The budget is where most applicants slow down, and where a reviewer can find fault fastest — the arithmetic is either defensible or it is not. SoliContraX produces the detailed budget as an object-class grid and the justification narrative underneath it, tied to the activities in your own program scope.
The budget comes out as a table organized by the standard federal object classes — Personnel, Fringe Benefits, Travel, Equipment, Supplies, Contractual, Construction where it applies, Other, total direct charges, indirect charges, total. Personnel is broken out one row per position, with rate, percentage of effort, and amount requested. If the notice requires match or cost-share, the match and its source get their own column.
This is the constraint that matters most and the one most easily got wrong. Where a salary, rate, or effort level is not in your files, the cell carries a structured placeholder — [SALARY], [% EFFORT], [INDIRECT RATE] — and the grid stays complete rather than dissolving into prose that talks around the gap. You get a budget you can fill in, and you can see at a glance exactly which figures are still yours to supply.
The narrative states explicitly whether the proposed scope fits within the award range, approaches it, or would exceed it, and addresses any required match — who provides it, whether it is cash or in-kind, and how it is documented. Where the notice does not give a ceiling, it says so and flags that the budget has to be reconciled before submission rather than quietly assuming one.
The justification takes each object class and states what the cost is, why it is necessary to the project, and how the amount was calculated — the language of §200.403, because that is the test the cost will actually be judged against. Personnel lines tie back to specific activities and objectives in your program scope rather than floating free of the narrative.
The narrative says where the indirect figure comes from: your negotiated indirect cost rate agreement, or the 15% de minimis rate under §200.414 if you have no negotiated rate. Budgeting zero indirect to look lean is the most common self-inflicted wound we see, and an unstated basis is the second.
Where the funding notice specifies its own budget format, cost categories, period, caps, or unallowable costs, those govern. The standard object-class structure is the fallback for when it says nothing — which is frequently, but not always.
Its budget requirements, award range, and cost-share rules are pulled out with the rest of its requirements and become the constraints the budget is built against.
Personnel rows and activity lines are built from the program scope and the key personnel you supplied. The less of this it has, the more of the grid comes back as placeholders.
The budget is kept consistent with the program design you approved, so the costs describe the project you are actually proposing.
Placeholders mark every figure the system declined to guess. Replacing them is the work; assembling the structure around them is not.
No, and it is built not to. Salaries, rates, and effort levels come from you. What it produces is the complete structure with your supplied figures in place and explicit placeholders everywhere else, plus the justification prose around them.
Where the notice requires it, yes — as its own column or table, with the narrative addressing who provides the match, whether it is cash or in-kind, and how it is documented.
Yours, if you have a negotiated rate agreement. Otherwise it applies the de minimis rate under §200.414 and says that is what it has done. If neither is known it leaves a placeholder rather than picking one. There is more on this on our 2 CFR 200 reference page.
No. It assembles and justifies a budget in the form a reviewer expects. Whether the figures are right for your organization, and whether your accounting treatment is consistent, is your finance function’s call — and nothing here is accounting or legal advice.
Yes. It is produced as part of the full proposal run, when the notice asks for one, rather than as a separate purchase.
Bring in a notice and see the budget structure it actually requires.