Administrative Costing Requirements for Proposals and Awards Research Administration

The requirements for development and submission of cost allocation plans and indirect cost rate proposals are contained in appendices V, VI and VII to this part. For states, local governments and Indian tribes, certain services, such as motor pools, computer centers, purchasing, accounting, etc., are provided to operating agencies on a centralized basis. Since Federal awards are performed within the individual operating agencies, there needs to be a process whereby these central service costs can be identified and assigned to benefitted activities on a reasonable and consistent basis.

The accounting term other expenses refers to types of expenses that do not fall into one of the main expense categories such as selling costs or administrative expenses and which are part of non-operating activities. For example, an interest expense on a loan taken out by the company is considered to be an other expense that is part of non-operating activities. This would be accounted for as a finance cost in the other expenses section.

How to calculate G&A expenses

The University would jeopardize its relationship with the federal government (the University’s single largest sponsor) if it were to accept lower rates. Further, when conducting sponsored activity, the University strives to be reimbursed for the full cost of that activity. Unfortunately, even when the current F&A rate is added to the direct costs of a research project, a portion of the total costs necessary to support that project may not be recovered by the University because of limitations created by federal allowable cost principles. The University would in effect be subsidizing the actual costs of a sponsored activity when nonstandard F&A rates are applied.

The following are common accounting tools which take account of business overheads. Similarly, ordering laboratory supplies and maintaining laboratory equipment are F&A costs, unless the activities can be identified as benefitting a particular project. Funds received as F&A costs are reimbursement for funds expended for central and departmental administration, buildings and grounds, and library costs. Let’s say you have $1,000 in rent, $250 for utilities, $100 for insurance, $30 for subscription fees, and $50 for office supplies during the month. Your total G&A costs for the month would be $1,430 ($1,000 + $250 + $100 + $30 + $50).

SG&A

Finance Strategists is a leading financial literacy non-profit organization priding itself on providing accurate and reliable financial information to millions of readers each year. The articles and research support materials available on this site are educational and are not intended to be investment or tax advice. All such information is provided solely for convenience purposes only and all users thereof should be guided accordingly. However, when common advertisement expenditure is incurred, the cost, therefore, needs apportionment on the basis of sales turnover.

• However, provision for known or reasonably estimated self-insured liabilities, which do not become payable for more than one year after the provision is made, must not exceed the discounted present value of the liability.
• This is because salaries are a fixed expense, whereas commissions are a variable expense.
• IBS is defined as the annual compensation paid by an IHE for an individual’s appointment, whether that individual’s time is spent on research, instruction, administration, or other activities.
• Materials and supplies used for the performance of a Federal award may be charged as direct costs.

The trend of the ratio is followed for future periods (i.e. increasing, decreasing) until the normalized % is reached, which is based on industry averages. In this section, we’ll elaborate of the full-form components of the SG&A expense line item. While rather uncommon in practice, a company’s SG&A expense can be derived by rearranging the first formula. From here, you can divide EBIT by revenue to calculate the operating margin. The difference between the SG&A expense and cost of goods sold line item is as follows.

Characteristics of Administrative Expenses

Check with HR to see where your employees stand relative to the marketplace. If they are not below market, consider holding the average pay increase in your department to 1% or 2% less than last year’s company average. 25% FTE will be the minimum threshold for charging administrative and clerical salaries. Per the Board of Regents policy,requests shall include full F&A when the prime sponsor is a federal agency.

• The 25% ratio means that for each dollar of revenue created, $0.25 gets spent on SG&A expenses.
• The break-even analysis determines the point which the business’s revenue is equivalent to the costs required to receive that revenue.
• The funding agency has a special rate pre-approved by SPARCS, also known asIndirect Cost Waivers.
• To accurately project future SG&A costs, some companies attempt to forecast each individual component.
• Charges for work performed on Federal awards by faculty members during the academic year are allowable at the IBS rate.

For example, an interest expense is neither a selling cost, operating cost, nor an administrative expense. It would be separately presented as a finance cost in the other expenses section. As an accounting intern, you’ve been asked by your supervisor to prepare the company’s monthly income statement.

The University has an agreement with the SLC VA for zero F&A on Intergovernmental Personnel Act agreements and 5% TDC on other non-federal agreements with this sponsor . This includes 5% TDC for the Western administration cost example Institute for Veteran’s Research , the SL VA’s foundation affiliate. For instance, energy and materials firms often run SG&A ratios of 10% or less, while industrial manufacturers often average 10%–20%.

The break-even analysis determines the point which the business’s revenue is equivalent to the costs required to receive that revenue. It first calculates a margin of safety (the point which the revenue exceeds the break-even point) as that is the “safe” amount which the revenue can fall whilst still remaining to be above the break-even point. Contribution refers to sales of the product or service, it can also be interpreted as the business’s revenue stream. Fixed costs in this case serves the same purpose as business overheads, it will simply be shown as a straight horizontal line on the graph as shown. Every single property unless government owned is subject to some form of property tax.

Terms Similar to Administrative Overhead

The non-Federal entity may be compensated for the use of its buildings, capital improvements, equipment, and software projects capitalized in accordance with GAAP, provided that they are used, needed in the non-Federal entity’s activities, and properly allocated to Federal awards. Donated personal property and use of space may be furnished to a non-Federal entity. The value of the personal property and space may not be charged to the Federal award either as a direct or indirect cost. Costs of leaves of absence by employees for performance of graduate work or sabbatical study, travel, or research are allowable provided the IHE has a uniform written policy on sabbatical leave for persons engaged in instruction and persons engaged in research. Such costs will be allocated on an equitable basis among all related activities of the IHE. For rates covering a past period, the Federal share of the unallowable costs will be computed for each year involved and a cash refund will be made to the Federal Government.

There are a large variety of administrative expense examples across businesses. Investopedia requires writers to use primary sources to support their work. These include white papers, government data, original reporting, and interviews with industry experts.