Adjusting Personnel Costs in the Project Budget

Jul 27, 2015 56855 Print this page Download PDF Request support  

The EC budget calculation is based on strict rules and EMDESK automatically creates the budget based on your input. This means that whenever you adjust any of several variables, the overall total of the requested EC contribution and/or the total budget may change.

This is especially true for personnel costs. Making one small change to the personnel costs can cause a ripple effect throughout the budget.

Here is the basic formula to have in mind for staff cost:

Personnel cost rate / by partner / by year / DoW > Contractor > Financial Information / 12 *
Number of person months / by partner / by Task / DoW > Work plan > Staff effort
Indirect Cost / by partner / DoW > Contractor > Financial Information
= Total budget *
EC Contribution rate / by activity type / by Type of Organization / DoW > Contractor > Contractor’s Information
= Max requested EC contribution

Changing the following variables can affect the EC contribution and/or the total budget:

• Changing a partner as the information linked to them determines a) the type of organisation, b) the personnel cost rate, c) the indirect cost rate
• Changing the Personnel cost rate of a partner
• Changing the Indirect Cost calculation of a partner
• Changing the Type of organisation of a partner

• Changing the number of person months
• Changing the duration of a task – this can sometimes lead to a task falling into two different years with two different personnel cost rates
• Shifting person months between tasks – this is linked to an activity type
• Shifting person months between partners: as this is later multiplied by a) personnel cost rate, c) indirect cost rate, c) reimbursement related to type of organisation
• Shifting person months between different cost rates within the same partner

For further examples and advice, please read our FAQ page.