How to Fill Out and Submit USDA Form RD 3560-7: Housing Project Budget

To fill out USDA Form RD 3560-7, you project your rural multi-family housing project’s income and expenses for the coming fiscal year across a six-page budget covering cash flow, operating and maintenance expenses, reserves, capital spending, and the tenant utility allowance, then submit it electronically through the MINC portal at least 60 days before your fiscal year starts, or 90 days if you are requesting a rent change.¹ The form is the annual filing every borrower and management agent in the Rural Development Multi-Family Housing program uses to keep the property’s rents, utility allowances, and expense authorizations current under 7 CFR Part 3560.

Where to Get the Form

A blank PDF of Form RD 3560-7 sits on the USDA’s electronic forms site at forms.sc.egov.usda.gov.² The line-by-line instructions are published as a separate document on the same site.³ Most borrowers ultimately enter their numbers through the MINC system rather than the paper PDF, but printing the form is a useful way to plan entries before logging in.

Documents to Gather Before You Start

Every figure on the budget needs a paper trail, and the Agency compares your projections against historical performance. Pulling records together before you touch the form heads off most of the follow-up questions that delay approval.

Prior-year profit-and-loss statement and general ledger, which set your baseline for projections.
Current rate schedules from each utility provider, plus written confirmation of any expected rate increase. The utility allowance calculation requires 12 months of actual tenant utility costs across every unit size.⁴
Insurance premium notices for property, liability, fidelity bond, and any other coverage. The form lists these on separate lines.
The most recent property tax assessment and any special assessments against the project.
Current service contracts for landscaping, snow removal, elevator maintenance, pest control, security, and other recurring services.
Twelve months of maintenance logs covering payroll, supplies, and outside contractors.
Thirty-six months of occupancy data. The Agency uses this to evaluate your vacancy allowance.

Receipts for one-time capital improvements completed in the prior year also help. They don’t recur, but they give the Agency context for your property’s maintenance trajectory.

Part I: Cash Flow Statement

Part I is the top-level picture of money in and money out. Line 1 is rental income at full occupancy using your current or proposed rent schedule. Lines 2 through 7 capture secondary revenue: rental assistance received from RHS, application fees, laundry and vending income, interest earned on project accounts, tenant charges, and other project-related income. Base each figure on actual prior-year collections, adjusted for known changes.

Line 8 is your vacancy and contingency allowance. The Agency caps the vacancy rate at 15 percent for properties with 15 units or fewer, and 10 percent for properties larger than 15 units.⁴ If your actual vacancy runs higher, you need an approved Servicing Workout Plan in place, and the vacancy figure then follows the workout plan.

The cash-uses section, Lines 16 through 29, pulls in total operating expenses from Part II, your RHS debt payment, reserve transfers, and the return to owner or nonprofit asset management fee. Line 30 gives you net cash. Lines 31 through 33 add the beginning balance and any accrual-to-cash adjustment to produce the ending cash balance. Aim for a balanced or positive ending balance. A projected deficit is a signal to the Agency that the property may need intervention.

Part II: Operating and Maintenance Expenses

Part II runs 41 numbered lines, grouped into four categories. This is where your documentation earns its keep.

Maintenance and Operating (Lines 1–11)

Split maintenance costs into payroll (Line 1), supplies (Line 2), and contracted work (Line 3). Painting, snow removal, elevator maintenance, and grounds care each have a dedicated line. Line 9 pulls in the operating portion of your annual capital budget from Part V. Itemize anything that doesn’t fit a named category on Line 10. Line 11 subtotals the group, which rolls into Line 41.

Utilities (Lines 12–18)

Enter only utilities the property pays directly: electricity, water, sewer, fuel, garbage and trash removal, and any other utility cost. Tenant-paid utilities are handled separately in the utility allowance worksheet.

Administrative (Lines 19–33)

Line 19 is on-site management payroll. Line 20 is the management fee paid to your management agent. For FY 2026, the maximum allowable per-unit per-month management fee is set by state and published in HB 2, Chapter 3, Attachment 3-F. FY 2026 rates are unchanged from FY 2025, with a minimum of $80 per unit per month.⁵ Properties carrying multiple subsidies beyond Low-Income Housing Tax Credits or project-based Section 8 may qualify for a $5.00 per-unit add-on. Properties in Level 4 Frontier and Remote areas under the USDA Economic Research Service codes may also request a remote-location add-on.⁶

The remaining administrative lines cover auditing, bookkeeping, legal fees, advertising, telephone, office supplies, office furniture and equipment, training, health insurance and employee benefits, payroll taxes, and workers’ compensation. When total administrative expenses run above roughly 23 percent of gross potential basic income, the Agency does not automatically reject them, but it does scrutinize individual line items more closely for reasonableness.⁷

Taxes and Insurance (Lines 34–40)

Enter real estate taxes, special assessments, other taxes and permits, property and liability insurance, fidelity coverage, and any additional insurance. Keeping these mandatory costs separate from controllable expenses lets the Agency evaluate each category on its own terms.

Utility Allowance Worksheet

The final pages of the form calculate the utility allowance, the dollar amount subtracted from a tenant’s rent obligation to account for utilities the tenant pays directly. The methodology uses 12 months of actual tenant utility consumption across every unit size in the property. Average the 12 months of consumption and apply the current utility rate to arrive at a monthly dollar figure for each utility type. The total allowance is the sum of the monthly figures.⁴ If no rate change occurred during the review period, document that in your budget narrative and attach either a public rate release or written confirmation from the provider showing stable rates.

Part III: Reserve Account and Capital Budget

Part III tracks the reserve account that funds major repairs and replacements. Enter the beginning balance, the annual transfer to reserve (which must also match Part I, Line 22), and any planned withdrawals for capital projects, building and equipment repairs, or other non-operating expenses. The ending balance equals beginning balance plus transfer minus withdrawals.

The annual capital budget in Part V feeds both the operating expense schedule and the reserve account. Separate operating capital expenditures from reserve-funded capital expenditures so the Agency can verify that reserve draws serve their intended purpose.

Owner Certification

Before submitting, you sign a certification that the information is complete and accurate to the best of your knowledge. The form carries a warning under 18 U.S.C. § 1001: knowingly providing false information to a federal agency can result in a fine, up to five years in prison, or both.² The Agency cross-references projections against historical data, and material discrepancies can trigger an investigation.

Submitting Through MINC

Budget submissions go through the Management Interactive Network Connection, the USDA’s secure electronic portal for multi-family housing data.⁸ After logging in, select your project, then click “Send Proposed Budget” under the Budgets column. The system prompts you to select the fiscal year and indicate whether you’re requesting a rent schedule change.⁹

MINC auto-calculates certain fields. Those lines are shaded and locked; you enter source data and the system handles totals and subtotals. If you manage multiple projects, verify with your management agent that your user ID has access to every property you service before you begin.

Submission Deadlines

The filing deadline depends on whether a rent change is involved:

With a rent change: submit budget documents and notify tenants at least 90 calendar days before the start of the project’s fiscal year.¹
Without a rent change: submit at least 60 calendar days before the fiscal year starts.¹

Filing late costs you the automatic-approval track. A late budget requires an explicit written Agency approval before any rent change takes effect, even a small one. Filing on time with a modest rent increase of $25 per unit or less carries a safety net: if the Agency does not respond within 30 days, the rent change is considered automatically approved.¹ Increases above $25 per unit never qualify for automatic approval regardless of when you file.

What Happens After You File

Once the Agency receives the budget, it checks the numbers against historical performance and confirms each line item fits allowable expense guidelines. If the submission has deficiencies or the Agency wants more documentation, you receive a written notice and have 10 calendar days to provide the additional material.¹

A denial arrives in writing. When a budget is denied, the property continues operating under the most recently approved budget, meaning your prior rent schedule and utility allowances stay in place until a new budget is approved. The regulation does not include a formal appeals process for budget denials, so the practical path is to address the Agency’s concerns and resubmit.

If the budget includes a rent or utility allowance change, tenants must receive advance notice of at least 60 days before the proposed effective date, or longer if your state’s landlord-tenant law requires it. Tenants then have 20 days after the notice is posted to submit written comments or objections to the Rural Development Servicing Official. If the approved rent change cannot take effect by the originally stated date because Agency review ran long, you must post an additional 30-day notice, and the updated rates then become effective on the next rent due date following that second notice period.¹⁰

Mid-Year Budget Amendments

The annual cycle isn’t the only opportunity to adjust. Under 7 CFR 3560.454, the Agency may approve a rent change, rent incentives, or a revised budget at any point during the fiscal year.¹¹ Amendments are filed on the same Form RD 3560-7 through MINC.³ The typical triggers are an unexpected insurance premium spike after a natural disaster, an emergency repair, or a utility rate hike that makes the approved budget unworkable. Tenant notification rules apply to any rent or utility allowance change that results from a mid-year amendment.

1
eCFR. 7 CFR 3560.303 – Housing Project Budgets
2
United States Department of Agriculture. Form RD 3560-7 – Multiple Family Housing Project Budget
3
United States Department of Agriculture. Instructions for RD Form 3560-7
4
USDA Rural Development. Proposed Budget Training for Stakeholders
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United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development. Multifamily Housing Owners and Property Managers 2026 Proposed Budget Requirements
6
Council for Affordable and Rural Housing. RD Management Fees Announced for FY 2026
7
Rural Development. Allowable Expenses in Multi-Family Housing Properties
8
USDA Rural Development. Management Interactive Network Connection
9
USDA Rural Development. Fill-A-Form – USDA MINC
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Rural Development. Notice to Tenants of Proposed Rent and Utility Allowance Change
11
eCFR. 7 CFR 3560.454