I suppose the argument could be made that in building in a cost of living increase to the salary amounts (which I assume you always do), you are also building in an increase to the fringe which is in step with the salaries.

However, I am in full support of the use of the word "poppycock".

-----------------------------------------------
Kris Wolff, MA, CRA
Manager, Office of Sponsored Programs
718-817-4086

-----Original Message-----
From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org] On Behalf Of Terri Fayle
Sent: Friday, August 19, 2011 4:26 PM
To: xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org
Subject: [RESADM-L] Inflation of Fringe Benefits in Proposed Budget

All,

I'd be interested to hear your comments regarding inflation of fringe benefits while creating a proposal budget.  My institution uses a published estimated rate for certain employee classes.  But when the charges actually hit the grant budget, it is the actual amount of charges for that employee, so in most cases different than what was proposed.

Typically, no inflation is applied to fringes when creating multiple year budgets.  Since I'm new here, I did!  It has been suggested that I cannot inflate fringes because I am being inconsistent with the institutional published estimated rate.  I say poppycock!  I used the published estimated rate and added a bit!  That's what you do to protect your investigators budget.

What say you??

Terri L. Fayle
Senior Grant Specialist
K-State Research & Extension Proposal Services Waters Hall 105C Kansas State University Manhattan, KS 66506-4008 xxxxxx@k-state.edu

Voice 785-532-7255
FAX 785-532-5549
Cell 660-238-7165

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 Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
 subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
 via our web site at http://www.healthresearch.org (click on the
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