FAQs

Accounting

  • What are unallowable costs and how do I account for them?

    Some costs incurred are unallowable in terms of calculating indirect rates for government contracts (i.e. interest expense, advertising, trade show booths, fines and penalties to name a few). These unallowable expenses need to be collected in an identifiable manner. Federal Acquisition (FAR) 31.205 provides detailed descriptions of these elements.

  • What is the difference between Direct and Indirect Costs?

    A direct cost is any cost that can be easily identified to a specific job or contract e.g., Salaries & Wages, Materials & Supplies, Subcontracts, Consultants.

    Indirect costs are costs that cannot be easily identified to a specific project, for example the General and Administrative tasks.

     

QuickBooks®

  • Does my file need to be on accrual basis?

    Yes, for all government reporting it needs to be on accrual basis.

  • Do all of my employees need to fill out timecards, even the CEO?

    Yes, DCAA requires every employee to fill out a timecard with all hours worked, even the CEO.

  • Why do I have to create a labor distribution inside my QuickBooks® File?

    DCAA wants to see the timecard data being used and applied by employees pay rates in an automated way.

  • Do I need to have my timecards in my QuickBooks® file?

    In order to have your labor distribution module in full function, timecards need to be filled out in QuickBooks® (through manual entry or import from timekeeping system). If you do not have timecards in the QuickBooks® file, you will not be able to process labor distribution accurately.

  • Where can I go to view the per diem rates?

  • We want to upgrade our QuickBooks® file to QuickBooks® Online. Will this keep us compliant?

    QuickBooks® Online is not an acceptable option as there are no job costing abilities within the file.

  • Does DCAA require us to use a payroll service or can we process it in house?

    You can do either.

RatesPlus Lite

  • What is RatesPlus software?

    RatesPlus accounting system is a customized government accounting system used in conjunction with QuickBooks®. The RatesPlus software is a stand-alone program that is used to simplify the challenging process of computing a company's indirect rates. Learn more about RatesPlus Lite.

  • When processing RatesPlus Lite, why is there no data in my file?

    Check your date range inside the setup tab to ensure the proper date range and fiscal year start.

  • What if I change a chart of accounts in QuickBooks®, how does this affect my RatesPlus processing?

    Simply import your current chart of accounts from QuickBooks® into the RatesPlus file and be sure to update the appropriate tabs where necessary.

  • My allocations from last month do not balance any longer. Why?

    If you made changes to last month's entries (added, edited or deleted a transaction dated in the prior period that was already closed), this will skew the allocations entry. This will also affect your current month RatesPlus processing and reconciliation.

  • My RatesPlus only shows '#value' in all the cells, no numbers. Why does this happen and how do I fix this?

    Be sure to have your Macros enabled in Excel and your "calculation" preference set on manual. You may need to save and exit the program in order for this to take affect and have the #value corrected.

  • What is the difference between RatesPLus Lite and RatesPlus Premier?

    RatesPlus Lite is an Excel based program which does the following:

    - Actual Indirect Rate Calculation

    - Realtime Provisional Billing Rates

    - Cost Management Reports By Job

    - Time Tracking (Labor Allcoation Reports)

    - Chart Of Accounts Structured By The FAR

    RatesPlus Premier, in addition to the above, offers the following:

    - User friendly Windows based application

    - No copying and pasting of Excel worksheets

    - Faster compiling of data and automatically ready-to-print financials. No need to save as a PDF.

    - Employees cannot manipulate RatesPlus Premier data exported from QuickBooks®

Learn More

Contact us today to schedule a free demo

Click Here and learn how RatesPlus Lite & RatesPlus Premier can help you pass your DCAA audit and more efficiently manage your Government contracts.

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