Guidelines On DCAA Compliant Accounting Procedures

By Catherine Mitchell


Government contracting is different from general contracting because of the stringent procedures followed before getting compliance. The biggest challenge which people face when getting into business with the government is the inability to get DCAA compliance. You cannot be allowed to contract for the government if your accounting books are not DCAA compliant. When you are compliant, it means that all your operations are according to the book and that you will reduce the time spent dealing with legal complications. Below are a few tips to guide you along the process.

The DCAA is an acronym for the defense contract auditing agency. This is the government department given the responsibility to audit all contracts that are related to the defense department. There are times when the Defense Contract Audit Agency comes in to help the government with audits that are not directly related to the audit agency, but close. The DCAA is responsible for the audit of billions of dollars, with the aim of making sure that the taxpayers are not getting swindled and that they get everything that they pay for.

When accounting procedures are said to be Defense Contract Audit Agency compliant, it means that they have been carried out according to the guidelines and the recommendations offered by the audit agency. For instance, the DCAA recommends that your accounting system have the ability to track costs separately, including direct as well as indirect costs. They also want a timekeeping system to be integrated with the accounting system to keep track of all transactions in real time.

The most crucial thing to do when dealing with government contracting is to understand what their audit entails. Many differences exist between the procedures followed by business auditing agencies and the audit agency. The government puts a lot of emphasis on aspects such as allowable costs, unallowable cost pools, the indirect costs, and other related issues. When preparing for a Defense Contract Audit Agency audit, these are the parameters to look into.

There are different types of Defense Contract Audit Agency audits. These include forward pricing, incurred cost, pre-award and CPSR review. There are times when contracting offices request independent financial opinions on specific parts of a contract. When this happens, the agency categorizes them as special audits. It is important to know the type of audit that you are about to get and what it entails.

It is also important to understand that the government does a pre-award survey before they allow a certain contractor to do work for them. The survey is supposed to help figure out if the business has what it takes to perform the tasks specified by the contract. The items which are part of this contract include the financial stability of the business, the acceptability of the accounting system, and other related measures.

There are resources that are available to help small business contractors to help them prepare for the audit process. The resources include links, checklists, and other important information about what is required before one can be certified s compliant.

Those are just a few of the most important things that you should know about the agency compliant accounting procedures. It is crucial to get an expert in DOD accounting processes to help you prepare for a Defense Contract Audit Agency audit. They will know the issues you need to fix to become compliant accounting to dcaa.




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