Organizations within the Department of Health and Human Services use a method of funding for discretionary grants that divides an approved project into funding periods called budget periods. The budget period is the period of time during which you are authorized to spend the funds awarded and must meet the matching or cost-sharing requirement, if any, and is shown in the Notice of Grant Award. Costs may not be incurred after the ending date of the current budget period unless you receive additional funding in the form of a non-competing continuation award for the next budget period or, if you are in the last budget period of the approved project period, through a no-cost extension (see Grants Management Advisory 2011-02).

ONC made Recovery Act awards using various approaches to defining the budget period, including budget periods that are of the same duration as the project period. For any budget period with an ending date that differs from the ending date of the project period, you must receive ONC approval to carry over unobligated Federal funds to the next budget period (see Grants Management Advisory 2011-02).