Building a Budget - What You Need to Know

Your budget is an important planning tool and should be drafted early on in the proposal development process. A draft budget can serve as a guide and will ideally be consulted and refined as you develop your research plan and/or proposal narrative. A thoughtfully constructed budget will help make the case for your proposed project to the funder. 

Getting Started

Proposal budgets must adhere to the allowable expenses listed in the funders’ call for proposals (and/or other related materials from the funder), as well as Amherst College policy. 

Start Early. With the appropriate lead time, the OSRFR is available to walk you through the process of developing a budget. We can assist you in a careful review of the funding opportunity with your project goals and parameters in mind. We strongly recommend that you engage our office as soon as you decide to pursue a funding opportunity so that we can help you identify any issues or award provisions that may not be accepted by the College. We will share a proposal and budget development timeline with you, and are available to provide feedback and review your draft budget for errors.

A Grant Budget Worksheet, is available to assist you with your work. The worksheet contains built-in, protected formulas that will automatically calculate:

  • Fringe benefits 
  • Total salary including fringe 
  • Total travel 
  • Total direct costs 
  • Total indirect costs, aka "facilities and administration" (multiplies salary & benefits by Amherst's approved indirect cost rate)

Five business days prior to the funder’s submission deadline, you will be required to submit your final budget, along with your draft proposal narrative, to initiate the Institutional Review and Approval process. Please note that all applicants are required to submit a budget for internal review and approval, even in cases where the funder does not require that you submit a budget with the application. 

Important budget and spending policy and procedure is outlined below, as well as some helpful definitions for your reference.

Distinctions, Definitions, Policies and Procedure

The following pages of this section will guide you through important distinctions and definitions, policies and standard operating procedures that you will need to follow when crafting a budget for external funding.