What Is the Difference Between DCMA and DCAA?

If your organization has been awarded a government contract, you need to understand two government contract agencies that require your compliance: DCAA (Defense Audit Contract Agency) vs. DCMA (Defense Contract Management Agency).

As of December 2021, the Department of Defense (DoD) reported working with approximately 20,000 contractors within the DOD’s area of responsibility.

With so many government contract organizations spread throughout the world, it’s crucial that the U.S. government develops and regularly updates regulations that keep the DoD and contract organizations aligned in their goals and according to government regulations.

What Is the the Defense Audit Contract Agency (DCAA)?

The Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) is a government agency connected to the DoD, working on behalf of various government agencies.

The DCAA functions to ensure consistent compliance with government regulations such as Defense Federal Acquisitions Supplement (DFARS), the Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) and the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).

What Does the DCAA Audit Cover, Entail and Establish?

The DCAA performs regular audits on government contracted organizations to ensure that each one follows the government’s recommendations and regulations to the letter. Every contractor that applies for and is awarded a government contract understands that it could be selected to undergo a Defense Audit Contract Agency audit at any time.

DCAA compliance means that, per the outcome of the audit, the government contractor follows the federally established guidelines and may proceed with the contract.

Who Needs to Maintain DCAA Compliance?

Every contractor awarded a government contract from the DOD and other government agencies must follow all the federally established laws and guidelines. It is impossible to know if or when a contractor might receive an audit, so it is imperative that contractors commit to continuous compliance.

How to Stay DCAA Compliant

Government contractors must focus on documenting and accounting for various expenditures related to their business, including:

Hiring

Employee time management and payroll

Equipment needs

Any other financial factors related to the organization’s ongoing operations

The Risks and Penalties of Non-Compliance

If a government contractor is found to be non-compliant in one or more areas during an audit, they risk not being able to apply for future government contracts offered by the DoD.

What Is DCMA?

The Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) focuses on a part of the DoD that works directly with government contractors to ensure the government is getting the most value and highest quality from each mutual engagement. Operating under the direction of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, the DCMA is a relatively new area and focal point.

The agency manages each contract issued by the DoD and oversees matters like the delivery of materials and disbursement of requested funds for government projects.

The DCMA is more proactive and cooperative, working in tandem with government contractors to ensure mutual success, rather than what is more of an accountability or watchdog function of the DCAA (Defense Contract Auditing Agency).

The Compliance Requirements for the DCMA

Government contractors must meet certain criteria and expectations to ensure DCMA compliance, including setting and adhering to a specific schedule agreed to in the proposal. They must also prove that they are compliant with agreed upon bookkeeping, time tracking and finances.

The DoD provides each government contractor with at least 32 specific guidelines to follow.

Similar to the DCAA non-compliance penalties, government contractors may lose the ability to apply for and secure future government contracts. Worse penalties involve the cancellation of the current contract.

The DCMA vs. DCAA: How Different Are They?

The DCMA and DCAA primarily differ in the way that each agency interacts with government contractors and the overarching requirements.

Our Time Tracking Software Can Keep You DCAA Compliant Without Worry

Our time tracking solutions at Hour Timesheet can help you achieve and maintain ongoing, pitch perfect DCAA compliance as a government contractor to keep your current contract and receive many more.

If you’re ready to tighten up your time tracking activities and keep the Defense Contract Auditing Agency happy, start your free trial today

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How To Keep Track Of Employee Hours

Time tracking remains the most effective way to measure your employees’ value to your business. It is also the most practical way to pay them for their commitment and service to your organization. That’s one reason why it is so important to find out how to keep track of employee hours.

Additional benefits of learning how to track employee time worked include Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) compliance, accurate payroll reporting, employee performance, time management, project progress, billing clients, and identifying potential issues and problems. Now that we have some thoughts in mind about why employee time tracking is so important, let’s dive deeper into this topic.

Tracking Employee Work Hours

Considering all the benefits of tracking employee time, you are probably wondering about the best way to do it. These days, you have plenty of options, ranging from manual pen and paper techniques and desktop timeclocks to comprehensive automated time tracking software programs that do it all.

Like most businesses, you probably don’t have time to take the traditional route and would rather find a user-friendly, high-functioning and customizable software tracking tool. You might find yourself lost in a sea of time tracking technology, requiring guidance regarding what you need along with best practices and standards.

What to Look for in Time Tracking Software

You might not know how to start your search with so many software options available. Here are four things to look for in time tracking software.

Payroll Integration

Payroll integration allows your payroll system to sync with other software programs. With integrated payroll capabilities, you can quickly and easily access vital information, including historical time and attendance records, all signed documentation from all employees, information about employees’ benefits and tax details, and workers’ compensation files.

Track Employee Hours and Job Costs

Job costing is a method included in different time tracking software that allows you to track all costs and revenue attached to each project. You can track everything from human resource investments to material costs and more.

Leave Tracking

Leave tracking is a crucial feature included with time tracking software, ensuring that your HR team and employees always know the status of vacation, PTO and sick time. Anyone who has managed leave time manually knows that requests for leave slips can fall through the cracks. Leave tracking also lets employees check their available time to avoid any missteps or confusion before making vacation plans. Finally, time tracking software’s inclusion of leave tracking lets everyone in the office know when an employee is out of the office.

Location Tracking

Employees who work remotely or who are frequently away from their desks can let other workspace members know where they are with location tracking capabilities enabling them to not only track employee work hours from Hour Timesheet’s simple and free mobile app.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is your software DCAA compliant?

Yes! Hour Timesheet provides detailed audit documentation, manager approvals and daily employee reminders to enter time tracking information, including authorized charge codes.

Will my team still need to do any manual data entry?

You won’t need to do much manual data entry, if any. We have automated and streamlined nearly every facet of employee time tracking.

Our Solutions Will Streamline Your Time Tracking Processes

At Hour Timesheet, our time tracking software will be a game-changer for your payroll department and employees. We offer an integrated system that ties everything together to keep valuable employee information at your fingertips. You won’t need to wonder about how to track workforce hours again.

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Facts about Employee Time Tracking

6 Facts about Employee Time Tracking

Despite the mixed feelings on time tracking, having the right time management software can be beneficial to both workers and business. Below are several time management statistics and six Facts about Employee Time Tracking to help shed some light on the process and its potential value for organizations of all shapes and sizes.

Time Management Defined

First, what does time management refer to? Essentially, it is the use of a system to log and monitor a person’s activities. Many organizations utilize these systems to track employee hours and how they are using their time on the clock. However, it can also refer to tracking personal time through a private app as well as organization-wide project time tracking, which can be much more complex.

1. Time Tracking May Improve Time Management Skills

First on the list of Facts about Employee Time Tracking is that using even a simple software to track time can help hone a person’s time management capabilities. Such self-development gives an advantage to both individuals and companies. For instance, one in eight surveyed people reported they never feel under control at work. However, when armed with effective time management, it’s possible to gain control over the demands of the day through organization and improved productivity.

2. Employee timekeeping Identifies Areas of Improvement

Did you know the average employee is only productive for two hours and 23 minutes each day? That means a lot of time is being spent on non-work-related tasks such as browsing social media and making personal calls. Although it may appear to take up time to log the employee’s activities, it works to reveal timeframes or tasks where work is not being executed appropriately.

3. Workers in the U.S. Spend 2.5+ Hours on Emails Daily

Drafting and replying to emails is an essential part of many jobs. That being said, a lot of time is devoted to the task and at times, unjustifiably so. The right time management software could expose such waste and steps can then be taken to reduce squandered time.

4. Employee Timekeeping Errors Lead to 50 Million Lost Hours in the U.S.

5. Time of Day Impacts Productivity Levels

According to a 2021 report, productivity rates drop down significantly, all the way to 45%, between the hours of noon and 3 p.m. Freelancers also see a dip, with activity rates falling to 43% between 3-6 p.m.

6. Time Theft Is a Challenge for 75% of Businesses

Time theft can be a serious problem for any size of business. One study even found it causes U.S. employers to lose $11 billion annually. Fortunately, time tracking has been shown to reduce lapses in productivity up to 80% by combating the various form of time theft, such as buddy punching, finishing early and using work time to engage in personal activities.

Don’t Let Valuable Time Slip Away

These industry Facts about Employee Time Tracking and statistics only scratch the surface of the potential benefits time management has in store. If you want to see just how effective time management could be for your business, consider upgrading to Hour Timesheet’s innovative time tracking software. Our easy-to-use platform eliminates hours of tedious manual data entry and streamlines your business’s ability to track employee and contractor hours in real time.

Reach out to us today to learn more!

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The Benefits of Time Tracking Software

Effective time tracking software management can make a world of difference within a team or an organization. When each team member is on top of things, operations not only run smoother, but overall productivity may see a significant boost.

What Is Time Tracking Software

Available for mobile, desktop or both, time tracking software is a means to track the time, resources and manpower spent on each task or as a collective. An individual, such as a freelancer, may utilize it to keep track of personal efficiency, or it could be employed by an organization to better monitor employee performance.

Depending on the software, a time tracking platform may feature an innovative app, reliable tracking for billable hours and even advanced analytics and reporting. Having these conveniences at hand could help streamline various processes while also ensuring essential tasks are getting done on time.

How else might it be beneficial?

Provides greater organization and prioritization

One of the top advantages of time tracking software is that it could greatly diminish the time it takes to organize a whole list of tasks and put them in order of priority. This is especially true in terms of optimizing daily work and meeting important deadlines. Having a reliable tool to schedule tasks based on importance or even profitability could be very valuable when prioritizing which assignments to finish first and for cutting project costs.

Enhances workflow

Similarly, time tracking software can help a business see the big picture and, therefore, adjust the workflow accordingly. For instance, when provided with an overview of how employees are spending their time, the status of important projects, etc., management could more efficiently rearrange or assign tasks, update coinciding processes and plan for future projects. As a result, employees can focus more on efficiently fulfilling their responsibilities.

Offers effortless integration

Another major advantage and convenience is that most time tracking services can be effortlessly integrated with existing software. In fact, adding this handy tool to your current business or project management software is typically done quickly and with minimal interruption.

Such software can easily connect to payroll processes as well. By integrating data from the time tracking software with the payroll system, a company could gain a more in-depth assessment of its finances and reevaluate costs as needed.

Improves operations through data

Data is an invaluable resource in our modern world. With time tracking software, an organization can amass information surrounding the performance of the team as well as individual members. The data gained may also offer precious insight for future planning. Whether it’s used to refine budgetary expenses or strengthen the team’s collaboration, time tracking data can be a very powerful weapon to have in a business’s arsenal.

Finding the right software timekeeping software for your requirements

If time tracking sounds like a good fit, consider the professional services available through Hour Timesheet. Our time tracking software features an easy-to-use time tracking app designed to monitor employee and contractor hours in real time. It also tracks leave time, location and third-party approvals as well as billable and non-billable hours.

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Myths about Time Management Software | Hour Timesheet

Time management is essential to your business because it lets you increase the quality of your work and services. Have you ever thought about implementing time management software? This lets you and your employees keep track of the time spent working on various projects and tasks, which can lead to improved productivity and morale. This software can also help your team learn how to make the best use of the day. Let’s dispel some common time management myths. Read on to learn more.

1. Time Management Software Is Too Complex

Don’t believe this myth; time management software isn’t difficult to learn. Although it’s complex in functionality, it’s designed to be easy to use. Individuals usually learn how to use the technology quickly.

While some time management software tools need mastering, others are straightforward. It all depends on finding the right software and/or tools that fit your preferences and needs. In some cases, these tools can be integrated with other productivity programs or apps.

2. Time Management Software Is Costly

Avoiding time management software because it seems too expensive? If so, you’re not alone, however, not all time management software is expensive because most of them are cloud-based. This means it can be paid for monthly as a subscription. Additionally, you may already own free or low-cost options, enabling you to save money.

3. Time Management Software Is Only Suitable for Managers or Specialists

You don’t have to be a manager or IT specialist to use time management software. It can be a helpful and powerful tool for anyone, regardless of one’s position, work status or job experience. It can also help workers monitor progress on tasks as well as stay accountable.

4. Time Management Software Can Be a Distraction

This myth is quite the contrary. In fact, time management software can help employees stay focused on their work and meet deadlines. Doing so helps workers get the most done in the time allotted for each task. This means more productivity and less wasted effort.

Why Choose Us for Your Time Management Software Needs?

Hour Timesheet is proud to provide your small- or medium-sized company with a DCAA compliant time tracking solution that can improve your processes. While complex and robust in functionality, our time management software is easy to use as it has a simple user interface. We can also ensure that you are always in compliance with DCAA timekeeping requirements.

Have a remote workforce? If so, our Hour Timesheet Mobile© app can help your remote workers track breaks, drive time, lunch, employee location and more. It can even integrate with other helpful accounting and HR apps. You can sign up for a free 30-day trail account to try our software. Our experts can even help you setup your account at no extra charge.

If you’re ready to streamline your timekeeping processes, reach out to us today.

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