Forms, Policies & Procedures

Budget Revision for Sponsored Awards

Definition/background

The budget plan is the financial expression of the project or program as approved by the sponsor during the award process. During the conduct of a project, the principal investigator may determine that budget changes are necessary to carry-out the project work. Many sponsors allow flexibility in how project funds are expended and permit budget changes needed to meet project requirements. Principal investigators need to be aware of the specific requirements for their awards and to request prior approval for budget changes when the terms and conditions of the sponsor or particular award require it. Revisions to sponsored project budgets that require sponsor prior approval must be reviewed and approved by the Research Office.

Informal rebudgeting occurs when actual expenditures exceed or fall short of the amount budgeted in a specific budget category. If sponsor prior approval is not required by the award terms, it is not required to submit a budget revision-contracts and grants webform to re-align the budget to match actual expenditures.

Procedure when requesting a rebudget of funds on same purpose code:

• To request rebudgeting of funds on a federal or federal flow-through grant or contract:
  1. Complete a FIN Budget Revision – Contracts and Grants webform
  2. All FIN Budget Revision – Contracts and Grants webforms involving federal or federal flow-through awards will automatically route to the Research Office for review and approval
  3. Provide an explanation and justification regarding the rebudget request
  4. If sponsor requires prior approval of budget revisions please note this in the comments
  5. A Research Office Contract & Grant Specialist will review the request and the terms and conditions of the award
  6. If sponsor prior approval is required, the Contract & Grant Specialist will forward the rebudgeting request to the sponsoring agency
     1. The Research Office waits for determination from sponsor before processing the budget revision webform
     2. If request is approved, the budget revision webform will be approved and processed by the Contract & Grant Specialist
     3. If request is denied, the budget revision webform will be returned to originator and canceled. The Contract & Grant Specialist will enter an explanation regarding the sponsor’s decision in the comments
  7. If sponsor prior approval is not required, the Contract & Grant Specialist will review the request and if appropriate approve the form and process the budget revision in the financial system
• To request rebudgeting of funds on a non-federal or federal flow through grant or contract :
1. Complete a FIN Budget Revision – Contracts and Grants webform
2. All FIN Budget Revision – Contracts and Grants webforms involving non-federal or federal flow-through awards will automatically copy to the Research Office
3. Provide an explanation and justification regarding the rebudget request
4. If sponsor prior approval for budget revisions is required, note this in the explanation comments AND manually forward the form for Research Office review and approval by adding the Research Office to the electronic form routing (forward to wf-grantsbudrev@udel.edu). Note: if sponsor prior approval is required and the form is not forwarded to the Research Office for review, the PI’s department will be responsible to remove any disallowed costs resulting from the unauthorized rebudgeting
5. When a FIN Budget Revision – Contracts and Grants webform is forwarded to RO for approval, Research Office Contract & Grant Specialist will review the request and the terms of the award. If sponsor prior approval is required, the Contract & Grant Specialist will forward the rebudgeting request to the sponsor
   1. The Research Office waits for determination from sponsor before processing the budget revision webform
   2. If request is approved, the budget revision webform will be approved and processed in the financial system by the Research Office
   3. If request is denied, the budget revision webform will be returned to originator and canceled. The Contract & Grant Specialist will enter an explanation regarding the sponsor’s decision in the comments
6. If a FIN Budget Revision – Contracts and Grants webform for a non-federal or federal flow-through award is not forwarded to the Research Office manually by the form submitter, once all internal approvals are recorded, the system will automatically apply the budget revision in the financial system

Any questions, please contact your Contract and Grant Administrator.