Back in July, when discussing the capabilities and limitations of QuickBooks for GovCon accounting, we mentioned third-party add-ons which help meet the additional compliance standards of cost-based contracts.

This week, we want to continue exploration of that subject.

Quickbooks does have limitations when it comes to government contracting, not the least of which is the need to extract data to provide invoices. Consider also that more IDIQs employ scoring systems to rate offerors – which means that the addition of a government compliant accounting can add valuable points to your score.

So, how does you small GovCon extend its growth trajectory for a longer period without having to trade Quickbooks for a more robust, comprehensive (and expensive) systems?

We suggest looking into third-party accounting platform upgrades such as ICAT Systems to alleviate some of these common QuickBooks pain points:

• The contract or task burn rate and resulting estimate to complete are not automatically computed
• The QB features do not allow compliance with the SF1408 requirements signifying compliant accounting. (SF1408 is used by DCAA to evaluate whether your accounting system is adequate prior to the award of certain types of government contracts.)
• Allocation of indirect rates to direct costs must be performed outside of the system
• Creating budgets and proposal pricing require significant extraction and manipulation of QB data to generate the desired results; even then sensitivity analyses cannot be performed without further workaround
• The data supporting contract backlog reports, both funded and unfunded, must be performed outside of the system

An add-on such as ICAT Systems can reduce many of these limitations by providing integrated project management and accounting features that improve response and address real-time accounting decisions. Survey the market – there are numerous QuickBook-enhanced platforms, though we strongly suggest making ICAT Systems one of your visits.

For more information about ICAT Systems,  contact Robert Smith at rcs@icatsystems.com.

Group A GovCons fail to understand that once they learn the roles, responsibilities, and