| Webcast Overview |
As a government contractor, you may have heard that your organization must have an accounting system that is approved by the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) to do business with the U.S. Department of Defense. No such requirement exists. DCAA does not certify accounting systems—they accept accounting systems. Attend this webcast to learn how to build a successful foundation for DCAA accounting compliance from two industry experts, Ken Bricker and Larry Mocniak. Ken and Larry share insights and established standards for managing the labor and other direct costs associated with government contracts using the Microsoft Dynamics SL financial management solution.
When: May 12, 2009 at 2pm EST/11am PST (60 minutes)
Register here at http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/Register.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032412432&CountryCode=US
Our Speakers:
Ken Bricker has worked in the government contracting and acquisitions arena since 1975. He has private-sector experience as the vice president of finance and chief financial officer of a government contractor, and he has government experience as a senior auditor for the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA). Ken has served as a guest instructor at the Defense Contract Audit Institute and has been a contributing writer to the Defense Contract Audit Manual (DCAM). He is a lecturer at many conferences for the Government Contracting Institute and American Graduate University, and he is an adjunct faculty member for Old Dominion University and George Washington University through ESI International.
Larry Mocniak oversees all aspects of Phoenix International's financial management, government procurement, financial reporting, and capital investment initiatives. Larry has an impressive track record of developing and implementing mission-critical financial processes and reporting systems that lead to greater profitability and operational efficiency. He has a unique blend of technological savvy and operational management rooted in real-time financial reporting. In addition to his financial management qualifications, Larry has a broad range of corporate expertise that he gained while administering government contracts for more than 20 years and while serving in senior management roles for both public and private companies for 17 years. |
By far, the largest hurdle for small to mid-sized government contractors to overcome is the requirement to provide excruciating detail about the direct, indirect and overhead expenses associated with every item billed to the government in fulfillment of specific contract awards. Are you equipped to PASS DCAA AUDITS?
Join us for this one hour webcast on Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 2PM Est/11AM Pst where industry experts will share advice on compliance requirements for government contractors, including:
What’s the truth about satisfying the DCAA requirements?
- Why do Government Contractors need a special accounting process?
- Why do forward thinking Government Contractors seek more than just compliance?
- Is it possible to have a single ERP system that serves both your commercial AND Public Sector practice?
The session will give you straight talk on requirements and solutions and will be a great opportunity to ask questions of the panelists, including President of 1105 Government Information Group, Anne Armstrong, and learn from other government contractor best practices.
To help you understand there are choices in these economic times, join us for “Understanding DCAA Requirements” sponsored by Microsoft!
REGISTER NOW! If you are booked that day, sign up anyway. We’ll send you a link to the recorded event to view at your convenience.
Register Today
Small businesses serving the U.S. Federal Government as support services contractors can benefit from the results of a new doctoral research study being conducted by Mr. Robert S. Frey, MBA, of the University of Maryland University College (UMUC). SBE Council encourages our government contractor members to participate in the survey as they results will be helpful to our advocacy, research and education efforts.
Click here to participate in the survey.
A very useful and clearly presented "white paper" will be provided to SBE Council following completion of Mr. Frey's dissertation research later in 2009. You will have access to this set of aggregate findings through the SBE Council website. Entrepreneurs can leverage this white paper to identify the areas of organizational infrastructure that tend to be associated with the highest levels of return on investment (ROI) of resources within small businesses that provide support services to the Federal Government. The overall goal of Mr. Frey's research is to assist small business entrepreneurs gain insights to be more successful in the federal market space in terms of annual revenue and staffing level.
Other organizations supporting Mr. Frey's study include the Professional Services Council (PSC), MIT's Entrepreneurship Center, Southern Illinois University Entrepreneurship Center, and the Kansas Women's Business Center. All data will remain confidential in strict accordance with the ethical standards established by the University of Maryland's Institutional Review Board (IRB). When you complete the survey, all information is encrypted through Verisign.
To comply with the regulations regarding proper financial management, government contractors must satisfy the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), which is responsible for performing all audits for the DoD, and for providing accounting and financial advisory services to DoD components responsible for procurement and contract administration. DCAA also provides contract audit services for many other government agencies as well.
Government contractors have found there's no 'silver bullet' solution certified to guarantee compliance with DCAA's regulatory audits. Instead, contractors must invest in the proper processes and reporting tools to help them achieve and maintain compliance with DCAA's various financial audits. When it comes to compliance, DCAA auditors most want to see a 'traceability of documentation.
For all of these reasons, government contracting organizations are increasingly turning away from basic accounting software or services, instead seeking broader and integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) and document management solutions, such as those offered by Microsoft. Government Contractor customers have found the Microsoft Dynamics solutions are fully FAR, CAS and DCAA compliant. Relevant experiences with DCAA are shared from both industry experts and contractors utilizing Microsoft Dynamics for financial and operations management. Available for Download - this whitepaper can be found here.
Microsoft and PVBS invite you to the official launch of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, the fastest growing ERP and financial management software for government contractors
Be among the first government contractors to see Dynamics NAV 2009, Microsoft's DCAA-compliant ERP, project accounting, and financial management solution for companies that provide services and/or sell products to the Government. This is Microsoft's biggest new product launch in the last three years and is a must attend for government contractor executives.
The launch will be held at the Microsoft Technology Center in Reston on Thursday, March 19, 2009. Lunch will be served at this event.
Event Agenda:
11:00am: Registration, Lunch
11:30am: Welcome and NAV 2009 Overview
12:00pm: Executive Customer Panel Featuring Microsoft Dynamics NAV Users
12:30pm: Product Demonstration (This will be the first NAV 2009 DC-area showing.)
This event is open to all government contractors and product resellers however pre-registration is required. Mention (Czmuda@microsoft.com) for special recognition at the event.
Please click here to register online to attend this event.
I look forward to seeing you on March 19 at the new product launch.
The First Annual SECAF Awards Gala is the premier commemorative event honoring the small and emerging government contractors and the players in the ecosystem that rely on small business. The 2009 finalists will be recognized and winners announced for each of the following categories:
· SECAF Contractor of the Year (Under $6 million)
· SECAF Contractor of the Year ($6 to $12 million)
· SECAF Contractor of the Year ($12 to $25 million)
· Small Business Partner of the Year (greater than $25 million)
· Government Advocate of the Year - Honoree
Due to high demand, we have extended our nominations deadline to March 10, 2009. Self-nominations
will be accepted. All award winners will be chosen by a judges committee and announced at
our Awards Gala on Thursday, April 16, 2009.
Click here to Nominate online
Click here to download Nomination Application Form
William Welsh authored this article today in Washington Technology.
Contractors doing business with state and local governments should expect to see $4.5 billion worth of new information technology opportunities from the proposed economic stimulus package, according to Input Inc.
The projection is based on analysis of the House of Representatives’ version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Reston, Va.-based market research firm said Feb. 11.
“The broadband rollout represents the largest portion of the likely state and local technology investment in both [House and Senate] versions of the bill,” said Chris Dixon, Input’s manager of state and local analysis. Facilities modernization, mass transit and health IT also will drive technology spending, he said. Funding for these areas is included in both versions.
Improvements to physical infrastructure and mass transportation are likely to have key technology components, Dixon said. “Increased security and efficiency is the key in these areas, and both are technology-intensive outcomes,” he said.
Funding in both bills will drive significant improvements in health IT through initiatives aimed at improving the flow of electronic information at hospitals and clinics as well as large-scale Medicaid Management Information System projects. The two versions contain key funding differences, Input said. While the House version has substantial spending for education, law enforcement and unemployment insurance, the Senate version would trim spending in those areas, and instead allocate more dollars to broadband and health IT.
Midsize federal contractors with $5 million to $500 million in annual revenues are likely to be hardest hit by the new mandatory self-disclosure requirements in the Federal Acquisition Regulation, according to a government contracts expert.
“This means the most to companies in the middle,” said Tony Fuller, a partner at Beers and Cutler law firm, during a forum in Washington today. “They have further to go to comply.”
Under new provisions that went into effect Dec. 12, 2008, federal contractors must report in a timely fashion when they have credible evidence of violations of federal criminal law, fraudulent acts and receipt of overpayments. Failure to do so could result in suspension or debarment from federal contracting. The rules apply to most federal contracts valued at $5 million or more.
Contractors also must institute ethics compliance and anti-fraud controls and train their employees about those programs. Midsize contractors’ ethics and anti-fraud systems tend to be at varying levels of maturity, Fuller said. Some firms will need to take additional actions toward setting policies and procedures, training employees, and establishing control systems and documented processes to comply with the new rules, he said.
Maybe you have replaced your ERP in recent years and have not yet realized your ROI enough to justify replacing your solution entirely but you want better reporting. Here is something that you may want to consider.
Microsoft PerformancePoint Services, powered by SharePoint and SQL Server, leverages your company’s investment in business systems to provide financial and operational reporting to all levels of your organization. Track Key Performance Indicators (KPI) through interactive scorecards and dashboards, produce monthly financial reporting packages in seconds rather than days or weeks, and distribute monthly performance reports to your field managers without lifting a finger; all this at a fraction of the cost of Cognos, Hyperion or Business Objects. (PerformancePoint Services now comes with Microsoft Offices Sharepoint Server (MOSS) Enterprise Edition at no additional cost.)
PerformancePoint Services uses Microsoft Excel as one of its reporting tools. You can produce financial reports in Excel, including Job Status Reports (JSR’s), Contract Summary Reports (CSR’s) and Indirect Rate Analyses that update automatically on a monthly basis.
Whether you are running Deltek, Oracle or multiple home grown systems, one of our Business Intelligence Solution partners can help you develop a PerformancePoint Services solution that will get the right information to the right people, securely and efficiently. If you are interested in learning more about how Microsoft SharePoint and PerformancePoint Services can enhance you reporting capabilities, please contact Peter Kolovos at Ascendra or see a case study at Ascendra’s web site. Feel free to also contact me directly for additional information czmuda@microsoft.com or 301.467.1412.
REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. today announced that defense contractor Progeny Systems Corp. has selected Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 as its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to replace the company's two separate systems for accounting and production management. Microsoft Dynamics NAV is an ERP system built to help midsize companies streamline their business processes by providing specific functionality based on the needs of individual industries and regions.
Progeny Systems, headquartered in Manassas, Va., employs 421 people in providing services and manufacturing electronic systems for the U.S. Department of Defense, as well as other government and business organizations. Progeny Systems operates 12 additional facilities in California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah and Washington, D.C.
The company had been using Deltek FMS as its financial management system and ManEx technology for production support. However, Deltek decided to phase out FMS and eventually to stop supporting the product altogether. This meant that if Progeny Systems decided to upgrade its back-end office technology in the future, it could not be certain that new software would work with the Deltek FMS application. Moreover, Progeny Systems had outgrown the functionality of the ManEx system, which also was not integrated with financial operations. Data had to be entered separately and manually into both Deltek and ManEx, leading to potential errors and consuming unnecessary time. As a result, Progeny Systems decided to seek out an ERP system that would integrate finance, project accounting and production management See - http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-04-2009/0004966276&EDATE=
When: Thursday February 12, 2009
Time: 11:30am-1:30pm
Where: 12012 Sunset Hills Road, Reston, VA 20190
On behalf of Microsoft, I'd like to invite you to a Lunch & Learn event for business owners, CEOs, COOs, CFOs, program managers, accounting and operations professionals at the fastest growing government contractors in the Washington, DC Metro Area. We will be highlighting Microsoft Dynamics NAV for Government Contractors from PVBS. Lunch will be served at the seminar.
Microsoft Dynamics NAV is an ERP, project accounting, and financial management solution in use by tens of thousands of companies around the world. It is the Microsoft alternative for Government Contractor Project Accounting and Financial Management.
Dynamics NAV is fully compliant with Federal Government contracting guidelines (FAR, CAS) and meets the needs of contractors that have out-grown their lower-end, smaller company accounting systems such as QuickBooks or Deltek GCS Premier. It is fully DCAA compliant.
Contact PVBS for More Information
“Government contractors should expect more than $350 billion in new contracting opportunities as a result of President-elect Barack Obama’s anticipated economic stimulus package, according to Input Inc.”
Full story at:
http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2009/01/09/input-stimulus-350b-contracts.aspx?s=wtdaily_120109
There is an additional opportunity to see the presentation following the Microsoft Government Contractor Summit on December 11th. This presentation will be presented by Donna Kilbourn with Unanet, live via the web on Thursday January 8 at 1pm EST:
Empowering the Project Team – extending Microsoft Dynamics SL to achieve real-time project control and improved forecasting
Unanet extends Microsoft Dynamics SL to provide operational managers with real-time project control, including earned value reporting, at the level of detail they need while integrating with you financial management systems and process. This free web seminar will help project managers, resource managers and financial managers understand the opportunities for increased efficiency and effectiveness in managing people across projects. Unanet enables effective planning, assignment and tracking of your people, providing visibility of current commitments, utilization, future availability, and skills.
To register, visit: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/173656885
Pleasant Valley Business Solutions provided an interesting preview session at the Microsoft Government Contractor Summit to showcase NAV 2009 which will be a completely 3-Tier Architecture financial management solution. This will allow for the full accounting solution to be completely accessibly in a secure way via the Internet. This will also allow for even greater support for mobility and role based computing from a variety of devices. The presentation is posted here and there is a more in-depth session that has been scheduled for March 19th, 2008 to be held in the Microsoft Technology Center for more details contact Michelle Pycior at Michelle.pycior@pvbs.net . The Presentation from this session is posted on a workspace that was set up for attendees of the Summit.
This session presentation in now posted. RSM McGladrey who has powered many government contractors with Dynamics SL. Their client success story at CALIBRE was one of several customer case studies featured at the Microsoft Government Contractor Summit. Key to their session was aiding government contractors in better business reporting and indirect rate Analyses. By reviewing this presentation, you can see a few of the many sample reports available via Dynamics SL for contractors.
