Guidelines On DCAA Compliant Accounting Procedures

By Catherine Mitchell


People who are interested in government contracting understand that before getting approval, you need to do a lot of cleanup to your books. The biggest issues that people face when venturing into business contracting is DCAA compliance. When your accounting procedures are DCAA compliant, it means that you are operating within the law. Operating within the law helps you reduce the time spent on legal issues and also avoid complications. Here are tips and guidance for all people new to government contracting and trying to get compliance.

The DCAA is an abbreviation for the auditing agency. This is the department of the government which audits all the contracts that are connected to the DOD. There are also times when the audit agency may be involved in performing audits that are not connected to the audit agency. The Defense Contract Audit Agency audits billions of dollars each year with the aim of making sure that money is not getting lost through loopholes, which can be sealed.

Accounting procedures are termed as Defense Contract Audit Agency compliant when they are carried out according to the recommendations of the DOD audit agency. A few of the basic recommendations that are offered by the DCAA include having an accounting system with the ability to keep track of costs separately and classify them as direct as well as indirect costs. Other common requirements include having a time tracking system integrated into the accounting system to be able to track all transactions in real time.

The other important thing to understand is what exactly a Defense Contract Audit Agency audit entails, and what the department will be looking for in the process. First, you have to understand that there is a difference between the audit items which are looked at by commercial agencies and those looked at by government agencies. The government focuses on things such as allowable and unallowable costs, cost pools, and indirect cost pooling.

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.

Before getting a government contract, the agency may perform what is known as a pre-award survey. The survey is meant to establish whether your business can perform all the tasks specified by the contract. The survey will look at your business financial ability, whether the accounting system is acceptable and can keep track of costs.

As a small business contractor, you will be wondering whether there are resources out there to help you prepare for the audit process. There is a lot of reliable information online on how to prepare for the audit. The information resources include links, checklists, and other sources of data which give you guidance on what will be needed from you before you get compliance.

These are a few of the most crucial things to understand about Defense Contract Audit Agency compliance in accounting. It is advisable to contract someone who understands DCAA accounting and DOD accounting processes. They will assess your business and help you understand the issues you need to fix before getting Defense Contract Audit Agency compliance certification.




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