One question we always get is how to account for uncompensated overtime. Almost every small business has at least one employee working gazillion hours over a standard 40-hour work week. The DCAA...
As of June 1st, Tech BizSolutions, Inc. has merged with PBC, Inc of Denver to form a new company called ReliAscent, LLC. ReliAscent will still offer all of the same services that Tech BizSolutions and PBC...
How do small businesses survive in the world today, especially when they are primarily government contractors? The government has such a twisted path of regulations concerning contractors and then they...
You read many articles this time of year about easily overlooked IRS deductions for your personal taxes. A similar dynamic applies to government contractors when evaluating actual indirect rates for the...
The DCAA appears to be pushing for Provisional Billing Rate (PBR) proposals earlier than past years. PBR proposals have suffered a tortured history the past few years. They have alternately been ignored...
In small businesses executives must wear many hats. There simply isn't enough revenue to fund specialists in various "non-direct" areas like accounting. For this reason alone, the Chief Financial Officer...
There may be a perfect storm brewing in the government contracting world that will make it harder to do business with the federal government. It started in July of 2008 when the Government Accountability...
The new year starts this week for the government. Just like last year at this time, the budget is not yet approved for this fiscal year. Instead, the House just approved yesterday a measure to operate...
In helping a client recently with some contract closures, it became quickly apparent that the DCAA was way behind in getting to the audit of the system to close out this contract. It became quickly...
The government plans to cut $2.4 Trillion from the budget over the next 10 years, beginning in the 2012 budget. It is expected that up to $900 Billion in cuts could be included in the 2012 budget. The...
Identifying and allocating costs on government jobs is a big part of the government's concern about the contractor's accounting systems. The Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) specify that "Before...
I was fortunate enough to be able to witness in person the final Space Shuttle launch last week. What a truly awesome sight and experience that is. I can't begin to describe the feelings associated with...
Over the years we have had many inquiries from government contractors about evaluating their accounting systems for adequacy before they actually undergo a DCAA audit. This actually makes sense in today's...
Most people don't understand what qui tam is. Qui tam is a Latin phrase that means "he who brings a case on behalf of our lord the King, as well as for himself". In essence, this is the provision in the...
There are many stories out there about contractors that feel they were either bullied or treated unfairly by the government. Certainly, government contracting is not for everyone and a special set of...
As our CPA friends struggle with the avalanche of filings during “tax season,” our business has a similar and no less intense time of year called “ICP season.”
You maybe surprised to learn that the government attempts to us many of the same practices commercial firms use to buy products and services. In fact, you could say the majority of what the government...
What is wrong with the way we are currently operating our government? The government operates on a budget year from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. Theoretically the budget for the fiscal year should be established...
Defense Contractors: Now is the time to tell the DOD how changes in policy can save you money! In 2010, the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Ashton Carter, launched the DOD’s Better Buying Power...
In the recent recession, many businesses turned to the Federal Government for business out of necessity to "stay alive". After all, the government was spending money when most other consumers were not. As...
The Federal Aviation Administration's program for small businesses to do business includes a special program called eFAST. This program has become the preferred acquisition vehicle for Small Business...
There is currently a lot of debate about the cuts in defense spending that are being proposed by both the President as well as the efficiency programs proposed by Secretary Gates. You may hear some...
There are currently several opportunities for funding to bring products into the hands of the first responder and other DoD users from the Center for Commercialization of Advanced Technology (CCAT). For...
As most of us are aware of now, Defense Secretary Gates make sweeping proposals to cut overhead spending in the Defense Department over the next 5 years (reference our blog from Sept. 10, 2010). The goal...
Many of our clients have noticed a "different" DCAA recently. Other clients have noticed that there is a difference in their subcontracts with major primes. All of them don't understand how they could...
As you know, the re-authorization of the SBIR program has been delayed 8 times now by congress over the last 2 years. I have blogged about it several times here simply because I believe this is a crucial...
For many new government contractors and/or small government contractors, it may be confusing as to what is required and why it is required in timekeeping records. This is a very important topic to the...
One of the most important skills for a small business owner is to be able to anticipate future changes in the market that will affect their business. I think we face such a critical time right now in the...
Many of you may remember the TV commercial many years back where the announcer said "Its 10:00pm. Do you know where your children are?". The idea was to focus parents attention on their children in the...
Tech BizSolutions, Inc. is looking to expand our nationally recognized staff. We are looking for special individuals. The right person is someone that has accounting experience/knowledge and also...
When you see the term "counterfeit parts" what do you immediately think? I know to me the word "counterfeit" will always bring an immediate association to "counterfeit money" to me and obviously major...
There appears to be a lot of "unspent" money left in the FY 2010 budget that has not yet been spent. Some estimates show that there is over $110 Billion that has not been spent and there are only 2 months...
Last week the President signed into law a bill known as the Improper Payments Act. This law will have huge impacts on the government contracting community in the near and long term future. This new law is...
With all of the discussion in the news and all of the advertising we have seen over the last couple of years for "going green" it only makes sense that "going green" in federal contracting would follow....
There is a lot of discussion today about the Obama administration's apparent changes in NASA and in direction for the US Space Program. The cancellation of the Constellation program is hotly debated....
On June 4, Defense Secretary Robert Gates set a deadline for Defense Department agencies to submit proposals by July 31st on how they would streamline operations to save over $100 Billion. The focus is on...
To the un-initiated, ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) as set forth by the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2278) may seem like just another government regulation that isn't always...
Well, as with anything from the government, there appears to be conflicting rules being issued. At first glance when you look at 15 U.S.C. 644 (g) (1) it requires that a minimum of 23% of the value of all...
Patent rights and protection of the invention for small business has always been a topic of discussion. Questions such as "who has the patent rights", "What does an unrestricted license to the government...
It always amazes me to hear about small business entrepreneurs who are successful in receiving SBIR grants or government contract(s) but suddenly have difficulty in collecting money or continually have...
There continue to be "games" in Congress related to re-authorization of the SBIR/STTR bill. It seems Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA) is continually trying to sweep re-authorization "under the rug" and get it...
Did you fill out your timecard today? I'm talking about exempt employees mainly here since non-exempt employees have always had fairly difinitive ways to record time for both government and non-government...
I'm just back from the 2010 version of the Deltek Insight conference. This year's event was held in National Harbor, MD just outside Washington D.C. The location of the event allowed many "beltway"...
Has anybody in small business wondered where the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) money was and if it would ever trickle down to small business? It has taken a while to get the money flowing...
The good news is that Tech Biz is growing. As a result, we have a need for someone with experience in Deltek GCS software. We ideally would like someone with extensive experience in the software including...
Well, it's time again. Deltek's annual Conference of users and prospective users is next week in Washington D.C. This event is a great opportunity to learn more about the Deltek accounting software, learn...
I just read an interesting article about how MBA students/graduates are more likely to cheat than other students/graduates. http://business.rutgers.edu/files/thehoya_mccabe_march2.pdf Being an MBA...
I attended two seminars here in Colorado this week. One focused more on the benefits of the Colorado Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) that was just established late last year (Colorado was...
The government Small Business Set-Aside (SBSA) program is designed to make sure that a significant portion (23% currently) of federal contract spending goes to small business.On the surface this sounds...
Tuesday April 27th will be the date for the Small Business Outreach Seminar/exhibition sponsored by the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce. This highly successful annual event provides for education on...
There is a workshop/seminar being held in Loveland, CO next week to introduce the Northern Colorado region to the services available from the Colorado Procurement and Technical Assistance Center (PTAC)....
Earlier this week the SBA announced that they were changing the limits on the SBIR grants to $150K for Phase 1 and $1M for Phase 2 awards (see our earlier blogSBIR Award levels raised). The NIH appears...
Yesterday the Small Business Administration raised the threshold levels for SBIR awards. The level for Phase 1 awards has increased to $150,000 where the threshold for Phase 2 awards has increased to...
Is there anyone out there that relishes preparing their Incurred Cost Submissions? Does this seem like your personal income taxes on steriods? Also, does everyone know when their ICE reports are due? We...
The latest on the SBIR re-authorization is not necessarily good news.House Representative Jason Altmire (D-PA) is trying to bypass negotiation with the Senate version of the re-authorization bill by...
Last year when the economy “tanked” many small businesses looked to the one customer that was still spending money, the Federal Government.
Sometimes we forget the real meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday. At the risk of sounding like an actor that has not rehearsed his acceptance speech when receiving an Academy Award, here is an incomplete...
In case you weren’t watching, there were some significant changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) recently.The Secretary of Defense issued a Federal Acquisition Circular Number 2005-37 on...
Wow, we are seeing a lot of changes in the government's auditing agency lately. We have seen it written up twice in the last 18 months by the GAO. Senator McCaskill (Chair of a Homeland Security and...
To quote one of my favorite presidents: "Well, there you go again". We all knew it would happen.There is too much in the news about Afghanistan, Health Insurance Reform, the Recession, the Economy, etc....
We are continuing to see more discussion about the DCAA and whether or not it should continue to function out of the Department of Defense or whether it should be it's own independent agency. One side...
The Colorado PTAC is now in operation. One of the last states to get a PTAC (
Procurement
Technical
Assistance
Center
), the
Colorado
office is headquartered in
Colorado Springs
. However, the agreement...
Many of us recall the memo issued last December by the DCAA director instructing auditors to only issue "pass or fail" criteria as a result of the audit (Reference our blog titled: "DCAA 2008 year End...
As the DCAA tightens it’s auditing requirements, there are more and more stories of accounting systems in small business that do not pass DCAA audits.Most of this change has occurred since last December...
Well, it seems that if congress can't meet a deadline they just extend the deadline. The SBIR/STTR reauthorization that was originally scheduled to end in September 2008 has now been temporariy extended...
As the deadline for the SBIR/STTR programs rapidly approaches, there are differences by the bills passed by the House and by the Senate. Both of the bills are in favor of continuting the SBIR/STTR...
Since the DCAA memo released in December (see our blog: "DCAA 2008 Year End Guidance, Happy Holidays, Government Contractors") we have noticed a trend from the DCAA becoming more strict in their...
H.R. 2965 re-authorizing the SBIR/STTR programs passed the house last week (July 9, 2009) and Senate approved reauthorization on July 13, 2009, extending the SBIR/STTR programs for another 8 years.Now...
The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program was established as law in 1982.