Excel Version

The Standard Budget tool is offered in MS Excel versions 97 & 95/5.0. This tool uses some of the enhanced functionality offered in later versions of MS Excel to help in preparing your budget. You can download this spreadsheet from the RSP web site at: Standard Budget Download Page.  The name of the file you can download is budget.xls

IMPORTANT NOTE: When using Microsoft Excel for Office 2000 or XP you must use the File -- Save As feature and Save As File Type "Microsoft Excel Workbook" (*.xls).  Select this option from the top of the Save As Type pull down menu. If you do not change the file type, you will receive an error message when saving the spreadsheet.

If you are comfortable with using MS Excel or any other spreadsheet program, this Standard Budget workbook will be familiar. The workbook is laid out with several "worksheets" to aid in the creation of your budget. Each worksheet contains the detail for a particular budget category. The worksheets are as follows:

1. Title-- contains sponsor name, project title, project begin and end dates, principal investigator's name, indirect cost rate, and indirect cost base
2. Indirect Cost Rates-- this is an informational page with a table of current negotiated rates for research, instruction, and public service. Both on-campus and off-campus rates are listed.
3. Fringe Rates-- this is an informational page with a table of fringe benefit rates for FY2000.
4. Salary & Wages-- these pages are used for listing personnel involved in the project and the requested salaries with fringe benefits. There is one worksheet for each year of the project, up to five years.
5. Tuition Remission-- calcuates tuition charges for PA/RA graduate students working on the project.
6. Equipment & Other Capital-- this worksheet is used for listing equipment items.
7. Supplies-- items which fall into the supply category are listed on this page.
8. Travel-- both domestic and foreign travel, as well as UW hosted events are listed on this page.
9. Services-- this page is used to include service items.
10. Sub-Agreements-- list sub-agreements or subcontracts on this page.
11. MTDC-- this is an informational page which details the budget totals which are included in the Modified Total Direct Cost calculation.
12. Total-- this worksheet lists the totals from each of the other worksheets. This page is in the required format for submission to the sponsor.

For more complete definitions of each budget category, please see the Standard Budget help page.

Navigation around Workbook:

To move to a different sheet, click on the tab for that sheet. For example, to move to the page for "Salary & Wage Year 1", click on that tab located on the bottom of the Excel screen. If you cannot see the worksheet you wish to work on, use the arrow buttons in the lower left corner of the screen.

To SAVE the workbook: Use "Save As." under the File menu option to save the Standard Budget workbook under a different name.

To PRINT a workbook: select PRINT from the File menu. Then under the "Print What" section, select 'Entire Workbook'.  You can also use this to print only the active page. The "printer" icon on the tool bar will also print the active worksheet.  NOTE: if using a Mac it may be necessary to adjust the print size to 80% in order to print each worksheet on one page only.

Navigation within Worksheets:
All worksheets are "protected". This means that you can change only the editable cells. Most of the calculated fields are locked and cannot be changed. This was designed to prevent calculation errors. To edit a cell, use your mouse to click within that cell.

You may use the TAB key and ENTER keys to move around the worksheet. The TAB key will move the cursor to the next editable cell. The ENTER key will move to the next row in the worksheet.

Some cells in the Salary & Wages pages contain "pull-down" boxes to aid in preparing your budget. These pull-down boxes list the valid range of data which can be included in that cell. For example, on the Salary & Wage sheets the "Fringe Category" contains a list from the Fringe Rates page. The pull-down box contains all of the fringe benefit categories in alphabetical order. When you pick a category, that fringe category is listed in the cell and the appropriate rate is entered into the Fringe Rate column. To ease in data entry, you may use ALT+ the down-arrow to pop up the list. Then using the down-arrow highlight the appropriate fringe category, hit ENTER or the SPACEBAR to select. Or you may use your mouse to pull down the box and highlight your selection. All "pull-down" boxes work the same way.

Buttons: several of the worksheets contain buttons to speed up data entry or aid in printing. The Salary & Wage pages for years 2-5 contain a button to carry over data from the previous year. The Totals page contains two buttons, one for printing all worksheets containing data, the other to print only the Totals page.

Printing: Individual worksheets can be printed by using the "printer" icon on the toolbar near the top of the screen. Or you may select PRINT from the File menu. Buttons on the Totals page may also be used for printing.

For more details on using Excel, see your departmental computer support staff. For questions regarding budget categories and the items which comprise those categories, contact your College or School Dean's representative.

Standard Budget Download Page