Configurable status notification emails
- [ ] Decline letters with custom content
- [ ] Offer letters with grant agreement
- [ ] Bulk email capability
Application management
- [ ] Application list with status tracking
- [ ] Filtering and sorting by programme, status, date, assessor
- [ ] Batch operations (assign assessors, change status)
- [ ] Application search
Assessment workflow
- [ ] Configurable assessment criteria and scoring
- [ ] Reviewer assignment
- [ ] Blind review capability (hide applicant details from reviewers)
- [ ] COI declaration process
- [ ] COI management (remove conflicted reviewer from specific applications)
- [ ] Scoring aggregation and averaging
- [ ] Assessment notes and recommendations
- [ ] Panel moderation tools
Decision workflow
- [ ] Structured recommendation workflow
- [ ] Decision recording with rationale
- [ ] Approval/escalation tiers
Grant setup
- [ ] Configurable grant types
- [ ] Multi-year grant support
- [ ] Grant agreement generation from templates
- [ ] E-signature or execution tracking
Milestone and payment management
- [ ] Milestone scheduling
- [ ] Milestone completion tracking
- [ ] Payment trigger on milestone completion
- [ ] Payment schedule management
Portfolio management
- [ ] Dashboard of active grants with status
- [ ] Risk flagging
- [ ] Overdue tracking
- [ ] Portfolio filtering and analysis
Reporting and acquittal
- [ ] Configurable progress report forms
- [ ] Report submission portal for grantees
- [ ] Acquittal workflow
- [ ] Financial acquittal tracking
Audit trail
- [ ] Complete log of all actions, changes, and decisions
- [ ] User attribution for all changes
- [ ] Timestamp recording
- [ ] Immutable history
Access controls
- [ ] Role-based permissions
- [ ] Programme-level access restrictions
- [ ] External reviewer access without full system access
Data management
- [ ] Data export capability
- [ ] Data backup and recovery
- [ ] Retention and deletion controls
- [ ] Privacy compliance tools
Standard reports
- [ ] Application volume by programme and period
- [ ] Funded amounts by category, geography, organisation type
- [ ] Assessment outcome analysis
- [ ] Grant portfolio status summary
Custom reporting
- [ ] Ad-hoc report building
- [ ] Data export to CSV/Excel
- [ ] Dashboard customisation
Integrations
- [ ] Email system integration
- [ ] Document signing (e-signature)
- [ ] Accounting/finance system
- [ ] NZ Charities Register (for NZ funders)
Technical
- [ ] Browser compatibility
- [ ] Mobile responsiveness
- [ ] Single sign-on (SSO) support
- [ ] API availability for custom integrations
Tahua meets all the ANZ-specific feature requirements above, with a feature set purpose-built for New Zealand and Australian grantmakers.