Category Archives for DCAA Compliance

DCAA Compliance & time and attendance software

Adequate DCAA compliant timekeeping practices are critical to securing a contract award. Often deficient DCAA compliance & timekeeping is the reason contractors fail the audits. Below are the key requirements and best practices for DCAA compliance. Web-based timekeeping systems are acceptable provided the key requirements are followed.

Making technology work for you

Making Technology Work For You

Today’s technology moves so fast that it’s not easy to keep up with. It seems like new tools are surfacing every day to help business owners and entrepreneurs save time, money and boost productivity. New technology empowers business owners to achieve what they set out to do and allows them to be creative while maintaining a high level of productivity. Businesses that want to stay relevant know that they must incorporate new technologies into their company’s growth strategy.

The trick to making technology work for you and your team will depend on how it’s integrated. You can use these tips to help your employees to successfully embrace technology:

1. Highlight the Benefits

Technology can do so much to make our lives easier, but the process of learning new technology can still be daunting. To ensure team member buy-in, help them understand the decision to implement new technology. Identify the limitations or problems in the current tools or software. Help your users see how technology could solve these problems. Even though fear is normal in the face of change, we can’t let fear stop us from moving forward.

2. Find Your Champions

There are always employees who readily accept new technology. These are your champions! They can help convince reluctant coworkers where no one else can. Have them be available for questions and training to those who are slower to adopt. Some employees may not be convinced of the benefits of technology until they see someone else do it.

3. Provide Training

Training is critical to the successful adoption of new technology. You must ensure that team members of all levels of technological know-how have the access they need to learn at their own speed. Training can be looked at as a two-step process: You need training from external sources (free at Hour Timesheet), and then you need a core group of internal employees who are comfortable in the new system and can help others if needed.

REASONS YOUR BUSINESS SHOULD EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY

By embracing today’s new technology your company will reap the benefits that keep them ahead of their competitors who fail to embrace technology, including:

Staying connected
Encouraging timely and accurate input
Ability to monitor employee productivity
Improving manager productivity
Improving employee accountability
Access to advanced business reporting and analysis

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A DCAA Compliant Alternative to Deltek Timekeeping

When a business undertakes a government contract, part of the agreement is for their timekeeping and accounting procedures to comply with the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA). DCAA-compliant contracts require daily time tracking, precise records, detailed reporting, and specific manager approvals, all for DCAA audit purposes. Ensuring DCAA compliance can be a lengthy and confusing process if not using the right tools.

There are expensive and not-so-user-friendly software programs such as Deltek that don't deliver some of the features that other products such as Hour Timesheet do. The following are some of the reasons an increasing number of companies are switching to Hour Timesheet.

Regular Reminders

Hour Timesheet features both daily and weekly reminders to employees and managers when timesheets are due. This ensures that everyone working for the company, whether remotely or in the office, regularly tracks their time. DCAA compliance requires daily timesheet entries by every employee and for managers to approve their hours. This must happen whether they’re working on the DCAA that day or not. They don't let it accumulate and try to submit them at the end of the month in a hurry.

Accurate Charging Codes

Hour Timesheet’s DCAA compliant timekeeping software restricts employees charging to an expired charge code. With Hour Timesheet, employees can only enter labor time for specified job code assignments and labor categories, with the ability to set maximum limits or expiration dates. Thanks to this feature, managers do not need to worry about unauthorized or excessive labor costs for their tasks. This built-in feature prevents government contractors from making incorrect entries, resulting in time-consuming corrective actions, delayed invoice payment, or the most severe DCAA audit findings.

Regular timesheet processing

Part of the DCAA compliant timekeeping requirements is that timesheets must be processed every month, if not more frequently. Hour Timesheet's timekeeping procedures allow for this to happen. A report can be generated to illustrate the number of timesheets generated for the month, information on costs, and billing.

A detailed audit trail

As DCAA compliant time tracking software, Hour Timesheet is DCAA compliant. That means it has a long and detailed audit trail. If an employee or manager edits a time card after it has been submitted, the DCAA will want to know who made the change, when it was made and why? Hour Timesheet creates an un-editable audit log that provides a permanent list of all the additions, subtractions, and changes that have been made to the employees’ timesheets.

Manual time tracking

The Hour Timesheet time-entry feature can help protect and allow your business to grow with the timekeeping capabilities you need to be DCAA compliant. Our manual time tracking features will help you track direct and indirect costs on a project-by-project basis and tackle head-on one of the most daunting aspects of DCAA compliance by creating a detailed audit trail. Often the timekeeping requirements of being government contractors can be overwhelming. Let, Hour Timesheet help.

An up-to-date sick/personal leave balance

With Hour Timesheet, all employee's current sick/personal leave and vacation balances are always prominently displayed on their timesheet entry page. There is no need to wait for a regular pay stub to review these balances.

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For more information on DCAA timekeeping requirements and how Hour Timesheet is the software to meet the compliance needs, contact us today. We offer a FREE 30-day trial of our software, because we know that you’re going to love it!

QuickBooks Integration Q&A

Common questions and answers for Hour Timesheet and QuickBooks Integration

Question 1. How does QuickBooks sync data with Hour Timesheet?

Answer. We utilize the Web Connector (provided by QuickBooks) to sync company data between QuickBooks Desktop and Hour Timesheet in real time. The version of QuickBooks Online offers a direct sync between the two systems.

Question 2. What type of data does QuickBooks sync with Hour Timesheet?

Employees: The sync tool will import all “active” QuickBooks employees and vendors (optional) into your Hour Timesheet account. Only vendors that have a First and Last Name field value in QuickBooks will be imported.
Customers/Jobs: The sync tool will import all “active” Customer/Jobs in to your Hour Timesheet account.
Service Items: The sync tool will import all “active” Service Items in to your Hour Timesheet account.
Classes: (optional) The sync tool will import all “active” Classes in to your Hour Timesheet account.
Payroll Items: (optional) The sync tool will import all “active” Payroll Items in to your Hour Timesheet account.

Question 3. How do I add a new data in Hour Timesheet (employees, customers, jobs, etc)?

Answer. New data will need to be entered into your QuickBooks company file first. Once the new data is entered, you can use the web connector tool to import your new data in to your Hour Timesheet account.

Question 4. How will my employees receive their Hour Timesheet login credentials?

Answer. Hour Timesheet will send an email invitation to each employee with the link and login ID to the Hour Timesheet account included in the body of the email. Once the employee accesses the link, the employee will be prompted to create an initial password to login to Hour Timesheet.

Question 5. Can my employees track time against customers and jobs, service items, classes and payroll items?

Answer. Yes, your employees will be asked to select from a list of authorized charges. Employee authorized charges (EOC) are defined by the admin at the employee level. This feature enables the employees to only see EOC’s that are assigned to each user.

Question 6. How do I delete information in my Hour Timesheet account?

Answer. Once you mark the data (employee, customer, job, etc.) as inactive in QuickBooks, the data will be updated in your Hour Timesheet account upon performing the data sync.

Question 7. How does Hour Timesheet identify billable vs non-billable items on the timesheet?

Answer. By default, any EAC that includes a service item will be marked as billable time in QuickBooks.

Question 8. Can employees add comments to a timesheets?

Answer. Yes, Hour Timesheet includes a feature to allow employees to input general comments and daily comments.

Question 9. I exported my employee's time into my company QuickBooks file, but now I need to make corrections. How do I do this?

Answer. Hour Timesheet does not allow processed timesheet data to be edited. Hour Timesheet will display a link on the Timesheet Review page that will allow the user to create a “corrected” copy of the timesheet. The detailed audit trail will show the log of all changes made to the revised timesheet.

Question 10. Can multiple supervisors approve a single timesheet?

Answer Yes. Hour Timesheet will allow for multiple supervisors to approve a timesheet.

Question 11. We have a requirement for our employees to enter hours worked.daily, does Hour Timesheet include daily reminders?

Answer Hour Timesheet includes the option to turn on daily notifications to serve as reminders for those employees who forget to enter time daily.

Question 12. I track my employee leave balance data manually in an Excel spreadsheet because QuickBooks doesn’t include all of the options I need, can Hour Timesheet manage leave?

Answer - Hour Timesheet has a full-function leave management feature that will allow accrued and earned types of leave tracking.

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Top Timekeeping Tips

Top Employee Timekeeping Tips

Insight into how your employees spend time is critical. That's why employee timekeeping software tools make so much sense.

Knowing how much time your employees spend on overhead tasks, project, training, and unpaid leave is invaluable data for your business's future. Tools that track employee hours and employee schedules will greatly reduce your hours spent processing manual time cards.

Employee timekeeping is not just for hourly employees

Nonexempt employees need to track work time for FLSA compliance but having salaried employees keep a time sheet is helpful too. Exception-based time tracking helps employers track employee attendance and improve the overall management of daily resources. Tools and solutions that include the ability for employees to track hours worked on mobile devices will provide real time job costing and absentee management at the supervisor level.

Internal policies & approval workflows are the keys to a successful employee timekeeping software implementation.

Software tools are a dime-a-dozen, but it's how you use the software that defines your success. It's important to document your timekeeping policies and required approval workflows before you invest in a time & attendance tool.

Don't be afraid of internet-based employee timekeeping software tools

A detailed timesheet audit trail will flag when a user inputs timesheet data into your system from anywhere but the office. The activity log shows the IP address as well as each entry into the user's timesheet with a non-editable time and date stamp. Online employee time tracking software also allows for integration with your payroll system with a 2-way sync to and from your payroll software like QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop.

Microsoft Excel is for spreadsheet data, not for employee timekeeping

Yes, you can keep your employees timesheet data in Excel but is that really efficient? Don't be afraid to use the tools available to your organization to make you more productive. Rely on the experts...not Excel.

BOTTOM LINE... it's just smart business.

Features such as daily timesheet reminders, employee leave management and time card approval processes make Hour Timesheet the perfect choice for your organizations's timekeeping software needs. Available on the web or your iOS and Android mobile app store.

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QuickBooks Online

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Additional Resources

Measure Costs Right: Make the Right Decisions

How To Calculate And Track Overhead Costs

How do I Calculate Overhead Costs?

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Advice for Successful Grant Management for Nonprofit Organizations

Nonprofit Timekeeping for Your Organization

The weak link

Managing grant dollars is one of the weakest links in the grant process chain. Directors tend to have detailed and documented process of researching and developing grant proposals. But frequently, that is where the process stops. Unfortunately, the inability of nonprofits to manage grant funds successfully with nonprofit timekeeping software is the single most important reason why a funder may not fund them in the second or third year. Tracking employee hours and timesheet entries by projects and grants can help with these lingering issues. Locate an automated time tracking software for your employees to track hours and manage projects. With an online solution, you'll be able to gain instant access into how much time your volunteers and employees are spending supporting each grant and lower level items to be tracked.

Track and document everything

Most government grants require significant documentation of all expenditures related to grants. Grant giving organizations require recipients to submit detailed supporting documents before grant payments are made. An employee time card tracking system that has the capacity to automatically generate grant reimbursements based on grant activity not only saves time but improves accuracy. Employee time clock software should include a business rule that requires employees capture all time worked on grand and "non-grant" related activities.

Understand indirect costs

Grants come with indirect costs. Understand whether operating funds for administrative burdens will be covered or if you need to dig up additional funding. Ask your team if your organization is prepared to reallocate its administrative budget to cover the cost and if so for how long. Cost allocation will allow your organization to share overhead expenses across different programs. A good timekeeping solution will include time off requests, real time data capture, and a means to track overhead costs. Look for a solution that includes the ability to track volunteer hours using a mobile app for no additional fees.

Know your stuff

Essential to successful grant management is understanding and adherence to regulations related to grant management. Regulatory compliance starts with federal guides for Cost Principles and Auditing from the Office of Budget and Management. These regulations impact state and local government grants and sets models of best practices for foundation and other private grantors. Utilize the built-in business rules in your timekeeping software to aid with specific regulations. Features like audit logs, daily reminders, online approvals all help your organization achieve compliance.

Staying on Schedule

Being able to quickly see what is coming up or quickly see a high-level view is critical to keeping the process running smoothly. SaaS based employee scheduling solutions can be utilized to track important deadlines and send email reminders of deadlines when they are approaching. This can be a great time-saver for the person who is organizing all the elements of a grant proposal and responsible for the final submission.

Bottom Line

Hour Timesheet can help you with all of the above items. Call or email now to see a demo at your convenience

Employee timesheet software
Hour Tracking
Leave Management
Online approvals
Email reminders and alerts
Real-time reporting

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Additional Resources

Nonprofits and Labor Laws

Managing Nonprofit Employees

Breaking down your nonprofit's obligation to pay overtime

$3/user. NO setup Fees. NO support fees. NO contract.

Employee Leave Management

Hour Timesheet

Employee Leave Management

People are an important resource of any business. Unauthorized absenteeism, lack of proper time/holiday planning, affect the overall efficiency of any organization. Many leave related issues can be addressed by using an automated leave tracking software such as Hour Timesheet.

A uniform application of leave policies and accurately tracking leave balances, can lead to greater employee satisfaction and enables organizations to engage employees better.

A complex leave management software solution can be utilized to automate time off request as well as real-time access to paid leave such as holiday, sick, vacation or comp time. Benefits of an online leave management system include the following:

All employees are able to apply or leave request in a central location
Aids user by having online access to leave balance data and leave transactions
Communication and enforcement of all company leave policies
Enhanced manager insight - supervisors and HR manager receives email alerts when employees request and use leave
Eliminate manual calculations of leave balances and paper-based leave request.
System-managed carry-over values from year to year.
System managed ceiling for each type of leave

Implementing the right employee leave management solution will significantly reduce work by the HR team as well as well as employees. Centralized business processes will reduce the time and effort spent by HR on maintaining accurate leave records in Microsoft Excel or by hand.

Hour Timesheet Leave Management Types

Earned Leave - Leave hours are earned based on the number of hours worked on the employee timesheet.

Accrued Leave - Leave hours are accrued based on the employee's hire date. Accrual options are weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly and monthly.

Employee Leave Management Features

Balance is reduced after timesheet is submitted at the end of each timesheet period.
User receives error message upon entering time that exceeds current balance.
User may be allowed to “go into the negative” if feature is configured.
System will stop accruing leave once limit “ceiling” is reached.
System will reset balance to “carry-over” value each year.
Balance will reflect manual adjustments (if any).

For more information on employee leave management, visit our leave management website page or visit us in the QuickBooks marketplace listing.

Additional Resources

Ten states and Washington D.C. currently require paid sick leave
The Family and Medical Leave Act

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DCAA Compliant Timekeeping Software

Having been in the industry for over 25 years, there are a number of key topics that continue to come up when talking with a government contractor about DCAA timekeeping requirements. One common theme I hear time and time again is centered around managing correction previously entered time entries as well as enabling someone other than an employee to update an employee's timesheet. There are many sources on the web and in your google searches that are willing to charge you for FAR training, consulting fees or "compliant bookkeeping. Go ahead, do a little "google research" or just ask one of our many referral partners.

Advice from the experts

Everything needs to be tracked - Time spent on overhead tasks, bid and proposals, training, leave (paid or unpaid) and yes, even uncompensated time should be recorded on a timesheet. Bottom line, all hours worked by employees are required to be tracked by a companies timesheet software.

Timekeeping isn't just for hourly employees -Employees working on contract and in the corporate office need to track hours. This includes salaried and hourly employees. This includes both labor cost and indirect labor cost (overhead, G&A, B&P)

Corrections on timesheets are okay - Budgets change, mistakes are made, people forget.. that's why documented timekeeping procedures that include a correction process is imperative.

Audit logs are the key - With the internet, all things are possible. Anywhere. Anytime. A detailed audit trail real time edits to all timesheet entries. The time, the place as well as the details.

Do practice floor checks - let your employees know what to expect in the event that the defense contract audit agency does to a floor. Quarterly planned practice floor checks will put your employees at ease.

Just saying it doesn't make it true - Any software can claim that their software meets dcaa compliance and FAR regulations but we don't just say it. We guarantee it. Our experts of 20+ years will make sure!

Additional Resources

Measure Costs Right: Make the Right Decisions

How To Calculate And Track Overhead Costs

How do I Calculate Overhead Costs?

Federal Acquisition Regulation Full Download

Federal Timekeeping Policies for Government Contractors (chron.com)

Record-keeping Requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act

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Top 5 Advantages of Using A QuickBooks Cloud Hosting Service Provider

QuickBooks cloud hosting services make sense for a small business today

INDUSTRY ACCEPTED PRACTICE

The practice of accessing your QuickBooks account data file using a 3rd party service or cloud server has finally been accepted as an alternative to the costly expense of building and maintaining IT infrastructure. “Hosting” QuickBooks desktop means that a hosting service installs and manages the QuickBooks software and the company data files on their own cloud-based servers. With a cloud/hosted virtual desktop server, you gain access to your company file from any PC, Mac, iPad, or mobile device 24/7 in a multi user environment.

REMOTE ACCESS

As your business grows, more users will likely need access to the company QuickBooks data. Businesses with multiple locations or a mobile workforce find that centralized access to data allows users to function as though they were all in the same office. Being able to access the QuickBooks file via the Internet allows users to work in a single company file anywhere anytime.

ELIMINATES IT COSTS

By choosing a remote hosting option, you don’t incur any upfront hardware or software costs (other than the cost of QuickBooks licenses). Instead, you pay the QuickBooks hosting company a monthly fee per user to take care of things for you. Most providers will manage the data, software updates, upgrades, and equipment, as well as provide first level technical support their clients.

BETTER USER EXPERIENCE

Users experience more efficient and effective collaboration with simultaneous access available to multiple users. Accounting professionals can work on client files seamlessly sharing data with the client even as the client may be working in the system.

SAFE & SECURE

Cloud/hosting service providers follow stringent security measures to ensure full safety for your QuickBooks data file. Most data centers provide 24/7 security and extreme care in disaster planning such as fire detection, backups, diesel generators and biometric security.

And of course...Hour Timesheet works great on your desktop or in the cloud. Come try our simple QuickBooks 1-click data sync today. Years of experience at your fingertips.

Versions of QuickBooks Available in the Cloud:

Pro Premier
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Enterprise

Top Providers:

Right Networks,
Swizznet,
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Why Your Organization Needs Online Timekeeping Software

Why Your Organization Needs Cloud-based Timekeeping Software

Managing employee timekeeping software can be huge headache for any company

But... it doesn’t have to be. A good solution such as Hour Timesheet can eliminate the frustrations that accompany timekeeping by automating the processes associated to payroll and billing. Most businesses already use an automated payroll service, but many are slow to navigate to automated time card solutions.

Below are the top advantages of switching to an automated timekeeping solution.

Saves time

The most basic benefit to your business is that less time will be spent, both by employees and your accounting staff, tracking, recording and processing time spent working each day. Some businesses have reported cutting their time calculating payroll each month by up to 70 after implementing employee time tracking software%.

Makes your business scale-able

Manual time entry may work, in some respects, for your business now. If you expect your business to grow, you’ll want a time tracking system that can grow with you as you hire more employees and have more information to track and automatically sync with your payroll software.

It’s the law

State and federal labor laws, such as the Fair Labor Standards Act, regulates things like overtime pay and record keeping, both of which can be problematic with the wrong solution. Employers are required to accurately record the hours worked by nonexempt employees and to pay them for all time worked. These requirements appear straightforward. In practice, however, capturing the time worked by employees can be difficult, making accurate payment of wages a challenge. Using an online solution such as Hour Timesheet helps your organization stay within the law.

Reduces errors

Every company has had issues at one time or another when it comes to employees not receiving the proper amount of pay. Wage and hour lawsuits, particularly those claiming that employees were not compensated for all hours worked, are one of the most common types of lawsuits brought by employees against employers. With Hour Timesheet, employees submit each timesheet which includes a detailed audit trail of all timesheet activity.

Increases profits

The bottom line for any business is to be profitable, and businesses are constantly looking for a way to cut costs and increase profits. When they have an automated employee timekeeping software solution, they are better able to understand the company workflow, and see where there are any problems that need to be addressed.

Promotes communication

Many employees get nervous when they hear their company is going to implement a policy of track time and work progress using an online timekeeping software solution. They hear the word “tracking”, and automatically feel as if they are being constantly watched. Employers need to make sure that their employees realize the reasons for having time timekeeping software. It is about payroll issues, tracking projects and tasks, client billing, and cutting expenses. These are things they can understand.

Increases visibility

The right timekeeping software solution has the capability to help employees to better capture work hours online against projects, while giving managers visibility into the employee’s work day as well as estimating projects and overall project management. In addition, companies who hire contractors or have a remote workforce can keep costs down while ensuring accountability. Business owners and managers can see the overall picture of time spent on a project, which can help them re-prioritize or streamline processes, or pull additional resources to a project that needs more attention.

Happier Employees

Automated timekeeping software makes employees happier because a hassle free solution guarantees timely and accurate pay. Employees gain secure access to their personal data, hours worked, and historical data in real time on a supported time clock, on a mobile app or on the web. This makes it easier for employees to access information without having to go through the human resources or accounting department. Employees feel empowered when they have access to their own information, and that level of empowerment can lead to increased satisfaction on the job.