KEY CONCEPTS IN BUDGETING

For the purposes of proposal budgeting:

Academic Calendar: 9/1 - 5/31
Summer Calendar: 6/1 - 8/31
Calendar Year: Use the full budget period

• There will likely be multiple entries per person either for AY or summer effort. *See below for Scenarios
• Cost of Living Increases (COLAS) are calculated on July 1.
• Cumulative grant year effort should begin and end with the proposed project periods.
• Object Codes drive and assign the appropriate fringe benefit rate.
• Key Concept: Salary is entered with % of effort and not months (the system will do the translation to months for sponsor forms).

EXAMPLE SCENARIOS (This does not apply to faculty with Calendar Year [12M] Appointments)

• The start date is in the Academic Year and a faculty member is budgeting both Academic and Summer effort. You need TWO Academic entries and ONE Summer entry:

 

• The start date is in the Academic Year and a faculty member is budgeting only Academic effort. You need two Academic entries and no Summer entries:

 

• The start date is in the Academic Year and a faculty member is budgeting only Summer effort. You need only one Summer entry:

 

• The start date is in the Summer and faculty member is budget Academic and Summer effort. You need two Summer entries and one Academic entry:

 

• The start date is in the Summer and faculty member is budgeted for only Academic effort. You need only one Academic entry:

 

• Start date is in the summer and faculty member is budgeted for only summer. You need two Summer entries and no Academic entries:

 

AUTOCALCULATING – REPLICATING BUDGET PERIODS

• Kuali will replicate budget periods either by selecting clicking on “Autocalculate Periods” in the upper right hand corner of the Budget screen. Alternately, it will also ask you if you’d like to Autocalculate periods when you hit the Save and Continue after adding all your non-personnel entries into the first budget period.
  • NOTE: Once you click on the “Autocalculate Periods” button and confirm this process, than the button will disappear. However, if you delete ALL costs (including non-personnel) in the out years, the “Autocalculate button will reappear.
    • Non-personnel items can ALWAYS be extended into the out years by clicking on the line items “Details” screen and selecting the “Save and Apply to Other Periods” button.
  • NOTE: If you have a cost item that is only for one year it may be preferred to auto calculate first, then add the entry. Otherwise, you will need to delete those items in the other years.

SUBAWARDS

Kuali ZenDesk Proposal Budget - Subawards

• Subaward costs should be added to the Subaward tab. DO NOT add subaward values via the Non Personnel tab. These costs will then be added to the overall budget. For S2S proposals, make sure you upload the subrecipient R&R Budget into this screen.

PRINTING BUDGET & EXPORTING TO EXCEL

• The quickest and easiest way to share the budget with your PI is to navigate to the Summary Budget tab, expand all of the fields, select all table rows and then copy and paste the table into Excel. Formulas will not populate.
• To print a detailed PDF budget, click Budget Versions in the upper right hand corner, then click on the Action dropdown menu and select Print. Various budget reports will be available to print. 1 Budget Costshare Summary Report (if the budget includes cost-share) or 4 Budget Summary Report are good options that show the most detail. Select 5 Budget Summary Total Report to get a one page overview of the budget.

SUBAWARDS

View the Kuali Knowledge Base (ZenDesk) Proposal Budget - Subawards for step by step instructions and visual guidance.

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Add Subrecipients in ORGANIZATIONS & LOCATIONS Tab

1. Always add subrecipients (previously called subcontractors) in the Other Organizations tab.
2. Click the blue Add Organization button to search for your subrecipient organization.
3. If the organization is not in the system, use the Organization (Subrecipient) Request Form to have it added.
4. If this is a Grants.gov proposal, don’t forget to add the Congressional District.
   1. Click the white + Add Congressional District button.
5. Be sure to check the Yes, this proposal includes subawards box on the Sponsor & Program Information screen

NOTE: If there is no UEI Number listed, then you will need to make a request to R&E Help Desk to have it added.

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Add Subrecipient Key Personnel in PERSONNEL Section if required

1. This step is not required or desired if the proposal is not being submitted S2S.
2. Click the blue Add Personnel button.
3. Select Non-Employee.
4. Search for the subrecipient personnel or manually add the person in the Address Book by clicking Add New Address Book in in the upper right corner.
5. Fill out as much detail as possible including; Email, Phone and Address including 9-digit zip code.
6. Once added or selected, assign the role of Key Person and identify their role. Examples: Subrecipient PI, Subrecipient CO-I, etc.
7. Do not assign any non-UMass Amherst personnel the PI or Co-PI role. They must be assigned as a Key Person only. 

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Add the Subrecipient to the KUALI BUDGET under SUBAWARDS Tab

1. Click the white + Add Subaward button.
2. Search for Subrecipient Organization.
3. Once the organization is added, you can manually add the Direct and F&A Costs for each subrecipient for each year.
4. If a detailed R&R Subaward Budget Form is required (as when you are submitting a detailed NIH budget), upload the completed fillable R&R budget form. See also S2S Proposals - Using the Correct R&R Subaward Budget for more information.
5. Subrecipient cost will then be populated in the UMass Prime Budget.

Overview: Follow the instructions below to copy a proposal in the Kuali Proposal Development module in order to create a Revised Budget proposal. See also Kuali Knowledge Base article: Proposal - Copy.

STEP 1: Log in to Kuali and navigate to Common Tasks. Under Proposal Development, click Search Proposals and find your original proposal. Under the Actions column, select copy.

You can also copy an open Proposal Development record by clicking COPY in the top navigation bar.

STEP 2: The Copy to New Document dialog box will be displayed (if you use the second method to copy, the dialog box will be titled Copying this single proposal but will have the same selection choices). Select the Lead Unit from the drop down list. Check the box next to Yes. Include budget(s). If you need to include the attachments then click the box next to Yes. Include attachments. The Yes. Include questionnaires box will already be checked. Click Copy.

 

STEP 3: The Proposal Details screen will be displayed. Review the information that was copied from the original submission. Select Revised Budget from the dropdown list next to Proposal Type. A new field named Original Institutional Proposal ID was created when you selected Revised Budget.

 

STEP 4: Click the magnifying glass next to the Original Institutional Proposal ID field. The Institutional Proposal Lookup dialog box will appear.

 

Step 5: Type the PI’s name in the Proposal Person field. Click Search.

 

STEP 6: A list of the PI’s proposals will be returned. Under the Actions column, select the record for the original proposal – review carefully. Click Save.

 

The Original Institutional Proposal ID field has been populated.

 

STEP 7: Navigate to the Delivery Info screen and indicate how the revised budget will be submitted. Click Save.

 

STEP 8: Navigate to the Sponsor & Program Information screen and complete the Sponsor deadline and Sponsor Deadline Type fields.

 

STEP 9: Navigate to the Budget tab and revise the budget.

STEP 10: Load any necessary documents to the Attachments section. Remove any that are no longer relevant.

STEP 11: Complete the Revised Budget Questionnaire under the Questionnaire section. If the budget change is 25% or greater, the proposal will get re-routed for internal approvals. Otherwise, it will by-pass routing.

 

STEP 12: Once finished, navigate to the Summary/Submit screen and click the Submit for Review button.

Overview: Follow the instructions below to update proposal and budget periods for a proposal in the Kuali Proposal Development module.

STEP 1 – Search for your proposal and click Edit to open it in modify mode. The proposal should open with Proposal Details as the default display.

 

STEP 2 – To modify the proposal start and end dates, in the Proposal Details section click in the first Project Dates field (the start date) and override the existing date with the new start date. Then repeat the step for the end date field. Click Save at the bottom of the screen to save your changes.

 

STEP 3 – Once you change the project start and end date in the Proposal Details section, you will need to carry this change to the Budget dates. Navigate to the Budget screen and then click the blue hyperlink for the Budget Version you are currently working on.

 

STEP 4 – Once inside the correct Budget Version, navigate to the Periods & Totals section. When you access this panel, you will see that the Period Start and End Dates reflect the original Project Dates (the dates before the change in the Proposal Details section).

 

STEP 5 – Kuali does NOT automatically update the Budget start and end date after the proposal start and end dates have been modified. To modify the Budget dates so they match the dates in the Proposal Details section, click the Reset to period defaults button.

 

STEP 6 – A message should pop up that states: “Changing the budget period dates will result in changes being made to line item Expenses & recalculation of the budget. Do you want to proceed?” Click Yes.

 

STEP 7 – You will notice the Periods & Totals panel will be updated with the new budget periods:

 

Step 8 – Next Navigate to the Rates section and click the Sync All Rates button in the upper right.

 

STEP 9 – Next you will need to update the start and end dates of the Personnel Cost elements. Navigate to the Assign Personnel to Periods section to make the required changes.

 

As you can see here the dates for the calendar year appointment have changed appropriately to the updated start and end dates. However, the summer salary for the PI has simply shifted forward one month in accordance with the one month shift in our start date. Therefore, we need to update the summer salary start and end dates to match our correct summer period (June 1^st through August 31^st). This will also occur with academic salary appointments.

STEP 10 – Click the Details button and adjust the associated start and end dates as necessary.

 

Repeat Step 9 for all academic and summer appointments within your budget to ensure accuracy.

Overview: Sponsors sometimes require specific budget period start and end dates that are not aligned with standard 12-month project year start and end dates. Kuali has great flexibility when setting up non- standard budget periods (i.e. shorter or longer than 12 month periods). However, there are some key steps to take to be sure that budgets calculate as expected.

STEP 1 - Enter the overall start and end dates in Kuali under Basics > Proposal Details.

 

STEP 2 - Create a summary or detailed budget as needed. Click Periods & Totals to see the Period Start and End Dates that Kuali automatically creates. Note that the default is that all periods are for one year.

 

STEP 3 - Adjust all period dates before adding any costs. Adjust the dates in chronological order to avoid gaps in time. Save before adding additional budget periods. Kuali will warn you if the periods are not set up correctly. Click Save or Save and Continue. Below you can see that we now have a shorter first and last period.

 

For Graduate and Undergraduate Employees on Week-Based Appointments:

• In order to accurately enter the effort percentage for graduate students in Kuali, you must calculate based on hours/week during the time frame in question. The easiest way to do this is:
  
  Hours per week effort budgeted /40-hour week = % effort to enter in Kuali
   
• What if the student is working seven hours per week during the summer, but you only have one summer month available in one budget period and two summer months in another budget period? 7/40 = 17.5%, so enter 17.5% for each time frame regardless of length.
• What if the PI asks to budget a student at less than 38 AY weeks or less than 14 summer weeks? Just figure out the total number of hours that will be worked and divide by the number of hours available during that time frame. For example:
  
  10 hours x 8 weeks = 80 hours = 25%
  40 hours x 8 weeks = 320 hours
   
• Alternatively, you can also use the Kuali Salary Guide’s Graduate Student Calculator and adjust the number of weeks in the boxes highlighted in a peach color.

• Please note that the weeks highlighted in green should NEVER exceed those that are highlighted in peach. In fact, you should only change the numbers highlighted in peach when you have a period that is less than 12 months. 
• Once you have changed the weeks column that is highlighted in peach to represent the proper number of academic weeks and summer weeks in your shortened period, you can then move forward and use the graduate student calculator as it was originally intended.

Remember to enter the effort for the entire first year of the project, not just the first budget period if less than 12 months. If the first period is more than 12 months, you will also need to adjust the percentage used to indicate effort in the Key Personnel screen.

Calendar Year Example: On a calendar year appointment the project period is seven months instead of 12 months. Let’s budget one month effort for simplicity sake. Enter the Key Person Calendar Effort as 8.33% (which is 1/12) rather than the amount we entered into the budget in Kuali, which as you might remember, would have been 1/7 or 14.29%.

• Months Calendar Effort as Calculated by Kuali = % Effort for Calendar Effort 12 months

AY Salary Example: If you want to budget one academic month effort for a PI’s Salary but the budget period only includes five academic months available. Enter the Key Person AY Effort as 11.11% (which is 1/9) rather than the amount we entered into the budget in Kuali, which as you might remember, would have been 1/5 or 20%.

• Months Academic Effort as Calculated by Kuali = % Effort for Academic Year Effort 9 months

Summer Salary Example: If you are trying to apply summer effort on a shortened summer period you would use the same logic as above. Again, let’s budget one summer month effort. Now let’s you only have two available summer months. Enter the Key Person Summer Effort as or 33.33% (which is 1/3) rather than the amount we entered into the budget in Kuali, which as you might remember, would have been 1/2 or 50%.

• Months Summer Effort as Calculated by Kuali = % Effort for Calendar Effort 3 months

Example with a Longer Budget Period: If you want to budget eight academic months effort for a PI’s Salary and the budget period is 15 months. When we entered into the budget in Kuali, we would have used 8/15 or 53.33%. Because the rate is the same rate throughout the 12 month period, we would enter the Key Person AY Effort as 53.33%.

Please feel free to reach out to the R&E Help Desk with questions.

Overview: Cost sharing (also known as matching funds) is set up in the Proposal Development Module in Kuali. In some cases, the University requires additional approvals for cost sharing. All cost‐sharing must adhere to University policies and procedures.

Additional approvals are required for cost sharing that exceeds what the sponsor requires in their guidelines (voluntary cost‐sharing), for third party cost sharing (cost share or match provided by another institution), or to change the amount of F&A (indirect cost) charged to the sponsor. Please see our Cost Sharing Requirements and Procedures for more information.

STEP 1 – Create a detailed budget version in Kuali.

 

STEP 2 – Select personnel or non‐personnel costs for cost sharing. We recommend the following cost sharing sources and types in the following order of priority:

1. Tuition Credits
2. Academic Year Salary
3. Unrecovered F&A
4. Graduate student and other non‐faculty salary
5. Other cost share
6. Equipment
7. Third Party Cost Share
8. F&A waiver or reduction

Be aware that cost share funding sources are limited to non‐federal accounts. See list of allowable companion funds for cost share. 

STEP 3 – To cost share personnel costs, select Assign Personnel to Periods. Then click Details.

 

Change the amount of effort being charged to the sponsor.

 

STEP 4 – To cost share other kinds of costs, select Assign Non‐Personnel to add a new cost, or select an existing cost line by clicking Details.

 

Enter the Total Base Cost on the details tab. This is the amount that will be charged to the sponsor. Note: Make sure that Submit cost sharing is checked for all mandatory cost sharing. Uncheck if you don’t want to show the cost share in the budget that goes to the sponsor.

 

Next, click on the Cost Sharing tab and enter the desired dollar value in the Cost Sharing box and then click Save Changes. This is the amount that will be cost‐shared. The Total Base Cost plus the Cost Sharing are added together for the total project cost.

 

STEP 5 – Print Cost Share summary version of budget. Do this by clicking Budget Versions at the top of the screen, then Print on the Actions drop down button for the budget version you want.

 

Select Budget Cost Share Summary Report and click Print. A pdf will download.

 

STEP 6 – Update Institutional Commitments. While in the Budget section of Proposal Development, navigate to the Institutional Commitments tab and click Cost Sharing. The Cost Sharing screen provides a Distribution List section used to allocate any cost sharing committed in the prime or subaward budget to the appropriate source (such as UMass speedtype account).

 

Cost share needs to be allocated both by project period and by the funding source account (speedtype).

• First, delete the rows that Kuali automatically populates here. Then starting with Period 1, add a new row for each funding source. For example, we are cost sharing PI academic salary and fringe, along with the associated indirect costs to meet the sponsor’s 20% cost share requirement. In this case, cost share is mandatory, because the sponsor is requiring it.
• We need to add two rows per project period to account for these two Cost Share Types.
• Because Kuali automatically aggregates the Cost Share totals by project period, you will need to break out different funding sources for each project period.
• For example, Academic Year salary and fringe may be allocated to one account such as the department’s STATE account, while summer salary and fringe may be allocated to the PI’s RTF account.
• Indirect Costs should be allocated as Associated Indirect Costs or Waived F&A if the sponsor does not allow full indirect costs to be charged.

 

Continue the process until all cost share has been allocated. Note: Kuali will generate an error if the Total Unallocated amount is not zero.

Use the Cost Share Comment Box to add approver names and other important information about the cost sharing source. Click Save.

 

If the F&A rate (Indirect Cost Rate), has been reduced from the standard amount, you will need to follow the same procedure to allocate the unrecovered F&A as well. Click Unrecovered F&A to distribute unallocated expenses as needed.