Examples of out-of-pocket payments involved in cost sharing include copays, deductibles, and coinsurance.
In accounting, cost sharing or matching means that portion of project or program costs not borne by the funding agency.
If the award is federal, only acceptable non-federal costs qualify as cost sharing and must conform to other necessary and reasonable provisions to accomplish the program objectives.
Effort is defined as the portion of time spent on a particular activity expressed as a percentage of the individual's total activity for the institution.
Costs may also be divided across activities or projects even if paid for by the same organisation, for example where a charity shares the allocation of its fixed costs between different grants or funding schemes.