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DCAA Compliant Timekeeping Software

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

DCAA Approved Timekeeping System

DCAA Approved Timekeeping System

Is Your Company Ready?

Most likely, your answer to this question is, “I don’t know”. It's often the case that a company thinks maybe they could be ready for a DCAA audit, but has little confidence that they would pass. On the other end of the spectrum, are you a company who thinks you're definitely ready for DCAA because you have an expensive or robust accounting and/or timekeeping system?

Unfortunately, if you never had DCAA in your office before, then you probably are not ready, regardless of your systems.

Contrary to what you may have heard, you cannot “buy” a DCAA-approved accounting system. No accounting or timekeeping system has ever, or will ever, receive DCAA’s stamp of approval. As a government agency, they will not endorse a product in that manner. In addition, DCAA never “approves” your systems anyway. Instead, they test your end to end system, policies and procedures and determine if it is “adequate”. In a nutshell, they want to make sure that you walk the talk and you do it according to regulation.

How can you prepare for an Audit?

Test yourself

Internal audits (or as we call them “mock audits”) are an ideal way for you to determine where your gaps are and correct those gaps. They are also great to get you ready for an audit as practice. Having an outside party review your accounting system, timekeeping system, chart of accounts, policies and procedures, then test you on those, is the only way to ensure you are ready. Without such a test, you are walking into the battlefield blind. -  Arrowhead Solutions, LLC,

What do they test (or look for)

  • Daily time entry for every employee
  • Are all employees capturing all hours worked (paid and unpaid)
  • A detailed audit log or audit trail of every entry made to the employees time card
  • A system that tracks time by project or job codes
  • The ability to capture both direct labor cost and indirect labor cost
  • Supervisor submissions and approvals
  • Documented timekeeping procedures
  • All time worked (on government contracts) and overhead

Read similar post about DCAA Compliant Timekeeping Practices

DCAA Compliant Timekeeping Key Requirements

Advice from the Experts

Tired of Deltek Timesheets?

For more information becoming a referral partner, visit our partner or visit us in the QuickBooks marketplace listing.

Referral Partner Listing

DCAA Assist

Arrowhead Solutions

Edward Moore

Gov-Con Solutions

ReliAscent

DCAA Compliant Timekeeping Checklist

DCAA Compliant Timekeeping Checklist

Best practices

Timekeeping continues to be a hot item for government contractors including DCAA Compliance. Adequate timekeeping practices are crucial to successfully securing or maintaining a government contract accounting system. Often deficient timekeeping is the reason for failing a DCAA (defense contract audit agency) audits.

The timekeeping system or procedures must be documented in a timekeeping policy or procedure provided to all employees.

All of the key elements of an adequate timekeeping and compliant accounting system must be addressed.

Every employee must record their time daily.

Recording time in advance or days after the fact such as at the end of the week is not acceptable.

All time must be charged

Time must be charged by day and by project and/or indirect accounts. This includes direct labor cost, indirect labor cost and uncompensated overtime.

Employees must record all indirect time.

Hours not identifiable to a given project must be charged to a proper indirect cost account.

All employee leave time must be recorded.

Employees must record all vacation, sick, holiday and other leave time to the proper accounts.

Job codes that appear in the system should be initiated by finance or the system administrator.

Job codes must be provided to employees authorized to work on a given project.

Under no circumstance may personnel work on one project and record time to a different project.

Under no circumstance may personnel work on indirect tasks and record time as direct costs to a project or vice versa.

Corrections are approved by the employee’s supervisor.

Under unusual circumstances where the employee cannot make the changes to timesheet, the accountant or administrator may make such changes with the employee’s consent.

All employee time must be signed by the employee.

All employee time must be approved by the employee’s supervisor.

All employees should be provided at least documented time keeping training awareness.

Periodic monitoring of compliance with time tracking requirements should be conducted by "practice" dcaa audits or floor checks.

Time sheets and all corrections must be maintained for a period of at least 2 years.

However, project records under a government contract must be maintained for audit purposes for a period of three years after final payment. The requirements for record retention are contained in FAR Subpart 4.7.

Check out more about DCAA Compliant Timekeeping @ Edward D. Moore, CPA dcaaConsulting LLC

Hour Timesheet includes all the features for a DCAA compliant time tracking software for both small businesses and large. Employee timesheets are in the cloud are available real time with an online approval timesheet process for supervisors.

Time Card Features for Employees In Hour Timesheet

Timesheet Sections The “My Timesheet” can be subdivided into 4 sections

  1. Clock In/Clock Out – this section is OPTIONAL
  2. Hours Worked – this section is required for QuickBooks timesheet integration
  3. Notes/Summary – section for entering daily hours worked notes or viewing leave balance data or timesheet summary overview.
  4. Timesheet Audit Log – non-editable activity log of all entries on the employee timesheet.

Section 1. Clock In/Clock Out

This section is auto populated with employee who clock in/out utilizing the web clock on the Hour Timesheet login page. Daily hours are totaled by calculating the time between “clocked in” and “clocked out”. A user may have as many in/out pairs as required. This feature is optional and is hidden by default if no values are present in the in/out section of the timesheet.

Section 2. Adding Work Hours and Leave Hours

  • Adding Work Hours - this section contains a set of drop down boxes that are available once the user clicks the “Add Work Hours” button on the timesheet. These codes are referred to as “Employee Authorized Charges”. These selections are designed limited to codes each user is “authorized” to use when charging time on the timesheet.
  • Adding Leave Hours - this section contains a set of drop down boxes that are available once the user clicks the “Add Leave Hours” button on the timesheet. These codes are the leave types that are available to each user of Hour Timesheet.
  • Copy Previous Timesheet Codes – this feature allows the user to copy the codes from the previous timesheet period to the current period.

Section 3. Timesheet Notes/Hours Summary/Leave Balance

  • Adding Notes – there are two types of notes that may be entered in the timesheet. General notes are notes that apply to the entire timesheet. Daily hours worked notes apply to the single entry of time entered for a specific authorized charge code on a specific day.
  • Hours Summary – This graphic shows the breakdown of hours worked on the current timesheet divided into the following categories 1) Regular Hours 2) Leave Hours 3) Overtime Hours
  • Leave Balances – Displays the current leave balance for each employee.

Section 4. Timesheet Audit Log

This section of the timesheet is auto populated with each entry into the employee timesheet. The audit trail captures the username of the person who made the timesheet entry, the IP address of the person who made the entry along with a time and date stamp of the entry made. The audit trail is not editable.

Hour Timesheet Simple Time Tracking

10 Signs You Need Web-Based Timekeeping Software

Web-based Timekeeping Software Top 10

Reasons YOU Need Hour Timesheet

top 10 reasons

  1. You spend more than 5 minutes each week tracking down missing employee timesheets
  2. You manually enter employee work hours into your 3rd party payroll software to track time even though you already have a web-based timekeeping software solution.
  3. Your employees have trouble with basic math and time management isn't on the top of their list.
  4. Your non-exempt employees track overtime manually
  5. Your employees bill rate varies from job to job
  6. Your workforce telecommutes and dreams of a free time tracking app
  7. You’ve been known to look for an employee only to remember 2 hours later that they took the day off.
  8. You have that questionable employee who is never around when need him
  9. Your tired of killing trees and wasting paper on printed timesheets
  10. You would rather go to the dentist then process payroll.

Our experts with over 20 years in the time tracking software industry experience are excited to hear from you.

We understand organizations aren't cut from the same mold, that's why Hour Timesheet lets business owners define your integration needs.

Hour Timesheet Payroll Integrations

  • QuickBooks
  • Paychex
  • ADP
  • Deltek

The Hour timesheet mobile app lets you connect with just about anyone, anywhere. Start tracking employee time for both billable hours and non-billable hours today. Come check out the best time tracker app in the marketplace. Sign up for our 30-days free plan for the simplest time entry software on the market.

$8/user with NO setup Fees, NO support fees and NO contract.

Start your 30-day free trail now.

"Absolutely the best web-based timekeeping software on the market today"

Additional Resources

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6 Reasons Why Going Paperless Benefits Your Business

 

The A – Z Of Timekeeping

Employee timekeeping should be as simple as ABC

26 Reasons Why Your Company Needs Hour Timesheet

HTS ABC ListAudit trail – know where, when & who updated each timesheet entry. Accountability is important.

Back-end business logic – leave the thinking to us. Restrict overtime, late entries, absentees & more.

Compatible on any browser and operating system.

DCAA compliant time tracking software – 25+ years of experience. Take care of your business and leave compliance to us.

Eliminate manual data entry – enter all your data one time and in one place

Free trial – 30-day no obligation free trial included when you sign up.

Growing profits – with the price per user so low, you’ll be increasing your bottom line in no time.

Helpful user guides – includes a detailed step-by-step guide of everything you need to know

Integration with QuickBooks– simple one-click timesheet imports to top 3rd party payroll solutions

Job costing – stay informed. The who, what when and why of project management.

Knowledge base – easy to access on our website.

Leave management – let us track your employee leave balances. Delete that excel spreadsheet.

Manager approvals – sign one or sign them all. Supervisors will find this task easy as pie.

No credit card required – no obligations when you sign up for the free 1-month trial.

Overtime tracking – take control of your employees. No more surprises after payroll processing

Price - $8/user. Affordable for small businesses

QuickBooks compatible – simple integration with online and desktop versions.

Real time data - access to real-time data 24/7 from in the office or remote job site.

Save time time it takes to run payroll

Track time - on the web, on a smart phone or even a time clock

Uncompensated pay – track all your employee time, know where those extra hours are going.

Vendor tracking – import your 1099 and contractor users from QuickBooks Desktop

Working window-based web clock

X-tra care –our support team loves to help and we look forward to exceeding your expectations.

You won’t regret it – sign up now and see what everyone else is talking about. It’s almost too easy!

Zero cost for 30-days – Once again…. why not give us a try? We guarantee you’ll love it. The best QuickBooks compatible timekeeping software on the market.

 

Additional Resources

What is direct labor?

What Is an Audit Trail and Why Is It Important in Accounting?

 

Timekeeping Is Crucial To Your Business. Learn Why!

Woman Wearing A Watch With Notebook Blurred In Background

We pay our employees by time, we bill our clients by time. Our vacations are tracked by time. All successful businesses know how to manage time! Our businesses revolve around time, and our success comes from using that time wisely. 

Why is time so important to a business?

The best way to get started with efficient use of your time is time tracking. Nowadays, time tracking takes place on the web, and with a good time and attendance tool, employers will have access to:

  • Identify tardy employees
  • Job costing
  • Overtime management
  • Automated payroll file creation

How much time do you waste?

If you were able to sit down and calculate how many hours are wasted from inefficient systems, you would be shocked. For example, how much time do you think your employees waste on the following items?

  • Correcting math errors on timesheets
  • Tracking down late timesheets
  • Manually entering employee payroll data

With the correct time and attendance tool, these tasks are simple. There are tools and software such as Hour Timesheet available to make life easier, and eliminate worry about how much time you might be wasting. Let technology do the work for you!

Let technology work for you.

Most small businesses use QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop to process payroll or create invoices. There are several fields in QuickBooks that you might want to have employees capture time or hours worked against.

Customer Job Data 

This is by far the most relevant piece of data you might need when billing your clients. Knowing how much your workforce spends on your clients helps you to understand your resources and plan your bottom line.

Service Items 

These are another data point that companies capture on the employee time data. QuickBooks will tie these items to a chart of accounts which become a building block for your business.

Payroll Items 

These are another source of data that are important to understand when you require your employees to capture time entry either online or by phone or on the web. The pay type (also known as payroll item) is used when importing time to various leave types, overtime rules as well as hourly vs salary pay.

Now that your timesheets are complete, the ideal solution is to sync or export your employee time card data to QuickBooks. Hour Timesheet is integrated with QuickBooks to do just that!

Work smarter….not harder.

Hour Timesheet was created for you; with your problems in mind. We have created a simplified solution that captures your complex situations. Give us a try FREE for 30 days. No credit card required. Our experts with over 20 years of industry experience are waiting to hear from you now. Contact us today to see a demo of how intuitive our product is, and how it can benefit your business.

Additional Resources

Job Costing: 5 Tips So You Don’t Lose Money

What is job order costing?

View QuickBooks Online Apps here

View QuickBooks Desktop Apps here

View HTS Mobile Download here

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