USC Procedures for Rebudgeting Under Sponsored Awards

During the life of a sponsored project, there may arise a need to revise the approved financial plan (budget) for the project. These procedures will describe the processes involved in requesting approval of such budget revisions.

Budget revisions under federal awards will be processed in compliance with 2 CFR 200.308 [“Revision of budget and program plans”].  Many federal agencies have waived a number of the prior approvals required for budget revisions under research awards using the principle of “expanded authorities.”

The following rebudgeting actions normally require processing through SAM and prior approval of the sponsor:

• Reduction of amounts budgeted for participant support costs
• Changes in the amounts of approved cost sharing/matching
• Increases in the amount of facilities and administrative (indirect) costs
• Budget revisions which result in significant changes in the scope of the project
• Budget revisions which result in a 25% or more reduction of effort for the principal investigator/project director (PI/PD)
• Budget revisions which result in a 25% overall change in the budget approved by the federal sponsor
• The award terms and/or sponsor policy require prior approval for budget revisions

Routine budget revisions not meeting the listed critera do not require SAM involvement. 

Budget Revision Request Procedures

All requests for budget revisions requiring prior approval should be initiated by the PI/PD and/or the associated departmental business administrator. The request should be sent to the SAM administrator assigned to the PI’s department for review and processing. The request must include a summary of changes by budget line items, along with justification for the proposed revision.

The assigned SAM administrator will review the request for compliance with the sponsor’s policies and the specific terms of the award. The SAM administrator will prepare and submit a request for approval of rebudgeting to the  sponsor. Upon receipt of approval, SAM will authorize the rebudgeting.

Budget revision requests will be denied if the requested revision is not in compliance with university policy, South Carolina state law, federal funding policy (2 CFR 200) and funding agency policy and regulations.