Toggle Mobile Menu

Government Contracting 101 - Part 1

In this first of a 9-part series, ReliAscent's Brian Ormsby, introduces his "Government Contracting 101" blog series. Topics covered range from DCAA and DCMA compliance, to indirect rates, unallowable costs, government contract management, and funding & commercialization.  We hope you find this series useful, and come back each week to catch Brian's latest blog!

There are Billions of reasons to work with the US Government, and they all have George Washington’s face on them!  Why is working with the government a good thing?  Well, here are a few great reasons:

  1. The US Government pays on-time
  2. The US Government does not want to own part of your business
  3. The US Government will help fund your research at an early stage where you can’t get other types of funding
  4. The US Government is concerned with the commercialization of your business

But wait, there’s more:

  1. The US Government will pay all your fair and reasonable costs (direct and indirect)
  2. The US Government will help fund your next proposal
  3. The US Government will negotiate with you if your plans or rates change

There must be a catch, RIGHT? Sure there is! The catch is that you have to abide by the rules set up by the US Government!  They have regulation after regulation that governs all contracting activities.  Why, you say?  Well, because every time the government has a contract that doesn’t go as planned, a new rule is implemented.  So, for the last 240 years, the rules have been multiplying.  It comes to several thousand pages in multiple documents.  But there is a secret---shhhhh!  There are firms out there who specialize in learning all of the “in’s and out’s” of the government contract regulations.  I could recommend several, but I am a bit partial to ReliAscent, as I am one of their Account Executives.

In this weekly blog series, I want to walk you through all of the little extras that are part of dealing with the government.  I can't give you the answers to all of your questions, but I do want to give you a little insight to the government contracting world.

Here's what to look forward to in this blog series:

  1. Who is the DCAA, and what is DCAA compliance?
  2. Who is the DCMA? What do they do for me?
  3. Can deferring wages get you into trouble?
  4. What is the role of small business in government contracting?
  5. Why does the government make sure they are paying their fair share of your costs?
  6. What is an indirect rate? Why would you have more than one?
  7. Why are some costs Unallowable?
  8. How does the government pay for my research?
  9. Why is the government concerned with my firm’s financial success?

More to come next week!

 - Brian Ormsby, ReliAscent

Topics:

, , , ,