Understanding Your Project Budget
1. Banner Terminology
2. Components of the Budget
1. Banner Terminology
Each new project is input into the Banner system and given a grant number and a fund number.
- A grant is established for all sponsored program funds, campus and community program funds and Campanile Foundation funds and allows for the collection of financial data on a project-to-date basis. The grant also captures informational data relevant to the fund. The grant number established in the Banner system is an internal number and is not related to the sponsor grant or contract number. The Banner grant number is nine characters long and always begins with a G (i.e., G000002389).
- A fund is also established for each project. Each fund has a six digit number beginning with a 5 for sponsored projects, a 9 for Campus and Community Programs, a 2 for internally-funded programs, or a C for Campanile funds. All expenditures and revenues are posted to the fund. All sponsored project funds (5 ledger) have an alpha character as the sixth digit of the fund number. This letter represents the project year. For example, fund number 51234A would indicate the first year of a project. Sponsored projects with continuous years of support will maintain the same fund number throughout the life of the award and only the alpha character will change to denote the subsequent year of funding.
- The organization (ORG) code identifies the budgetary unit responsible for managing the fund. In most cases the ORG code on sponsored programs identifies the Principal Investigator. This code is five characters in length.
- Account codes are the four digit numbers used to identify individual line items within a budget. For example, 6500 is the account code associated with the funds budgeted for fringe benefits on all funds.
- Program codes are three characters long and designate major grouping for financial statements and reporting purposes.
The FOAP or Fund, Organization, Account and Program are the components of the accounting string that represent the project/grant.
2. Components of the Budget
There are two major components of budgets: direct costs and facilities and administrative costs (indirect costs).
Direct Costs are those costs that can be easily and accurately identified for individual projects. Direct costs are divided into categories such as salaries, fringe benefits, travel, supplies, or equipment, and are accounted for as separate line items (account codes) within each fund.
Facilities and Administrative Costs (F&A Costs) are also known as indirect costs or overhead and are additional costs incurred by SDSU Research Foundation and the University in support of sponsored programs. These costs differ from direct costs in that it is difficult and impractical to identify and attribute them on an individual project basis. In the case of sponsored projects, uniform predetermined rates are established through negotiation with the federal government. Examples of the types of costs charged through uniform rates are space-related costs such as utilities, maintenance and certain administrative costs.
F&A cost recoveries, project administration fees, income from investments and other income to SDSU Research Foundation are all combined into a single pool. SDSU Research Foundation's Board of Directors makes the budgetary and other decisions that result in the allocation and use of these resources. F&A cost recoveries fund operating expenses of SDSU Research Foundation's central office and are used to reimburse the University for various costs it has incurred on behalf of research projects. F&Amp;A cost recovery monies have also provided funds for SDSU faculty seed grant programs such as Grants-in-Aid and summer fellowships. In addition, a portion of the F&A cost recovery is channeled back to the deans of the various colleges (and, in some cases, to individual PIs) to use for seed money, proposal development, cost sharing or other special purposes, and to cover cost over-runs or costs incurred in support of a sponsored program but unallowable to be charged to the grant or contract itself.
Numerous SDSU Research Foundation services are supported by F&A cost monies:
- SR Development: Budgeting, grant resources library, proposal workshops, subscriptions to funding publications, duplicating of proposals, postage, publication of newsletters, notices on funding opportunities and award negotiations.
- Award Administration: Accounting, project monitoring, budget reports for PIs, special reports required by sponsors, reports to public regulatory agencies (including IRS, State of California and City of San Diego), accounts payable (including payment of hundreds of project bills daily), sponsor billing and collections (including processing of letters of credit for Federal awards), purchase and inventory of equipment, personnel and payroll administration, cashiering (some projects involve numerous individual cash payments or daily accounting of fees for services), approval and reconciliation of travel and other project advances, insurance and auditing. Annually, SDSU Research Foundation engages an independent CPA firm to audit its financial statements.
- Access to Financial Data: PI Profile is SDSU Research Foundation's secured financial web-based application created to assist SDSU faculty with the management of their Foundation-administered accounts. It provides current financial data on all active awards including budgets, expenditures, balances, personnel assignments and purchase orders. Data can be accessed via Mac or PC. The access to financial data is limited to the project's specified personnel.
- Monthly Budget Reports: Budget reports are disseminated electronically on the first or second business day of each month. PIs are notified via email that the reports have been posted and can be accessed on SDSU Research Foundation's PI Profile system. A variety of reports are available that were designed based upon project feedback and responses to survey results. PIs are responsible for reviewing their budget reports in detail on a monthly basis and contacting their SR administrator to report any discrepancies.
Report Options:
- Executive Summary: provides an overview of cumulative fund activity in broad budget categories to give a compressed picture of the fund's financial status. This report summarizes activity by major budget category only.
- Budget Report: provides a breakdown of the transactions listed on the Executive Summary report by fund account codes (individual budget line items). This report summarizes activity by account code and major budget category.
- Detailed Activity Report: provides a thorough description of each monthly transaction by fund account code and is a further breakdown of the activity summarized by account code on the budget report. This report displays information including vendor name, payee name, purchase order number, type and date of transaction.
- Payroll Activity Report: provides information for payroll activity only. This report displays salary and fringe benefits expenditures by fund account code, date, payroll number, employee name, and dollar amount.
- Comparative Balance Sheet: provides information on general ledger activity by cash, assets (accounts receivable) and liabilities (accounts payables). This report is used primarily for research support funds, campus programs funds, and Campanile funds.
- Fund Balance Changes: provides information on general ledger to general ledger transactions including total revenue, fund additions, total expense, fund deductions and transfers. This report is used primarily for research support funds, campus program funds, and Campanile funds.
- Estimate of Available Cash: provides a calculation of cash available at the close of the month. The report calculates the cash on hand, minus future obligations (including the administrative fee associated with the commitments) to obtain a subtotal of the cash balance. The report then calculates the administrative fee associated with the subtotal of the cash balance and provides an estimate of actual cash available.
PIs can view any one of these reports as needed to monitor the financial status of their projects. In addition, the last option on the month end report selection screen (Display All EOM Reports) for (date) will compile all report options for a given month.
Access to daily up-to-date budget and expenditure information may also be obtained through PI Profile. Other information provided includes project descriptions, current budget information updated daily, lists of expenditures transactions, detailed information regarding outstanding commitments, personnel information, and sponsor terms and conditions. Program-specific compliance information is also provided including as applicable cost sharing specifications, requirements regarding the use of minority-owned, women-owned or veteran-owned vendors and restrictions on the use of program income. Financial information is available to Principal Investigators, Co-Investigators and specified project personnel authorized by the PI to have access to financial data. Contact your SR administrator for information on how to obtain a password for PI Profile or how to designate access to specific project staff.