Cost allocation across grants
Every shared cost split across your active grants, by a method your auditor can trace.
Every shared cost pool split across the grants it benefits, by the method your books already record, with each grant's share traced to the transaction behind it.
A cost pool with no stated method, or one that switched methods mid-year, held out of the allocation and named on its own line instead of silently landing somewhere.
Allocated shared cost compared against each award's approved shared-cost budget line, so an award drifting over its cap shows up before the auditor asks.
- 01
Get your ledger
Your accounting system's export.
- 02
Match your columns
Which column is which.
- 03
Name what's in your file
What each code in your ledger really is.
- 04
Fix what's flagged
What your auditor asks first.
The Uniform Guidance's cost principles set which costs can land on a federal award, and require a shared cost to be split across every grant it benefits, using a method the organization documents and applies consistently.
A cost is allocable to a federal award only in proportion to the benefit that award actually receives. The allocation method, time percentage, square footage, or headcount, has to tie back to that real benefit, not an arbitrary split.
The same cost, treated the same way, has to be allocated the same way all year. A method that changes mid-year without a written justification is one of the first things a cost allocation review tests.
Riverbend Community Partners allocated $150,400 of shared cost to 4 active grants this period. 2 cost pools totaling $96,000 could not be allocated and need a documented method before they can go on the schedule. 1 grant now shows allocated shared cost above the approved budget line.
| Grant / program | Approved shared-cost budget | Allocated this period | Remaining / (over) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Continuum of Care Program | $60,000 | $54,000 | $6,000 |
| Head Start | $75,000 | $68,000 | $7,000 |
| Crime Victim Assistance | $20,000 | $19,200 | $800 |
| Child and Adult Care Food Program | $6,000 | $9,200 | ($3,200) |
| Total | $161,000 | $150,400 | $10,600 |
A spreadsheet formula per pool, rebuilt by whoever remembers the method from last year.
The method your books already record, applied automatically to every active grant.
Missed until a cost allocation review asks why Q3 and Q4 don't match Q1 and Q2.
Flagged immediately. Riverbend's demo ledger shows the rent pool switching from square footage to headcount partway through the year.
Discovered, and disputed, during the review itself.
Held out of the allocation and named: Insurance, $24,000 across 2 transactions, no method stated on any line.
A separate spreadsheet, updated separately, that drifts out of sync.
Checked against the register automatically. Child and Adult Care Food Program shows $9,200 allocated against a $6,000 approved shared-cost budget.
Any cost that benefits more than one grant at once: a program director's salary, office rent, utilities, general liability insurance. It has to be split across the grants it benefits using a documented, consistent method.
Time percentage, square footage, and headcount, the three bases 2 CFR 200 Subpart E recognizes. Whichever your books already use, Leap applies it to every active grant automatically.
Leap holds that pool out of the allocation and names it on its own line, so it never quietly lands on a grant without documentation behind it.