Deltek Costpoint

PCI Launches Astrata Platform for Deltek Costpoint Integrations

PCI is proud to launch Astrata, a solution to enhance our customers software integration capabilities and user interface.

Astrata is a new solution providing simple integrations with banks, credit card providers, travel management systems and payroll providers; allowing all data to be stored in Deltek Costpoint.

PCI’s Astrata platform takes third party software integrations with Costpoint to a whole new level. Astrata excels where most middleware falls short, providing an interactive, customized integration for every customer.

With partnerships across many industries, the Astrata platform provides repeatable and reliable integrations for Costpoint users. Far too many companies in the Government Contracting space claim integrations to different platforms, but in reality, they have never connected the platforms to an ERP. With Astrata, every integration is established and simply applied to your system with the customization you need to meet your business requirements. With unique capabilities like Costpoint payroll tax services, credit card reconciliations and payroll reconciliations, Astrata offers integrations that will have a positive impact to your organization’s productivity.

“I could not be prouder of the effort put forth by the team at PCI to develop a tool that will change how people work!” said Martin McGann, Founder and Owner at PCI.

Learn more on PCI’s Astrata solution here.

How to Win Business as a Small to Mid-Sized Government Contractor

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO GET STARTED IN GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING?

Getting started in government contracting can be complex, from finding a good-fit contracting opportunity for your business and submitting a winning bid or proposal, to staying in compliance throughout the length of the contract and getting paid for your efforts. One way to get ahead is to arm yourself with information and analysis related to the government contracting lifecycle as you begin exploring new opportunities to do business with the government.

HOW WOULD YOU EXPLAIN THE GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING LIFECYCLE?

To succeed in government contracting you need to understand the stages of a government opportunity, from start to finish, and what your business needs to do at each stage. Below are the stages a typical contract goes through.

Pre-RFP: Government plans to spend on a project

Solicitation: Opportunity goes out to bid or RFP

Proposal Preparation: Contractors create a proposal to win the business

Contract Award: Government awards the winning vendor(s)

Contract Fulfillment: Business begins to provide products or services

Performance Monitoring: Business manages and monitors the delivery of the product or service

Audits/Compliance: Business passes audits by remaining compliant

Contract Completion: Contract period ends and cycle begins again

WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO FIND GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS?

Federal Government Contracts:

Federal government agencies use several methods of advertising their intent to spend money, including socioeconomic set-aside programs and government websites such as SAM.gov. Sometimes agencies also offer a preview of coming solicitations by hosting industry days. In order to find federal government contracts that best match your company’s core competencies, you’ll want to determine which agencies have the most best-fit opportunities.

However, relying exclusively on government websites to find federal government contracts can be a time-consuming and lengthy process. Though most federal contracting opportunities appear on SAM.gov or other government websites, private companies like Deltek have tools such as GovWin IQ that track likely opportunities up to five years before a bid or a request for proposal (RFP) is actually issued. The best way to find federal government contracts is to leverage these tools to identify federal spending areas well in advance, then prepare your company’s go-to-market strategy for when those opportunities are released.

State & Local Government Contracts:

State and local (SLED) government agencies spend more than a trillion dollars every year, so devoting time and energy to building a SLED market business plan is well worth the effort. If you are wondering how to find state and local government contracts that align to your business, your first step should be to determine which levels of government you want to sell to, and which regions are best fits. Then find those agencies and register to business with them by signing up for their procurement portals, which differ by state. You can save time by signing up for a government business development tool like GovWin IQ that can track opportunities from each of those agencies you are targeting.

Once you have defined your target governments, you need to understand how and when they spend. Unlike the federal government, SLED agencies set their own fiscal year schedules and their spending patterns often align with their state’s fiscal year start and end dates. It’s important to understand your target agencies’ fiscal year and spending patterns to pinpoint when you will find the most best-fit government contracts from those agencies.

WHATS THE BEST WAY TO FIND SMALL BUSINESS GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS

If you meet the definition of a small business you may have access to a wealth of small business government contracts. Governments offer a number of small business set-aside contracts through a variety of programs:

8(a) Business Development
Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Programs
Minority-Owned Small Business (MOSB) Programs
Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Business (SDVOSB) Programs
All Small Mentor-Protégé Program

Small businesses often break into new fields or gain contracting experience through subcontracting, and serving on a prime contractor’s team (teaming). It is a way of getting experience that often allows you to avoid some of the complicated compliance requirements and challenges competing against more established vendors, yet gaining some experience and past performance. Searching for opportunities from one of the above programs, or seeking out teaming and subcontracting opportunities, can help you find small business government contracts that best match up with your company’s strengths.

HOW DO YOU BID ON GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS?

Once you have identified the types of government contracting methods and vehicles that exist in the market, you should follow these steps and take action.

Select the methods and bid opportunities that best suit your business. Determine whether you are best suited to pursue a large contract, an opportunity as part of a bigger vehicle or subcontracting or teaming opportunity, and develop a list of target agencies.
Determine which socioeconomic categories, if any, fit your business. These might include designations like women-owned (WOSB), service-disabled veteran-owned (SDVOSB) or minority-owned (MOSB). These categories can give you a big advantage.
Identify your target opportunities – and pursue them. You can often find those opportunities through tools like GovWin IQ, the industry’s leading platform to help you find government contract bids and gain awareness of upcoming opportunities up to five years before the solicitation is even released.
Submit a strong proposal. Make sure to highlight your company’s core competencies and outline why your business stands out. You can also leverage market intelligence to differentiate your offering from those of the competition.

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO SEARCH FOR GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS?

While government websites can be sources to search information on the basic elements of government contracting, like bids and RFPs, companies succeeding at selling to the government are taking proactive steps to go beyond the basics to find all of the information they need.

The best way to search for government contracts is to identify keywords and phrases that align to your business. Leveraging a market intelligence platform like GovWin IQ can help you quickly identify upcoming opportunities that truly match your team’s capabilities, so that you’re not wasting your time scouring hundreds of opportunities to find the ones that are perfect for your team.

HOW DO YOU WIN GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS?

After identifying and pursuing opportunities that fit your business, there are specific tactics you can take to connect with the right decision makers and put your best foot forward in order to beat out the competition and win a government contract. By being proactive, getting ahead of the bid or RFP, and putting your business in a position to win, you can ensure a steady stream of revenue from your government business.

For more information, contact us today.

The Risks of using QuickBooks as a Government Contractor

If you’re using QuickBooks or other generic accounting software, your business is at significant risk. There’s a reason why those products are shrink-wrapped. It’s the only thing that’s holding them together.

A few questions to ask yourself:

How long could your business operate without receiving contract payments?
What if you couldn’t generate an invoice because your timekeeping solution is noncompliant?
Could you make payroll if a payment suspension froze your line of credit?

When you’re using QuickBooks, these are more than hypothetical questions—they are real risks that government contractors face today.

The Challenges of Accounting in Government Contracting

The federal government has unique requirements for compliance, as well as accounting for project

costs. Most generic systems, like QuickBooks, can’t meet those federal regulations. QuickBooks

doesn’t provide the level of control required or the level of reporting needed to adequately document and cost your projects.

A project-based system is absolutely essential for any sort of project- or service-based business.

If the project itself is the core of your business, you need a system that is built just for projects.

But a generic system, even one that’s project based, isn’t enough in a federal contracting environment. You need a system that’s purpose built for the government contracting environment. Accounting in government contracting is unique and frequently difficult. Unlike commercial firms, cost is your primary accounting concern. It’s essential to manage how costs are classified, segregated and reported.

Other critical elements of contractor accounting include:

Classifying costs as either direct or indirect
Classifying costs as allowable or unallowable
Accounting for costs by project AND at the
lowest work breakdown structure (WBS) level
Managing and pooling indirect costs
Supporting government-mandated billing
formats (e.g., DD250, 1034, 1035)

Learn more about why you should consider switching to Deltek Costpoint for your project based ERP solution, contact us today.

Click here for more information on Deltek Costpoint.

Why you Should Lean on PCI for Staffing Support

The answer is easy – using a third party for staffing support saves you time, money & resources.

PCI utilizes our reputable network of industry resources to provide clients with the best finance and accounting solution for your projects. PCI Staffing Solutions can connect you to direct hire and contract staff to manage your back-office support. Our placement success spans all levels, from c-suite to entry level.

Our recruiting team has over thirteen years of recruiting experience for positions relating to finance and accounting, information technology, marketing, human resources – as well as various other roles across many industries. At PCI, we focus on helping our clients build successful teams with professionals who have a strong background in Government Contracting & Marketing Agency accounting.

Our recruiting process is comprehensive and detail oriented. We will save you time and money in the process of finding the perfect professional for your firm. We begin our staffing process with an informative introduction call to PCI Staffing Solutions with your designated PCI recruiter. In this call, we will gather information around the role to be filled, the skills that are needed for that role, and details on company culture. From there, our team is able to pick up on your needs for this position and begin the recruiting process.

PCI uses industry leading search tools to find and speak to qualified candidates. Not only will our team review all candidate’s professional background they will also screen for interpersonal and communication skills. Once qualified candidates are identified, we will then assist in coordinating interviews. If a PCI candidate is selected for the opportunity, we will help both the candidate and the client in the onboarding process to ensure a smooth start.

PCI Staffing Solutions looks forward to partnering with you to build a successful team now and in the future.

Learn more about PCI’s staffing solutions here.

4 Advantages of Outsourcing Accounting for your Small Business

Are you a small business owner overwhelmed with your accounting tasks? Well, you are not alone! Accounting tasks can be time consuming, but it is a key part of business. Accounting is the backbone of a successful organization; it allows operations to run smoothly and provides long-term growth. If accounting is not run properly is can be detrimental to a company.

We have listed 4 reasons to consider outsourced accounting for your organization:

Saves Time & Money – Our staff is well versed in your accounting software as well as government contracting. Requirements will be met in far less time and cost than a full-time employee.
Provides industry specific expertise – The team at PCI, boasting a combined 35+ years of relevant experience, is composed of former CFO’s, Controllers and Assistant Controllers that have worked their way up through organizations. Majority of our staff had used Costpoint in their previous industry roles.
Customized Accounting Support – Chose between CFO level support, bookkeeping and operations or a combination! We can mix and match your accounting support needs!
Provides third party perspective of processes and financial records – With the help of third party accounting, our industry experts are able to not just assist in your daily accounting needs but with having access to your books we can help streamline operations and identify gaps in process to help your business become as efficient as possible.

For more information on PCI’s managed accounting services, contact us today!

The Most Important Reason to Automate Payments Now

Written by Derek Halpern, Nvoicepay

A funny thing happened while I was writing this article. While I conversed with our editorial consultant on how to approach the struggles companies are facing in the current global climate, she received this email:

The names are changed for privacy purposes.

The email’s writer, “John,” is not the only accounts payable (AP) professional sending out emails like this. We’re in uncharted territory, and the rules are changing every day. But one thing we know for sure is that payments will always have to go out and that with workers ordered to stay home, it’s very difficult to cut live checks, as John and countless other accounts payable professionals are finding. Priorities have shifted, and remote supplier payments have jumped to the top of the list.

No doubt, AP departments will find a way to get it done. Paying invoices is a core function of every company, and people are working overtime to reach out to suppliers and get them paid electronically. Maybe there is some delay, but these companies will make it through the crisis.

But I think there’s more to learn from this whole experience than just solving a short-term problem. When we go back to “normal,” do we want our old payment processes to do the same, or is this our opportunity to start making long-overdue infrastructure upgrades?

Magnifying the challenges

AP is one of the last bastions of paper processing in the enterprise, and it comes with challenges. According to the latest research from AFP, companies still make 42 percent of their payments by paper check. All those processes that are involved with paying by check—printing them, hunting for approval and signatures, and stuffing envelopes—are culprits of inefficiency.

Back-end support adds another wrench into the process. Delays and errors are inevitable, so who do suppliers call when they’re missing a payment, or they’ve found an error? Processes for resolving these supplier issues in-house are maddeningly reactive.

Now these challenges are magnified, forcing us to think differently about how we run our businesses. A surprising number of people still think that making payments by check works, and up until recently, it’s been hard to argue with that. It’s not as efficient as it could be, but people have their check processing routines down. As more employees work from home, processes that required in-office attendance are no longer feasible. Just like John, many companies are reaching out to their suppliers, asking for different ways to make their payments. The new challenge: finding a way to securely store the data their suppliers provide them. Financial technology (fintech) companies have solved for this exact problem, and are ready to add value to AP workdays.

When most people think of adding technology to their business payments process, they usually imagine outsourcing the check writing process, doing ACH payments through their bank, and maybe having some kind of virtual card program.

Most fintechs have moved beyond that kind of disjointed offering. They look at the whole end-to-end process and implemented a process that streamlines payments and mitigates the risk of maintaining extensive supplier data by offering supplier services.

Beyond operational efficiency

Until now, the drive for supplier payment automation focused primarily on improving operational efficiency. As payment fraud rises, buyers have turned their attention to reducing the associated risk. Business continuity has not really been part of the conversation; if it came up, concerns got pushed aside as unlikely worst-case scenarios. Now is the time to address the elephant in the room, and push through the uncertainty to strengthen our AP teams.

We don’t know what the new norm is yet, but it seems clear that we’ll see a rise in remote work. The ability to quickly move so many operations online has been one source of resiliency during this time. Companies are learning more about roles previously considered to require a presence at headquarters. They’re finding that many HQ functions can be accomplished remotely by taking advantage of automation and cloud technology.

At a minimum, remote capabilities cater to the business continuity strategy that meets today’s needs. But in many cases, the other benefits like added security and supplier support make automation adoption a no-brainer. By removing the stress of getting manual check payments out the door, AP teams are freed up to apply their time to more beneficial and critical tasks.

Learn more

Join PCI and Nvoicepay on 10/14 for an overview of Nvoicepay and Costpoints API integration.

“This article originally appeared on Nvoicepay’s blog https://www.nvoicepay.com/resources/blog/the-most-important-reason-to-automate-payments-now/”

Transitioning to Costpoint

Transitioning to Costpoint

Are you on a legacy accounting system like QuickBooks and looking to make the move to Costpoint?

Here are key indicators you are ready for the transition:

Guidelines / Compliance
Multiple Government Contracts
Audit / SF1408 / Proposal Requirements
Approved by SBA for 8(a), WOSB, HUBZone etc.
Incurred Cost Submission requirements
Multiple software needs
Internal financial / reporting deficiencies

Access our on-demand webinar to learn why switching to Costpoint is critical for your small business, an overview of what implementation looks like and what to expect with your transition.

Is it Time to Digitally Transform your Contract Management Process?

Effective contract management is one of the key fundamentals to running a successful government contracting business. It is imperative to establish effective contracts processes to manage, track and deliver on your contractual obligations. If not managed properly, your business can become vulnerable to potential penalties and fines due to failure in legal compliance, or struggle with higher operational costs as a result of inefficient contract processes.

Contract Managers are often challenged to locate contract information in both the pre-award and post-award process. Contract information is usually stored on shared drives, physical paper in filing cabinets, spreadsheets or in a document management application making it more time consuming to quickly locate important contract details. This slows down the process of responding to data calls from contract officers, providing contract status updates within their company, communicating with subcontractors and other vendors and makes the process of identifying binding FAR/DFARS clauses on contracts very challenging.

To help Contract Managers organize contracts in a single place, have more accurate records of FAR/DFARS clauses and help track other compliance issues like Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI), Costpoint offers an integrated Contract Management solution that supports managing all of your contract data from opportunity identification to contract closeout. Unlike other contract management solutions, Costpoint Contract Management is the only solution designed for government contractors that can digitally transform the entire contract management process with a single solution that connects business development to finance in order to reduce operational costs, improve communication and negotiate better contracts.

To learn more on how to effectively manage your GovCon contracts, join us for our contract’s webinar on July 15^th at 2:00 pm EST!