Questioned cost
An amount an auditor cannot accept as properly charged — because it looks unallowable, because required documentation is missing, or because the charge appears unreasonable. Questioned is not the same as disallowed; the agency decides.
Part of the GrantTrove grant funding glossary — one entry for every field the catalogue stores.
Also called Questioned costs
In detail
The most common cause is documentation rather than impropriety. A legitimate expense with no supporting record is questioned exactly as an improper one is, because the auditor has no basis to distinguish them.
Resolution runs through the awarding agency, which may accept the cost, allow more evidence, or disallow it and require repayment.
Against an unallowable cost
An unallowable cost is one the rules exclude. A questioned cost is one an auditor has flagged, which may turn out to be perfectly allowable once the paperwork appears. Treating the two as the same thing is how an organisation panics about a documentation gap. Neither is a field here.
How GrantTrove stores it
- We hold no recipient spending data. The amount columns on a record are the funder’s published figures for an opportunity.
- Where a figure needs a caveat, `amount_note` keeps the source’s own wording beside the number rather than folding it in — the same discipline that keeps a questioned figure from being reported as a settled one.
Common questions
Does a questioned cost mean we have to repay?
Not automatically. The agency decides after resolution.
What causes most of them?
Missing documentation, more than improper spending.
Is there a threshold?
Single audit reporting has thresholds set in regulation. Your auditor applies them.