If we know exactly how much time our department secretary spent working for Professor X on her project, why can we charge that portion of her salary to Professor Xs federal grant?
In OMB Circular A-21, Cost Principles for Educational Institutions, the federal government has determined that certain costs “normally” should be charged only asindirect costs. The reason for this goes back to the previous question – could you imagine how difficult it would be to allocate the cost of heating a five story, 200 room research laboratory directly to each of your department’s 28 (or whatever) federal awards each and every month? Imagine even further allocating the cost to grants and contracts of such expenses as snow removal, electricity, heat, and lighting, etc. This same philosophy has been applied to the services of secretaries, who often perform a myriad of tasks for many different faculty and departmental managers. Indirect costs, then, are simply the mechanism by which many of these expenses that are not easily broken down by function are recovered by the University.
Related Questions
- If we know exactly how much time our department secretary spent working for Professor X on her project, why can we charge that portion of her salary to Professor Xs federal grant?
- If I know exactly how much time our departments administrative assistant spent working on my project, why can I charge that portion of his/her salary to my federal grant?
- How do I reimburse the University for employee time spent working on a CARES funded project?
