How to Prepare a
Proposal Budget
CReATE
CReATE ver. 5/13
© 2013 Florida State University. All rights reserved
Areas to Consider
 Direct Costs
 Indirect/F&A Costs or “overhead”
 Defining the Base for F&A costs
Hot Topics:
 Cost Sharing
 Equipment/Supplies
 C.A.S. exemption items
Direct Costs
 Direct costs are those costs that can be
identified specifically with a particular
sponsored project, an instructional activity, or
any other institutional activity, or that can be
directly assigned to such activities relatively
easily with a high degree of accuracy.
F&A Costs
 Indirect costs are those that are incurred for
common or joint objectives and, therefore,
cannot be identified readily and
specifically with a particular sponsored
project, an instructional activity, or any other
institutional activity.
F&A - MTDC
 Modified Total Direct Cost (MTDC) Base
includes all direct costs except:

equipment, capital expenditures,

charges for patient care, tuition remission,

rental costs of off-site facilities,

scholarships, fellowships,

and the portion of each subcontract in
excess of $25,000.
 Primarily used for Federally-funded projects
F&A - TDC
 Total Direct Cost (TDC) Base – includes all
direct costs except tuition
 FSU’s policy is to exclude tuition from all
indirect costs
 TDC Base primarily used for State of Florida
agencies
 Also used for Local Florida Governments and
Florida Water Management Districts
F&A Rates Set by:
 Type of Agency
 Location of Project
 (on/off
campus/Mag Lab)
 Type of Project
 Solicitation
Current Policy - Use FSU negotiated rate http://www.research.fsu.edu/contractsgrants/
documents/rateagreement.pdf
Types of Projects
 Research: A systematic study directed toward
fuller scientific knowledge and understanding
gained of the subject studied
 Instruction: The teaching and training activities
of an institution
 Other Sponsored Activity: This includes
programs and projects which involve the
performance of work other than instruction or
organized research
MTDC (federal) TDC (State FL)
*OnRes –51.3% OnRes – 10%
Salaries
Equipment
Supplies
Publications
Tuition
Total Direct
MTDC Base
Indirect Costs
Total Requested
$50,000
$50,000
$10,000
$10,000
$3,000
$3,000
$2,000
$2,000
$12,529
$12,529
$77,529
$77,529
$55,000 TDC $65,000
$28,215
$6,500
$105,744
$84,029
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Cost Sharing
Costing sharing or matching is that portion of
project costs not borne by the sponsor.
 A cost sharing commitment means any cost
sharing included and quantified (e.g., % of
effort and/or dollar amount) in the proposal
budget, proposal narrative or award
document.
 Project enhancement means describing
"resources that are available" for the project
but are not quantified in the proposal budget,
narrative or other documents.
10
FSU Cost Sharing Policy
• Make a cost sharing commitment only when
required by the sponsor or by the competitive
nature of the award. Cost share only to the
extent necessary to meet the specific
requirements of the sponsored project.
• If the PI requests an exception to this policy,
s/he must get the Chair, Dean and VPR
approval.
• Cost sharing is approved at the proposal
stage.
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Personnel
 Salaries & Wages

Include faculty, technicians, post-docs,
graduate students, & other personnel who are
required to work on the project

We recommend that you include a 3% salary
escalation factor each year
NOTE: On federal projects, administrative &
clerical personnel are normally treated as
indirect costs and cannot be direct charged.
Personnel
 Salary
Annual Salary X %FTE
 Bi-weekly salary X %FTE X No. of pay periods

 OPS (Temporary employees, i.e., graduate
students*, student aides, post-docs, other staff)
 Bi-weekly salary X % FTE X No. of pay periods
 Pay Periods
 9 mo faculty – Academic Yr 19.5 Summer 6.5
 12 mo faculty & all other classifications 26.1
 GA’s Health Insurance Subsidy is considered as Salary
Supplement
.50 FTE & above = $900; .25-.49 FTE = $450
Personnel
Salary Calculation
 PI 9 month salary = $75,000
 19.5 pay periods in academic year
 6.5 pay periods in Summer Semester
 $75,000 ÷ 19.5 = $3,846.15 b/w rate
 PI plans to work 15% FTE on project during
summer semester
 $3,846.15 X 6.5 X 15% = $3,750.00
Fringe Benefit Rates
 Retirement
FRS Pension Plan
5.18%
 FRS Investment Plan
5.18%
 ORP
5.64%
 DROP
5.44%
Social Security
6.20%
Medicare
1.45%
Workers’ Comp & Unemployment 0.7%
Terminal Leave Pool
1.3%





FB Composite Rates*
 Faculty/A&P/USPS under FRS
Pension/Investment Plan
14.83%
 Faculty/A&P under ORP
15.29%
 Faculty/A&P/USPS under DROP
15.09%
 OPS Students
0.70%
 OPS Non-students & Post-Docs
2.15%
*Effective 7/01/2012
Health Insurance*
 Individual
 $250/bw**
 $5,998/yr
 Family
$532/bw**
 $12,760/yr

 Spouse
$303/bw**
 $7,280/yr

*Rates Effective 7/01/2012
**Calculated on 24 pay periods
Note: 9 month faculty deductions for health insurance
are made during regular academic year
FB Calculation
 Same PI - $75K Academic Yr / $3,846.15 b/w
 Salary calculated for budget = $3,750.00
 PI has ORP retirement plan and family health ins
 $3,750.00 X 15.29% = $573.38
 Total FBs & Health = $573.38

No health deductions during summer for 9-month
faculty
Consultants
 Outside individuals with expertise and skills that will
add value to project
 Normally, faculty & other FSU staff should not be
paid as consultants
 Costs are usually calculated in terms of daily rate
 Certain sponsors may limit the daily rate
 Consultant costs should be listed in ‘Other’ category
Equipment – A-21
(2) "Equipment" means an article of
nonexpendable, tangible personal
property having a useful life of more than
one year and an acquisition cost which
equals or exceeds the lesser of the
capitalization level established by the
institution for financial statement
purposes, or $5,000.
Equipment
 Items costing $5,000 or more with a useful life
of 1 year or more
 Equipment should be detailed in the budget
 Requests should only include those items of
equipment required to complete the project
Equipment
 IT Equipment Purchases – Memorandum
from VPR – July 2012
 http://www.research.fsu.edu/contractsgrants/d
ocuments/ITguide.pdf
*Federal/Federal flow-through: equipment
threshold is $5,000
All other funding sources: equipment threshold
remains at $1,000.00 per piece of equipment
Equipment – A-21
(4) "General purpose equipment” means
equipment, which is not limited to research,
medical, scientific or other technical activities.
• Examples include office equipment and
furnishings, modular offices, telephone
networks, information technology equipment
and systems, air conditioning equipment,
reproduction and printing equipment, and motor
vehicles.
• Cannot be charged as a direct cost unless
approved in advance by awarding agency
Supplies
Supplies and materials related to the project
 Can be listed in budget as broad categories such as
glassware, chemicals or art supplies
Minor equipment costing < $5,000
 If the equipment item costs $1,000 to $4,999 and has
a useful life of a year or more, then it is excluded from
the indirect cost base when calculating indirect costs
from non-Federal sponsors
NOTE: On Federal projects, routine office supplies are
normally treated as indirect costs and cannot be direct
charged (paper, pencils, post-it notes, etc.)
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C.A.S. Exemptions
•
In exceptional circumstances it may be appropriate to charge F&A
costs directly to a sponsored project.
•
If the nature of a sponsored project requires an extensive amount of
administrative and/or clerical support or goods/services significantly
greater than the routine level provided by an academic department,
then the effort is deemed an exceptional circumstance and such
costs can be accounted for as direct costs.
•
An Exemption is REQUIRED to direct charge administrative and
clerical salaries and other administrative-type expenses.
•
In addition to meeting definition of exceptional circumstances, costs
must be specifically identifiable to a particular sponsored project, be
reasonable, allowable and allocable.
25
C.A.S. Exemptions
• CAS exemption must be approved at the proposal
stage. Approval allows for charges normally classified
as F&A to be charged directly to a project
• Complete CAS form w/PI, Chair & Dean signatures
• http://www.research.fsu.edu/contractsgrants/forms.html
• Submit to Sponsored Research Office
NOTE: FSU (SR) approves the C.A.S. exemption;
agency approval is not adequate - FSU is audited on
these items
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Travel
 Project-related travel may include trips
necessary to collect data, to present findings
at professional meetings, for meetings with
program officers or collaborators, etc.
 Agencies require detailed estimates for the
funds requested such as airfare, hotels, car
rental, etc.
 Reimbursement of costs should be consistent
with FSU’s travel policies
FSU Travel Rates
 Per diem is $80 per day or
 Breakfast = $6
 Lunch = $11
 Dinner = $19
 Mileage = $.445 per mile
 Allowable room rates, incidental expenses,
etc.
Subawards/Subcontracts
 Represents a collaboration of work by one or more other
institutions
 Contractual agreements for services or goods with an
outside party are not included in this category
 Costs for subawardee is presented in a separate line item
and should include both the subawardee’s direct and F&A
costs
 A subaward detailed budget should be included as part of
budget justification
 Subawardee’s F&A costs are calculated in accordance
with subawardee’s negotiated F&A rate agreement
Subcontracts
If a collaboration is proposed, the
following is required:
 Letter of commitment from the
institution’s Sponsored Program Office
(not PI)
 Scope of work for their activities
 Budget
 Budget Justification
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Other Direct Costs
 This category contains all other proposal
costs, i.e., animal per diems, publication
charges, graphic fees, matriculation,
communications, shipping, consultants, etc.
 Postage, local telephone, and memberships
are normally considered F&A costs and
cannot be direct charged (for Federal
projects)
Matriculation
 Matriculation costs (minimum of 9 hrs/semester)
should be included for graduate assistants
supported by the project
 Graduate Matriculation Rate for FY13-14 is
$464.04/cr hr or $12,529 for 27 hours (in-state)
 If matriculation costs are not included in budget, an
alternate source of payment must be identified
(Waiver 2 or 3 on transmittal form)
 FSU excludes matriculation from F&A calculations
in all proposals
32
Matriculation



Multiyear proposals should include an annual 15%
escalation factor in matriculation costs
Out of state matriculation is not an allowable cost in
most circumstances
 College of Engineering may apply out of state rates
to their proposals
 Certain training grants allow out of state
matriculation. Review sponsor guidelines
Fees are not an allowable cost unless applying for a
training grant
Recap - Budget
Calculation




Federal Sponsor - NIH
Modified Total Direct Cost Base
Research will be conducted on campus
On-campus Research negotiated F&A rate – 51.3%
F&A Calculation
 Total Direct Costs = $172,529
 Salaries/FBs
$97,000.00
 Equipment
$10,000.00
 Supplies
$ 3,000.00
 Tuition
$12,529.00
 Subcontract
$50,000.00
 Base $97K + 3K +25K = $125,000
 F&A $125,000 X 51.3% = $64,125
 Total request from sponsor = $236,654
Questions