Support for animal facilities comes from grants, contracts, recharges, and
institutional sources. The manager needs to be able to understand and account
for each of these entities in the format needed. Typically, the terms “indirect”
or “direct” are used for categories of support and costs. Indirect costs are not
easily attributable to a particular cost center. An example of an indirect cost
would be the cost of administering the department or facility. Direct costs are
those easily attributed to an individual cost center. An example of a direct cost
is mouse chow for the cost center “mice.”