FAQs: Budgets

While in the Proposal screen, click the Budget panel. For the Budget Version that you want to submit which should have a Status of "Complete", click the Actions button in the Actions column and select Include for Submission.

1. Click on Budget Versions.
2. To the far right of the budget, click the Actions dropdown arrow and click “Print”.
3. Click the checkbox of the desired Report, then click Print.

Postdoctoral fellow appointments as referred to in 5.3.3 of MIT Policies and Procedures are not appropriate costs to organized research activities (research project WBS) of the Institute. More information may be found in this FAQ titled "Can a Post-doc fellow be charged to a research account?"

It is possible for the subject matter of a Sponsored project to overlap with the area of a Fellowship to the point where their work will benefit both their Fellowship research goals and the goals of the Sponsored project. In this case, you would want to include language noting how the research program falls within the area of the Fellowship and is an excellent opportunity for the Fellow. This language should not be included in the budget justification as it would not be a budgeted item.

Non-Personnel Fellowship expenses may be appropriate costs, and may be charged using the G/L account 420172 ‘Fellowship Expense’.

Post Doctoral Associates costs may be charged to sponsored programs, using the g/l account 400390 ‘Post Doctoral Staff – On’.

Yes, you may directly enter summary budget information in the Budget Summary screen. Enter Direct Costs, Indirect Costs, Under Recovery and Cost Sharing amounts as applicable by project period.

In KC detailed budget, enter the salary effective date as the date of the last effective increase, and not as the date of the next scheduled increase.  
 
As an example, if listing a graduate student in your detailed budget with effective dates 7/1/25-6/30/26, and you know the student's salary from June 2024, enter that amount with salary effective date of 6/1/24.  KC will then appropriately calculate the costs for the period 7/1/25-6/30/26 taking into account the increase that will take effect 6/1/25 for the grad student.
 
For information on when different salaries inflate, please see KC Default Salary Inflation by Month and Category.

The KC budget tool automatically ‘groups’ assigned personnel by cost element (object code, and G/L); meaning if you add two project persons as Summer Faculty, for example, two rows, one for each person, appear in a Cost Element group of the same name. Each person will have their own line with a Details button, but the cost object group has a single Details & Rates maintenance window. Any edits to the Details & Rates for the Cost Element affect ALL persons in that group.

For a step-by-step guide on how to make these changes, please refer to the Quick Reference Cards page for Budgeting for Personnel Using Groups.

1. Edit the dates on the Basics>Proposal Details page first. 
2. Then, in the Budget before any other action, use the Reset to Period defaults button. This will set the budget periods to conform with the new project dates.
3. Check the dates of performance for any personnel as they may change with the Reset and should be updated as appropriate if needed.  

To bring relevant FY rates into the budget, add Sync All Rates on the Rates tab. Alternatively, sync each rate type tab independently if your MTDC rate is fixed to prior FYs.