Winning it was the easy part
Three separate products are normally sold to a federal supplier. One finds the opportunity, one prices the bid, and one keeps the books once the work starts. Each owns a third of the same contract and none of them can see the other two, so the two questions that actually decide whether a small company survives fall in the gaps between vendors and nobody answers them. Contract administration answers both, and runs the rest of the contract beside them: its modifications, its clauses, its subcontracts, its orders and its invoices.
You bid 1,500 hours at a wrap of 2.69. Did it cost that?
Almost nobody knows, because the estimate lives in one system and the actual lives in another, and the two are never set side by side until the year is closed. By then the same numbers have been bid four more times.
Here they are the same numbers. Cost you record against a contract runs through the exact function the bid ran through, the same pools in the same order, so the variance on the screen is the business rather than the difference between two implementations of arithmetic.
- Planned against actual on labor, hours, materials, subcontracts and the burdened total
- The wrap rate you bid beside the wrap rate you are running
- Measured against how far through the period you actually are, not against the whole plan
- Straight back to the worksheet it came from
1,840 awarded rates from 212 companies
The notice that protects the money
On a cost type or incrementally funded contract the limitation of funds and limitation of cost clauses oblige the contractor to give written notice when spend is heading past what has been obligated. Work performed past that line may not be payable at all.
It is a date on a calendar that nobody keeps a calendar for. So the ledger keeps it: the threshold your contract states, measured against what you have actually recorded, raised while there is still time to have the conversation.
- The funding notice threshold, watched against recorded cost
- Whether you are spending faster than the clock, and what the whole period lands at
- A line spent past its own funding while the contract total still looks healthy
- The period ending, with what is still unbilled when it does
the money is moving at twice the rate of the clock, and the notice has a date on it
Every figure of one contract, on one printable page
Open a contract and the Control center is its first tab. It reads the ledger, Readiness and compliance, Agreements, Key personnel, Past performance and the calendar, and puts what they hold about this one contract on one page: the contract and the government's people on it, the period and its options, the money, the lines, deliverables and reporting, modifications, clauses and subcontracts, compliance and security, key personnel and past performance, and everything due in the next 90 days.
Press Print and the page is the briefing, on paper or as a PDF from the print window. Contacts, routing and family keeps what the award record does not carry: the contracting officer, the COR, the contract specialist and the administrative contracting officer, each with an office, an email and a phone; the routing codes of the payment clause; the CAGE code, read from your SAM.gov registration while you leave it blank; and the vehicle the contract is ordered under.
- Ceiling, obligated, value, spent, remaining and the estimate at completion, with billed, paid and outstanding
- The options, with the date each is to be exercised by and the notice of intent
- The DPAS rating and the date it has to be accepted or rejected by, and whether the work carries controlled unclassified information
- The newest performance rating from Past performance, or the write-up kept on the contract
Contract health, in seven dimensions
At the top of the Control center is the contract's health. Seven dimensions are each green, yellow or red, and each says why in a sentence about a fact on file: a deliverable past its date, a signed subcontract missing a clause the prime requires of it, cost past the share of the obligated amount at which the limitation of funds clause asks for written notice, a key personnel position with nobody named.
Green earns a dimension its weight, yellow half of it, red nothing. The weights come to 100, so the score is the sum, and the sum is printed under it, dimension by dimension. A score of 80 and over reads Good, 60 and over reads Watch, and anything lower reads At risk. It is not a model and not a prediction: every point not earned is a fact on file. Contract lifecycle shows the same score, with its reasons, for any record with a contract on it.
The seven, and what each is worth
| Dimension | Weight | What it reads |
|---|---|---|
| Financial | 20 | Spend against the clock, and the estimate at completion against the value. |
| Deliverables | 14 | Deliverables, reports and milestones past their date or due within a week. |
| Compliance | 14 | Papers on the contract, flow-down gaps, outdated clauses and the DPAS answer date. |
| Funding | 16 | What is obligated against the pace of spend, and the limitation of funds notice. |
| Schedule | 14 | The end of the period, and the options to decide. |
| Personnel | 10 | Key personnel positions with nobody in them. |
| Security | 12 | Controlled or classified work, and the papers it needs. |
Each modification as the SF 30 records it
Record a modification on Funding and lines with its number, its date and what it did to the money. The Modifications tab makes it a document, by the blocks the form gives it: block 2 the number, block 3 the effective date, blocks 4 and 5 the requisition and the project, blocks 6 and 7 the offices that issued it and administer it with their DoDAACs, block 13 the authority, block 14 the description, and blocks 15 and 16 who signed for each side and on what day. The signed copy from your library goes with it.
Block 13 says who signs. Under FAR 43.103(a) a supplemental agreement (13C) is bilateral, signed by the contractor and the contracting officer. A change order (13A) and an administrative change (13B) are unilateral, signed by the contracting officer alone. For 13D, another authority such as an option exercised under the Options clause, you say which.
Each modification shows what it moved, as funds, ceiling, value, the period, lines and clauses, and the contract as it stood before and after. A change it made to a line can be put on the line in the ledger, and comes off again if it is taken out. The clauses it added or removed change the contract's clause list, which is what the flow-down reads. Compare the terms sets any two points side by side, from the award to the newest modification, and a table runs every term across every one of them.
- Bilateral or unilateral, from block 13 and FAR 43.103
- Obligated, ceiling, value, the period end and the count of clauses, before and after
- Any two points compared, and every term across every modification
- A warning when the lines on the ledger are not where the recorded changes put them
Clause dates, read against the current text
Paste Section I of the contract, or read it from the signed contract in your library, and each clause is read with the date the contract carries for it. The Clauses and flow-down tab sets that date against the date the clause library's current text states, and marks each clause Current, Outdated, Later than the library, No date given, Library states no date, or Not in the library. An alternate is read against the alternate's own date. A clause carried as a deviation keeps its number, title and date with "(DEVIATION)" after the date, as FAR 52.103 has it, and the tab says that the deviation's own text applies.
The list as awarded is where it starts, and each modification then adds to it and takes from it. Under the list of contracts, Carrying outdated clauses names every active contract with a clause older than the library's current text. A modification is the usual time to bring them up to date, so the outdated clauses also go on the calendar on the day the contract's next option is to be decided.
- Read from the text of Section I, not typed in one by one
- Every active contract read in one register
- The outdated clauses on the calendar beside the option decision
counted over all of it, not over a sample
Every subcontract, read against the prime
A clause flows down where its own text says to put it in subcontracts, read from the clause library. A dollar threshold that text states is read against the subcontract's value. A condition that cannot be read mechanically is marked Check the clause, and never guessed.
Every subcontract under the contract is read: the ones kept on the ledger under People and subcontracts, and the subcontracts, purchase orders, statements of work, master services agreements, vendor or supply agreements and consulting agreements joined to it in Agreements. A subcontract carries a clause when its text names it. Each cell of the matrix says Carries it, Missing, Not required, Check the clause or Not read yet.
Add the missing clauses puts what a subcontract lacks into it. For an agreement it is a new version, with the missing clauses listed at its end and incorporated by reference, so the redline shows exactly what was added and the agreement's history says why. For a subcontract kept on the ledger, they go on its clause list. On the subcontract's own page in Agreements, Flow-down from the prime contract shows the same reading for that one agreement.
- A signed subcontract missing a required clause turns Compliance red in the contract's health, and one not yet signed turns it yellow
- An agreement marked restricted is read only for the people who may open it
- Thresholds read from the clause text, conditions left to you
a missing requirement costs the bid; an awkward one costs nothing
A vehicle, with its orders under it
Mark a contract as a vehicle or IDIQ, or as a blanket purchase agreement, and place each task or delivery order, or each call, under it from that order's own control center. A vehicle you hold in Readiness and compliance can be the parent too. The vehicle then shows its family: the ordering period, the ceiling and what the orders have used of it, the minimum guarantee, the orders by fiscal year, and the recompete date. Vehicles and their orders lists every family under the list of contracts.
The minimum is read as FAR 52.216-22(b) has it: the government orders at least the minimum the contract states. Give the date it is to be met by and the screen says Met, Not met yet or Missed, with how much is short. That date and the end of the ordering period go on the calendar. With no recompete date set, the end of the ordering period stands in for it, and the screen says so. A fiscal year starts on 1 October, as the government's does.
- Each order with its fiscal year, value, obligated amount and end date
- The ceiling used, in dollars and as a share
- An order billed as the vehicle's contract number with its own order number
the only date a company on the outside can plan around
What a biller keys into PIEE, drawn from the invoice
Prepare an invoice on Billing, and the PIEE packet tab draws what WAWF in PIEE asks for first: the contract number, the task or delivery order number, the CAGE code, the invoice number, the period and the amount. An order under a vehicle is billed as the vehicle's contract number with its own order number.
The document type is the one DFARS 252.232-7006 (JAN 2023), paragraph (f)(1), prescribes for the contract type, cited to the paragraph. The routing codes are the table of paragraph (f)(3), under the twelve names the clause gives its fields, from Pay Official DoDAAC to DCAA Auditor DoDAAC. They are kept once on the contract, under Contacts, routing and family, and a ship-to DoDAAC left blank there is read from Readiness and compliance.
The lines come with the contract line number, quantity, unit and unit price where the invoice has them. On a cost voucher, the amount by contract line shares the total across the lines in proportion to the direct cost of each on the invoice. Attach a certificate of conformance, a timesheet summary or the receiving report from your library, and leave a note for whoever keys it in.
- A warning when the clause list does not show DFARS 252.232-7006, or no CAGE code is on file
- A warning when the pay, issue or admin DoDAAC is missing, or the invoice is still a draft
- Excel, CSV and print, for whoever keys it in
the same joined record carries the search, the price and the invoice
The document type, by contract type
| On the contract | Document type | DFARS 252.232-7006 |
|---|---|---|
| Cost-type, labor-hour or time-and-materials | Cost voucher | (f)(1)(i) |
| Fixed price, with a deliverable shipped | The invoice and receiving report your contract names | (f)(1)(ii)(A) |
| Fixed price services, with nothing shipped | Invoice 2in1, or the invoice and receiving report your contract names | (f)(1)(ii)(B) |
| Progress payments, with FAR 52.232-16 on the contract | Progress payment request | (f)(1)(iii) |
| Performance based payments, with FAR 52.232-32 | Performance based payment request | (f)(1)(iv) |
| Commercial financing, with FAR 52.232-29, 52.232-30 or 52.232-31 | Commercial financing request | (f)(1)(v) |
A fixed price contract is read as supplies or services from its product service code: a code that starts with a digit is a product, one that starts with a letter is a service, and with no code both are shown. For a fixed price line the contracting officer writes the document type into the clause, so type what your contract states and the packet keeps it.
Nothing is sent to PIEE or to the government
The packet is prepared here and never sent. Nothing on it goes to PIEE or anywhere else: your biller keys it in, or uploads it, there. Keep the packet saves the document type, the attachments and the note on your account and sends nothing, and the screen says so each time. Contract administration sends nothing to the government at all, and it moves no money.
The header comes off the record
The contract number, the buying office, the pricing type, what was obligated, the ceiling and the period of performance are all in the award record this product already holds. Open the award you won and it fills itself in.
From there the work is yours: the lines, the hours, your rates, and what has been invoiced.
- Filled from the award record, so nothing published is typed twice
- CLINs with their own funding, so one line going over is visible on its own
- Labor as hours at a rate, with the amount worked out rather than typed
- What has been invoiced and what has not
UEI, CAGE, then normalized name
Everything a contract carries after award
A contract is more than a ceiling and a spend. The ledger keeps the rest of it in one record:
- Modifications. Each one with what it did to the obligated amount, the ceiling, the value and the period end, so the funding and the ceiling can be read as they stood on any date.
- Line items. Each with its own funding, so one line going over is visible on its own.
- Billing by contract type. An invoice is prepared on the basis your contract type calls for: a fixed price, hours at a rate with materials at cost, or cost and fee.
- Invoices with their life. From draft to paid, with what is owed by how late it is and how many days invoices take to be paid.
- Burn and the estimate at completion. Where the contract will land at the pace it is running.
- Deliverables and dates. Deliverables, reports due, compliance dates and option periods, each on your calendar.
- Subcontracts and key personnel, with the clauses that flow down.
- Performance write-ups and closeout.
- Documents kept on the contract. Files from your library attached to the contract or to one thing it carries: the signed award, a modification, a subcontract agreement.
A contract and an invoice each download as an Excel workbook or a CSV file and print. The record of every change to a cost downloads too.
The books behind the rates
A rate is only as good as the records it was worked out from, so those records are here too, on four screens of their own: Timesheets, People and pay, Cost ledger and Indirect rates. Approved timesheet hours on a contract arrive in its ledger as labor cost. The rate sets the indirect rate calculator keeps are the ones this ledger burdens cost with and the ones the bid worksheet prices with, which is why what you bid and what the work cost can be set side by side.
See the books. The records an auditor asks for about them are on Audit readiness: certified weeks, a floor check of any day, and unallowable cost kept apart.
What it does not do
It does not run payroll, move money, send an invoice or a packet to the government or file anything for you, and nothing in it is accounting advice or an attestation. You prepare an invoice and its PIEE packet here and submit them through the system your contract names, and you record the payment here when it arrives. What it gives you is the costing a contract is run on: cost tagged to a contract and a line, burdened consistently, and measured against the funding that was actually obligated. Nothing on the Control center is a determination: a date is the one the contract or the clause library states, and where a clause cannot be read mechanically the screen says so.
Your figures stay yours
A ledger holds what a company pays its people, which makes it the most private thing in this product. It is stored against your account, every read and write is scoped to you, and it is never mixed into a price band, a rate band or any other figure published here. Every one of those is built from the federal record, and one company's payroll inside one of them would quietly make that untrue for everybody.
Where it is in the app
Contract administration, under Contract in the menu. Contract is the part of LastAwarded that runs the award, one of the eight parts.
Related
- Bid worksheetThe plan this measures the actual against.
- The booksTimesheets, pay, the cost ledger and the indirect rates.
- Audit readiness NewThe records an auditor asks for, kept as people work.
- Agreements NewThe subcontracts the flow-down is read against.
- Readiness and complianceThe vehicles you hold, rated orders and the papers on each contract.
- The clause libraryThe current text every clause date is read against.
- Award historyWhere the contract header comes from.
- Pipeline and calendarWhat you are chasing, before any of this.
- Module 15: Performing and getting paidHow invoicing and modifications actually work.
See who was last awarded in your NAICS
Every code, every buying office, every vendor and every recompete, organized from the federal record and read nightly. Open it with a plan.