Carryover of Unobligated Balances

What is Carryover?

Carryover is a process through which unobligated funds remaining at the end of the budget period may be carried forward to the next budget period. The carryover of funds allows the recipient to access the unused prior year funds in the current budget period. Award terms and conditions will define whether carryover is automatic or restricted.

Automatic Carryover (Does Not Require Sponsor Prior Approval)

If the sponsor does not impose restrictions on carryover, the award is referred to as having “automatic” carryover and prior approval is not required in order to spend prior year funds in the current budget period. Awards that allow automatic carryover may be set up in a project(s) that encompasses the entire period of performance. The project number(s) may remain the same for the life of the project.

Note: Many progress reports, such as NIH RPPRs, require reporting estimated unobligated balances if they are expected to be greater than 25% of the current year’s budget along with an explanation and expenditure plan for those funds.

Restricted Carryover (Requires Sponsor Prior Approval)

If the sponsor imposes restrictions on carryover, the award is referred to as having “restricted” carryover and prior approval is required in order to spend prior year funds in the current budget period. Awards that have restricted carryover must be set up in a separate project(s) for each budget period. A new project number(s) will be established for each budget period in order to separately account for each budget period’s funds.

Note: Establishing a new project number(s) each year allows C&G Accounting to issue a financial report which identifies expenditures specific to each budget period and determines the unobligated balance that will require sponsor approval to carryover.

How to Determine Project Balances

Use myinvestiGator to determine a project’s unobligated balance or contact your Grant Accountant in C&G Accounting.

How to Request Sponsor Approval to Carryover Unobligated Balances

Contact C&G Accounting to determine the unobligated balance available for carryover.
Prepare the carryover request documentation and route the request to DSP via a UFIRST Award Modification. A guide to UFIRST Award Carryover Modifications is available here. The documentation should include:
1. A formal letter requesting carryover approval signed by the PI. A Carryover Request Template is available here. A complete carryover request letter should include the following:
  1. PI Name
  2. Grant Number
  3. Carryover dates or years (from/to)
  4. Amount of the unobligated balance to be carried over. Note: the entire unobligated balance does not need to be included in the request. Subsequent requests may be submitted to carryover additional remaining funds.
  5. Reason for the unobligated balance.
  6. Demonstration of current need for the carryover funds. The request must specify why the carryover funds are needed to accomplish the grant work and why the grant work could not be accomplished by rebudgeting current budget period funds. There must be a clear plan for spending the carryover funds during the current budget period.
2. Detailed total cost budget for the requested carryover amount. A total cost budget includes direct costs and indirect costs, using the F&A rate in effect for the current budget period. For NIH, use the 2590 detailed budget forms and the checklist page reflecting the requested F&A rate and F&A amount.
3. A copy of the grant’s annual financial report issued by C&G Accounting. For federal awards this is known as the Federal Financial Report (FFR). If the financial report has not been completed, DSP will need to confirm the unobligated balance with C&G Accounting prior to submitting the carryover request to the Sponsor. Note: NIH cannot accept a carryover request until the FFR has been approved and is reflected in their system. NIH carryover requests should not be submitted in UFIRST until the FFR is approved.
DSP will review, countersign if needed, and submit to the sponsor.
Once the sponsor approves the request, the approved carryover amount will be released in a project for the current budget period. The sponsor may impose additional restrictions that require a separate project for the carryover funds.

Contact Us

If you have questions regarding carryover of unobligated funds from one budget period to the next, please contact your assigned C&G Grant Accountant or DSP at ufawards@ufl.edu.

Last updated 11/15/24