The rush to close any accounting system for the previous year is everyone’s top priority at the beginning of the new year. Why? We have forms to file. We have performance numbers to report. The annual Incurred Cost Submission is a top priority for government contractors with cost-type contracts. The Incurred Cost Electronically (ICE), or Incurred Cost Submission (ICS), is a highly formatted spreadsheet model with many worksheets (17 required and 6 optional) that provides a standard electronic package to assist in preparing adequate incurred cost submissions. The ICE spreadsheet model also helps with audit support and is the final version of reported costs incurred and billed within a year.
There are many ways to expedite your incurred cost submission preparation within Unanet.
1. Preconfigured Schedules in the Analytics Reporting Tool
For every Unanet GovCon customer, many incurred cost report schedules are housed in the basic version of Analytics.
Custom reports can also be built in Analytics to represent other necessary schedules for your submission. For example, the data required to complete Schedule I can be easily compiled in an Analytics data export. Schedule I computes the over/under billings based on actual costs and costs billed. Using a tool like Analytics to generate your data based on General Ledger date ranges increases the ease and accuracy of your calculations. It can be created in a format like the reporting schedule.
Custom reports might also be necessary if your Contract Line Item Number (CLIN) is at a different level of detail within your Unanet configuration. For example, you might have CLINs at the task level instead of the project level.
2. Contracts Module
Our clients utilizing the Unanet Contracts Module will benefit from the Incurred Cost Submission reporting already coded to a contract. The manual process of assigning groups of project codes to a contract within Schedules I and H can be daunting. Unanet makes that easy by allowing the association of the contract and its values with project codes within the system. As you associate projects with a contract, users can easily pull related schedules from Analytics, as shown in our example below.
3. Reports Dashboard Options
- Trial Balance (TB) - This report should be added to your Incurred Cost Submission in a separate tab. It is recommended that information from the Trial Balance be linked to the source data instead of manually entering it.
- Project Summary by Cost Element - This report has the same format as the Incurred Cost Submission’s Schedule H, where each cost element is a column, and each SLIN is a row. The Project Summary by Cost Element is driven by the same cost report templates as your JSR, and we can have a special format cost report that looks exactly like Schedule H.
- Contract Brief - This optional Schedule Supplemental O can be included on your Incurred Cost Submission as made available within Unanet. That information can easily be pulled if the Contract Module is utilized along with provisions and contract clauses.
- Billing & Revenue Summary - This report can be used to populate Schedule I Billings Total. You need to back out the fee from the billed total on Schedule I; the Project Summary by Cost Element should show that information.
4. Statement of Indirect Rates
While the Statement of IDRs is not exportable into Excel, it can easily be copied and dropped into Excel to validate the calculation. From there, this template is an excellent tool to assist in annual forecasting and provisional rates.
Automating Unanet reporting necessary to complete the Incurred Cost Submission might take some time to set up initially, but it would be worth it year after year as each Incurred Cost Submission is due. Please let us know if you’d like assistance preparing your Incurred Cost Submission using Unanet.
Katie is the Unanet Practice Lead at Redstone Government Consulting, Inc. based in our Huntsville, Alabama office. Her areas of expertise include supporting government contract businesses with a special focus in DCAA-compliant Unanet Time and Expense Tracking, Project Portfolio and Financials. QuickBooks, and Deltek GCS. Katie is a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, Certified Unanet Systems Implementer and has completed the Unanet Advanced Project Management training. Katie was one of the first Unanet Certified Implementers and was part of the initial pilot offering to non-Unanet consultants. As part of her certification process, Katie invested over 300-hours of instruction, out of class database development time and testing to obtain her certification. Since certification, Katie has assisted numerous Redstone GCI clients with implementation and post-implementation support services. Katie is frequently called upon by Unanet to join their implementation teams as an external resource and is considered a subject matter expert in the implementation of all Unanet software offerings. In her role with Redstone Government Consulting, Inc., Katie not only provides software systems expertise, but also frequently assists clients with preparation and support of DCAA audit activities including SF1408 pre-award accounting system audits, provisional billing rate submission, development of forward pricing rates for proposals, incurred cost submission preparation and development and design of policies and procedures necessary to support an adequate (DCAA-approved) accounting system. Katie serves as the primary point of contact for many small business clients in government cost accounting/compliance and assists monthly with the close of those contractor’s accounting systems and reporting to program management and executives. Her industry experience, software systems expertise and compliance knowledge provides a rare combination of knowledge to clients looking for a consultant to become an integral part of their team. Professional Experience Prior to joining Redstone Government Consulting, Inc., Katie worked in public accounting as well as small to mid-sized government contractors. She has prior operational experience with the many types of software such as Unanet, Deltek GCS, QuickBooks, SpringAhead, Deltek T&E, ADP, Paychex, and QB Payroll. Education Katie earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from The University of Alabama in Huntsville in 2010, where she was President of Beta Alpha Psi (an honor organization for finance and accounting students and professionals). She received her Master of Business Administration (MBA) from The University of North Alabama in 2014, graduating Cum Laude. Decades of Consulting, Training and Helping Government Contractors Succeed Redstone GCI offers a variety of services for large and small government contractors including evaluation, education and training, monitoring and DCAA audit preparation. Through our consulting and training programs, government contractors develop and learn to maintain compliance processes that help them succeed by mitigating risk and maximizing profitability. Our consulting team is comprised of senior leaders from government agencies and industry executives creating balance and an informed approach to our client services. Our services span the entire government contract lifecycle from proposal assistance, accounting, audit readiness, purchasing, project controls, contract administration, system implementation through to contract closeout. We specialize in preparing contractors for growth through our deep knowledge of common pitfalls companies face as they progress from small business in CAS, DFARS Business Systems and other common gates to contractor growth. In addition to almost 30 full-time consultants we also maintain a trusted network of independent contractors and other service providers who work with our team on specialized areas like ITAR, facility security, EVMS and other areas.