Amanda White is a Senior Managing Consultant within Redstone GCI’s Collaborative Accounting Solutions Group based in Huntsville, AL. She is a Certified Public Accountant with almost two decades of progressive experience in the accounting and government contracting industry. Her experience includes a combination of internal and external accounting support where she has assisted both government contractors, as well as a diverse range of other industries. Her unique collection of experience and knowledge on a wide range of accounting software, coupled with her practical experience and focus on process improvement and efficiency provides a strong skillset for support of our government contractor clients. Her role includes leadership of ongoing collaborative accounting engagements where she provides controllership support of Redstone GCI clients. She additionally serves as a subject matter expert on accounting process improvement, implementation of internal controls and other areas as part of the firm’s support of the DFARS Business Systems. Professional Experience Amanda first started working in industry accounting for a large commercial service provider while in college. She gained early experience as a regional billing manager and managed payroll for hundreds of employees, while also handling a dual role as an operations manager. After completing her bachelor’s degree, she went to work in public accounting where she gained additional exposure in GL accounting, as well as tax, audit, and consulting. Following her initial time in public accounting, Amanda served as the Business Operations Manager for an engineering services company supporting the defense and aerospace industry. She wore many hats in that position and not only maintained and closed the books, but also handled all CFO‐level financial reporting and budgeting, indirect rate calculations, provided bid and proposal support, implemented internal controls, developed processes and procedures to help ensure DCAA‐compliance, etc. Although she left that role to start her own practice in 2011, she has continued to work with that company as a contractor and has now supported them for more than 10 years. Amanda spent the next 6 years building her own local practice supporting local small businesses. Her team provided startup support, ongoing accounting, income tax planning and preparation, and consulting to both commercial entities and small government contractors. In addition to completing her MBA during this time, she successfully grew that business, and her practice was acquired by a local CPA firm in 2017. She then took over the task of heading that firm’s Accounting Services Dept, and most recently served as a Senior Manager. In that role, Amanda managed a team of accountants providing all levels of GL accounting support to clients across the country in numerous industries. In addition to providing review and oversight to her team of 12 accounting staff members, Amanda was responsible for developing and delivering training content not only to the team but also for clients, implementing processes and procedures both internally and externally, and functioning as a subject matter expert. In this capacity, she executed process improvement projects to help clients maximize accounting efficiency, leverage their accounting systems to provide accurate and effective financial data to facilitate management decision‐making, and increased profitability. Amanda’s operations exposure, and extensive background in GL accounting in numerous industries, combined with her experience starting and growing her own business enables her to provide robust guidance and support to our clients. Education Amanda earned an Associate of Science in Entrepreneurial Management from Calhoun Community College. In addition, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting degree and a Master of Business Administration degree from The University of Alabama in Huntsville. Affiliations Certified Public Accountant – State of Alabama QuickBooks Pro Advisor Alabama Society of CPA’s (ASCPA) American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)
Intuit is constantly developing and improving QuickBooks, particularly the online version. And while it’s still not nearly as robust as some of the more complex accounting software solutions that are geared specifically toward government contractors (nor should we expect it to be with the price point difference), it will still get the job done, particularly for small to mid-size contractors that don’t have a bunch of overly complex contracts.
Topics: Quickbooks
In my last blog post, I discussed whether you could have a DCAA Approved Accounting System with QuickBooks. If you read it, then you know the answer is definitely – yes. This begs the next question though: QuickBooks Online (QBO) or QuickBooks Desktop? One might think that they’re essentially the same with one just being a cloud version and the other a local install. That could not be further from the truth. The two products are actually very different in terms of functionality and capabilities. A couple of years ago, I would have told you that QBO was just not an option for a government contractor. Appropriate job costing just couldn’t be done. In recent years though, Intuit has focused a lot of their internal development on QBO, and the product has come a long way. In this article we’ll go over some of the key differences between the two QB options, and hopefully help you decide which is right for you. Note that this is NOT a fully comprehensive comparison of all the different features, but rather a focus on some of the primary differences that are most relevant for government contractors.
Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, Small Business Compliance, Quickbooks
I talk with business owners all the time that are either just starting their business, or just getting their existing business into government contracting, and one of the questions we address almost weekly is – Which accounting software built for government contractors should I go with? The answer is, maybe none of them. While the popular govcon accounting software solutions are a really good option for many government contractors, you certainly aren’t limited to those. If you’re a relatively small government contractor, then other products such as QuickBooks might be a better software solution.
Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, Small Business Compliance, Quickbooks
In my years as a CPA and consultant I’ve worked with many small businesses that have asked for input on what they need to be doing to get more reliable financial data. Usually, it’s business owners looking for ways to be able to make important decisions faster, but lately it’s often companies new to government contracting that are trying to figure out what they need to be doing to keep clear of problems with DCAA. In either scenario, one of my first suggestions is a formal monthly close process. When I say “formal”, that doesn’t mean that it has to be cumbersome and complicated. If the business financials are relatively simple, then that close process can also be fairly simple and still be effective. But it needs to be structured, with a specific checklist in place as to the procedures that are to be performed, the order in which they are to be done, who is responsible for each task, and target deadlines for each. That recommendation then raises the next question – what do you mean by “close”?
Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, DCAA Audit Support