Processing of the BMBF’s project allowance
In keeping with a decision made by the Rectorate, the project allowance, which is supplied by the “Bund”, is divided evenly between the project leader and the university. This happens as follows:
1. Accessing the project allowance
The project allowance is accessed in proportion to the required project funds every time a payment request is made.
2. Incoming payment
Upon receipt, the project allowance is paid into the same project account that also holds the project funds.
3. Half of the allowance is then transferred to the project leader’s account and the other half to the university’s central account.
Project Administration is responsible for transferring the project allowance immediately after it has been received. The money is divided as follows:
a) half of the amount goes to the project leader's personal project allowance account (title 54781, cost type 0081)
b) the other half is transferred to the university’s central project allowance account
(title 54781/ 01980581/ 0081).
Payments made from the project account are booked as expenditures, therefore payments made to the account are listed as an “Ausgabenabsetzung” (deduction of expenditure). To keep deductions separate from other project expenses, we introduced the following additional cost type:
“0081 Gutschrift Projektpauschale BMBF”.
This type of expense is only available for credit notes related to the project allowance.
Through the transfer, the funds are charged to the federal project. This serves to satisfy a federal stipulation which requires that federal funds must be spent within two months. In reality, these funds remain available in both accounts for an indefinite amount of time.
4. Important note regarding available project funds
In the project account, the project allowance is listed as a regular cost type (no. 0865), which means that there is a funding amount, expenditures and, as a result, “available funds”. Although these funds are not available for the project as such, they are included in the total sum of all available project funds (“available approved funds”). To determine the amount of available direct project funds, simply subtract the cost type marked “0865 project allowance”.
5. End of the project
The project allowance is determined by the total amount of project funds spent until the end of the project. When you re-transfer funds that have not been spent by the end of the project you must also re-transfer a proportional amount of the project allowance.