Redstone Government Consulting Blog (37)

On January 6, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced its final rule to clarify whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The final rule was published in the Federal Register on January 7, 2021 and the effective date is March 8, 2021. You may read the entire rule here.

Thinking about running a utility in Costpoint to correct an issue? Proceed with caution and consider contacting Deltek or a Redstone consultant to assist. These utilities can sometimes purge, overwrite, or change master database information that cannot be recovered. Access to these screens should be carefully restricted.

System for Award Management is a GSA managed application. Businesses desiring to do business with the federal government must ensure they are registered in SAM with accurate information about their business and current representations and certifications.

Contractors with cost reimbursable contracts that include the Allowable cost and payment clause, FAR 52.216-7 or Payments under Time-and-Materials and Labor-Hour contracts clause, FAR 52.232-7, are required to submit an Incurred Cost Proposal for each fiscal year costs were incurred on any cost reimbursable contract. This incurred cost proposal is provided to your Administrative Contracting Officer (ACO) and Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) with a deadline of six months after the Contractor’s fiscal year end. Once the Incurred Cost Proposal is received by DCAA, they review it for adequacy. DCAA provides a notification to the Contractor, typically via email, that the proposal is deemed adequate for audit or outlines changes DCAA believes are necessary. That is great to know it is adequate for audit but what does that mean? This means that DCAA has reviewed the incurred cost proposal and determined that the schedules are properly completed for them to begin the audit potentially.

Understand how rate changes and revenue adjustments can wreak havoc on your system when done incorrectly in this path to Costpoint Project success. These issues can be time consuming to correct and can affect all users, even down to the employee level.

A Little Background

FAR Part 31, Cost Principles, is the regulation that government contractors must follow in order to account for cost on most government contracts. Within FAR Part 31 is FAR 31.205, Selected Costs. This part of the cost principles regulation specifically spells out unallowable cost that the government will not pay for under a government contract. This section starts at FAR 31.205-1 and goes all the way up to FAR 31.205-52. However, it should be noted that FAR 31.205-2, 5, 9, 24, 45, and 50 are “Reserved” – These reserved cost areas went the way of the dinosaur over time, hopefully not to return. For example, FAR 31.204-2, Automatic Data Processing Equipment Leasing Costs, required an annual demonstration that leasing computer equipment was cost-effective, i.e., lowest cost to the Federal Government.

What is a Contract Brief?

A contract brief is a document which identifies information about the contract, contract administration representatives and significant contract terms and conditions.