★ marks a concept you'll see directly in the Steightment interface. Each term has a stable link — e.g. /learn/glossary/#mtdc — so the app can deep-link to it.
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The regulatory framework
Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200)
The master rulebook (Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 200) for administering federal grants: what's allowable, how to account, what to report, how long to keep records. "Per the UG" or a citation like "200.414" points here.
FAR — Federal Acquisition Regulation
The equivalent rulebook for federal contracts (vs. grants). FAR Part 31 defines allowable/unallowable contract costs — relevant to defense/SBIR contract work.
CFR — Code of Federal Regulations
The codified body of federal rules; "2 CFR 200" is a citation into it.
OMB — Office of Management and Budget
The White House office that issues the Uniform Guidance and the standard forms (SF-425, SF-SAC).
Compliance Supplement
OMB's annual guide telling auditors what to test for each program; defines program clusters.
Award identification
★ Award
A single grant or contract: its money, budget, rules, period, and PI. Steightment's core grant dimension — each transaction can be tagged to one. See the Primer: why grant bookkeeping is different.
FAIN — Federal Award Identification Number
The unique ID of your specific award (e.g. 1H79SM087654). Unique to your organization's instance of the program.
ALN — Assistance Listing Number
Formerly the CFDA number; identifies the federal program (e.g. 93.829), the same for every recipient. Format NN.NNN. Appears on the SEFA.
CFDA — Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance
The old name for the ALN; you'll still hear "CFDA number."
PoP — Period of Performance
The window during which you may incur costs on the award (start → end date). Spending outside it is generally disallowed.
Grant vs. Contract
A grant / cooperative agreement funds a public purpose (governed by 2 CFR 200); a contract buys a deliverable for the government (governed by FAR). They report differently (SEFA/SF-425 vs. DCAA/incurred-cost).
Prime vs. Subrecipient
The prime holds the award directly from the agency; a subrecipient receives a piece via a pass-through entity. Money passed to subs must be tracked and reported on the SEFA.
Cost concepts
★ Direct cost
A cost assignable to one specific award (a consultant working on that project). Billed to the award. See the Primer: the cost split.
★ Indirect cost (F&A, "overhead")
Real costs that benefit many awards and can't be pinned to one (rent, admin salaries, IT). Recovered via a rate, not line items. F&A = Facilities & Administrative — the formal name.
★ Unallowable cost
A cost the government won't reimburse, by rule (FAR 31.205 / 2 CFR 200 Subpart E): alcohol, entertainment, lobbying, political activity, fines/penalties, bad debts, first-class travel, gifts. Still recorded; excluded from billing and from the indirect base.
Allowable / Allocable / Reasonable
The three tests a cost must pass to be charged to an award: permitted by the rules (allowable), actually benefiting the award (allocable), and what a prudent person would pay (reasonable).
★ MTDC — Modified Total Direct Costs
The standard base the indirect rate is applied to: total direct costs minus equipment, minus subaward amounts over $25k, minus a few other exclusions. Steightment computes this from your classified transactions. See the worked example in the Primer.
★ Indirect rate
The percentage applied to the MTDC base to recover indirect costs. Either de minimis or negotiated.
★ De minimis rate
The flat rate an organization without a negotiated agreement may use. Currently up to 15% of MTDC (raised from 10% in the Oct-2024 Uniform Guidance revision — a number people still get wrong).
NICRA — Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement
A rate you formally negotiate with your cognizant agency; used instead of the de minimis rate. Can be provisional (estimated, for interim billing) or final (trued-up after year-end).
Cognizant agency
The federal agency responsible for negotiating and approving your indirect rate.
Program income
Money the project itself earns (fees, sales); has its own rules for how it may be used.
Cash management & money movement
Cost reimbursement
You spend first, then get paid back (the common model). Contrast advance payment (paid up front, with rules on interest and drawdown timing).
Drawdown
Pulling your reimbursement from the government's payment system.
PMS — Payment Management System
HHS's system for grant drawdowns; ASAP is Treasury's equivalent. "PMS drawdown" = requesting your federal cash.
★ Payment request / Reimbursement package
The document bundling expenditures + evidence you submit to get reimbursed. Steightment generates a FEMA/PMS-style PDF (two reports → one file).
Obligation
Money you've committed (a signed PO/subaward) but not yet paid. Unliquidated obligation = committed-but-unpaid.
Liquidation period
The window (typically 90–120 days) after the PoP ends to pay off remaining obligations.
The reports & audits
★ SF-425 — Federal Financial Report (FFR)
The standard periodic financial report per award: funds authorized, cash received/disbursed, federal share of expenditures, unobligated balance, and an indirect-expense block. OMB standard form; lines 10a–10o + §11.
★ SEFA — Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards
An annual schedule listing all federal money your organization spent that fiscal year, grouped by agency and ALN, including amounts passed to subrecipients. The centerpiece of a Single Audit.
★ Single Audit (Uniform Guidance audit, formerly A-133)
A mandatory organization-wide audit triggered when a non-federal entity expends ≥ $1,000,000 of federal awards in a fiscal year (threshold raised from $750k in the Oct-2024 revision). Tests internal controls and compliance, not just the financials.
SF-SAC
The Data Collection Form submitted with a Single Audit to the FAC.
FAC — Federal Audit Clearinghouse
The repository where completed Single Audits are filed.
Questioned cost
An expenditure an auditor flags as possibly unallowable/unsupported; can become a finding.
Finding
A documented deficiency in the audit (control weakness or noncompliance); requires a corrective action plan.
Time & Effort / Effort certification
The requirement (2 CFR 200.430) that salaries charged to awards be supported by records of actual work, certified periodically, and never exceed 100% of a person's time.
Cluster
A group of related federal programs (e.g. the Research & Development Cluster) that the Compliance Supplement requires be totaled together on the SEFA.
The DCAA / defense-contract world
DCAA — Defense Contract Audit Agency
Audits contractor accounting systems for cost-reimbursement contracts (incl. many DoD SBIR Phase II awards).
SF-1408
DCAA's pre-award checklist for whether an accounting system is "adequate": segregates direct/indirect, job-costs by contract, excludes unallowables, has timekeeping, accumulates costs at least monthly.
ICE / Incurred Cost Submission
The annual filing that trues up a contractor's provisional indirect rates to actuals.
Provisional vs. final rate
Bill during the year at an estimated (provisional) indirect rate, then reconcile to the final actual rate after year-end.
Agencies & programs you'll see on awards
Common funders
NIH / NIMH (National Institutes of Health / Nat'l Institute of Mental Health) · NSF (National Science Foundation) · SAMHSA (Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Admin) · HRSA (Health Resources & Services Admin) · CDC (Centers for Disease Control) · DoD (Department of Defense; CDMRP = Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs) · FEMA (disaster / public-assistance reimbursement) · SBIR/STTR (Small Business Innovation Research / Technology Transfer — federal R&D funding programs).
Steightment product terms
★ Cost classification
The screen/table mapping each chart-of-accounts category to direct / indirect / unallowable and whether it's MTDC-excluded.
★ AI unallowable flag
An automatic ⚠ on transactions that pattern-match a FAR 31.205 unallowable category, with the citation as the reason.
★ PI — Principal Investigator
The person personally accountable for how an award's money is spent ("the go-to-jail person"). In Steightment, the PI approval step routes spending to them for sign-off.
★ PI approval
The optional sign-off step routing award-tagged or over-threshold expenses to the PI before they book. See the Primer: the approval workflow.
★ Period close / lock
Freezing a month's booked transactions; changes afterward require a reopen and are audit-logged. See the Primer: period close & the audit trail.
★ Budget vs. actuals
The per-award report of spent vs. budgeted, inception-to-date, with % consumed and burn rate.
Booked / Approved
A transaction finalized into the ledger — as opposed to needs-review, suggested, or pending-PI-approval.
★ Reconciliation
Matching the bank feed to the books so the difference is zero; proves the ledger reflects reality.
★ Class / Site / Project label
A secondary dimension (e.g. a clinic site) layered under the award for segment reporting.