What DCAA Does and Why It Matters The Defense Contract Audit Agency — DCAA — is DoD’s contract-audit organization. DCAA audits cost-reimbursement, time-and-materials, and other flexible-price contracts to determine whether the government paid what it should have. For small contractors accustomed to firm-fixed-price commercial work, DCAA compliance is a new discipline: the government wants to…
DFARS 101 for Small Contractors Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement — DFARS — is the DoD’s overlay on top of the general Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). For any small business selling to the Department of Defense, DFARS clauses matter as much as FAR clauses. The most-discussed DFARS provisions today are the cybersecurity clauses that require…
What NIST 800-171 Actually Is NIST Special Publication 800-171 is the U.S. government’s control catalog for how contractors must protect Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). CUI is the sensitive-but-unclassified data the federal government shares with vendors — technical drawings, contract-performance data, personally identifiable information, and program-specific material that isn’t secret but isn’t public. If your contract…
Why the Contract Type Matters More Than the Dollar Value Small government contractors regularly celebrate a $500,000 contract award without asking a simple question: what type of contract is it? A $500K firm-fixed-price contract with a scope you understand is a business you can plan around. A $500K time-and-materials contract with a poorly-defined statement of…
Getting Paid Is the Second-Hardest Part of Government Contracting Winning the contract is hard. Getting paid on it is a close second. The federal government does not send you an invoice or ask you to send it a bill — you have to submit invoices through a specific electronic system, in a specific format, tied…
CMMC compliance explained for small defense contractors: FCI vs CUI, the three levels, NIST SP 800-171, SPRS scores, C3PAO assessments, and how to prepare.