Government Contractor Accounting and Tax Services

A government contractor's chart of accounts has to do more than produce a P&L. It's structured so direct, indirect, unallowable and G&A costs never mix, and every charge can be traced back to a contract.

How costs are grouped into pools decides your indirect rates, and your rates decide what you can bill. Pools and allocation bases are set up to be consistent, supportable and defensible.

Under FAR Part 31, costs like entertainment, lobbying, certain interest and some bonuses can't be billed to the government. They're identified and kept out of billed costs from the start, not discovered during an audit.

Labor is usually the largest cost on a government contract. Timekeeping and labor distribution have to tie to the books and to each contract, because that's exactly what gets tested.

Before certain awards, the agency or DCAA reviews whether the accounting system is adequate. Clean books, documented procedures and internal controls are what get a contractor through that review.

Provisional billing rates, year-end true-ups and incurred cost submissions all depend on books that were kept correctly all year. They're prepared alongside your business tax returns.