From A-110, -- 2. (l) Equipment means tangible nonexpendable personal
property including exempt property charged directly to the award having a
useful life of more than one year and an acquisition cost of $5000 or more
per unit. However, consistent with recipient policy, lower limits may be
established.

You must use your institution's definition.

You might suggest that the institution increase its definition level to the
federal level.  It will save administrative cost by avoiding tracking
low-value items.

Chuck

At 12:41 PM 3/23/2004, you wrote:
>Hi, all -
>We are preparing a proposal submission to a federal agency which uses a
>definition for equipment which differs from the applicant organization's
>definition. (Feds use unit cost of $5,000 or greater & usable life of > 1
>yr., and applicant organization uses unit cost of $1,000 or greater & usable
>life of > 1 yr).
>
>How do I reconcile these differences in the proposal budget? My inclination
>is to include our request for items > $1,000 but less than $5,000 in the
>Supply category of the budget and add a note that the applicant
>organization's policy requires that expenditures for items > $1,000 unit
>cost be treated as equipment. Does this cause a post-award nightmare for
>either the funding agency or the grantee?
>--------------------------
>Molly Daniel
>Interim Manager, Healthier Communities Programs
>Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center
>1000 Health Center Drive
>Mattoon, IL  61938
>phone: 217-258-2195
>fax: 217-258-4135
>email: xxxxxx@sblhs.org
>web: www.sarahbush.org
>
>
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Herbert B. Chermside, CRA
Virginia Commonwealth University
PO BOX 980568
Richmond, VA  23298-0568
Voice:  804-827-6036
Fax     804-828-2051
e-mail xxxxxx@vcu.edu

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