The Multiple Allocation Base method is similar to the Simplified Allocation Method, but it distributes indirect costs according to functional rates
that vary based upon relative benefits that significantly differ among activities or grants.
This method is used primarily by organizations that are large enough to capture costs by department,
such as the accounting department and the purchasing department, and where departments have very different indirect costs associated with them.
For example, an organization that engages in substantial amounts of property development or owns and manages property
and also has a large portfolio of supportive services that it offers would have good reason to allocate indirect costs differently
in each division of its organization. Depreciation would be a substantial indirect cost related to property ownership
but would not be a relevant indirect cost for a supportive services division.
In this example, an organization could have an indirect rate and allocation method for each of its major divisions.