6 Tips Federal Contractors Can Use to Improve DCAA Compliance in Dynamics
The DCAA has very specific requirements for reporting time and expenses. Whether it’s in-flight Wi-Fi or vehicle mileage, you need an accounting system that will reduce your risk of violating any part of the complicated DCAA Manual. MS Dynamics time and expense tracking is one essential tool for maintaining compliance. Here are six tips for federal contractors to consider as they manage complicated DCAA compliance requirements:
- Be Prepared to Report: The first step is to have your accounting system ready to go before the DCAA comes knocking on your door. Make sure you have all your timesheets and expenses logged in Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations and that they are organized in a way that makes sense for reporting purposes. The DCAA Manual has stringent requirements for the format and content of travel reports, so make sure that your system can meet all these demands.The DCAA Manual also states that you must keep records of all transactions for at least three years after the completion of the contract or project. You should also make sure that your accounting system has a robust audit trail so that you can easily track who made what changes and when they happened.
- Automate Reporting: Once you have your data organized in Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations, automate that reporting so that it takes just a few clicks to generate a report for the DCAA. This will save you hours of time every year and reduce errors caused by manual reporting. Because you don't have receipts for your labor charges, it's important to be able to accurately track time. Federal contractors must report accurate hours worked by employees to receive payment from the government. Falsifying time logs can result in criminal penalties for the employee involved and supervisors who knowingly approve such false submissions.
For instance, there is a particular rule that you must file timesheets daily, so it's your responsibility to maintain clear and precise systems for filing these records. That can get complicated quickly. Automating your project management process & reporting makes it easy to manage and track the progress of all your projects. This will help you stay in compliance with DCAA regulations by providing an automated way to track hours worked on each project and how long it takes staff members to complete tasks on those projects.
- Integrate With a Third-Party Solution: If you use a third-party automated time and expense solution, integrate it with Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations so that you can easily track your employees’ hours worked and where money was spent. This will make it much easier to track how long projects take and bill them properly.
For instance, if you use DATABASICS to track your employees’ hours, that data goes into MS Dynamics automatically. DATABASICS ensures a smooth experience for end users in a DCAA-compliant system that will help keep you compliant with federal regulations.
- Access Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations Reports: The first step towards creating custom reports is to understand what types of reports are available in Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations. The next step is to choose the reports that will be most relevant to your needs. You can do this by looking at the report options available in Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations and understanding how those reports are created. Once you have decided which reports are most important for your company’s needs, you can begin customizing them.
You can also create Custom Dashboards & Reports. A dashboard is a visual summary of important data and metrics that can be used to monitor performance, track progress towards goals and identify areas for improvement. You can create custom dashboards in Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations in several ways. The first is to use the Microsoft Power BI integration, which allows you to import data from Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations into a Power BI dashboard. The second is by customizing existing business intelligence reports in Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations. The third is to create a custom dashboard using the native dashboard designer in Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations.
Custom reports are reports that have been customized by you or another user and saved as a template so they can be used again. They’re great for capturing specific data points, like sales figures by region, but they can also be used as a starting point for more complex financial analysis using other business intelligence tools like Power BI.
- Deploy a Mobile App: Mobile apps are now an essential part of any time and expense management system, and they provide several benefits that can improve your overall business processes. These allow travelers to submit expenses and time worked while they are on the road without having to connect back into the corporate network; some mobile apps also integrate with third-party apps such as Uber and Lyft, and can enable employees to request travel approvals directly from their phone rather than having to wait for someone in your company’s accounting department to get back to them.
Mobile apps also have other benefits, including allowing for the integration of your travel management system with third-party apps such as Uber and Lyft. This allows your employees to request rides directly from their phones rather than having to wait for someone in the company’s accounting department to get back to them.
Finally, mobile apps can help to reduce the need for paper forms and other physical documents. When employees have access to their time and expense system on their phone, they don’t have to wait for someone in accounting to print out a new form just because they forgot one at home or lost it on the way to work that morning. This can save your company both time and money and help increase security by reducing the number of documents that are physically accessible to employees. The ability to access information in real time can also be incredibly beneficial for businesses. If your employees can check their time and expense approvals on their phone, they won’t have to wait until they’re back at their desk to see if they received approval for their trip or how much they’ll be reimbursed. They can also do things like submitting expense reports right away instead of waiting until the end of the day or the end of a business trip—which means that you will receive them faster and more often.
- Be Ready Anytime! The DCAA can conduct physical audits of your workplace to ensure that you're complying with DOD-Wage regulations. These are called “labor floor checks” or “interviews.” Though the visits may be unannounced, they don't imply any kind of wrongdoing on anyone's part: they're just another way for the government to make sure it's getting its due from contractors. Auditors might be looking to make sure that workers are in the right place at the right time and performing their duties as assigned.Employees can be questioned about the company's timekeeping practices, and whether clear written information has been provided on how to submit a timecard, for instance. Employees need to be able to understand and follow the timekeeping system for them all to pass this audit. Failing a floor check can cause costly delays in your current contract work and cost you future contracts.
Accountability is important in any business. Proposals submitted for government contracts must be DCAA compliant because the DCAA may request certain data related to such proposals. This can be the date on which labor schedules and overhead rates are based and the accounting system that determines those costs. Being able to give this information quickly and easily can make the difference between winning or losing a contract. A time and expense reporting system that integrates directly with MS Dynamics is just the solution for managing data to support your proposal projects—and avoiding unnecessary costs down the line!
The post 6 Tips Federal Contractors Can Use to Improve DCAA Compliance in Dynamics appeared first on ERP Software Blog.
*This post is locked for comments