

Smaller start-up contractors may use the old-fashioned manual data entry method to populate QuickBooks with timekeeping data. Most contractors will capture time data in a web-based timekeeping application, then utilize a data import methodology to automatically populate QuickBooks with employee time data. That time data must be brought into QuickBooks. To distribute labor costs in QuickBooks, time data must be captured by a timekeeping system.

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We’ll explain how to get started in this article.įirst, what are we trying to achieve for DCAA compliance? A labor distribution system charges direct and indirect labor costs to cost objectives or contracts according to timesheet data. To satisfy this requirement, QuickBooks Desktop editions can be used to distribute labor costs based on timekeeping data, whether or not the contractor uses QuickBooks Payroll. Item 2f on Standard Form 1408 (SF1408) requires the Government Contractor to have “a labor distribution system that charges direct and indirect labor to the appropriate cost objectives.”

There is one QuickBooks capability necessary for DCAA compliance that is not widely understood. And while QuickBooks does not allocate indirect costs for job costing, indirect costs can be automatically allocated to contracts using ICAT, the indirect cost allocation and reporting tool.

You can assign direct costs to contracts using the job-cost functionality in QuickBooks. You can organize the chart of accounts into a cost pool structure that segregates direct costs from indirect costs. Indeed, countless small businesses have springboarded their Government Contracting business with this strategy since we introduced this premise back in 2006. Government Contractors with a QuickBooks ® accounting system can satisfy the Standard Form 1408–Preaward Survey of Prospective Contractor Accounting System criteria to pass a DCAA Accounting System Review, and thus qualify for cost-reimbursement type contracts. Distributing a Government Contractor's Labor Costs in QuickBooks ®
