Chapter 8, Developing Budgets

• Important
• Vocabulary
• Different Elements
• Rationale
• Additional strategies

Grants are really about money, as soon as you have written rough draft, start identifying costs.

Basics -
Itemized, down to smallest elements - helps control costs and describe how you got your figures
Non-itemized, rough breakdown (research, modular budgets, increments of $25,000)

Fixed - total price will not change
Flexible - rewrittten periodically to suit changes in costs

Fixed cost - remain constant over time
Variable Costs - expenses that change proportionally with production
Semivariable Costs - expenses that change but not proportionally with production

Developing a budget -
Federal - follow their exact instructions
Other - Management, principal investigators, and salaried labor (% of time + fringe)
Direct labor or staff (hourly basis + fringe)
Indirect labor (support direct labor, hourly basis + fringe)
Facilities & Equipment (fixed and semivariable costs of buildings, equipment & machinery + insurance and maintenance supplies)
Direct Materials (products and services)
Indirect Materials (supplies, lubricants for machinery, etc.)
Travel (local, conferences)
Communication (phone, fax, letter, Internet)
Profit (above costs)
Facilities and Administrative (overhead)
Cost Sharing (matching(cash) & in-kind (non-cash))

Written as a stand-alone section (pros & cons - audience)
Opening - identifies the subject (budget), purpose (present and discuss the costs of project)
Body - explanation, highlights important parts
Closing - restate main point

More info about how the budget was developed, more likely they are to make a firm decision about whether proposed plan suits their needs.