Budget Justification

---
name: budget-justification
description: Draft the budget narrative or budget justification section of a grant proposal. Covers personnel FTE and fringe calculations, direct versus indirect costs, allowable and unallowable expenses, cost sharing and match, showing arithmetic reviewers can verify, and reconciling every line against the project activities.
---

# Budget Justification

## Overview

The budget narrative explains *why* each cost is necessary and *how* each
figure was derived. Reviewers check arithmetic, and grants officers reject
unallowable costs outright. This section is scored on defensibility, not
persuasion.

## When to Use

Drafting a budget narrative, budget justification, or cost proposal.

## Instructions

### Show the arithmetic

Every figure must be reconstructible from the text.

Weak: "Program Manager: $58,000"
Strong: "Program Manager (1.0 FTE, $72,500 annual salary x 0.80 effort =
$58,000). Oversees curriculum delivery across all six sites, supervises two
Instructors, and leads data collection."

Each personnel line states role, FTE or percent effort, base salary, the
resulting charge, and what that person actually does on this project.

### Standard categories

1. **Personnel** — salaries and wages by position.
2. **Fringe benefits** — state the rate and its basis (federally negotiated
   rate, or actual costs itemized).
3. **Travel** — purpose, destination, number of travelers and trips, and the
   per-unit basis (mileage rate, per diem). Tie each trip to an activity.
4. **Equipment** — typically items over $5,000 with a useful life over one
   year; check the funder's threshold. Justify necessity and say why leasing
   is not preferable.
5. **Supplies** — grouped sensibly with unit costs. Avoid an unexplained
   "miscellaneous" line; reviewers read it as padding.
6. **Contractual** — scope, selection basis, and deliverables for each
   contractor. An external evaluator appears here.
7. **Other** — participant incentives, space, communications, each explained.
8. **Indirect** — state the rate, the base it applies to, and its authority
   (a negotiated agreement, or the 10% de minimis rate where permitted). If
   the funder caps indirect below the negotiated rate, say so and confirm the
   difference is absorbed rather than shifted.

### Commonly unallowable

Verify against the funder's rules before including: lobbying, fundraising
costs, entertainment, alcohol, fines and penalties, bad debt, pre-award costs
without written approval, and construction on most program grants.

### Cost sharing and match

Only include if required or explicitly encouraged. State the source, whether
it is cash or in-kind, how in-kind is valued, and whether it is committed or
pending. Committed match becomes a binding obligation — never list a match the
organization has not agreed to.

## Rules

- Every budget line must correspond to an activity in the project design, and
  every significant activity must have a funded line. Reviewers check both
  directions.
- Personnel named in the narrative must appear in the budget, and vice versa.
- Never invent salary figures, fringe rates, or indirect rates. Unknown
  values become `[NEEDS INPUT: <question>]`.
- State the total and confirm it falls within the award ceiling and floor.
- Confirm length with `measure_text` before finishing.