How do I enable indirect if I already have an indirect line item?

Updates to indirect functionality on the grant budget were published on November 21, 2019. If your grant had indirect enabled prior to this date, you may not see the Indirect budget category or line item on your budget and you may encounter error messages when attempting to update your budget. Depending on the status and progress of your grant, we recommend you implement one of the following options. For assistance in determining which option is best for your grants, please contact our support team at [e-mail] or submit a ticket.  

Option 1: Remove automated indirect tracking from budget

This option allows you to keep your budget as-is and avoid any indirect-related error messages. You will continue to budget and expense indirect manually as a separate line item. However, you will not be able to capture indirect cost rate changes over the life of the grant, or track line items that generate indirect.

Prerequisite: Grant cannot have expenses

1. Open the Pre-Award tab>Submission Budget Settings or Post-Award tab>Settings>Budget Settings.
2. Click the  (Edit icon) in the Icon Bar.
3. In the Indirect section, uncheck the Track Indirect Cost checkbox.

Option 2: Remove automated indirect tracking from budget line items

This option allows you to keep your budget as-is and avoid any indirect-related error messages. You will continue to budget and expense indirect manually as a separate line item, and you can capture indirect cost rate changes over the life of the grant. However, you will not be able to track line items that generate indirect.

1. Open the Pre-Award tab>Submission Budget or Post-Award tab>Financial>Budget.
2. Click the  (Edit icon) next to line items that generate indirect.
3. In the pop-up window, open the Configuration tab.
4. Uncheck the Generates Indirect checkbox.
5. Click Save.
6. Repeat steps 2 – 5 for all line items that generate indirect.

Option 3: Replace current indirect line item with automated indirect tracking

This option allows you to automatically track indirect cost over the life of the grant and generate indirect through line items and expenses. In order to proceed with this option, you must remove your current indirect line item from the budget and reassign any expenses to the new system-generated indirect line item.

Step 1: Update user-created line item to $0.00 so that budget will not exceed awarded amount (optional)

1. Open the Pre-Award tab>Submission Budget or Post-Award tab>Financial>Budget.
2. Click the  (Edit icon) next to user-created indirect line item.
3. In the pop-up window, change Direct Cost amount to $0.00.
4. Click Save.

Step 2: Enable automated indirect tracking on budget

5. Open the Pre-Award tab>Submission Budget Settings or Post-Award tab>Settings>Budget Settings.
6. Click the   (Edit icon) in the Icon Bar.
7. In the Indirect section, ensure that the Track Indirect Cost checkbox is checked.
8. Click Save.

Step 3a: Reassign expenses to new indirect line item (optional)

Prerequisite: Indirect expenses cannot be system-generated

9. Open the Post-Award tab>Financial>Budget.
10. Click the  (Expenses icon) next to user-created indirect line item.
11. On the Expenses page, click Run.
12. Click the  (Edit icon) next to an expense.
13. In the pop-up window, update Category to Indirect.
14. Click Save.
15. Repeat steps 12-14 for all expenses listed.

Step 3b: Delete user-created expenses in favor of system-generated expenses (optional)

Prerequisite: Indirect expenses must be system-generated

16. Open the Post-Award tab>Financial>Budget.
17. Click the  (Expenses icon) next to user-created indirect line item.
18. On the Expenses page, click Run.
19. In the All Expenses section, check the Select All checkbox.
20. Under Actions, click the  (Delete icon).
21. In the confirmation pop-up window, click Delete.

Step 4: Delete user-created line item

22. Open the Pre-Award tab>Submission Budget or Post-Award tab>Financial>Budget.
23. Click the  (Delete icon) next to user-created indirect line item.
24. In the confirmation pop-up window, click Delete.