The budget plan is the financial expression of the project or program as approved during the award process. After a grant or contract has been awarded, the PI may determine that the approved budget allocations are not consistent with actual project needs. S/he may request the formal reallocation of funds from one spending category to another category that better reflects the project requirements. This process is called rebudgeting or budget revision.
All rebudgeting needs the approval of the Office of Research Administration (ORA).
(Note: Rebudgeting may have an effect on F&A (Indirect) Costs (see below))
Rebudgeting for Grants
When research is underway, it may be necessary to rebudget certain categories or amounts. When a PI needs to make these adjustments, in most cases prior approval for rebudgeting is required by the ORA and/or funding agency.
Tufts Sponsored Programs Accounting (SPA) office has compiled guidelines on approvals required for rebudgeting on federal grants.
Rebudgeting that Impacts F&A (Indirect Cost):
Certain budget categories do not generate F&A:
Capital equipment equal to or greater than $5000
Tuition/Scholarships/Fellowships
Subcontracts over the first $25,000
NSF participant support
Rental costs of an off-site facility
Please be aware of the following when a rebudget includes these items:
- If the rebudget transfers money from a non-F&A bearing budget item (such as equipment) to an F&A bearing item (such as materials), the F&A dollar amount will increase in order to maintain the contracted F&A percentage. (See Example 1 below)
Example 1: Suppose a grant has a capital equipment budget of $10,000 and an F&A rate of 56%. If only $8,000 was spent for equipment the PI would most likely want to spend the remaining $2,000 on other materials. This is acceptable; however the $2,000 balance in equipment will need to be rebudgeted between materials and F&A since the materials purchases will generate F&A. Sponsored Programs Accounting can assist with these rebudgeting calculations. In this scenario, the $2,000 would be rebudgeted so that $1,282 would be added to materials and $718 added to F&A ($1,282 + $718 = $2,000)
- If the rebudget transfers money from an F&A bearing budget item (such as materials) to a non F&A bearing budget item (such as equipment), the F&A dollar amount will decrease in order to maintain the contracted F&A percentage. When the F&A amount goes down, BFO (Budget and Fiscal Officer for your administrative area) approval may be required. (See Example 2 below)
Example 2: Suppose a grant has a capital equipment budget of $10,000 and an F&A rate of 56%. If $12,000 was spent on equipment a rebudget would need to be done to reduce the F&A dollar amount since the additional $2,000 spent on equipment does not generate F&A. Sponsored Programs Accounting can assist with the rebudgeting calculations. In this scenario, the F&A budget would be reduced by $1,120 (56% of $2,000) that could be reallocated to the equipment budget. As noted above, in this case, BFO approval may be required. Please contact your SPA representative who will advise you if BFO approval is needed.