Level of Budget Detail FAQs

Yes, they will be using LOBD. CCO will continue to follow the sponsor approved budget and any restrictions the award or sponsor have imposed.

No, this is a change in our approach to award management.  All the rules for expenditures being allowable, allocable, and reasonable still apply.

If there is a specific cost category that the Department/PI needs to manage a BJE can be submitted to move funds from a general category to a specific account code, i.e., general operating to MRI.

No, as long as they are not items the sponsor expects us to segregate from the main award.  When costs, such as tuition, are incurred they will be identified in the correct account code and IDC will not be charged (this is programmed in PS).   We will continue to separate participant support costs and subaward costs into separate projects as we have always done.

When a multi-year project receives only part of the first year of funding and the ‘unfunded award’ budget line is used it can make the award appear to be in deficit preventing departments from doing cost transfers. The impact in some cases comes from the fully encumbered F&A.

A procedure will be developed to avoid cost transfer approvers from disapproving transfers in these situations.

Yes, CCO and OCG will provide information on this new methodology in several venues and host training sessions for central office and campus staff and PIs.

The department can move operating budget to the fringe benefits using a BJE.

Yes, however only when there are no sponsor restrictions. Funds budgeted for participant costs and subawards are considered restricted and may not be transferred using a BJE. Contact OCG to obtain sponsor approvals if you wish to re-budget these or other sponsor-restricted funds.

Send a request for assistance to spa@colorado.edu.

Currently we anticipate no change to the workflow.

Currently we anticipate no changes to user access or roles.

A webform is under development for submission of those requests and the goal is to receive the requests before CCO Setup has finished with the award setup.

A new “Extra” is being added to some of the m-Fin reports. Currently, the m-Fin Revenue & Expenditure Summary has this option. When running the report, under “Extras” check the box for “GM Sponsor Budget” to show a column for the original budget as entered by CCO. Compare this to the “Total Budget” column which reflect all budget transactions, including those moved through the BJE process.

View LOBD and mFin Reports for more information.

Individual users can be checked. At this time, there is no check that can be run system-wide.

Proposal budgets are submitted to the sponsor with the level of detail required by the sponsor. Proposal Analysts determine what cost estimation tool to use based on sponsor requirements. Cost estimation tools will continue to be used as needed because sponsors may require detail in the budget justification or the proposal and some require that backup details be submitted when the award is pending but not yet issued.

The approved entry will be reflected in the CU-Data m-Fin reports the next business day.

An m-Fin report will be reviewed of the current budget, the actuals, and budget balance to date. If there is budget available and the cost transfer is not greater than this amount, the entry would be approved.

Using the example below, if the cost transfer is not greater than $33,611 direct cost with the F&A at 54%, the entry would be approved.


Available Balance

  Budget
(A)
Actuals
(B)
Budget Bal
(C=A-B)
Encumbs
(D)
Available Balance
(E=A-B-D)
Expeditures Budget 217,857.00   217,857.00   217,857.00
Expenditures Acutals    166,094.95 (166,094.95)   (166,094.95)
Payroll Encumbs       5,326.17 (5,326.17)
PO & Req Encumbs       3,000.00 (3,000.00)
F & A Encumbs       106,692.39 (106,692.39)
Total 217,857.00 166,094.95 51,762.05 115,018.56 Stop
(63,256.51)