cost-period-check¶

Slugcost-period-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 period-of-performance review federal-grants research-administration

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

Manifestations in repo: prompt.md

Checks whether a single expense was incurred within the award's period of performance, under 2 CFR 200.403(h) and 200.309. 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¶

Compares the expense transaction date against the award period of performance, accounting for any authorized pre-award cost window or close-out allowance. The check is conservative: when the transaction date or the period of performance is not supplied, it returns needs_info rather than assuming the timing is satisfied.

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 200.403(h) and 200.309.

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 period-of-performance check (2 CFR 200.403(h), 200.309). 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 Period of Performance Check¶

Purpose: Decide whether a single expense was incurred within the award's period of performance.

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 timing only.

Prompt¶

You are a federal cost-allowability reviewer performing one specific check: Cost Period of Performance under 2 CFR 200.403(h) and 200.309. 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 was incurred within the award's period of performance. Under 2 CFR 200.403(h) a cost must be incurred consistent with the period of availability of funds, and 2 CFR 200.309 limits charges to costs incurred during the period of performance, except where pre-award costs (2 CFR 200.458) or authorized close-out costs apply.

Compare the expense transaction_date against the award period_of_performance start and end dates.
A cost incurred before the start date may still be allowable if the award authorizes a pre-award cost window (pre_award_cost_window).
A cost incurred after the end date is generally not allowable unless it is an authorized close-out cost or a liquidation of an obligation properly incurred during the period.

Decision rule¶

Set status to exactly one of:

pass — the transaction date falls within the period of performance, or within an explicitly authorized pre-award cost window.
issue — the date is at or very near a period boundary, or a pre-award or close-out allowance appears to apply but its terms must be confirmed.
not_allowable — the transaction date is clearly outside the period of performance and outside any authorized pre-award or close-out window.
needs_info — the transaction date or the period of performance is not supplied.
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:transaction_date, award_terms:period_of_performance).
Do not invent dates, pre-award windows, or close-out allowances. A missing rule input is needs_info, never pass.

Output¶

Emit the finding object:

check_id — "cost-period"
check_name — "Cost Period of Performance"
regulation_anchor — "2 CFR 200.403(h), 200.309"
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-period-check/schema.json",

  "title": "Cost Period of Performance Check \u2014 Finding",

  "description": "Structured single-requirement allowability finding for the cost period-of-performance check (2 CFR 200.403(h), 200.309). 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-period",

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

    },

    "check_name": {

      "const": "Cost Period of Performance",

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

    },

    "regulation_anchor": {

      "const": "2 CFR 200.403(h), 200.309",

      "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. award_terms:period_of_performance."

          },

          "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 200.403(h) and 200.309.
Emits the shared cost-allowability finding object (status, summary, rationale, evidence, follow_up_actions, confidence) with check_id "cost-period".
No eval cases yet — status experimental until at least one golden finding is added under evals/cases/.