cost-allocability-check¶

Slugcost-allocability-check

Version0.1.0

Statusexperimental

Last fully evaluatednone

Eval stateno validated eval cases

Categoryreview

Domainresearch-administration

Manifestationsprompt

Created2026-05-21

Updated2026-05-21

Tags: cost-allowability post-award allocability review federal-grants research-administration

Audience: post-award-staff, sponsored-programs-staff, grant-accountants

Manifestations in repo: prompt.md

Checks whether a single expense is allocable to the award under 2 CFR 200.405 — that it benefits the award and is charged in reasonable proportion to that benefit. It is one of the single-requirement checks in the federal cost-allowability analysis workflow and emits a structured finding consumed by the final determination step.

Output contract: schema.json Contract scope: repo-local

Inputs¶

A normalized expense record, extracted award terms, and a regulated-activity classification from the Stage 1 components of the cost-allowability-analysis workflow. Any may be partial.

Outputs¶

A single structured finding — see schema.json — carrying a status of pass, issue, not_allowable, needs_info, or not_applicable, with rationale, cited evidence, follow-up actions, and a confidence level.

The check¶

Evaluates whether the expense benefits this award, and where it benefits multiple activities, whether a reasonable allocation basis is evident. It flags cost-shifting — charging a cost to this award to cover another award's deficiency or for convenience — as not_allowable. When the benefiting relationship cannot be determined, the check returns needs_info.

Contract scope¶

Repo-local. The finding object is the shared single-requirement finding contract used across the cost-allowability check components; check_id, check_name, and regulation_anchor are fixed for this check. It is not a shared AI4RA-UDM schema.

Triad integration¶

Evaluation datasets: none yet — repo-local synthetic coverage planned.
Harness notes: canonical manifestation is prompt.md; validation surface is schema.json. Invoked as a Step 2 task of the cost-allowability-analysis workflow.
Shared UDM relationship: aligned to sponsored-project cost-allowability semantics; does not define or depend on a shared UDM schema.

Manifestations¶

prompt.md — canonical, LLM-agnostic prompt

Evals¶

See evals/.

Provenance¶

Created 2026-05-21 as a single-requirement check in the federal cost-allowability analysis component set, anchored to 2 CFR 200.405.

Contract scope¶

Output format: json_object
Contract scope: repo_local_single_requirement_finding_contract
Validation surfaces: json_schema
Schema entrypoints: #
Notes: Repo-local single-requirement allowability finding for the cost allocability check (2 CFR 200.405). Emits the shared cost-allowability finding object.
Machine-readable catalog entry: component_catalog.json

Triad integration¶

UDM alignment: repo_local_single_requirement_finding_contract — Aligns to sponsored-project cost-allowability semantics; the finding object is a prompt-library contract shared across the cost-allowability check components, not a shared UDM schema.
Evaluation datasets: no shared evaluation-data-sets catalog entry recorded yet; current references are repo-local eval artifacts.
Harness notes: Validate JSON output against schema.json. Canonical invocation surface is prompt.md. Invoked as a Step 2 task of the workflows/cost-allowability-analysis Vandalizer workflow.

Prompt body¶

Source: prompt.md.

Show prompt

Cost Allocability Check¶

Purpose: Decide whether a single expense is allocable to the award — that it benefits the award and is charged in proportion to that benefit.

Expected input: A normalized expense record, extracted award terms, and a regulated-activity classification.

Expected output: One structured finding conforming to schema.json.

This component is a single-requirement check in the federal cost-allowability analysis workflow. It evaluates allocability only.

Prompt¶

You are a federal cost-allowability reviewer performing one specific check: Cost Allocability under 2 CFR 200.405. Review one expense and return a single structured finding for this check only — do not evaluate any other allowability requirement.

Return only a single JSON object conforming to the finding contract. No prose, Markdown, comments, or code fences.

Input¶

You receive a normalized expense record, extracted award terms, and a regulated-activity classification, produced by the upstream steps of the cost-allowability analysis workflow. Any of these may be partial or missing.

What this check evaluates¶

Whether the cost is allocable to this award under 2 CFR 200.405. A cost is allocable to a Federal award if it is treated consistently with other costs incurred for the same purpose in like circumstances and if it:

is incurred specifically for the award;
benefits both the award and other work, and can be distributed in proportions that may be approximated using a reasonable basis; or
is necessary to the overall operation of the entity and is assignable in part to the award in accordance with the cost principles.

A cost allocable to one Federal award may not be charged to other Federal awards to overcome funding deficiencies, to avoid restrictions, or for reasons of convenience (2 CFR 200.405(c)). Determine whether the expense benefits this award, and where it benefits multiple activities, whether a reasonable allocation basis is evident.

Decision rule¶

Set status to exactly one of:

pass — the expense was incurred specifically for this award, or it benefits this award and is charged in reasonable proportion to that benefit.
issue — the expense benefits this award and other activities and the allocation basis is not documented, or the proportional benefit to this award is unclear.
not_allowable — the evidence shows the cost does not benefit this award, or is being charged to it to overcome another award's funding deficiency or for convenience.
needs_info — there is not enough evidence to tell whether or how the cost benefits this award.
not_applicable — use only when the input is explicitly not a chargeable cost.

Use the most conservative status the evidence supports. Never record pass when the evidence needed to satisfy the requirement is absent — that is needs_info.

Evidence and non-fabrication¶

Ground every finding in the supplied evidence. Populate evidence with short source_label / detail pairs (e.g., expense:description, expense:cost_code, award_terms:award_number).
Do not invent an allocation basis, a benefiting relationship, or a cost-shifting motive. A missing rule input is needs_info, never pass.

Output¶

Emit the finding object:

check_id — "cost-allocability"
check_name — "Cost Allocability"
regulation_anchor — "2 CFR 200.405"
expense_id — the expense reference from the input, or null
status — one of the values above
summary — one sentence stating the outcome
rationale — the evidence-grounded reasoning
evidence — array of {source_label, detail}
follow_up_actions — concrete actions needed before the cost is approved or charged; empty array when none
confidence — "high", "medium", or "low", reflecting evidence completeness

Produce the finding now.

Output schema¶

Source: schema.json.

Show schema.json

{

  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",

  "$id": "https://github.com/AI4RA/prompt-library/components/cost-allocability-check/schema.json",

  "title": "Cost Allocability Check \u2014 Finding",

  "description": "Structured single-requirement allowability finding for the cost allocability check (2 CFR 200.405). Part of the federal cost-allowability analysis workflow.",

  "version": "0.1.0",

  "type": "object",

  "additionalProperties": false,

  "required": [

    "check_id",

    "check_name",

    "regulation_anchor",

    "status",

    "summary",

    "rationale",

    "evidence",

    "follow_up_actions",

    "confidence"

  ],

  "properties": {

    "check_id": {

      "const": "cost-allocability",

      "description": "Stable identifier for this check."

    },

    "check_name": {

      "const": "Cost Allocability",

      "description": "Human-readable check name."

    },

    "regulation_anchor": {

      "const": "2 CFR 200.405",

      "description": "Primary regulatory anchor for this check."

    },

    "expense_id": {

      "type": [

        "string",

        "null"

      ],

      "description": "Expense reference carried from the input."

    },

    "status": {

      "type": "string",

      "enum": [

        "pass",

        "issue",

        "not_allowable",

        "needs_info",

        "not_applicable"

      ],

      "description": "Outcome of this check."

    },

    "summary": {

      "type": "string",

      "minLength": 1,

      "description": "One-sentence statement of the outcome."

    },

    "rationale": {

      "type": "string",

      "minLength": 1,

      "description": "Evidence-grounded reasoning behind the status."

    },

    "evidence": {

      "type": "array",

      "description": "Evidence relied on. May be empty only when status is not_applicable.",

      "items": {

        "type": "object",

        "additionalProperties": false,

        "required": [

          "source_label",

          "detail"

        ],

        "properties": {

          "source_label": {

            "type": "string",

            "minLength": 1,

            "description": "Short source label, e.g. expense:cost_code."

          },

          "detail": {

            "type": "string",

            "minLength": 1,

            "description": "Concise summary of what the source shows."

          }

        }

      }

    },

    "follow_up_actions": {

      "type": "array",

      "description": "Concrete actions needed before the cost is approved or charged. Empty array when none.",

      "items": {

        "type": "string",

        "minLength": 1

      }

    },

    "confidence": {

      "type": "string",

      "enum": [

        "high",

        "medium",

        "low"

      ],

      "description": "Reviewer confidence in this finding."

    }

  }

}

Changelog¶

Source: CHANGELOG.md.

All notable changes to this component. Versions follow semver: MAJOR for output-contract breaks, MINOR for backward-compatible additions, PATCH for wording or clarity.

[0.1.0] — 2026-05-21¶

Initial experimental release.
Single-requirement allowability check anchored to 2 CFR 200.405.
Emits the shared cost-allowability finding object (status, summary, rationale, evidence, follow_up_actions, confidence) with check_id "cost-allocability".
No eval cases yet — status experimental until at least one golden finding is added under evals/cases/.