Businesses serving the federal government must adhere to specific compliance requirements, one of those being their business processes and systems must be DCAA compliant. How can you prepare and make sure that you are ready for your DCAA audit?What Is the DCAA?The Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) makes sure the DOD gets the best value for every dollar spent on defense contracting through auditing DOD contracts. In Particular, DCAA verifies whether costs are allowable, allocable, and reasonable. DCAA also assists various government agencies with their audits by providing financial and accounting services and recommendations to government procurement personnel through all stages of the procurement process. DCAA recommendations put contracting officers at an advantage in price negotiation and settling contracts for services, supplies, and weapons. DCAA tailors their audit processes to support the delivery of products and services effectively and efficiently. They examine how they execute audits to determine whether changes are necessary. They explore methods, software, and other tools to streamline audit processes. They also, develop strategies to better integrate internal processes and optimize resources on classified contracts
DCAA’s Mission Statement
Together with our acquisition partners, we increase warfighter capabilities by delivering high quality audits and financial services to achieve fair and reasonable prices that protect taxpayer dollars.”
How Do You Maintain DCAA Compliance?Contractors must remain compliant with DCAA standards, as outlined in, the FAR, the DFAR, the CAS and, the GAGAS. To maintain DCAA compliance follow DCAA’s recommendations and guidelines, as outlined in detail here.Potential Challenges and SolutionsMaintaining compliance with all the different rules and regulations is a time consuming and draining process without the proper tools and assistance. The biggest compliance challenge is securing budget for systems, as well as, getting other departments to comply.
- Begin building the case for budget by asking, “How do we know we’re in compliance?” and engage your CFO in a discussion of the expected costs of non-compliance.
- Support your Compliance Officer’s efforts to establish a culture of compliance, including annual compliance training that incorporates Code of Conduct refreshers.
- Work proactively with auditors, forming information sharing relationships before issues arise.
- Be prepared to help train less experienced auditors.
- Ask questions upfront to understand the scope and objectives of the audit.
- Plan to finish preparing for the audit at least three days before it.
- Provide sufficient date buffers for other departments, especially those which often miss deadlines.
- Consider negotiating decrements to provide auditors the benefits of an audit without the costs.
We Can Help
As a government contractor, you are expected to comply with and understand a multitude of regulations. You must also create business processes that are compliant with DCAA. Are you prepared for this challenge?We can help, with Unison's GovCon CLM, contracts professionals receive an intuitive, efficient, integrated approach to accurately and promptly answer data calls and fully comply with FAR/DFARS and agency-specific regulations. Unison CLM gets approved by CFOs while delivering early benefits and high ROI. Unison CLM is quick to deploy and easy to use. See what Unison can do for your business by requesting a demo below.LEARN MORE
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