Allowable Costs
Costs a sponsor will actually reimburse: those that are allowable, allocable to the project, reasonable, and treated consistently.
For a cost to be charged to a federal award it has to clear the cost principles in the Uniform Guidance: it must be allowable (not barred by regulation or the award terms), allocable (it benefits the project in proportion to what's charged), reasonable (a prudent person would have incurred it), and treated consistently with how the institution handles similar costs elsewhere.
A cost can be a legitimate business expense and still be unallowable on a grant. Allowability is judged line by line, and the burden is on the institution to show a charge meets every test.
Charging an unallowable cost is the most common audit finding: the money is disallowed and repaid, often from institutional funds.
Track this in GrantsManager
GrantsManager gives PIs and administrators one real-time view of proposals, awards, budgets, and compliance, so terms like this stop living in spreadsheets.