BRIEF

Policy Summary

This policy provides guidance on the general management and administration of Berkeley Lab’s scientific and operations organization burden costs.

Who Should Read This Policy

All Laboratory employees who manage organization burdens

To Read the Full Policy, Go To:

The POLICY tab on this wiki page

Contact Information

Indirect Budget Manager, Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO)

POLICY

A. Purpose

This policy provides guidance on the general management and administration of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (Berkeley Lab’s) scientific and operations organization burden expenses.

B. Persons Affected

All Laboratory employees who manage organization burdens

C. Exceptions

None

D. Policy Statement

1. General

Organization burden costs represent the costs of overall management and administration of the scientific and operations support divisions or departments. Organizational burdens will be:

1. 1. Appropriately budgeted and accounted for on a consistent basis.
   2. Accumulated in standardized indirect cost pools (organization burden projects).
   3. Allocated in an equitable and reasonable manner to the benefiting cost objectives (projects) in an equitable and reasonable manner. 
      
      
2. Cost Pool Expense
   1. Organization burden costs include activities related to the management, supervision, and administration of the division/department.
   2. Organization burden cost pools shall not include research and development (R&D) activities.
   3. The cost pool should not include costs that are unallowable, or not in compliance with Berkeley Lab's prime contract, Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), and/or Cost Accounting Standards (CAS).
   4. The organization burden cost pools may include the following cost elements:
      1. Labor Expenses
         1. Division Director. Wage expense of the division director for management and oversight of the division, as well as strategic planning.
         2. Division Deputies. Wage expense of division/department deputies to support the management and oversight of the division, as well as strategic planning.
         3. Division Office Staff. Wage expense of division administrators, division office management, and other administrative support.
         4. Division Support. Wage expense of staff whose appointment or assignment is of a division-wide nature and that clearly and specifically supports the division director's responsibilities. This may include operations managers and other professional staff such as business managers, safety coordinators, financial resource analysts, and Human Resources partners who support the overall division. It may also include activities such as preparing an annual division research report or reviewing work task proposals, or general business development activities. Assignments that benefit specific projects are excluded.
         5. Staff Between Assignments. Wage expense of employees between assignments.
      2. Other Expenses
         1. Division Office Operating Costs. Costs may include, but are not limited to travel, recharges, vehicles, non-capital equipment purchases, equipment rental/maintenance, computing, recruitment activities, other supplies and expense items, divisional seminars, and electricity expenses related to the division office. Other operating costs may be included as appropriate.
         2. Development Activities. May include events or activities in support of training, career development or area-wide program development outcomes.
         3. Building Expenses, Alterations, and Moving Expenses. Costs of building managers, building supplies and equipment, general-use equipment repairs, noncapital space alterations, and division-initiated moves.
         4. Research Project Termination. Support for project termination expenses is intended to allow reasonable accommodation to unanticipated or sudden minor changes in division research activities due to a specific project termination. It does not provide for termination of a major research program or a subprogram, which should be directly funded by the program.
         5. Equipment. Costs for equipment include the purchase, fabrication, lease, installation and maintenance of equipment that broadly supports area activities. Such equipment must meet the criteria below.
            • The users/beneficiaries of the equipment are included in the area burden distribution base. The equipment is used to support area multi-programmatic and/or interdisciplinary functions where the predominant use is not directly identified with a specific project. In addition, equipment does not apply to institution-wide users/beneficiaries.
            • Capital equipment may be charged to the area burden if it meets the requirement above and the following requirements:
              1. Capital equipment criteria (see Definitions/Acronyms, below).
              2. Users/beneficiaries are within the division's organization burden base.
              3. Users/beneficiaries include multiple sponsors and/or projects within the organization burden base.
            • Must meet the requirements in LBNL's Property, Plant, and Equipment Policy.
3. Distribution Base

The distribution base for organization burden costs is the associated divisional wage expenses (labor and payroll burden), campus labor and contract labor.

1. 1. The following are excluded from the distribution base for organization burden costs:
      1. Area and organization burden labor charged to their respective cost pools.
      2. Costs of all consultants and the wage expense of employees matrixed from other organizations.
      3. Fellowship and career-development Strategic Partnership Projects (SPP) award projects and work-study students.
      4. Multiple location assignments (MLAs), inter-jurisdictional employee exchanges (IJEs), intergovernmental personnel appointments (IPAs), and Department of Energy (DOE) detailee projects.

4. Rate Execution and Monitoring

1. 1. Organization burden costs are allocated using pre-established rates. Rates are based on forecasted costs for the applicable fiscal year.
   2. Preliminary organization burden rates are developed on a break-even basis, with the objective of establishing a rate to recover the exact total of costs in the cost pool at fiscal year-end. If a material variance exists between cost and recovery at fiscal year end, the area will revise the rate and/or budget to appropriately allocate the variance. Revised rates are retroactive to the beginning of the fiscal year.
   3. Establishment of Organization burdens, as well as forecasts, and revisions of predetermined rates for the applicable cost accounting period(s) are prepared by appropriate division staff and coordinated and executed through the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) Budget Office.

E. Roles and Responsibilities

Managers, supervisors, and employees have the responsibility to adhere to the provisions of this policy.

*In the context of this policy, financial stakeholders may include area/division business managers or other area/division operations staff to whom area/division management has given accountability for financial matters. This may also include Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) staff matrixed to the area/division.

F. Definitions/Acronyms

G. Recordkeeping Requirements

None

H. Implementing Documents

I. Contact Information

Indirect Budget Manager, Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO)

J. Revision History

DOCUMENT INFORMATION

Source Requirements Documents

• Cost Accounting Standard 401, Consistency in Estimating, Accumulating and Reporting Costs
• Cost Accounting Standard 402, Consistency in Allocating Costs Incurred for the Same Purpose
• Cost Accounting Standard 406, Cost Accounting Period
• Cost Accounting Standard 418, Allocation of Direct and Indirect Costs

Implementing Documents