Meeting the Challenges of DCAA Compliance

The Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) provides all necessary contract and subcontract audits and financial advisory services for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and other federal entities responsible for contract acquisition and administration. These services and audits are performed at all points of the procurement process, including: pre-negotiation, negotiation, administration, and contract closing to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent on fair and reasonable contract prices.

DCAA evaluates contractors’ financial policies, procedures, and internal controls, and performs all needed contract audits through evaluation of contractor records. Areas of emphasis include: business systems, accuracy of contractors’ incurred cost representations, reliability of records, and contractor compliance with contractual provisions.

Considerations for Contractors

Timekeeping procedures and controls on labor charges are areas of utmost concern to the DCAA, and the agency encourages contractors to submit related information electronically. Electronic submissions allow for instantaneous data transmission, increased accuracy of submissions and updates, and increased productivity of all involved in the procurement cycle.

For organizations that contract with the DoD, the DCAA has set specific guidelines to help ensure that the time spent on projects is accurately accounted for, and that there is no misrepresentation of facts or misuse of funds. Many contractors struggle to meet the terms of these guidelines, however, because of the requirement for meticulous, time consuming record keeping and strict workflows.

Contractors who still rely on manual processes are at a particular disadvantage, as these processes not only hinder the ability to meet DCAA requirements, but also make any potential audits quite difficult.

Compliance Best Practice: Time Tracking Automation

Replicon’s cloud-based time tracking solutions can help organizations take some of the critical requirements around DCAA compliance and automate the processes for data entry, approval, edits, and storage — empowering contractors to concentrate on the projects and work at hand, rather than worry about operational issues.

Streamline time capture associated with projects Centralized time capture by project makes it easy for employees to enter time with comments, thereby improving accuracy while reducing the need for follow-up.

Configurable workflow for access, approvals, and edits With the Replicon solution, contractors can ensure that time entries are accurate and that any changes are approved, commented on, and dated by the employee and supervisor, making it easier to track changes and reasons.

Ease of reporting for audits and secure storage The advanced reporting capability enables organizations to store labor data securely in the cloud, report on it in the format they need, and easily access and provide requested data for audits.

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