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End the Back-and-Forth – Build National Science Foundation (NSF) Budgets — Fast, Compliant, and Collaborative

Keep your team on the same page with guided prompts, real-time collaboration, and built-in compliance—so you can submit faster with stress less.

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Trusted by research administrators, faculty, and labs preparing NSF budgets

From Sign-Up to Submission in 3 Simple Steps

Create your NSF budget without the back-and-forth — our guided workflow keeps it quick, clear, and compliant from start to finish.

Sign Up

Follow Prompts

Finalize Budget

Start for Free Now and Get a Budget Section Done Today

COOKIES AND PRIVACY POLICY
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Benefits

Experience How Simple NSF Budget Prep Can Be

Take a quick, guided click-through and see exactly how Budget Mentor helps you plan, collaborate, and finalize a compliant NSF budget — all without the back-and-forth.

FEATURES

Everything You Need for Confident, Compliant NSF Budgets

Beyond the core workflow, Budget Mentor is packed with tools that make budgeting faster, more accurate, and easier to manage with your team.

Collaboration & Sharing

  • Invite collaborators with role-based permissions.
  • Share final budgets via a simple browser link — no email or export needed.
  • Export in two Excel formats: person-months or dollar values.

Customization & Control

  • Toggle MTDC categories by section or line item with one click.
  • Use pre-built templates for all NSF budget line items.
  • Access a fully built-out travel section with domestic and foreign cost categorization.

Support & Confidence

  • Self-help "Budget Buddy" widget for instant NSF budgeting answers.
  • Built-in bug reporting with fast response and fixes.
  • Automatic compound inflation calculations for accurate projections.

BUDGET CALCULATIONS, SIMPLIFIED

Turn NSF Cost Calculations into a One-Click Step

From Modified Total Direct Costs to indirects, every calculation follows NSF rules automatically — so you can focus on the proposal, not the math.
Don't worry, you don't need to know the formulas. We do the work for you. Replace this with before and after of…

Modified Total Direct Cost x Facilities and Administrative (F&A) Rate = Total Indirect Costs
Don't worry, you don't need to know the formulas. We handle them for you.

ADVANCED FEATURES

Subawards, Simplified

Invite collaborators to enter subawards directly — then add them to your budget with one click, fully NSF-compliant.

Instant Revisions Everywhere

Change one input — updates flow instantly across section summaries, indirect costs, fringe benefits, and your final budget.

Automatic or Custom Inflation

Apply NSF-allowed rates automatically, or set your own — all changes update across your budget, including multi-year projections.

Exports and Visual Insights

Download NSF-standard Excel files in person-months or dollar values — or explore data in-platform, highlight, and export charts.

Real-Time Budget Cap Tracking

Watch your budget bar update as you build — tracking direct and indirect costs so you stay within limits.

Research Admins Are Ditching Spreadsheet Chaos — Get a Budget Section Done in 15 Minutes

"I trialed it on a smaller proposal and had a solid draft that afternoon. Sharing it with my team took one email."
— Research Administrator, R1 University
"Subawards used to be a fire drill. Now I send a link, they enter their piece, and I pull it in with one click."
— Senior Grant & Contract Specialist
"Change one number and the related totals update everywhere. We cut back-and-forth revisions by at least half."
— Research Administration Manager
"The running total kept us on track as we iterated—no end-of-week surprises."
— Department Grants Coordinator
"I tried it myself, then upgraded—monthly billing made approval simple and the time saved was obvious."
— Pre-Award Administrator
"Live comments replaced a flood of emails on our last budget. Everyone stayed aligned."
— Center Operations Lead
"I’m new to NSF; this felt straightforward—clear steps, no digging for rules, and the final check gave me confidence."
— Assistant Professor (First-time PI)
17+

Joined in the last 90 days — updates live from our system.

$100K

Budgeting capacity included when you start today — no card required.

JOIN THE PEOPLE ALREADY SAVING TIME — START BEFORE YOUR NEXT DEADLINE

Trusted by Leading Research Institutions

Get an NSF Budget Section Done Today!

Includes $100k free budgeting — no credit card required.

Billed on the moving average of budgets in your workspace

Free

For individuals or small teams — manage up to $100k in budgets in your workspace at no cost.

FREE Per $100,000 in your workspace / Per Month
Nothing due today — no credit card required
  • Automatic NSF compliance checks
  • One-click subaward integration
  • Real-time collaboration with comments & whiteboards
  • Instant revisions across sections
  • ...and more
Billed on the moving average of budgets in your workspace

Individual

For solo research admins or PIs managing up to $2M in active budgets in their workspace.

$10 Per $100,000 in your workspace / Per Month
Nothing due today — no credit card required
  • Automatic NSF compliance checks
  • One-click subaward integration
  • Real-time collaboration with comments & whiteboards
  • Instant revisions across sections
  • ...and more
Billed on the moving average of budgets in your workspace

Small Organization

For departments, centers, or labs managing up to $10M in active budgets in their workspace.

$30 Per $100,000 in your workspace / Per Month
Nothing due today — no credit card required
  • Automatic NSF compliance checks
  • One-click subaward integration
  • Real-time collaboration with comments & whiteboards
  • Instant revisions across sections
  • ...and more
Billed on the moving average of budgets in your workspace

Large Organization

For large-scale operations managing over $10M in budgets in their workspace.

$50 Per $100,000 in your workspace / Per Month
Nothing due today — no credit card required
  • Automatic NSF compliance checks
  • One-click subaward integration
  • Real-time collaboration with comments & whiteboards
  • Instant revisions across sections
  • ...and more

REIMBURSEMENT METHODS

01. Preview a Final Budget

02. All Features Included in Every Plan

Every tier gives you the same full set of capabilities — you only pay for the budget capacity you manage

Top features include:

  • Automatic NSF compliance checks
  • One-click subaward integration
  • Real-time collaboration with comments & whiteboards
  • Instant revisions across sections
  • Built-in NSF guidance in every category
  • Automatic & custom inflation rate options
  • Share budgets via secure browser link for review
  • Export to NSF-standard Excel formats (person-months & dollars)
  • Visual budget tracking bar
  • ... and more

03. How Billing Works

Budget Mentor uses the moving average total value of all budgets in your owned workspace to calculate your bill.

Collaborator budgets in other people's workspaces do not count toward your total.

Example for Individual Tier: If your workspace's moving average budget total is $500,000 this month and you’re on the Individual tier ($0.0001 × total value of budgets in workspace), your bill would be about $50 for that month.

Example for Small Organization Tier: If your workspace's moving average budget total is $4,000,000 this month and you’re on the Small Organization tier ($0.0003 × total value of budgets in workspace), your bill would be about $1,200 for that month.

Example for Large Organization Tier: If your workspace's moving average budget total is $20,000,000 this month and you’re on the Large Organization tier ($0.0005 × total value of budgets in workspace), your bill would be about $10,000 for that month.

You can reduce billing at any time by deleting budgets, removing items from budgets, or unsubscribing. You will not lose your data if you downgrade. You can resubscribe whenever it is convenient.

04. Tool Limitations & Ongoing Improvements

Budget Mentor is designed to take you about 90% of the way to a complete NSF-compliant budget, saving you hours of manual work and back-and-forth.

That said, NSF guidelines are complex and change over time, and no tool can guarantee perfect compliance for every unique case out of the box.

If you find an issue or edge case, we want to hear about it. Our team prioritizes fixing bugs and updating calculations quickly so you can stay on track.

This is a tool to make your work faster, clearer, and less stressful — you're still in control of final checks before submission.