Job costing for government contracts is inherently complex—there’s a lot of money to allocate across multiple projects, involving numerous employees. Unfortunately, QuickBooks Online (QBO) doesn’t handle this complexity very well when it comes to payroll. The system struggles with efficiently tracking labor dollars across multiple projects and accounts simultaneously. Here’s an example to illustrate:
Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, Incurred Cost Proposal Submission (ICP/ICE), Small Business Compliance, Quickbooks, Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
Costpoint Business Intelligence (BI) is a powerful reporting tool for extracting, analyzing, and formatting your data. Built on IBM’s Cognos Analytics with Watson platform, Cognos BI can be used to develop reports and dashboards, prepare visual data presentations, and explore the underlying data in your Costpoint system.
Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, Small Business Compliance, DCAA Audit Support, Deltek Costpoint
Does the Government find most of the cost incurred by a contractor to be reasonable? I must say it does appear that way. Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) FY 2023 Report to Congress shows that of the $186B incurred cost audited, there was only $1.1B in audit exceptions (.6%). So, the world is good, and we can move on. If that were only the case. Remember that while this percentage is low, this is money you have already spent that the Government will not pay you for, which directly impacts your bottom line.
Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, Incurred Cost Proposal Submission (ICP/ICE), Small Business Compliance, DFARS Business Systems, DCAA Audit Support, Government Regulations, Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
Costpoint’s automated overtime calculation streamlines your payroll process, ensuring compliance and reducing administrative burden. By leveraging Deltek’s Time & Expense module, you can configure custom overtime rules that automatically align with your company’s policies and state or federal labor laws. After updating the Overtime Hours Rules tab to reflect your companies’ business rules and to abide by state and/or federal labor laws and verifying the Pay Types Links subtask is correctly configured, which both can be found on the Timesheet Classes screen, along with changes within a few control screens in Time & Expense, you can ensure that your employees are documenting their time in accordance with your company’s policies and in compliance with any agreements you may have.
Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, Small Business Compliance, Government Regulations, Deltek Costpoint
Every small business that receives a Federal Government cost reimbursable contract is expected, by the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), to have a “sound internal control environment, accounting framework, and organizational structure.”
Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, Small Business Compliance, DCAA Audit Support, Government Regulations, Cost Accounting Standards (CAS), Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
Is cheaper always better? When choosing a software system like Unanet for implementation, many organizations are tempted to go with the lowest-cost option. However, while cost might seem like the most immediate concern, focusing solely on price often leads to long-term challenges that can affect your business's financial health and operational efficiency.
Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, Small Business Compliance, Unanet
QuickBooks Online, while not specifically designed for government contractors, is still considered a compliant software for government contractors. It can also handle the setup of any type of contract that you may be awarded. The process is straightforward, but there are some key considerations that need to be made before diving in headfirst into your project setup.
Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, Small Business Compliance, Quickbooks
QuickBooks Online is one of the most used accounting software for small to medium-sized businesses. The same is true for small businesses in the government contracting sector. QuickBooks Online does not label itself as a DCAA-compliant software to the extent that other software does (Costpoint, Unanet, etc.). However, it is a DCAA-compliant software, and it has the reporting capabilities needed to be considered as such. Let’s look at three essential reports you need to use as a government contractor for QuickBooks Online. Now, I realize these reports are not exactly groundbreaking reports. However, some people fail to realize the importance of each report and do not really understand how to utilize them to their full potential.
Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, Small Business Compliance, Quickbooks
In the June 27, 2024 Federal Register, the Department of Defense (DoD) is proposing to change the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement a section of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 requiring that the generally accepted auditing standards (GAAS) definition of a “material weakness” be used in place of the current definition of a “significant deficiency” when evaluating a contractor’s business system.
Topics: Small Business Compliance, DFARS Business Systems, DCAA Audit Support, Government Regulations, Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), Material Management & Accounting System (MMAS), Estimating System Compliance
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