Questioned costs do not begin at the audit. They begin the moment an ineligible expenditure is incurred.
Intake and Eligibility installs the pre-obligation verification logic that confirms every expenditure is allowable, allocable, and authorized before it enters the federal record. Under 2 CFR §200.403, costs must meet the factors of allowability at the time they are incurred — not retroactively justified after they appear in a finding.
What Intake and Eligibility installs at the institution.
The most common path to a questioned cost finding is not fraud or negligence — it is an expenditure that moved before eligibility was confirmed. A staff member is charged to a federal award before their effort allocation is formally assigned. A cost is categorized as direct when it should have been indirect. A service is procured before the institution has confirmed it falls within the award's scope of work. The obligation happens. The audit finds it. The institution defends it from a weak position.
Under 2 CFR §200.403, costs charged to a federal award must be allowable under the applicable cost principles, allocable to the award, authorized under applicable law and regulations, and adequately documented. Meeting that standard requires more than post-hoc recordkeeping. It requires a verification gate that answers the allowability and authorization questions before the obligation is created.
Northbridge installs Intake and Eligibility as a structured pre-obligation sequence. Every expenditure category — personnel, procurement, subawards, and indirect — passes through a documented verification step before it moves. Personnel eligibility is confirmed through effort certification architecture. Cost categories are classified before charges are allocated. Pre-approval conditions are checked against the Award DNA register before activity begins. The institution does not discover eligibility problems at the audit; it resolves them before the obligation enters the record.
What Intake and Eligibility governs.
Personnel Eligibility Gates
Northbridge installs a documented eligibility verification sequence for every personnel charge to a federal award — confirming position authorization, effort allocation, and award-specific personnel conditions before charges are posted.
Cost Allowability Classification
Each cost category is classified against the award's applicable cost principles before the obligation moves. Allowable, conditionally allowable, and unallowable categories are documented with the classification rationale as contemporaneous evidence.
Award Nexus Verification
Every expenditure must trace to a specific programmatic purpose within the award's scope of work. Northbridge installs the verification step that confirms the nexus exists before the cost is recorded — not after it surfaces in a transaction review.
Direct and Indirect Cost Controls
The institution's cost allocation methodology is applied consistently and documented at point of charge. Cross-charging errors and improper direct cost treatment are prevented structurally rather than caught through exception reporting.
Pre-Approval Intake Protocol
Costs and activities that require federal prior approval are routed through a documented intake protocol. The pre-approval request is prepared, submitted, and received before the activity begins — and the record reflects that sequence.
Subaward Eligibility Screening
Subrecipients and subaward activities pass through a documented eligibility and risk assessment before funds flow downstream. The institution's pass-through responsibility under 2 CFR §200.332 begins at intake, not at monitoring.
Eligibility confirmed before obligation is the only position that holds at audit.
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