Allowable Non-FEC Cost Share Contribution Sources

Expenditures being designated for non-FEC cost share contributions should be given the same consideration as expenditures that post to the benefitting budget, e.g., it must benefit the project and if it is an unallowable expenditure on the benefitting budget, it would not be an allowable cost share contribution.

Journal vouchers, deficit transfers, reverse expenditures, cost transfer invoices (CTIs), expense transfers and/or transactions previously tagged for cost share have the potential to affect the "Overall Available Balance" that can be used for cost sharing. Essentially, these types of postings, when they reduce the overall budget balance, the object code balance or the balance of an expenditure reduce the availability of expenditures which posted to the budget that can be used as cost share.

Using dedicated cost share budgets may preclude these types of occurrences and minimize challenges in this area.

Learn more about identifying Overall Available Balances in the non-FEC Cost Share application.

Keep in Mind:

  • Sponsored funds may not be used for cost sharing without prior written approval from both the benefitting and contributing sponsors.
    • Any federal flow through funds being used for cost sharing must have prior written approval from both the federal sponsor and the flow through sponsor.
  • Cost Share Contributions should fall within the benefitting budget period.
  • Facilities & Administrative costs are calculated at the negotiated rate and MTDC base applicable to the award prior to any F&A waivers or reductions.

Contribution Sources

Federal regulations define appropriate sources of cost sharing.  All contributions, including cash and third party in-kind, shall be accepted as part of the recipient's cost sharing or matching when such contributions meet all of the following criteria:

  • Are verifiable from the recipient's records;
  • Are not included as contributions for any other federally-assisted project or program;
  • Are necessary and reasonable for proper and efficient accomplishment of project or program objectives;
  • Are allowable under the applicable cost principles;
  • Are not paid by the Federal Government under another award, except where authorized by Federal statute to be used for cost sharing or matching;
  • Are provided for in the approved budget when required by the Federal awarding agency; and
  • Conform to other federal provisions as applicable.

Additional Guidance for Contribution Sources

The University may typically contribute the following non-federal expenditures as cost sharing:

  • Faculty salaries and related benefits: information on faculty cost sharing can be found on the Faculty Effort Certification website.
  • Non-Faculty salary and other contributions: additional details listed below.

The following supporting contributions are tagged and reported by departments via the Non-FEC Cost Share Reporting Process :

  • Non-FEC salaries (all 01-xx object-sub-object codes except the 01-1x category (faculty)). These are salaries not reported on the FEC forms, such as salaries of the post docs, graduate students, and professional staff contributing to the project. All faculty must have their cost shared effort tracked and reported on the FEC via the Faculty Effort Certification Process.
  • Fringe Benefits (07-xx object-sub-object code). Associated fringe benefit rate amounts for non-faculty salaries is part of the contribution.
    • Benefits for salary contributions are not to be tagged in addition to the salary being contributed.
    • Departments should apply the appropriate benefit rates on their extracted non-FEC Cost Share spreadsheet when they report non-FEC salary contributions to GCA.
    • The Cost Share Summary application automatically applies the appropriate benefit rates when non-FEC salary contributions are entered by GCA.
    • Benefits may be contributed on their own, exclusive of salaries, but only if the associated salary is paid from the sponsored agreement and the benefit rates are not, i.e. they were paid from a separate contributing budget.
  • Services (the 02-xx and 03-xx object/sub-object codes).
  • Travel (the 04-xx object/sub-object codes).
  • Supplies (the 05-xx object/sub-object codes).
  • Equipment (the 06-xx object/sub-object codes).

Tuition waivers and Third-Party Cost contributions are reported via the Non-FEC Cost Share Report:

  • Tuition waivers (08-05 object code, can be viewed on the Student Data Base (SDB)). Occurs when the UW does not charge a graduate student tuition. The waived tuition amount is charged to a 30-xxxx budget. When viewing the student's account on the Student Data Base, the waived tuition will appear as charged to a 30-xxxx budget. Enter the amount of tuition waivers being used as contribution sources on the report and provide GCA with supporting screen shots from the SDB.
  • Third-party in-kind cost share contributions are given to support a specific grant or contract by an individual or entity outside both the University and the sponsoring agency. Learn more about reporting Third-party cost share contributions.
  • Third-party cash match (money contributed from non-UW sources). These are fairly rare and typically result in the creation of a UW budget number for spending the funds.  Supporting contributions from the resulting UW budget should be documented as Non-FEC Cost Share contributions and tagged in the Non-FEC Cost Share application as cost share contributions.

Unrecovered Facilities and Administrative (F&A) cost is calculated and entered by GCA, requiring no action by the PI/Staff. Sponsor approval must be obtained to use this as a cost share source. It may also be used if the award document specifies unrecovered Facilities and Administrative (F&A) cost as a source of cost sharing, or if sponsor rules allow this as a cost share source. This cost sharing may be identified in the Cost Share Summary by object code 25-99.

Departments should review the Cost Share Summary application on a regular basis (as part of their monthly budget reconciliation and review with the PI), to ensure their cost share is documented timely and appropriately.

Unallowable Budget Types and Object (Account) Codes

The following budget types and account codes are typically not allowed to be used as cost share contributions.

Budget Types:

  • Recharge center operating budgets (Budget Type 11; Program Type 20)
  • Cost center operating budgets (Budget Type 11; Program Type 22)
  • Recharge center reserve budgets (Budget Type 11; Program Type 21)
  • Cost center reserve budgets (Budget Type 11; Program Type 23)
  • Staff assignments (Budget Type 05; Budget Class 45)
  • Royalty Income (Royalty Research Fund) (Budget Type 05; Budget class 57)
  • Washington Technology Center (WTC) (Budget Type 53; Program type 44)

Account Codes

  • 01-50   Postdoctoral Research Trainee Salaries
  • 01-90   Graduate Stipends
  • 02-31   Marketing Services
  • 08-01   Scholarships
  • 08-02   Stipends
  • 08-03   Prizes and Awards
  • 08-04   Loans (Student)
  • 08-09   Loan Cancellations
  • 09-xx   Debt Service (all sub object codes)
  • 21-xx   Cost Transfers (all sub object codes) (should reflect Transaction Code 60)
  • 22-99   Cost Sharing
  • 27-xx   Grant and Contract Expenditure Summary (all sub object codes)

References/Regulations

Contacts

If you:

  • are preparing your proposal or waiting to hear about a submitted proposal, contact Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) 
  • have cost share questions on your award, contact Grant and Contract Accounting (GCA)
  • have faculty effort questions on your award, contact Management Accounting and Analysis (MAA)