Most contractors find out their accounting isn't ready during a pre-award system review or an incurred cost submission, when the fix is slow and expensive. This diagnostic is a way to find out earlier. Rate each statement honestly, a low score is more useful than a flattering one.
Accounting System Structure
Whether your books separate direct from indirect cost the way a government contract requires.
1Our chart of accounts separates direct costs, fringe, overhead, and G&A.
2Every transaction is coded to a contract or an indirect pool at entry, not at month-end.
3Unallowable costs under FAR 31.205 are identified in a dedicated account, not buried.
4We could show an auditor how a dollar moves from invoice to contract cost today.
Timekeeping and Labor
The area where contractors are most often exposed in an accounting system review.
5Employees record time daily, not weekly or at period end.
6Time is recorded against a specific contract or indirect pool, never a general bucket.
7A supervisor reviews and approves timesheets on a documented schedule.
8Corrections to a timesheet leave a visible trail showing who changed what and why.
Indirect Rates
Whether your rates are maintained and monitored, or calculated once and forgotten.
9We know our current fringe, overhead, and G&A rates without having to reconstruct them.
10Our pools and allocation bases are documented and applied consistently period to period.
11We compare actual rates to our provisional billing rates during the year as well as at year end.
12We understand what happens to our billing if actual rates diverge from provisional.
Contract Billing and Cost
Whether different contract types are reported correctly instead of getting averaged together.
13Firm-fixed-price, T&M, and cost-reimbursable work are tracked separately in the books.
14We can produce cost and margin for a single contract without building it by hand.
15Invoices are supported by cost records that tie back to the general ledger.
16We keep records in a form that would support an incurred cost submission.
Close and Reporting
Whether the numbers arrive early enough to act on.
17We close the books monthly on a set schedule.
18The close is complete within 15 business days of period end.
19Leadership sees contract-level results each month alongside company-wide totals.
20We forecast cash from government payment timing as well as the bank balance.
By area
Where to start
Ordered from lowest-scoring area to highest.
What to do with this
Nothing here is sent anywhere. Print or screenshot it if you want to keep it. If you want help closing the gaps, bookkeeping gets the structure right and controller services keep it right.
Talk about your contractsThis is a self-assessment, not an official evaluation. It is not affiliated with DCAA and is not a substitute for a pre-award accounting system review. Your score does not determine the outcome of any government audit.
Questions we get asked
What does this diagnostic assess?
The accounting work underneath a government contract, across five areas. Accounting system structure, timekeeping and labor, indirect rates (overhead costs spread across contracts), contract billing and cost, and close and reporting.
How long does it take?
About 10 minutes. Twenty statements, four-point scale, results immediately. No email address required.
How is this different from a CFO readiness diagnostic?
This one covers controller-level work, whether your books are structured for compliance and your rates and contract costs hold together. Backlog quality, valuation, and transaction readiness are CFO-level questions, handled by the our GovCon practice.
Is this an official DCAA assessment?
No. It is a self-assessment to help you see where you stand. It is not affiliated with DCAA and not a substitute for a pre-award accounting system review.
What this raises, and who handles it
The handbook explains the requirement. These pages are the work behind it.
- GovCon CFO workmaking the rate structure defensible
- Financial reportingthe monthly pack behind the rates
- Controller servicessomeone accountable for the whole accounting system, including the filings
If you want this done for you
What happens next
Knowing the requirement is one thing. Having a finance function that meets it every month, through an audit and through a sale, is the work.
- The call takes thirty minutesYou describe the business and where the numbers are letting you down. We give you an expert view of your situation, and what we would start with. There is no pitch deck.
- We look at the fileYou give us read access to the books as they are. We come back with what is wrong, what it will take to fix, and whether the answer is bookkeeping, controller work, or something else.
- We send a written scope and a priceIt lists what we do each month, what you get, the date it lands and the fee. We agree it before anything starts, and it does not change unless you agree.
- We take over the books and close the first monthWe set up access and systems and enter the opening balances. The first close lands on the date in the scope, and every one after it does too.