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Can Intuit Force Users to Switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online?

QuickBooks has been a go-to accounting software for small business owners for decades. However, Intuit, the company behind QuickBooks, is now making a push to move all its users off the legacy QuickBooks Desktop platform and onto the newer, cloud-based QuickBooks Online subscription model. The company has been aggressively promoting the benefits of QuickBooks Online and has caused some concern among QuickBooks Desktop users, who may be hesitant to switch.

You Have a Choice

For government contractors, it is crucial to maintain accurate and reliable financial records to comply with the strict regulations of government agencies. While QuickBooks Online may offer some benefits such as convenience and accessibility, it does not have all the advanced features necessary for government contracting firms. QuickBooks Desktop has more robust job costing capabilities that are essential to government contractors. Additionally, many government agencies require contractors to submit financial reports in specific formats, which may not be possible with QuickBooks Online.

What’s the Future of QuickBooks Desktop?

Ultimately, the future of QuickBooks Desktop may depend on the continued demand from users and the ability of Intuit to balance the development of both platforms. For now, small business owners can continue to use QuickBooks Desktop with confidence, knowing that they have access to a trusted and established accounting solution.  Intuit has stated that it will continue to offer support for QuickBooks Desktop, including software updates and technical assistance. However, it is unclear how long this support will be available as Intuit shifts its focus towards QuickBooks Online.

Sticking with QuickBooks Desktop also has other advantages

Expert Support

QuickBooks Desktop has been around for over 20 years and has a large community of experts who can provide help, advice, and support. This support is invaluable, especially for government contractors who have complex accounting needs. If you switch to QuickBooks Online, you may not have access to this level of support. Sticking with QuickBooks Desktop means that you’ll continue to have access to this support whenever you need it.

Familiarity and Ease of Use

QuickBooks Desktop is familiar to many business owners, and its ease of use is unmatched. It’s intuitive, and users with minimal accounting experience can navigate it with ease. For many government contractors, making the switch to QuickBooks Online may mean having to learn a new interface and adopting new processes. It may also mean having to train current staff, which can be a time-consuming process.

Conclusion

All in all, QuickBooks Desktop offers the best solution for government contractors who want to ensure that their record-keeping is up to par and that they are compliant with government regulations. For those who are unsure, check with any the referral partners listed on the Hour Timesheet website.

Is QuickBooks a DCAA Approved Accounting System? 

When you are in the business of federal government contracts, DCAA compliance is non-negotiable. DCAA stands for the Defense Contract Audit Agency. QuickBooks provides an accounting package that is well suited for small to mid-sized businesses looking for DCAA compliance. QuickBooks offers two options and several different versions depending on your unique business requirements. QuickBooks offers both a desktop solution and an online tool, and either can be set up to be DCAA/Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Compliant, especially with our DCAA compliance checklist. The keys are Job Costing and Labor Distribution. 

DCAA Contracts

Potential government contractors who wish to bid on certain types of contracts should know that although the contracts vary, there is a difference between direct costs and indirect costs.

  • A direct cost is a cost that can be tied directly to the production of goods or services. A direct cost may be variable. An example of a direct cost is labor cost or manufacturing supplies.
  • Indirect cost allocations include overhead expenses such as rent and insurances and general expenses like accounting department costs. Indirect costs are harder to pin down and harder to allocate to a specific project or item. Using a timesheet tracking application in conjunction with an accounting package like Quickbooks, you can better control the indirect cost allocations, particularly for general and administrative expenses, to the correct cost objective.
  • One type of DCAA contract is called a cost reimbursable contract, where the direct cost and a percentage of the indirect costs are paid. This type of contract requires the accounting system approval under FAR subpart 16.3.

What is QuickBooks?

QuickBooks is an accounting software solution that allows for integration across multiple platforms to make payroll quick and easy. They have two main products that make their service worthwhile.

QuickBooks Desktop

This interface of web-based time tracking software and payroll makes QuickBooks Desktop an ideal tool for DCAA Compliance. We base this on our experience with hundreds of clients over several decades. Furthermore, the QuickBooks Desktop integrated payroll module permits the charging of time directly to the General Ledger. This includes Customer, Job, and Service Items, which are immensely beneficial.

QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online is a cloud-based solution that is not, at the outset, designed to meet the FAR and DCAA requirements and has some limitations. The good news is that there are ways to make the QuickBooks Online system meet all the government’s requirements without too much effort.

What is DCAA Compliant Accounting Software?

DCAA-compliant accounting software is software that meets DCAA requirements. Your chosen accounting package – in this case, QuickBooks is set up to meet the requirements. Timekeeping and the allocation of costs are of particular importance. Consequently, QuickBooks Time Tracking software integration is an essential aspect of DCAA compliance.

Refer to DCAA compliance explained for more information.

Any accounting package set up to meet compliance requirements will be subject to strict internal controls to ensure financial integrity. One of these internal controls should be an internal accounting system audit regularly. There should also be regular checks on a monthly basis to see that all the income and expenditures balance.

The Benefits of Being DCAA Compliant for Small Businesses

If you are DCAA compliant, you may be one step closer to securing funding from the federal government programs SBIR and STTR. These programs gear towards supporting innovation and technology in small businesses. Integrating Hour Timesheet’s DCAA-compliant timesheet with QuickBooks will be invaluable in pursuing this kind of opportunity.

Is QuickBooks DCAA Compliant?

Yes, QuickBooks can be set up to be DCAA compliant, but it doesn’t automatically meet DCAA standards and requires additional configuration to be compliant. Certain elements of the software do meet the standards, including the ability to properly segregate direct costs from indirect costs. This can be accomplished by using the software’s reporting features to separate costs by project as well as items versus expenses. When searching for DCAA-compliant accounting software, QuickBooks also operates under general ledger control, which is required under the standards. Another example of how the platform conforms with DCAA standards is its support of separating preproduction costs in a number of ways.

On the other hand, as a DCAA-compliant accounting system, QuickBooks as it is distributed falls short in a number of ways. For instance, it does not automatically calculate indirect rates per your company’s rate structure. It also fails to offer time tracking capabilities required to identify employees’ work according to intermediate or final cost objectives. Satisfying these and other requirements calls for expert configuration of the platform as well as integration with time tracking software that provides additional functionality. These are areas in which Hour Timesheet’s solutions can be of exceptional benefit to your enterprise. We provide you with the expertise necessary to make the most of your QuickBooks setup and ensure you are making QuickBooks DCAA compliant.

There are three areas to consider:

  • Chart of Accounts establishment
  • Flow of transactions
  • Cost and Computations

It’s important to note that one should always bear Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in mind when analyzing your accounting system.

Even if you understand all the regulations, it is still best to refer to the DCAA compliance checklist. Where possible, seek professional assistance! Be ready to implement policies and procedures that need to be applied consistently across your business.

Keys to Compliance

  • Employee time tracking posted daily with required explanations for edits and record locking.
  • Printable timesheet reports.
  • Policies & Procedures oriented toward FAR Compliance Criteria found in DCAA’s SF-1408 pre-award audit checklist.
  • Consistently applied labor dollar distribution accommodating uncompensated OT for salary exempt personnel.
  • Indirect Cost Pools and the ability to compute and forecast Indirect Rates applied to Direct Costs under Cost Reimbursable Awards.
  • Progress billing + Cumulative dollar values reported against award ceilings tied to cost proposals.
  • Identification and segregation of Unallowable Costs as defined per FAR 31.205.

This isn’t a comprehensive list, but it gives a good idea of what to expect. One of the best ways to help navigate QuickBooks DCAA compliance with timekeeping and accounting systems is to partner with a company that has a demonstrated knowledge of government contracts. It can also be helpful to review multiple services and look for important features in DCAA compliant time tracking systems.

What Happens if You Fail a DCAA Audit?

You may lose your contract or face a suspension of payment. Be assiduously aware of remaining compliant. Floor checks are routine, and timekeeping records are an essential part of your compliance. A floor check is the DCAA’s way of verifying your employees.

One way to help ensure you pass your DCAA audit is to get any requested information to your auditors quickly. This can speed up your audit, and help ensure the DCAA auditor has all the information they need. In order to do this, it’s best practice to keep excellent records and track every process and transaction. Hour Timesheet allows businesses to keep these kinds of records, in a convenient, cloud-based place.

We Can Help

Hour Timesheet isn’t just a timekeeping software provider for government contracts looking to pass a DCAA audit. We also partner with dozens of CPA firms and consultants who can assist you with the entire life cycle of getting a DCAA-approved accounting system. Call Us Today! We can introduce you to our extensive list of experienced partners.

QuickBooks Time Tracking Integration

If you and your employees are sick of manually tracking timesheets, job costing, payroll, leave tracking, mobile time tracking and location tracking while staying DCAA-compliant and FAR-compliant, Hour Timesheet is here for you with time tracking for QuickBooks.

Hour Timesheet has created the ideal timekeeping software compatible with QuickBooks. You can integrate all your data with QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop with just a click, which removes the hassle of manual entry on either side.

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Time Tracking for QuickBooks

Hour Timesheet is all about saving you time, so you can spend that precious resource in more productive ways than tracking what you’re doing with it. As a timesheet software that integrates with QuickBooks, everything is simplified, automated, and easy for you and your employees to use without a lot of extra training.

Even better, our support team can help every step of the way. Because it is DCAA-Compliant and FAR-compliant, our software can help you maintain regulatory compliance so you can focus more on providing excellent customer service. You won’t have to track these things manually with our software:

  • Clocking in and out
  • Location tracking
  • Job costing
  • Time off requests
  • Billable and non-billable hours
  • Remote work time
  • Travel time
  • 3rd-party approvals
  • Payroll integration
  • Time used on various projects

Hour Timesheet’s QuickBooks time tracking integration is easy for all your employees to use, whether they are full-time, part-time or contract workers. This way, you can keep up with a demanding project schedule in multiple locations without worrying about time lost.

Timesheet Software Compatible With QuickBooks

As work changes and becomes a mix of mobile, remote and in-office work, companies need a flexible, accurate and simple way to track, account for, and analyze time and attendance and payroll data. That’s why we created time tracking software that integrates with QuickBooks.

Hour Timesheet gives you the power to do that and more, with expert customer support that makes integrating with QuickBooks a snap. Our customer support team is well versed in the needs of government contractors bidding on projects that require DCAA compliance, which makes us unique in the world of time and attendance software.

Our software empowers companies big and small with accuracy, fewer headaches, and broader insight into their time and payroll data. Plus, the smooth integration with QuickBooks gives you more ways to analyze your data, reduce waste and more effectively get the job done.

In addition to integrating with QuickBooks, our software also integrates with other applications, including Paychex, ADP, and more. Start tracking time the easy way, with no hidden fees, no contract and excellent customer support.

a QuickBooks ProAdvisor Can Help With DCAA Compliance

How a QuickBooks ProAdvisor Can Help With DCAA Compliance

For any business, today, having good bookkeeping and accounting records in place is very important. This is particularly true for organizations that do business with the Department of Defense (DoD) and may be subject to a DCAA compliance audit. For those that are looking for support with this, working with a QuickBooks ProAdvisor can be a great option. These advisors can offer a range of services to help your business and remain in DCAA compliance.

What is a QuickBooks ProAdvisor?

QuickBooks continues to be one of the most popular accounting programs for businesses of all sizes. For those that would like to start using this program, finding a way to convert from existing accounting programs and integrate it into their business is very important. A QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor can help with this. They can offer a range of services to help you integrate your existing accounting program into QuickBooks and ensure you are getting as much out of it as possible.

What is DCAA Compliant Timekeeping?

The Department of Defense is a major organization that does business with many vendors across the world. Generally, they will provide payment for services that will include costs that you have incurred. This can include hours worked by yourself and other employees with your team. The process of DCAA compliant timekeeping involves properly tracking hours and accruing them to the right project while retaining all necessary records.

How Can a QuickBooks ProAdvisor Help?

If you are trying to improve your DCAA accounting practices, working with a QuickBooks ProAdvisor is a good idea. These professionals can offer various services that will ensure your accounting practices are up and running properly. This can include upgrading your accounting program to ensure you have a DCAA-approved accounting system that will properly account for your DCAA-related hours and all records are properly kept.

When Should Someone Hire a QuickBooks ProAdvisor?

There are various situations when hiring a QuickBooks ProAdvisor will be a good idea for your business. One situation will come if you start to enter into contracts with the DoD or other governmental agencies. The QuickBooks Advisor will help by giving you the support you need to establish your accounting processes to ensure they are DCAA compliant. Even if you are not entering into these contracts, a QuickBooks ProAdvisor can still be helpful as they can help you establish QuickBooks and integrate it into your business while ensuring you are using it as well as possible.
Hiring a QuickBooks ProAdvisor for your DCAA compliance needs can be a great idea. These services can help ensure that your accounting processes are up and running properly and that you are complying with any DCAA requirements. When you need to find a QuickBooks ProAdvisor and are looking for this support, working with Hour Timesheet is a great option. This company can offer various services with QuickBooks and other record-keeping needs to keep your company organized and efficient.