JCPSG | TRAC Guidance

Part II TRAC Principles

Section A: Overview

1. Principles and conventions have been set down for TRAC which institutions should meet. These ensure that institutions provide, over time, comparable information of sufficiently high quality that:
   • satisfies requirements for accountability and transparency;
   • is appropriate to justify costs to external sponsors; and
   • is appropriate for use internally in institutions.
2. The main principles include those of materiality, fairness and reasonableness, flexibility, consistency, and auditability. Common definitions need to be followed.
3. The costing conventions ensure that costs are based on audited financial statements, adjusted only for the two cost adjustments. All activities are costed on a full cost basis, and activity cost based methods are used.
4. Ten costing standards must be followed: these are defined as sets of minimum requirements. The word “should” indicates a mandatory requirement.
5. The robustness of TRAC methods and figures is assured through a set of QA and validation processes – both internal and external. These are designed to satisfy sponsors’ needs for accountability, and to ensure the data is of sufficiently high quality that it can also be relied on internally by institutions.