5 Reasons to Use Cloud ERP to Automate DCAA Compliance

Whether securing their first government contract or acquiring larger opportunities, companies of all sizes need a DCAA compliance solution that’s built into NetSuite Cloud ERP to create a complete business management solution. Here are five reasons why:

1. A requirement for any organization that wants to do business with the DoD, DCAA compliance ensures that all of its trading partners are using proper financial management techniques in the course of business. Responsible for performing all audits for the U.S. DoD and for providing accounting and financial advisory services to DoD components responsible for procurement and contract administration, the DCAA also provides contract audit services for other government agencies.

2. Where the Lockheed Martins and Raytheons of the world may have complex systems in place to ensure DCAA compliance, small to midsized businesses (SMBs) don’t always have these resources at their avail. A smaller organization that relies on older, on-premises software systems and Excel spreadsheets to run its operations, for example, may be caught off guard upon being awarded its first government contract. An excellent opportunity to expand its horizons, the company may quickly find itself mired in the idiosyncrasies of maintaining DCAA compliance. 

3. If you’re awarded a government contract, the government agency will request detailed information regarding contract-related transactions such as procurement, revenue, and time entry postings. DCAA also mandates how you structure and report against your financials. These requirements directly impact how a company sets up its chart of accounts, reports on that chart of accounts, and then manages financial allocations. Handling these responsibilities manually or using disconnected, on-premises software systems is both time- and labor-intensive, not to mention error-prone. By automating these processes on a unified cloud ERP platform that includes pre-built DCAA compliance capabilities, companies of all sizes can easily gather, retain, and generate everything they need to win a contract and maintain compliance. 

4. Without a centralized system to refer to, companies also grapple with poor operational visibility for their government contracts. When sales, procurement, and fulfillment managers can’t collaborate on a single system, they must resort to emailing spreadsheets and documents back and forth every time a company has to produce a report or a specific document to the DCAA. 

5. Once in place, the DCAA SuiteBundle automates time entry, labor costing, accounting, billing, and reporting in a way that disparate solutions and spreadsheets can’t match. The SuiteBundle also makes the DCAA’s strict payroll and time-keeping requirements much easier for SMBs to manage. And while some solutions on the market tackle just the time-keeping task, Caravel Partners enhanced the NetSuite Cloud ERP time entry module to be able to handle all of DCAA’s time-related specific requirements.  

Caravel’s DCAA Compliance SuiteBundle is built directly into NetSuite and supplements the functionality that companies need to comply with DCAA rules and regulations. The DCAA SuiteBundle can be implemented either during or post a base ERP implementation, with the typical time frame spanning four to five months (for both the ERP and the SuiteBundle). 

By automating processes and tasks that were previously handled manually, the DCAA SuiteBundle frees up employees to focus on more important projects. It also provides an excellent audit trail for DCAA and its third-party audit agencies. 

Whether your company is on the verge of winning a large government contract and in need of its first DCAA compliance software or already using one and unable to handle the complexities of larger contracts, NetSuite ERP plus the pre-built DCAA SuiteBundle can accommodate organizations of all sizes and across all industries.