Ditto for everything John Czaja said about approving the budget before
the entire proposal is ready.  For years I resisted accepting the budget
before the entire application was ready because I feared it would teach
PIs that "They only look at the budget."  That hasn't happened, and we
even win some points from PIs: when we have their budgets on spreadsheet
templates of agency forms, we can enter changes with a few keystrokes as
the deadline nears.  This is especially helpful to us and to PIs when
the project involves subcontracts or subprojects: handling 10 or 12
coordinated budgets is routine for us, but a monster task for most PIs.
It's been one of those rare cases when our obligation to "facilitate"
work for faculty meshes with our obligation to protect the institution.

--
Peter J. Dolce, Ph.D., Director
Office of Research Support Services
Meharry Medical College
Nashville, TN  37208
P (615) 327 6703
F (615) 327 6716