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Every allocation, budget and deadline in one place.

AllocBoard replaces the spreadsheets research groups run their grants on. Track person-month allocations and every travel, equipment and consumables line across EU, EPSRC and UKRI projects, catch an overcommitted postdoc or an overrunning budget before an auditor does, and have access to audit-ready data without the fire drill.

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A hand-drawn figure pointing at a wall board of staff allocations. Three rows have filled cells; the fourth is circled in red.

Spreadsheets were never built for research grant management

A hand-drawn figure buried up to the shoulders in a leaning stack of loose paper.

Today

  • Allocation data spread across dozens of spreadsheets. When the PI asks for a quick update, it takes hours to piece together an answer.

  • A postdoc on four projects, but working out their total commitment means opening multiple files and cross-referencing by hand.

  • Travel, equipment and consumables tracked in a different file to the allocations, so an overspend or a stranded underspend only shows up once the period has closed.

  • Every reporting deadline, the same fire drill. Pulling numbers from scattered files and hoping nothing was missed.

With AllocBoard

  • Every allocation in one place. When the PI asks for an update, you have the answer in seconds.

  • A postdoc on four projects? See their total commitment instantly. Overloads are flagged before they become a problem.

  • Expenses on the same timeline as the allocations, with the projected over or underspend named in cash while there is still time to act on it.

  • Reporting deadline? Audit-ready data in a click. No fire drills, no scrambling.

How it works

One grant, from the bid to the final report

A research group does not run on features, it runs on a cycle: cost the thing, win it, staff it for three years, then account for every person-month of it. AllocBoard is built along that line.

  1. Before the award

    Cost the project before it exists

    Build the proposal as a plan: placeholder roles on real pay scales, work packages carrying person-month budgets, expenses forecast month by month. Costs move as you move them. Then check the plan against the people you actually have, and see which roles are covered and where you would be hiring.

    • Hypothetical staffing
    • Budget simulation
    • Feasibility analysis
  2. The award lands

    Turn the plan into the project

    One click converts the bid into a live project. The placeholders map to the people you actually hired, and every allocation, work package and expense line carries over intact. Grants that are already running arrive the other way, from a Worktribe or CSV export, with categories and budgets mapped for you.

    • Go live in one click
    • Worktribe import
  3. While it runs

    See the overload the day it appears

    Allocate staff on the timeline in person-months, down to 0.4 of a month. The moment anyone's commitments across every project pass 100 percent, the row flags, and the Allocation Optimizer offers a rebalance you can apply one line at a time. Travel, equipment and consumables are logged on that same timeline, in your own categories, so the money and the people move together rather than in two files. Nothing waits for a human to notice it.

    • Person-month precision
    • Overload detection
    • Expense tracking
  4. The period closes

    Catch the overspend, and the underspend

    Every project carries a budget forecast built from your own spending, with a confidence band and a verdict graded low to critical, so an overrun arrives as a projection rather than a surprise. Underspend surfaces the same way: budget left in a period that has closed is carried into the periods still to run, and AllocBoard names which ones funded it. The report itself is an export rather than a fortnight of reconstruction.

    • Budget forecasting
    • Risk assessment
    • Reporting periods
See all features

Everything you need, one platform

From high-level dashboards to granular timelines: manage projects, track staff allocations and expenses, and oversee multiple research groups in one place. The full app works on desktop, tablet and mobile, with every feature available on each.

  • Active projects, staff counts and monthly spend per project at a glance
  • Allocation status across the team, with overloads separated out
  • Projects at risk, with the projected over or underspend named in cash
AllocBoard dashboard showing active project and research staff counts, a 48 percent utilisation rate, a staff allocation status bar split into under, normal and over, a projects at risk card reading 114.8 thousand pounds under budget with a low risk verdict, monthly operating spend charts per project and a queue of submitted expense estimates

Ready to see your whole portfolio in one place?

Purpose built for research teams. Swap spreadsheet chaos for complete project visibility. Start a free 14-day trial with every feature switched on, and no credit card to get in the way.

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  • 14-day free trial
  • No credit card required
  • UK GDPR compliant