Back Budgets Q. How do I add someone to the budget?
A. The PIs and Key Persons listed under Investigator and Key Person tabs will be automatically included in the Budget Persons screen. You can select those whom you want to add to the Personnel Budget Details for a salary line item by highlighting their names and clicking OK. If you want to add a person who is not listed as an investigator or key person, here is what you can d (1) If the person you want to add is an employee, open the budget in Edit mode, then select Edit---Persons… to open the Budget Persons screen. Then click the Search button to search for a UMB employee by last name, and click OK to add him/her to the Budget Persons screen. (2) If the person you want to add is a non-employee, you have to add him/her as a Key Person first. Then they will be automatically added to the Budget Persons list. For more information, see the FAQ on adding key personnel not employed by UMB.
Q. I need to include a research technician in my budget but I will recruit the person only if I get the award. How can I budget for this person?
A. You can search for "TBA" in the person table and add this position to the Budget Persons screen. This table has been pre-populated with several TBA's in each personnel category for these situations, and situations where the name of the person is not known. You will need to add a job code (999999) and calc base (salary) to this person in the Budget Persons window. Q. How do I add a budget item that is not on the list of available budget items (cost elements)?
A. Most budget items should fit under one of the existing cost elements, which match those on the Grants.gov SF424 R&R Budget form. To request that a new cost element be added, contact the Office of Research and Development at 6-5632. Q. How are cost elements and F&A bases related?
A. Cost elements are mapped to either receive F&A or not receive F&A for each defined rate type. Q. How do I apply the NIH Salary Cap? - The NIH Salary Cap is tied to the federal Executive Level I salary level. Effective January 1, the federal Executive Level I salary level was increased to $191,300.
- Remember that the NIH Salary Cap applies only to proposals being submitted to NIH, AHRQ or SAMHSA.
- The PHS SF424 R&R application instructions state the following for detailed budgets: for Base Salary, "Enter the annual compensation paid by the employer for each Senior/Key person. This includes all activities such as research, teaching, patient care, or other.” For UMB, this translates to Institutional Base Salary. There is further clarification under the instructions for field name "Requested Salary”: “Any adjustment for salary limits will be made at the time of award.”
- Similarly, the PHS398 instructions require the Institutional Base Salary, and state that any adjustment for salary limits will be made at the time of award.
- The annual inflation increase should be applied.
- In the Yes/No questions, check YES for the question about the sponsor’s salary cap.
The Institutional Base Salary (IBS) should be entered in Coeus for all proposal budgets, with minimal exceptions. - For Modular budgets, there is NO exception. If your School requires that a detailed budget be entered in Coeus as backup to modular budgets, please use the actual IBS in the absence of other instructions from your School. Remember that the annual direct costs requested for the proposal can be manually entered for the modular budget submitted to NIH. If a detailed budget is provided, it is only used internally to understand how the estimated annual direct costs were determined and to understand how the F&A rate was calculated.
- The ONLY exception is for funding opportunity announcements that include a cap on total direct costs: If you are preparing a detailed budget for submission under an FOA that limits the total direct costs that may be requested, then it may be a good strategy to use the salary cap amount rather than the actual IBS to calculate the salary amount requested for investigators affected by the cap. In this case, (1) state in the budget justification that the investigator’s salary exceeds the cap, and (2) apply the annual inflation increase if at all possible, since the salary cap has been increased annually ever since the cap was tied to the Federal Executive level salary charts.
Q. Why did Coeus pick a particular rate to apply to my proposal?
A. Coeus looks at several data elements within the proposal to decide what rates should be applied to a budget. These data elements include the Start & End Dates and the Activity Type on the Proposal Tab, the OH Rate Type on the Budget Summary Tab, and the on/off campus flag on each budget line item. Q. I am in an off-campus building. How do I designate the off-campus F&A rate?
A. The on- or off-campus designation is on the Line Item Detail screen for each line item. Double click the line item, and you can click the radio button for on-campus or for off-campus. For Salary line items, be sure that you designate on-campus or off-campus before adding persons in the Personnel Budget Detail screen. When you “Generate All Periods”, the on- or off-campus designation for each line item will carry forward to future periods. Q. If my F&A rate isn't standard what do I do? I’m applying for a grant and the sponsor’s policy allows an overhead rate that is lower than the Federal rate.
A. First determine whether the F&A rate should be applied to Total Direct Costs (TDC), Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC - the base used for Federal awards), or Salaries and Wages (S&W). Use the "OH Rate Type" dropdown menu on the Budget Summary tab to choose the correct rate type (base). To change the rate from the default rate to the percentage allowed by the Sponsor, go to Edit → Rates to change the default rate. The F&A rate used must be an established rate available in the Sponsor's policy or application instructions. In the Applicable Rates column, adjust the rates as needed for ALL years shown. Select OK. To change all the Rates back to the default values (Institute Rates), Select Reset. Top Back |
