Government Contracting

Small businesses made their voices heard in the 11th Annual Deltek Clarity Government Contracting Industry Study. With nearly half of all participants claiming small business status, they provided valuable insights into the trends and challenges affecting strategy and opportunity in the months and year to come. Review the five most impactful results that could help set your business apart.

Project delivery and effective risk management were showing signs of setback even before the onset of COVID-19. Nearly half of surveyed leadership cited accurate project cost forecasting as a major struggle affecting profitability and revenue potential. The 11^th Annual Deltek Clarity Government Contracting Industry Study captures the challenges at hand for many project and risk management leaders and where they plan to make investments to keep current and future work on track.

It's a little bit of history repeating. Finding and securing qualified talent continues as the top human capital management trend in the 11th Annual Deltek Clarity Government Contracting Industry Study. New for 2020, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. See how human capital management leaders are likely to address the challenges they were expecting and those they were not.

With nearly $3 trillion in U.S. military assets audited in 2018 and 2019, the Department of Defense (DoD) has made it clear that defense audits should be classified as an annual exercise rather than an occasional review. Prepare with some basics of DCAA and DCMA audit readiness and valuable tips on compliant asset management.

Manufacturing does not have to be the primary source of profit for government contractors, but if it’s not managed with the three pillars of success in mind, it could invite increased scrutiny from contracting agencies. Learn what it means to “get it right” in the areas of engineering services or discrete manufacturing through the tenets of quality, traceability and efficiency.

Navigating the discovery process for a new-to-you enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution can feel daunting. How do you know what you need? Which solution is the best fit? Start with four key considerations to help narrow the field and keep your government contracting firm in the driver’s seat.

One thing that is certain in these uncertain times is that the Department of Defense (DoD) is moving forward with its plans for Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). Though the onset of COVID-19 has somewhat slowed assessment program efforts, the goal to protect Federal Contract Information (FCI) and Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) remains intact. Explore how cloud service providers can be an important step with helping fulfill CMMC requirements.

Evaluating the capacity of internal systems generally isn’t the number one to-do item for government contractors while managing a period of dynamic growth. Often times it’s not number two or even number 10. However, if a firm is relying on generic, mass-market solutions, such as QuickBooks®, for accounting and overall business management, as workloads increase, likely so do the problems. The time to pop the hood and review how a solution is truly performing is now before the first “check engine” light comes on.

Generic, out-of-the-box solutions, like QuickBooks^®, are a common place to start for many small businesses managing government contracts. Though these solutions can hold small government contracting firms together initially, in the long run, vulnerabilities inevitably emerge that can put government contractors at significant risk. Specifically, what are the top accounting challenges that can impact a small firm’s day-to-day, and what are the answers they need to help keep the government as their client?

Government contractors are starting to see audit notifications from the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) as they enforce new accounting system compliance requirements. What can firms expect from these audits, when will they be informed and how can they best prepare? Partner expert Baker Tilly helps fill in a few blanks on the new rules of the road.