Successful proposals included a well thought out budget and a clearly articulated budget narrative (justification) defining the costs associated with the project. The Budget Development Checklist is a listing of major cost categories to be considered with a series of questions and notes that may be helpful in guiding the process.
- The budget is the financial presentation of major cost categories specified by the sponsor. These are typically personnel and other than personnel costs for each project year, as well as the cumulative total for the entire project.
- The budget should be an accurate reflection of the project (statement of work). If there are insufficient funds to support the proposed work, either increase the budget, if allowed, or modify (reduce) the work plan accordingly.
- Ordinarily all financial requests should be substantiated by use of the OSP budget template to ensure the allowability and completeness of funds requested. The budget template should be used even if the sponsor does not require a detailed or line-item budget or when establishing an activity-based (milestones) or functional budget organized by tasks.
- There are two general strategies used to develop your application’s budget:
- If the award amount is capped at some level, based on your understanding of your project’s needs, work backwards from the sponsor cap and allocated funds to direct and indirect costs, or
- Work forward from major types of expense to arrive at total project costs.
- Complementing the budget is the budget justification or budget narrative, which describes the need for and reasonableness of costs in supporting project objectives and may present specific information describing how costs were derived (calculations, rates, etc.).
- The budget justification is the first step in documenting the allowability, allocobility, necessity, reasonableness and consistent treatment of possible award expenditures and serves a number of critical functions.
- Describes the need for or necessity of major categories of expense.
- Documents the reasonableness of the budget request, conveys the PI/PD’s judgment as well as the feasibility of project approach in context of resources available and proposed.
- Serves as documentation for a sponsor’s prior approval of a cost that are ordinarily not allowable as a direct cost.
- Facilitates OSA ‘pre-audit’ of high-risk expenditure categories following award.
- The budget justification is the first place reviewed to confirm the allowability, allocobility, necessity, reasonableness and consistent treatment of an item charged to a sponsor, particularly if the justification in the purchase requisition is unclear.
- The budget justification is the first step in documenting the allowability, allocobility, necessity, reasonableness and consistent treatment of possible award expenditures and serves a number of critical functions.
Use of the Budget Template is required by the campus community to develop and submit budgets consistent with the University’s currently negotiated rates. Use of the OSP Budget Template greatly reduces common arithmetic errors often encountered with other budget tools.
The budget template presents major cost categories used in the majority of federal research grant applications including NSF and NIH. This worksheet also presents important information about key personnel and their committed effort to the project.
The Budget Template is an Excel file with multiple tabs formatted for conformance with various federal sponsor requirements including NIH Modular Budgets, SF424, ED524 and the file copy budget.
The OSP Budget skill builds a populated budget template from a plain-language description of your project. You describe the sponsor, the period of performance, who is working on the project, and what the project needs. Claude asks follow-up questions and returns a completed template as an Excel file with its formulas intact.
Using the skill is optional. The OSP Budget Template remains required for all budgets. The skill is a way to fill the template in, not an alternative to it.
What you need
- A Syracuse University Claude account. Request one at its.syr.edu/getclaude. Do not use a personal Claude account for University work.
- An Opus model, selected from the model menu.
- Download the skill from Github.
- The skill switched on once under Customize, then Skills.
Getting started
- Quick Start Guide
- Complete Guide
Before you submit
A budget produced by the skill is a draft. Review it with your department budget manager, then with your OSP contact. Sponsored programs staff verify rates, allowability, and sponsor compliance, and submit the proposal. The Budget Development Checklist below remains the best way to confirm you have accounted for every cost in your work plan.
Budget justification (narrative)
The budget justification describes necessity of major categories of expense and serves as documentation for a sponsor’s prior approval of a cost that are ordinarily not allowable as a direct cost. The sample and language below may be useful in the drafting process.
NOTE: if the item is not included in the awarded budget or the proposed budget narrative, OSP approval post award is required.
- NSF Sample Budget Justification
- Sample justifications for items not ordinarily allowable
- The salaries of administrative and clerical personnel are normally treated as an indirect cost unless they meet the definition of “unlike purpose and circumstance” and are integral to the award. As stipulated in the Uniform Guidance, direct charging of administrative salaries is allowable when all of the following 4 conditions are met:
- Administrative or clerical services are integral to a project or activity;
- Individuals involved can be specifically identified with the project or activity;
- Such expenses are explicitly included in the budget or have the prior written approval of the federal awarding agency;and
- The costs are not also recovered as indirect costs.
As you develop your budget, consider the following questions in the context of your work plan and project objectives, and note what items you need and when you need them for your project’s success. The link below will provide a series of questions that may be useful in identifying all applicable costs associated with the project. The tool will also provide notes and justifications that may be useful in drafting the budget narrative. Answer all the questions in as much detail as you can provide.
Budget Development Checklist
Download the Official OSP Budget Template
Here you’ll find Syracuse University’s required budget template — preformatted with built-in formulas and standardized tabs to help you build a precise, sponsor-compliant budget.
Get the Budget Template