Instructions expense calculation for commissioned activities
1. General information on commissioned activities and the calculation
1.1 Full expense coverage
As stated in the appropriation directions, all commissioned activities shall be carried out with full expense coverage. Both indirect and direct costs as well as facility costs shall be covered by the sum stated on the invoice. Therefore, an estimate is to be done with both the de facto direct and indirect costs.
Direct costs
Direct costs refer to costs that can be directly tied to the project, such as salaries, employee benefits, materials, travels, equipment, etc. The direct costs of the project are placed above the facility expense section in the calculation.
Indirect costs
The project shall also pay its part of the costs that are shared by the University and the department such as library, computer network, administration in addition to department-wide costs such as head of department salary, technical and administrative staff, copying machines, etc. These costs are referred to as indirect costs as they are not directly associated with the project.
Project facility costs
The project shall be saddled with the direct facility costs and there are two options to choose between. For certain projects, combining alt 1 (the main method) and alt 2 may be prudent.
Main method (Alt 1): In the calculation, the facility costs are based on the actual space/square footage used by the project. The project pays for the amount of square meters that is at the disposal of the project and according to current facility costs per square meter. This method of calculating facility costs is usually the one that produces the most accurate facility costs for the project.
Alt 2: This method of calculating facility costs means that the department has established a percentage-based surcharge on the allocation base (personnel and operational costs) for the allocation of the total premise costs of the core activities. State the established percentage.
1.2 VAT
VAT is added to assignments by non-government commissioning parties. For more information, see the EA-book chap 8.
1.3 General information about the expense calculation
The estimate template is a tool designed to assist in calculating the costs of a grant as part of an application to the grantor. Note that the grant estimate template is not to be used for EU assignments or commissioned activities, as there are separate estimate templates available for these types of assignments.
Due to the fact that percentages for employee benefits and holiday pay varies over time, the estimate template is updated every year. Despite this, the calculation may be used for projects that span multiple years if index enumeration of costs is added to the agreement for the commissioned activity.
Expenses related to salaries (LBK), 49.0 percent as of 2017-01-01, are the payroll taxes and such that are debited from direct salaries. Holiday pay is paid out whenever an employee goes on holiday leave. Holiday pay is currently an average of 1.2 percent of the direct salary. LBK is added on to the holiday compensation which results in a surcharge of around 1.9 per cent. Holiday pay and LBK are automatically included in the estimate based on the salary costs that have been inputted.
The University’s allocation basis for indirect expenses are personnel and operating costs. This basis may also be used for distributing facility costs.
The green cells are manually entered on the grant estimate template, while the white cells are formulas that automatically calculate costs based on the inputted sums.
Contact the Legal Affairs Division for more information about how to design agreements on commissioned activities. See also http://regler.uu.se/ for general regulations of commissioned activities.
2. Parts of the estimate
2.1 Information about the project
The estimate shall include information about the project, such as project title, the estimated duration of the project, project manager as well as the author of the estimate.
2.2 Salary costs
Monthly salary refers to the pre-tax salaries of the participants. The fields for salaries may also be used to input remuneration. Salaries/remuneration may be entered by inputting the number of months or hours the project participants will spend on the project and their monthly or hourly wages. If, on the other hand, the total salary is to be entered, a 1 is inputted in the column referring to amount of months and the total salary is entered in the column for Salary/month.
2.3 Other operating costs
This section is used to enter other costs of the project such as travel, chemicals, consultants etc. All amounts are to be entered without VAT factored in.
2.4 Costs for facility assets (equipment)
Procurement costs excluding VAT for the purchase of facility assets are inputted in this section.
2.5 Facility costs
Main method (alt 1): Enter the de facto space at the disposal of the project in square metres and the cost per square metre.
Alt 2: Enter the percentage-based surcharge established by the department to calculate the facility costs of the project.
2.6 Indirect costs
Here, the percentage decided by the department is entered for surcharging of the direct costs. This percentage shall be updated on an annual basis by the department.
2.7 Total expenses of the commissioned activity excluding VAT
This section is used to sum up the total costs of the commissioned activity, which is the sum that the commissioning party will be quoted. If the commissioning party is not a government body, value-added tax used for the assignment. Read more about value-added tax in the EA book chapter 8 on outgoing VAT.
2.8 Estimate approved by the head of department
The head of department is entrusted with the department’s aggregate finances, which means that the head of department has the final say in grant applications and the authorisation of additional funding (if needed). Therefore, the estimate must be reviewed by the head of department or the department’s financial administrator and approved by the head of department.