Budget Development

Though producing a budget for your project may seem intimidating, the dynamic tools below practically calculate your budget for you!

For more information about the costs automatically added to these budgets, review our reference materials on facility & administrative costs, UNO's payroll benefits rate, and how to budget for student workers and graduate assistants.

NOTE: Some funding agencies have standardized budget and justification formats. Always follow the sponsor's guidelines.

Option One: Generator (Preferred)

Budget & Justification Generator
This better budget tool automatically generates a PDF budget and an editable Word justification—then, it emails you a link back to make changes and generate new documents!
Budget Generator

Option Two: Templates

Budget Spreadsheets
These Excel workbooks are color-coded manuals that help you categorize and total every dollar accurately. We recommend downloading a new budget spreadsheet every time you require it—because if you save the file to your computer and re-use it, you will miss important updates!
Standard Spreadsheet
Board of Regents Spreadsheet	Startup Award Spreadsheet Internal Grant Program (IGP) Spreadsheet
Justification Template
To develop a budget justification, download this Word document and itemize your project costs. Add any budget category relevant to you; delete any budget category that is not relevant to you. Then, elaborate! Explain what the requested funds will support, provide the pay rates that inform your figures, and break down any supplies, equipment, or travel costs.
Budget Justification Template

You may also download and complete a letter of commitment for your packet.

Board of Regents (BoR)

If you are vying for a Board of Regents grant, please use the Budget Generator or the BoR-specific spreadsheet rather than the standard spreadsheet.

The altered spreadsheet is necessary because the Board of Regents limits F&A costs to 25% of the total salary and benefits. The Budget Generator automatically applies the correct F&A rate for each program when LA Board of Regents is selected as the sponsor.

 

Budget Categories

A sponsor's budget categories and allowed expenses may differ from UNO's. Though you must always comply with a sponsor's guidelines, we recommend building your budget using the above UNO templates first. The pre-award member of your service team can help you translate the budget into the sponsor's categories.

5014: Salary - Regular

Regular salary includes principal investigator salary, summer salary, unclassified salary, post-doctoral salary, and transient salary for employees of UNO. Salary must be calculated based on the employee's annual salary as either a percent of annual effort or as a number of months equivalent to time spent on a project based on 20 days in a month and 9 months in a year.

5014: Salary - Additional

Additional salary includes extra compensation and stipends for salaried UNO employees. Any remuneration paid to salaried UNO employees for work done in addition to normal duties must be paid as additional salary. Summer salary is not considered extra/additional compensation for employees of UNO. Extra compensation must comply with AP-BA-39.

5014: Wage - Regular

Regular wages include classified, secretarial, period of appointment (POA), or transient wages for employees of UNO.

5014: Wage - Additional

Additional wages include overtime payments, extra compensation, and stipends for part-time/wage employees of UNO. Any remuneration paid to UNO wage employees for work done in addition to normal duties must be paid as additional wages.

5013: Payroll Benefits

Payroll benefits, also known as "fringe" benefits, are assessed on all payroll costs for full-time/salary and part-time/wage employees of UNO, including additional compensation for salaried employees. Payroll benefits are not assessed on wage employees' overtime.

5011: Salary - Graduate Assistant

Graduate assistant salary includes GA compensation. If you are hiring a GA, you must also include graduate student tuition in your budget. Graduate assistants can work a maximum of 20 hours per week whether or not school is in session; they cannot receive additional compensation. GA salary is disbursed through Payroll. For standard stipend rates, download the GA Stipend Table or contact the Graduate School.

5011: Salary - Student Pay

Student pay includes undergraduate and graduate student worker pay. Student workers may work up to 20 hours per week. See AP-BA-23 or contact Student Financial Aid with questions. Payments to students categorized as Student Pay depend upon students clocking in and clocking out of work shifts via Workday. Student wages are disbursed through Payroll.

5017: Travel - Domestic

Domestic travel includes fees related to travel within the United States, such as conference registration fees. Before you travel, get permission by filling out a Spend Authorization in Workday. You must fill out the Spend Authorization prior to travel in order to be reimbursed for any expenses.

5017: Travel - International

International travel includes fees related to travel outside the United States, such as conference registration fees. Before you travel, get permission by filling out a Spend Authorization in Workday. You must fill out the Spend Authorization prior to travel in order to be reimbursed for any expenses.

5009: Operating Services

Operating services include maintenance fees, postage, long-distance calls, printing, leases, non-travel attendance/registration/fees, publication costs, etc.

5015: Supplies

Refer to the distinction between supplies and equipment. Supplies are consumable materials or items costing less than $1,000 per unit. These items may include laboratory supplies, office supplies, software purchases/subscriptions, and other expendables.

5012: Contractual Services

Contractual services include vendor agreements, consultant fees, honorariums, and participant costs for community members or non-UNO students. UNO employees and students cannot be paid via contractual service fees. A vendor classification form must be uploaded with the budget approval.

5012: Subawards $25,000 and under

Subawards are awards provided by UNO to a partner agency for carrying out part of the award received by UNO. The first $25,000 paid to any subrecipient will be charged facility & administrative (F&A) costs. UNO employees and students cannot be paid via subawards. Letters of commitment must be provided by all subrecipients, and a subrecipient classification form must be uploaded with the budget approval.

5012: Subawards over $25,000

Subawards are awards provided by UNO to a partner agency for carrying out part of the award received by UNO. Any funds paid to a subrecipient that exceed $25,000 will not be charged facility & administrative (F&A) costs. UNO employees and students cannot be paid via subawards. Letters of commitment must be provided by all subrecipients, and a subrecipient classification form must be uploaded with the budget approval.

5010: Other Charges

Other charges include funds that do not fit into other categories, such as registration fees and stipends for individuals not employed by or enrolled at UNO. If stipends are being paid to UNO employees, include those costs as additional salary or wage. If stipends are being paid to UNO students, include those costs in Scholarships & Awards.

5021: Scholarships & Awards

Scholarships and awards are funds paid to support UNO students, including participant costs. Financial awards to UNO students are disbursed through Student Financial Aid and initiated via the Award Request Form.

5021: Graduate Assistant Tuition

Graduate assistant tuition includes tuition, mandatory fees, and graduate enhancement fees for graduate student enrollment at UNO. Graduate tuition must be included for GAs working in the Fall or Spring semesters. Include the projected tuition increases. Calculations assume the minimum full-time enrollment of 9 hours in the Fall and Spring and no hours in the Summer. See the Bursar's website for the current amounts, and contact the Graduate School with questions.

5004: Equipment under $5,000

Refer to the distinction between supplies and equipment. Equipment includes multiple-use items that cost at least $1,000 per unit. Items costing less than $5,000 per unit are tracked separately and will be charged facility & administrative (F&A) costs. Equipment costing less than $5,000 per unit must be categorized and then tagged as equipment at UNO, but many sponsors consider these items to be supplies for the purposes of their budget categories.

5004: Equipment $5,000 and more

Refer to the distinction between supplies and equipment. Equipment includes multiple-use items that cost at least $1,000 per unit. Items costing $5,000 or more per unit are tracked separately and will not be charged facility & administrative (F&A) costs.

Participant Costs

A participant is an individual receiving a service or training opportunity from a short-term, information-sharing activity funded by a sponsored award. Participants are not responsible for implementation of an award and are not committing effort to the award activities. Examples of participants may include those participating in outreach programs or providing their perspectives/input as part of a program. UNO employees may not be paid as participants.

Participant costs include stipends or subsistence allowances, travel allowances, and registration fees paid to or on behalf of participants (as defined above) in connection with conferences or training projects. Typically, these expenses are incurred for projects that include an educational or outreach component. Participant costs should be directly attributable to an individual participant rather than to all participants collectively—i.e., costs should be calculated per individual.

Participant costs do not include expenses incurred to incent or enable research subjects to participate in studies, such as gift cards, stipends, dependent care costs, parking fees, or transportation. Honoraria paid to guest speakers or program facilitators are not considered participant costs. Follow the guidelines above for categorizing these expenses.

Type of Expense	Is it a participant cost?
Registration fees for recipient of a training program	YES
Incentives for research subjects	NO
Honoraria for guest speakers	NO

 

Participant costs will be tracked in a separate grant and will not be charged F&A. Prior approval from the sponsor is necessary to change an awarded budget for participant costs.

In UNO's Budget Generator and templates, Participant Costs are entered into a separate column from the other Agency Requested costs, ensuring F&A will not be charged.

• To pay UNO students: Enter the amount into the “5021: Scholarships & Awards” budget category row for the “Participant Costs” column.
• To pay others: Enter the amount into the “5012: Contractual Services” budget category row for the “Participant Costs” column.

Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC)

Modified total direct costs (MTDC) are the portion of direct costs that may be used to assess facility & administrative (F&A) costs. MTDC includes direct salaries and wages, applicable payroll benefits, materials and supplies, services, travel, and up to the first $50,000 of each subaward (regardless of the period of performance of the subawards under the award).

MTDC excludes equipment costing $5,000 or more per item, capital expenditures, charges for patient care, rental costs, tuition remission, scholarships and fellowships, participant support costs, and the portion of each subaward in excess of $25,000.

Facility & Administrative (F&A) Costs

F&A costs, also known as "indirect costs" or "overhead," are costs incurred by all projects at UNO that are not readily assignable to any one project, such as utilities, maintenance, administration, etc. F&A costs are not profit for the university, but are the federally-approved method for recovering costs necessary to develop and maintain the infrastructure required to support the research enterprise.

F&A costs are calculated on all direct expenses except equipment costing $5,000 or more per item, fellowships, scholarships, tuition, off-site facility rental costs, and the portion of subawards in excess of $25,000.

It is the policy of the University to charge either the on-campus or off-campus F&A rate on all sponsored projects unless a sponsoring agency's mandated rate will not allow full recovery of costs. Principal investigators must provide documentation from the sponsor confirming an agency's mandated rate if it is less than UNO's rate.

Cost Share

Cost share includes the portion of the project funding that is not provided by the sponsor—the portion that either UNO or a third-party "shares" in the costs. These are real dollars, which may be from the UNO general fund or a restricted fund, but which must be auditable. Cost share dollars may fund faculty time, graduate assistants, supplies, equipment, etc.

Some sponsors require cost share from the applying institution. See the list of potential sources for cost share at UNO.

Each line of cost share must be documented and approved by the cost center manager(s) prior to submission to the sponsor. It is recommended that you contact the appropriate cost share approval source approximately 3 months prior to the application deadline and no less than 8 weeks prior to the deadline.

Voluntary cost share—funds contributed by UNO to a project when a sponsor does not require cost share—will usually not be approved.

Letters of support must be provided for all third-party cost share.

Sponsored award funds may not be used for cost share contributions without prior written approval from both the benefiting and contributing award sponsors. Any federal flow-through awards used for cost share must have prior written approval from both the federal sponsor and the flow-through sponsor.

Summer Salary

Summer salary is entered as regular salary in UNO budget templates.

UNO faculty members are allowed up to 60 workdays (3 months) of pay for summer research. The number of allowed summer research days decreases based on the number of credits taught during the summer. The breakdown is as follows:

Summer Credit Load	0	1	2	3	4	5	6
Available for Research
Days	60	53	47	40	33	27	20
Months	3	2.65	2.35	2	1.65	1.35	1

 

According to AP-RE-02, the total compensation from all UNO sources cannot exceed ([Academic Base Salary] + [3/9 of Academic Base Salary]) x 1.30.

For example, if a faculty member makes $50,000 a year, then their total compensation from all UNO sources cannot exceed $86,666 in a year based on the calculation ($50,000 + $16,666.66) x 1.3.

The policy allows for faculty to collect their full annual salary plus the maximum allowable summer salary with an additional 30% of that total.

Supplies vs. Equipment

Use the following guidelines when classifying supplies, equipment, and other materials.

Note that supplies and equipment are classified based on the cost of each unit rather than on the total spent.

For example:

• If you wish to spend $10,000 on consumable testing kits that cost $100 each, the $10,000 would be categorized as supplies based on the $100-per-unit cost.
• If you wish to spend $5,500 on one laboratory device, the $5,500 would be categorized as equipment $5,000 and more based on the $5,500-per-unit cost.

Budget Category	5015: Supplies	5004: Equipment under $5,000	5004: Equipment  $5,000 & more
Description	Consumable or expendable items	Multiple-use items likely to be replaced over time	Multiple-use items likely to be repaired over time
Cost	$0-$999.99 per unit*	$1,000-$4,999.99 per unit	$5,000+ per unit
Example	Software licenses*	Laptops	Servers
F&A Costs	Yes	Yes	No
Sponsor Category	Sponsors also typically classify these materials as supplies. Some sponsors ask for software to be broken out into its own category.	Most sponsors actually classify these materials as supplies! However, UNO considers these materials to be equipment for inventory and insurance purposes. Make the distinction clear for both the sponsor and UNO in your budget justification, and place these costs in the appropriate sponsor categories.	Sponsors also typically classify these materials as equipment.

*Note that different criteria in the chart will take precedence at different times:

• Software licenses will always be classified as supplies, regardless of the cost of the license. Even a $20,000 perpetual license would be classified as supplies.
• Items costing less than $1,000 per unit will always be classified as supplies, regardless of how many times the item may be used.
• Items that will be consumed after one use will always be classified as supplies, regardless of the per unit cost.

Follow this flow chart to make your determination:

Question	Answer/Action
Is the item a software license?	Yes — classify as Supplies
Is the item less than $1,000 per unit?	Yes — classify as Supplies
Is the item incorporated into another item?	Yes — classify as Supplies
Does the item last less than a year?	Yes — classify as Supplies
If all answers are "No"...
The item may be classified as equipment.