Proposal Budget Information

DIRECT COSTS

SALARY_AND_WAGES

FACULTY WITH A12 APPOINTMENTS

ANNUAL ESCALATION FACTOR

EMPLOYEE RELATED EXPENSES

OPERATIONS

TRAVEL

CONSULTANTS

TUITION AND FEES

CAPITAL_EQUIPMENT_AND_FACILITY_RENOVATIONS

FOOD

FACILITIES AND ADMINISTRATIVE (F&A) COSTS

Direct costs

In accordance with the ASU Policy on Consistent Treatment of Direct and Facilities & Administrative costs (also referred to as the ASU costing policy), direct costs are those costs that can be identified specifically with a particular sponsored project, or that can be directly assigned to such activities easily with a high degree of accuracy (reference OMB Circular A-21, D.1.) Direct costs may include faculty and technician salaries, ERE, equipment, travel, subcontracts, tuition, and operations as described below.

Salary AND WAGES

• Salary rates for personnel employed on sponsored projects must be consistent with sponsor guidelines as well as the rates paid from university-administered funds.

• Salaries charged to sponsored projects must coincide with the period during which the effort on the project is expended.

• New job classifications and compensations must conform to ASU Human Resources classifications. 

FACULTY WITH A12 APPOINTMENTS

• Faculty who are on the A-12 payment option may receive summer salary, however, they are ineligible to receive or cost share AY salary.  AY course buyouts are also unavailable to A-12 faculty.

• Faculty in A-12 positions (9 over 12) must choose the ACD (9 over 9) option by the posted spring deadline prior to the FY in which  they wish to receive or cost share AY salary or buy out courses.  Those who miss the annual deadline will not be eligible for AY salary, AY cost sharing or course buyouts until the following year FY.

BUDGETING SALARY

Normally only salary for faculty, technicians, research associates and assistants, post doctoral associates and other technical or programmatic personnel that are necessary to meet the goals of the project are allowed as direct costs.  Inclusion of administrative and clerical salaries in the direct costs require compliance with ASU's CAS exception practices.  All salaries must be fully justified in the budget narrative. 

Budget Graduate Research Assistant/Associate salaries within the Arizona Board of Regents range as set by each college.  Contact the college’s Business Manager for the approved rates.

Budget hourly undergraduate and graduate student wages at rates between ASU's minimum wage of $7.65 per hour and the ASU maximum of $50.00 per hour (effective 12/26/11).  Increases may be added based on experience.  Contact Student Employment Office at 5-5186 for further information about on-campus student employee compensation.

List the amount of time to be spent by each ASU employee who will work on the project and the rate of pay. Time can be shown in percent of effort; number of months; or  in person-hours (days, weeks or months).  Percent of full-time effort or number of months is the preferred method. Arizona State University’s accounting system does not calculate salaries based on hourly rates nor does it have the capability of providing itemized invoices to a sponsor that tracks hourly rates for audit purposes.  ASU calculations are based on salaries as reported in the University’s Human Resource payroll system and fringe benefit rates as provided in ASU’s federally-negotiated rate agreement. Any rates per hour provided to the sponsor are for evaluation purposes only. 

Annual Escalation Factor

Mandatory: Unless expressly prohibited in writing by the sponsor, a 3% escalation factor for salaries must be budgeted for each year of the project.

Strongly recommended: 3% escalation be applied to each budget category.

Employee related expenses (ERE, also called Fringe Benefits)

*If any one of an employee’s jobs is benefits eligible, the employee will be provided benefits and all active jobs will be charged ERE based on the employee class. Benefits eligibility is determined by examining the duration (permanence) of the job and the FTE. When an employee's overall employment from all ASU sources will be less than .50 FTE, the employee will not be benefits eligible. However, an employee can have a .50 or greater FTE job and still not be benefits eligible. A job with duration classified as short-term temporary, seasonal or PRN will not be benefits eligible regardless of FTE. Please refer to the guide here for further details.

A detailed breakdown of the approved ERE rates for FY12 is available here.

Impact of New ERE rates on budget development and awards:

• Proposals submitted after April 1, 2011 must use the new ERE rates and the 3% escalation factor for salary and ERE budget categories.

• New awards that are the result of proposals that were submitted on or before March 31, 2011, will be grandfathered with the former ERE rates

• Existing grants are grandfathered with the former rates until they expire or receive a noncompetitve renewal

• Existing grants that are awarded through a competitive renewal must use the new ERE rates and the 3% escalation factor for salary and ERE budget categories.

Information on historical ERE rates is found in this reference document.

OPERATIONS

Starred costs (*) such as office supplies, application fees, and routine postage are normally considered F&A (indirect) costs and can only be budgeted as direct if an “unlike circumstance” exists as described in the RSP 508-01, Charging Direct and Facilities & Administrative Costs to Sponsored Projects.  A strong justification which documents the unlike circumstances must be included in the proposal's budget narrative.  Budgets which do not include the required documentation will be disallowed.

Refer to the ASU Expenditure Codes for assistance in determining the appropriate budget category.

TRAVEL

Follow ASU Travel Policy FIN 500 to budget travel expenses.  There are seven established per diem rates, ranging from $34.00-$59.00 per day, depending on the travel destination.  Lodging also varies according to travel destination.  The reimbursement structure and the Meals/Lodging Index are published in FIN 509 and are available on the ASU Travel Website.  For foreign travel per diems, visit the US General Services Administration website.

Transportation costs may be calculated by estimating round-trip airfare or - if driving - by using the Travel Services' website to determine the mileage reimbursement rate.  Budget justifications for the proposed travel should include a) the number of persons traveling, b) the number of days in travel status, c) purpose of the travel, and d) a breakdown of costs.  Foreign travel should be budgeted and justified separately.

CONSULTANTS

Consultant fees must be reasonable and comparable in the field of expertise.  For specific sponsor limitations see the application guidelines for that sponsor/program.   Include the following information in the budget justification: 

• Name of consultant
• Number of consulting hours
• Consultant hourly rate
• What the consultant will do for the project
• Why this particular consultant is important to the project
• How the project benefits from this consulting

TUITION AND FEES

A) GRADUATE STUDENTS RECEIVING SALARY (via expenditure code 7110)

Tuition and fees should be budgeted in the “Other” category.  Tuition remission is normally NOT subject to F&A (indirect costs).  Please refer to the F&A sitelet (http://researchadmin.asu.edu/fa) for additional guidance on when to charge F&A on tuition costs. Tuition remission must be charged in proportion to the effort of the GRA.  Based upon the Graduate College policy, GRA effort during the AY cannot exceed 20 hours per week and is thus considered 100% effort.  The tuition amount below assumes a GRA AY effort of 100% (20 hours per week).  During the summer, GRA effort of 100% can equate up to 40 hours per week.
 

Escalate Tuition at 8% per year for out years

*Grandfathered awards should budget tuition as part of ERE.   All other applications (new, noncompeting, supplements and renewals, including those pending award, where a revised budget is requested by the sponsor, should budget tuition separately from ERE.

Information on historical tuition remission rates is found in this reference document.

B) GRADUATE STUDENTS RECEIVING STIPENDS (via expenditure codes 7700)

Do not use the blended rates above.   Use ASU’s standard tuition rates.  Verify the residency status of the graduate student and then budget the appropriate in-state or out-of state rate.

NOTE: All amounts shown in the Tuition and Fees Schedules or in other University publications or web pages represent tuition and fees as currently approved. However, Arizona State University reserves the right to increase or modify tuition and fees without prior notice, upon approval by the Arizona Board of Regents or as otherwise consistent with Board policy and to make such modifications applicable to students enrolled at ASU at that time as well as to incoming students. In addition, all tuition amounts and fees are subject to change at any time for correction of errors.

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT AND FACILITY Renovations

Separately list any major equipment purchase of $5,000 or more.  Include an additional 7% for in-state sales tax or 5% out-of-state use tax (exclusive of R & D equipment qualifying for tax exemption) plus any applicable shipping, insurance, and installation charges.  These costs cannot, however, be considered in determining whether an item is capitalized as equipment.  Equipment rental should be listed as operational costs.  Computer software is not considered as capital unless valued in excess of $50,000.  Exception: Some sponsors (such as DOE, Sandia, etc.) do consider software as capital.  Including the basis of the equipment figures, telephone quotes, vendor catalog prices or bids strengthens capital budget requests.  Facility renovations equal to or in excess of $100,000 are capitalized.

FOOD

Budgeting of food (i.e. meals, snacks, beverages) on sponsored projects is allowable if the following conditions are met:

• The sponsor has no stipulations against food being direct charged to their project.
• The food is specifically budgeted and the budget justification clearly explains how the food is necessary to complete the scope of work. To justify the food as necessary, consider:
• Is the food central to the sponsored project … e.g., testing, nutrition, labeling, marketing, demonstrating, etc?
• Is the food part of a formal business meeting and an integral part of the meeting, human subject study, or formal training session? 

A lunch speaker is presenting on a topic specifically related to the meeting/training; 

Obtaining meals away from the meeting or training location would be disruptive to event continuity;

Scheduling conflicts only permit the meeting or training to be held over meal times;

Length of the meeting or training does not provide sufficient time for meals away from the event;

Meals or snacks are required due to the timing or location of the human subjects’ participation in the project.

•  Is attendance by the individual(s) advantageous to ASU and specific to carrying out the current objectives of the sponsored project?          

Dissemination/Exchange of technical information         

Formal training of participants

•  Collection of human subject data 

Food is always unallowable for:

• Standard/general/recurring staff, lab, and departmental meetings;
• Proposal preparation discussions/meetings;
• Meetings to discuss goals beyond the currently approved objectives;
• Entertainment or social activities;
• Alcohol; or,
• Projects whose sponsor explicitly prohibit food.

If purchase food for one of these activities was intended, please STOP and REMOVE the cost.

Budgets and/or requests which do not provide sufficient justification to determine if the food is in compliance with ASU's FIN 402-02 as well as sponsor and  OMB A-21 regulations cannot be included in proposals or expended from sponsored accounts.

FACILITIES AND ADMINISTRATIVE (F&A) COSTS

Facilities & Administrative (F&A) costs are those costs that are incurred for common or joint objectives and therefore cannot be identified readily or specifically with a particular sponsored project normally including most administrative/clerical salaries, office supplies, basic telephone  service, computers, iPads, cell phones, and routine postage in addition to other indirect costs (OMB Circular A-21.E.1)

For proposals which use the full federally negotiated rate, the Modifed Total Direct Costs (MTDC) base is used.   A Total Direct Costs (TDC) base is required for all sponsors who publish an F&A rate less than ASU's standard rate (or full F&A rate) and do not stipulate any direct cost category exclusions. 

Please visit the F&A sitelet to learn more about budgeting the correct rates and base.