Redstone Government Consulting Blog (6)

CAS 404 provides the criteria for determining whether to assign the cost of a capital asset as a period expense when acquired or capitalize the item as a tangible asset and spread the cost over two or more accounting periods.

Topics: Proposal Cost Volume Development & Pricing, DFARS Business Systems, Government Regulations, Cost Accounting Standards (CAS), Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)

Besides the potential tax benefits of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Years 2022 and 2024 has introduced an additional benefit for employee-owned businesses contracting with the Department of Defense (DoD). A pilot program that will allow for the award of follow-on contracts without competition.

Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, Employee & Contractor Compensation, Contracts & Subcontracts Administration, Government Regulations, Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)

For cost accounting under Federal government contracts, including your contracts that are not CAS covered, deferred compensation must be measured based on the requirements of CAS 415. FAR 31.205-6(k) requires that the cost of all deferred compensation, other than pension costs, be measured, assigned, and allocated in accordance with CAS 415, Accounting for the Cost of Deferred Compensation.

Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, Employee & Contractor Compensation, Human Resources, Government Regulations, Cost Accounting Standards (CAS)

Training and employee development, in our opinion, must be looked at as a necessary investment in the future of a business as well as the business’ key resource - its employees. That said, those businesses in the government contracting industry are also facing an ever-expanding list of required or at least expected training that is necessary to maintain compliance with their growing list of contract clauses.

Contract Requirements and Expectations for Training

Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, Small Business Compliance, Contracts & Subcontracts Administration, Government Compliance Training, DCAA Audit Support, Human Resources, Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), Organizational Change Management Consulting

What is the state of your contract tracking? Are you using a spreadsheet? Do you scramble during an audit to locate and update contract briefs? Is modification information stuck with contracts, and is cost & revenue data stuck in finance? Do you want to connect your data from lead to opportunity to contract to project to close out? Are you manually tracking important FAR clauses and flowing those down to your subs?

Topics: Contracts & Subcontracts Administration, Deltek Costpoint

With the latest point release, Unanet is improving the functionality of the roles assigned to users of the system. Hence, segregation of duties and access to information is easier for an organization to control.

Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, Unanet

If you want to provide cloud-based services to Federal Agencies, you will need to get your service approved through the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) managed by the FedRAMP Program Management Office.

Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, DCAA Audit Support, Government Regulations, Cost Accounting Standards (CAS), Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Defense Pricing and Contracting (DPC) issued a guidance memorandum dated March 18, 2024 to Agencies based on the results of the Department of Defense (DoD) Inspector General (IG) Audit of DoD Compliance on Whistleblower Protection Requirements. While the DoD IG found in most cases, that Contracting Officers included the DFARS 252.203-7002 Requirement to Inform Employees of Whistleblower Rights clause in contracts, they did not verify whether contractors were complying with the clause.

Topics: Contracts & Subcontracts Administration, Government Compliance Training, DFARS Business Systems, DCAA Audit Support, Human Resources, Government Regulations, Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)

The Costpoint team at Redstone GCI recently concluded a great event with Deltek, during which DCAA representatives gave a great keynote session on Accounting System Requirements (or SF1408), which was followed by another informative session by our group on how Costpoint meets those requirements. With this article, I wanted to review some of the key points from both presentations for those who missed the event. Now, I will warn you that this is written for those new to the idea of an approved accounting system and its associated requirements. It is not written for the hard-core government accounting system veteran. I will not cover every aspect or criteria related to the standard accounting system audit; instead, I will try to find a somewhat entertaining way to talk about accounting systems and the SF1408 requirements, in particular.

Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, DCAA Audit Support, Deltek Costpoint

Cost Accounting Standard (CAS) 420 outlines accounting standards for Independent Research and Development (IR&D) and Bid & Proposal (B&P) costs incurred by government contractors, ensuring consistent and transparent reporting.

Topics: Contracts & Subcontracts Administration, DCAA Audit Support, Government Regulations, Cost Accounting Standards (CAS)