Budget Transfers

A Budget Transfer (BT) Request must be completed by the Principal Investigator (PI) and submitted to the Office of Research for approval on all Contract and Grant (C&G) budget adjustments. Budget transfers are requests from departments to move available funds from one budget line category to another within the sponsored account, after the original budget has been established without an increase or decrease in the total budget. Budget transfers should be submitted prior to a purchase, ideally before an account goes negative.

Follow the steps below to ensure the request is processed in a timely manner:

Submit by e-mail or using the BT Form to ORC

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Provide a clear justification explaining the necessity, specific purpose, and effect on the project

For example, the following is insufficient information to approve the transfer, “To cover anticipated expenditures” or “To cover budget deficits incurred.”

An acceptable description is, “The actual cost of the gas chromatograph is $3,300 which is $300 above the original proposed cost. To cover this increase, one less person will be traveling to the agency meeting in Golden, Colorado.”

Adjustments will also be required to F&A (indirect) costs when transferring budget amounts from equipment (OCO), tuition waivers, and stipends into F&A-bearing cost categories.

OR will review, approve, and process the budget transfer if the request falls within applicable guidelines. If agency approval is required, OR will contact the PI to determine if agency contact is desired. If so, the OR will submit the budget transfer request to the agency. Once agency approval is received, the transfer will be processed, and the Awarded Funding Report (formerly the Form 650) will be modified to reflect the budget change.

The PI will receive an e-mail from the Office of Research with a website link to view/print all documents pertaining to the Budget Transfer.