Guidelines On DCAA Compliant Accounting Procedures

By Catherine Mitchell


If you are interested in getting into government contracting, then you know there is a need to clean up your practice. One of the biggest headaches that people have when trying to venture into this business is getting DCAA compliance. Defense Contract Audit Agency compliance means that you will be dealing with the business according to the law. It also means that you reduce the time spent on legal issues. If you are new to this business, here are some tips and pointers that you will find useful when trying to become dcaa compliant.

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.

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 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.

Not many people understand that there is more than one type of Defense Contract Audit Agency audit. The basic audit types include pre-award audits, the forward pricing audits, and incurred cost audits. Other related costs include CPSR reviews. There are also circumstances which can lead to the DOD requesting specific audits, which are classified as special audits. When you know the specific audit type you are about to get, you prepare appropriately.

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.

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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