The Compliance Journey
Prior to, and throughout the contract lifecycle, there are many opportunities to ensure policies, procedures, and documentation are compliant with Federal Regulations and contract requirements. Understanding these key phases and control points allow a proactive look at processes to determine where there may be gaps or duplications of effort, and where improvements may influence the success of the compliance journey.
Waiting for the Government to direct compliance improvements, takes significantly more time. See the Federal Compliance Approval Flow Chart, below.
Compliance During Phases of Your Contract
Where Are You In Your Journey?
Exploring the World of Federal Contracting. Would love to learn more. ~ Any place is a good place to start. There are things of which even experienced Government Contractors are not aware. Even if you don't know where to start, give us a call and we'll guide you, facilitating questions and discussions. Knowledge is power! deClermont consultants pride themselves on providing knowledge along with formal training during all of our engagements. We believe it's important to know the "why" and not just the "what" when it comes to regulations and requirements. We provide the background and thought process to connect actions to compliance.
Understanding of the basics. Ready to get started with planning and setting up compliance. ~ Understanding your business, products, organization structure, software, customers and future goals builds a foundation for assessing your compliance needs. deClermont will guide you on your journey in deciding what essential documents, processes, or guidance you may need as you enter the world of Government Contracting. One of the first thing an auditor wants to review are policies and procedures. Documentation is one key to success. It provides guidance, facilitates consistency and should also identify controls. Business Systems require written descriptions and must cover all regulatory criteria. deClermont will review any written policies and procedures for compliance with federal regulations or create a set of written policies and/or System Manuals to describe your processes and ensure the processes are compliant with FAR, DFARS, CAS or other applicable regulatory requirements. If you are in any stage of assessing a Federal Contract opportunity, it's important to ensure your Accounting System and Estimating System are compliant and that your Proposal submission will contain supportable Basis of Estimates and documentation. It's also important to asses whether the potential contract will initiate requirements under Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) facilitating the need for a Disclosure Statement.​​
Currently under contract. Would like to make sure we have the correct tools to succeed. ~ All phases of Government procurement benefit from an assessment of your company and the current compliance status. An important knowledge base originates from your contract clauses and requirements. These establish the necessary actions and requirements to which the company must adhere. A review of this information gives us the path of importance to build a compliant organization. Whatever Policies, Procedures and Business Systems are documented, it is important to ensure they accurately describe the current processes and are compliant with Federal Regulations. Monitoring (Testing) compliance with Policies and Procedures and Federal Regulations is an essential criteria required by FAR and each of the DFARS Business Systems. An established contractor with existing contracts may be obligated to prepare Provisional Budget Rates or Forward Pricing Rate Proposals along with Annual Incurred Cost Submissions. deClermont Consulting can provide these services. Another important factor in the profitability and competitive position of a company in the current market includes the collection of costs and the resulting indirect rate structure. The company may benefit from a Rate Structure Analysis, ensuring the direct and indirect rates represent the accumulation of costs and application of those costs to the work performed. Communication, Interaction, Knowledge and coordination within an organization is the catalyst for success. Sometimes there are processes which may not work as a well-oiled machine, so a review of processes to identify gaps or duplication of effort and establish corrective actions may be of great benefit.
Additional Compliance Needs
Been notified of an audit! Would like help preparing and getting through it successfully. ~ Supporting an audit of any kind requires resources, coordination and organization. To facilitate a successful audit, the following are essential: * A preliminary review of the processes and data which will be included in the audit engagement. This helps identify any deficiencies or processes which may need improvement before they are identified during the audit. Surprises are no fun! * Assign a dedicated liaison to ensure all audit requests are timely fulfilled. * Notify all responsible departments of the audit. Often an audit request may require coordination with different departments. * Establish a method to track audit requests. Some audits may have multiple auditors assigned, each with their own requests. Keeping track will ensure nothing is missed. * Establish regular status meetings with the auditors to facilitate effective communication. * Provide regular status to leadership. * Proactively develop any corrective action plans for anticipated deficiencies and establish regular monitoring to ensure completion. Correcting any anticipated deficiencies may mitigate reported findings. deClermont Consulting can perform an initial assessment and provide liaison services to accomplish the above tasks as well as communication with the government and presentations to leadership.
Interested in the preparation of provisional billing rates (PBRs), incurred cost submissions (ICS), or assessing the rate structure which best represents the company. ~ Provisional Billing Rates (PBR): Reimbursement of indirect costs through interim payments is generally made using provisional billing rates. these are established to approximate the contractor’s final year-end rates and are used for interim purposes until settlement is reached on the final indirect rates for the contractor’s fiscal year. FAR 42.704 - Billing Rates - provides procedures and guidance for establishing PBRs. Incurred Cost Submissions (ICS): FAR clause 52.216-7 (Allowable Cost and Payment) necessitates an incurred cost submission for all contractors holding cost-reimbursable or time and materials (T&M) contracts. The submission is due no later than six months after the end of the Fiscal Year. Rate Structure Assessment: Contractors recoup indirect costs related to contract work through indirect rates such as overhead, G&A, intermediate cost pool allocations and Cost of Money. It's beneficial to assess the company structure, products, and cost allocation to ensure maximization of that cost recoupment.
Looking to be fully compliant with FAR, DFARS, CAS and Contractual Requirements. ~ From small companies to large , complex corporations, developing a Compliance Center of Excellence encompasses the culture of the business at hand. The process begins with an assessment of the current compliance status then the development of the process flows throughout the company, development of Policies and Procedures, System evaluations and improvement plans, company wide compliance training and the development of an annual compliance monitoring and training plan. The goal is a Center of Excellence that will continue to be maintained by the company and evolve with the compliance needs going forward.
Things to Consider for Proactive Compliance
1
Compliance Planning
Whether you've won your first contract or are exploring your opportunities, it's important to be aware of the basic compliance requirements necessary to perform successfully under Government contracts.
Detailed guidance is contained in Federal regulations and include such voluminous documents as the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplements (DFARS) and Cost Accounting Standards (CAS), to name a few.
Let us help you traverse the path through these complicated requirements and direct you on a focused and proactive compliance journey.
2
Compliance Assessment
From your financial setup and rate structure to policies, procedures and processes, a Government contractor is required to understand and follow applicable Federal Regulations.
Contractor Business Systems have been in the forefront of oversight for many years and may make or break a company's ability to obtain contracts.
At a minimum, assessing the business systems most commonly required on Federal Contracts (Accounting, Estimating, and Purchase), will provide a company with the ability to proactively prepare for audit oversight. Maintaining compliant business systems will ultimately save a company time, money and resources during contract audits.
We will review your processes, guiding you through the why and how of requirements, and provide our experience and insight on best business practices.
3
Improvement Monitoring
No process is perfect, and adding the complexity of Federal Requirements doesn't make things easier. It's always the right time to enhance your compliance or make improvements, but it becomes critical when the Government identifies deficiencies!
Proactively planning improvement is much easier, as you are working on your own timeline with no oversight or external consequences. Government directed corrective action plans are more stressful. In addition, reported non-compliances are "out there on the streets" and visible to all contracting officers and buying commands. Corrective actions at this point are what we call "putting out fires".
Let us help you prepare and maintain that fire retardant structure with a proactive improvement plan, support you during an audit, or efficiently and effectively facilitate corrective action plans after an audit.
Federal Compliance Approval Flow
Our goal is to help you contain the Federal requirements!
