Issues related to the disconnect between contracts management, project management, and accounting teams have been a topic I’ve needed to address recently with many of the customers I work with. Partially caused by disconnected systems and partially by siloed teams, issues between these teams cause significant breakdowns in maintaining an acceptable profit margin, accurate reporting for incurred cost submissions and contract close-out, and ultimately, healthy cash flow for the organization.
Many Unanet issues do not begin with the software itself. They begin when different teams make different assumptions about how a contract should be structured, billed, reported, and managed. I believe it takes more than integrated software to solve these issues, as each team needs to work together transparently to resolve many of them. A transparent, cross-functional team of contracts management, project leadership and back-office accounting working in tandem with an integrated software solution is the best resolution to these problems.
Why Alignment Matters
In many organizations, each team is striving to meet the complex needs of government contracting. Project leadership is in constant contact with the customer, witnessing the work at ground level, and responding to day-to-day technical needs. The accounting team focuses on cash flow, maintaining accurate corporate books, issuing error-free invoices, and keeping up with a myriad of daily priorities. Contracts teams carry responsibility for ensuring compliance with complex contract clauses, accurate reporting, timely funding requests, and other contract-related requirements. If any of these teams do not perform, the company could face issues.
Alignment across these teams and quick action on their parts are necessary to keep the company moving. This includes how and when data is entered into and analyzed in the integrated business solution. In a tool like Unanet, project data and funding need to be managed quickly to allow employees to continue charging, while accurate controls within the system help ensure project entries do not exceed contractual limitations.
Because Unanet connects project, contract, and financial information, setup decisions made by one team often affect the others. A project structure that works for day-to-day management may not fully support billing, reporting, funding control, or contract closeout unless those needs are discussed upfront. Alignment with accounting is necessary for accurate backlog, revenue, and cash flow projections. Controls to prevent overruns in funds and to ensure funds align with contract terms are available, but only when properly set up.
The Role Each Team Plays
Each team relies on configuration decisions that impact the other teams. Having a collaborative strategy to set up and maintain contracts enables projects to serve each team’s needs.
For example:
- Contracts: Contract administrators need every funding line identified in the system. If a funding line cannot be easily isolated, reporting on the spend becomes nearly impossible at contract close. Contracts teams also help ensure the project structure reflects the actual contract terms, including funding, period of performance, billing requirements, reporting expectations, and any contract-specific limitations that need to be visible in the system.
- Projects: Project managers need to properly monitor performance and project execution. They may need a work breakdown structure or isolation of activities below the funding level to accurately determine percent complete and staffing concerns. Day-to-day project oversight is often detailed and requires real-time insights to stay on track.
- Accounting: The accounting team needs all this information and more. Customer invoicing requirements in the contract must be supported. Accurate accounting of spending on direct projects may impact indirect rates and other forecasts. Preparing an accurate incurred cost submission requires a detailed breakdown of direct and indirect costs.
Where Disconnects Commonly Appear
Misalignment often shows up when teams rely on different reports, maintain separate offline trackers, or need manual adjustments to reconcile project, billing, and contract information. It may also appear when project managers cannot see timely burn rate or performance information, accounting has to search for billing details after work has already started, or contracts teams later question whether the system structure reflects the actual contract requirements.
These issues can make project oversight more reactive than proactive. Instead of using Unanet as a reliable source of project, contract, and financial information, teams may spend valuable time confirming details, correcting errors, or trying to determine which version of the information is accurate.
What Better Alignment Looks Like
When these teams collaborate, communicate, and use a tool like Unanet to manage their contracts, company-wide operations become easier. Unanet offers the necessary reporting and alerts to ensure that users are aware of limited funds, when the period of performance is coming to an end, and whether the burn rate is running too hot.
Cross-team communication helps ensure that the project setup, work breakdown structure, and invoice requirements are supported within the system. It also helps clarify ownership of the various elements needed for accurate project execution. As changes arise, all players are involved and knowledgeable as the changes are made, rather than reacting only after issues arise.
Better alignment also creates more consistent handoffs. Accounting, contracts, and project management have a clearer understanding of what the project structure must support, what information needs to be maintained, and when changes need to be communicated across the organization.
Practical Steps Government Contractors Can Take
In my experience, there are a few key practical steps that help achieve better alignment. The first is to establish a standing meeting to review contracts, projects, changes, and alignment across these teams. This creates a regular forum to identify gaps before they become billing, reporting, or project control problems.
Contractors should also define ownership for key setup decisions. For example, contracts may own contract terms and funding details, project management may own execution and performance needs, and accounting may own billing, financial reporting, and cost visibility requirements. The important point is that each team understands when it must provide input and when changes need to be communicated.
It is also helpful to review current workflows and structures to identify inefficiencies and establish a plan to correct them. After careful review and establishment of team communication, teams should create internal standards for contract and project setup and management. These standards should address how projects are created, how changes are reviewed, who approves key updates, and how teams confirm that the structure still supports reporting, billing, and management needs.
An experienced Unanet consultant can also help resolve conflicts, provide best practices, and identify areas where the system structure or internal processes may not be supporting the business as intended. Team alignment is an ongoing process, not a single meeting that solves issues permanently.
Maintaining Alignment Across the Project Lifecycle
Government contractors can overcome disconnects between accounting, contracts, and project management by creating a clear strategy for communication, shared ownership, and consistent use of Unanet as a central source of project, contract, and accounting information. A single point of reference helps teams reduce inefficiencies, improve visibility, support stronger project control, and maintain better alignment as contract requirements, funding, billing needs, and project conditions change. Redstone GCI supports government contractors through Unanet consulting, implementation support, system optimization, workflow reviews, reporting support, and project structure assessments that help teams identify gaps, develop internal setup standards, and improve how Unanet supports billing, reporting, compliance, and day-to-day project management.
Kristiane Smith serves as a Senior Managing Consultant in Redstone Government Consulting’s Unanet Consulting group, where she supports government contractors in implementing, optimizing, and governing Unanet ERP and CRM environments to strengthen compliance, reporting accuracy, and operational control. With nearly two decades of experience working directly with Unanet customers across implementation, system administration, and enterprise training, Kristiane brings a deep, practical understanding of how system configuration and process design affect audit readiness, billing integrity, and contract performance. Kristiane specializes in translating complex system and business requirements into disciplined, defensible solutions that support compliant project accounting, internal controls, and cross-functional alignment between finance, contracts, HR, and operations. Her background spans full-cycle implementation leadership, enterprise user enablement, and executive advisory support, allowing her to guide clients beyond basic functionality toward sustainable, audit-ready system environments that support the realities of government contracting. At Redstone GCI, Kristiane works closely with government contractors to implement and optimize Unanet ERP and CRM environments that support compliant financial operations, accurate reporting, and effective project execution. She provides hands-on consulting across discovery, configuration, data migration, testing, training, and post-implementation optimization, partnering with finance leaders, contracts teams, project managers, and executive stakeholders to ensure systems align with regulatory expectations and operational goals. Prior to joining Redstone GCI, Kristiane held senior consulting and leadership roles delivering Unanet solutions in regulated environments. She led full-cycle implementations and advised organizations on system design that strengthened project accounting, billing integrity, and internal control maturity. Her experience includes direct operational system ownership as an ERP and business operations lead, where she served as Unanet ERP and AIM system administrator. In that role, she oversaw security and configuration governance, improved cross-functional workflows across accounting, HR, procurement, and project management, and supported leadership with system-based reporting aligned to DCAA expectations. Earlier in her career, Kristiane spent more than a decade at Unanet in progressive leadership roles, including Principal Sales Engineer, Senior Sales Engineer, and Director of Unanet University. As Director of Unanet University, she led the strategic development of enterprise training and certification programs for customers, partners, and internal teams. She implemented scalable learning platforms and built structured curricula focused on system configuration, compliance-aligned workflows, and best practices for finance and operations teams, helping standardize how organizations adopted and governed the Unanet platform. Across her career, Kristiane has supported Unanet implementations for organizations ranging from small professional services firms to large government contractors. Her experience includes designing and supporting integrations with platforms such as Microsoft Dynamics SL, QuickBooks, Sage, and MAS products, as well as providing business process consulting across project cost accounting, budgeting and forecasting, invoicing, contracts management, earned value management, and expense management. This combination of consulting leadership, operational system ownership, and enterprise training experience enables her to bridge technical configuration with real-world execution. At Redstone GCI, Kristiane applies this depth of experience to help Unanet clients build systems and processes that are not only efficient, but compliant, auditable, and aligned with the operational demands of government contracting.