Budget justification worksheet

Illustrative worksheet, reviewed 2026-10-01. Replace placeholders with documented institutional rates, quotes and applicant-approved activities. The examples below are synthetic arithmetic, not current salaries, market prices, agency caps, commitments, or an agency-approved form. Use the solicitation's categories and attachment limits.

Basis and applicable rules

• Agency, opportunity, amendment and form package: [identifier/version]
• Budget periods and currency: [dates/currency]
• Organization and award instrument: [type]
• Direct-cost cap and whether consortium F&A is excluded: [rule/source]
• Salary cap, date and covered personnel: [rule/source]
• Capitalization threshold/useful life: [institution/agency rule]
• F&A rate, base, location, agreement and effective dates: [agreement]
• Subaward amount included in that base: [rule]
• Cost-share fraction and denominator, if required: [rule/source]

NIH modular submissions have separate personnel, consortium and additional narrative justifications: keep salary/fringe rates in the internal worksheet, not the submitted modular personnel narrative. See NIH budget guidance.

Personnel

Explain why the effort is necessary and reconcile it with other commitments. For a 12-month appointment, calendar effort fraction = calendar months / 12. Do not use that denominator for a nine-month academic salary without the correct appointment conversion.

Synthetic example: $120,000 annual salary × (2.5 / 12) = $25,000 requested salary. If the applicable annual cap is lower than institutional salary, apply the cap to the chargeable salary basis while retaining actual effort. Apply allowable fringe using the approved rate/basis. The salary cap is not a cap on total compensation.

An employee postdoc uses institutional salary and fringe; an NRSA stipend table is not automatically an employee salary schedule. Graduate salary/stipend, tuition and fringe must be categorized under the applicable instructions, not hidden in F&A.

Equipment, supplies, services and travel

For each item document:

• Need: [task requiring it; why available facilities are insufficient]
• Calculation: [quantity × unit cost, quote/date and currency]
• Classification: [equipment, supply, service or other category and rationale]
• Allocation: [project share, other users, budget period]

Equipment classification depends on the applicable agency rules and institution's capitalization policy. Do not assume a universal $5,000 threshold. Separate maintenance and service contracts when required rather than capitalizing every associated payment.

For travel, specify purpose, travelers, trip/year, destination if known, and the basis for airfare, lodging, subsistence, registration and local transport. Confirm conference dates separately. Synthetic annual schedule:

Participant support

Describe the training/conference activity, eligible participants, support type and unit calculation. Do not classify an employee or project worker as a participant just because the person is a student. Separate research-subject incentives from training participant support. Apply the agency's approval and F&A treatment to the actual category. Use selection procedures consistent with the opportunity and current agency policy; do not copy demographic quotas from a sample justification.

Data sharing and publication

Estimate repository, curation, preservation, access and dissemination costs separately. Synthetic example: 2 planned articles × $3,000 estimated fee = $6,000, not $12,000. Replace the fee with a dated quote if needed. NIH public-access compliance does not require purchasing gold open access: NIH's policy uses PubMed Central deposit. Do not invent journal acceptance or assume subscription publishing has no possible charges.

Subawards and consultants

State the collaborator's approved scope, deliverables, effort, periods and total costs. Obtain the required independent budget/justification and actual commitment evidence. Identify consultants' role, days/hours, documented rate and deliverables. Distinguish a subrecipient performing programmatic work from a vendor selling goods or services.

NIH has no blanket 8% domestic-subaward F&A limit. Foreign collaborations require checking the current NIH structure instead of assuming a nested foreign subaward is permitted. NSF normally prohibits voluntary committed cost sharing. DOE cost share and lab-funding arrangements depend on the NOFO and instrument.

Indirect costs

List each excluded category and why it is excluded under the applicable agreement. MTDC is not simply total direct cost minus equipment or consortium F&A. NIH's 2026 exception to revised MTDC rules means a generic federal $50,000 subaward threshold must not be copied to NIH.

Synthetic example assuming an agreement using only the first $25,000 of each subaward in MTDC, one $100,000 subaward, and a 57% rate:

If an otherwise identical agreement includes the first $50,000, the base is $170,000, F&A $96,900 and total $396,900. These are alternative assumptions, not a choice to maximize recovery. The subaward cap is cumulative for the agreement's specified period, not automatically reset every year.

Cost sharing, if required

If the nonfederal share r is a fraction of total project cost, calculate: nonfederal = federal_request * r / (1 - r). For $800,000 federal and 20% of total, share is $200,000 and total is $1,000,000. Record sources, dates, valuation, authority and allowable cash/in-kind contributions. Do not include unapproved commitments or count the same cost in multiple awards.

Final reconciliation

Check salary effort and appointment units; fringe and F&A bases; line, category, year and project totals; subaward thresholds across years; caps; and documented rate dates. Reconcile narrative tasks, personnel, budget tables, partner documents and portal totals. Delete worksheet instructions and hypothetical examples before preparing the final agency-specific attachment. Unresolved rates or eligibility remain explicit gaps.