Monitoring Expenses - Budgeting Requests

Learn about budgeting requests.

Most agencies require a rebudgeting request if you exceed certain expense categories in your award. A rebudgeting request is an amendment to the award agreement and must be formally submitted to the agency for official approval, and then reported to UCSD contracting offices.

General Guidelines

1. Review expenditure balances per the budget.
2. Review your expense projections.
3. Plan your rebudgeting needs, making sure the request will cover expenses for the entire budget or project period.
4. Determine expense categories that need to be increased and categories that can be reduced.
5. Determine if indirect costs (IDC) are affected by your rebudgeting and increase or decrease the IDC category accordingly.
6. Prepare a letter to the agency’s project administrator include:
   
   • Amount to be reduced for each expense category
   • Amount to be increased for each expense category
   • Justification for change (e.g., why you did not use funding as budgeted or how rebudgeting will benefit the project)
7. Have the principal investigator sign the letter and keep a copy for your files.
8. Send the letter and copies as necessary:
   
   • If your award was processed by the Office of Contract and Grant Administration (OCGA), forward the original letter to OCGA for transmittal to the agency.
   • If your award was not processed by OCGA, send the original letter to the agency and send a copy to Sponsored Projects Finance (SPF).
9. When you receive official approval from the agency, send OCGA or SPF a copy of the approval.