14. CPH Domain 8: Budgets, Justifications, and Contracts
After this lesson you can
- Build a line-item budget in the eight standard categories and separate direct from indirect costs
- Write a budget justification that explains what each cost is, why it is needed, and how it was calculated
- Analyze a budget variance and forecast year-end spending before acting
- Distinguish grants, cooperative agreements, contracts, MOUs, MOAs, and subawards
- Identify sustainability methods such as institutionalization, diversified funding, and cost recovery, and plan them from the proposal stage
Video coming soon
Scheduled for release on November 29, 2026.
The first of two lessons on CPH Domain 8, Program and Resource Management, which carries 9 percent of the exam. It covers task statements 1 to 5: line-item budgets and justifications, variance and forecasting, proposals and the funding landscape, grants, cooperative agreements, contracts and other agreements, and sustainability methods, using Harbor County's $220,000 prediabetes budget.
Questions and answers
Questions a learner would ask about this lesson. Think through your own answer before you open each one.
- How much of the exam is Domain 8, and does it require heavy math?
Show answer
Domain 8, Program and Resource Management, carries 9 percent of the exam, about sixteen of the 175 scored items, split between this lesson and lesson 15. The lesson notes that the June 2026 Handbook says there are no complex calculations. Items ask you to recognize a budget category, what a justification does, what a manager does first when spending runs ahead, and which agreement or sustainability method a scenario describes.
- What are the eight budget categories?
Show answer
Personnel, fringe, travel, equipment, supplies, contractual, other, and indirect, in the federal budget form order. The first seven are direct cost categories. Fringe is the cost of benefits for program staff and is a direct cost, even though human resources administers it.
- How do I tell a direct cost from an indirect cost?
Show answer
The test is traceability. A direct cost can be traced to one program by a receipt, invoice, or timesheet, such as the program nurse's salary. An indirect cost benefits the whole organization and is charged to a program by an approved rate, such as rent, utilities, or the finance office.
- What is the difference between a grant, a cooperative agreement, and a contract?
Show answer
Grants and cooperative agreements are assistance: the funder supports a public purpose the recipient carries out. A grant has no substantial funder involvement after award, while a cooperative agreement has substantial involvement, such as agency staff approving key decisions. A contract is procurement: the funder buys a defined deliverable, and remedies for nonperformance are enforceable.
- When should sustainability be planned, and what methods count?
Show answer
Sustainability planning belongs in the proposal, from the start, not after the grant is nearly over. Methods include diversified funding, institutionalization into existing services and the operating budget, policy or reimbursement change, partnerships and shared resources, and cost recovery and billing. Start-up activities such as writing the needs statement or hiring the first coordinator are not sustainability strategies.
Practice quiz
- Question 1Harbor County's personnel line is $120,000 (a coordinator at $58,000 and a nurse educator at $62,000). With a fringe rate of 25 percent on salary, what is the fringe line?
- Question 2Harbor County's total direct costs are $200,000, and indirect costs are charged at 10 percent. What is the total budget?
- Question 3Halfway through a twelve-month year, about $84,000 of a $120,000 personnel line has been spent. At the current spend rate, where does the line finish?
- Question 4A state agency pays an outside firm to produce a defined deliverable for the agency's own use. This mechanism is a:
- Question 5A program buys a consumable item that costs well below the organization's equipment threshold. It belongs in which budget category?
- Question 6Halfway through the year, a supplies line is only 20 percent spent because most planned cohorts have not started. What does the lesson say about this favorable variance?
- Question 7Harbor County passes part of its award to a community organization as a subaward. Who keeps responsibility for those funds?
- Question 8Harbor County moves prediabetes screening into the routine clinic visit and puts the class on the health education unit's standing schedule. Which sustainability method is this?
- Question 9A two-year award is funded in twelve-month increments. In the lesson's terms, it has:
- Question 10For organizations without a negotiated indirect cost rate, the lesson says the de minimis rate is up to what share of modified total direct costs?
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CPH Exam Pathway is an independent course produced by Subthesis for educational purposes. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Board of Public Health Examiners (NBPHE), and completing it does not confer certification. Confirm fees, eligibility, and exam rules against the current NBPHE candidate handbook.