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Tip of the Month (November 2024): Award Budget Options

November 12, 2024

Did you know there are three basic levels of detail when setting up your SAGE award budget? When setting up an award budget to connect to an Award Setup Request, you have the option of three basic levels of detail: categorical totals, unallocated totals, and detailed budgets.

SAGE Budget was created to help research administrators prepare a detailed budget that accurately estimates costs for their proposal. While a detailed budget can be helpful for proposals, a high level of detail may not be needed at the time of award and can cause challenges in getting SAGE Budget amounts to match the sponsor-awarded amount. It’s important to consider both departmental and sponsor requirements when setting up your award budget.

Review Quick Tips for Simplifying Your Award Budget to see if a simplified budget is right for your award.

SAGE AWARD BUDGET OPTIONS AT A GLANCE

 
BUDGETING OPTION APPROACH HIGHLIGHTS BEST USED FOR…
Categorical Totals
  • Meets Workday Finance requirements.
  • Enter the PI by name in Salary & Benefit Costs and enter a $0 salary.
  • Enter 1 placeholder personnel row for all costs into a TBD row.
  • Enter 1 Other Cost expense row per cost category (Object Class) named on the NoA.
  • Sponsors that have rebudgeting restrictions or strict separation of costs.
  • Managing budgets where invoicing and reporting are required by Object Class.
  • Departments that desire to monitor budget to actuals by type of cost.
Unallocated Totals
  • Select the PI by name in Salary & Benefit Costs and enter a $0 salary.
  • Enter all direct costs in a single (38-00) Unallocated MISC row.
  • Modular budgets.
  • When sponsor has no rebudgeting restrictions.
  • Cases when flexibility in spending is allowed without approval.
Detailed Budget
  • Salaries are broken out individually.
  • Other direct costs may be broken down to sub-object code level detail.
  • May be helpful for projecting future costs.
Outgoing Subaward
  • Create a subaward worksheet.
  • Enter all direct costs in a (38-00) Unallocated MISC row.
  • Works even if the rest of the budget uses categorical or detailed budget entry.

If you have questions or would like help converting your detailed budget to a simplified budget, reach out to sagehelp@uw.edu for assistance.

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