For government contractors, growth brings incredible opportunity along with operational complexity. As contract portfolios expand, managing multiple contract types, complex funding structures, indirect cost pools and stringent cybersecurity expectations can become a monumental task — especially when entry-level accounting systems and fractured spreadsheets can no longer keep pace. Compliance risks skyrocket, and profitability leaks go unnoticed.
To scale successfully, federal contractors require an enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform explicitly purpose-built for the regulatory demands of the federal marketplace. Deltek Costpoint (Costpoint) is the industry-tuned ERP platform that unifies financials, project accounting, timekeeping, and billing into a single, secure environment. It delivers the visibility, operational discipline, and robust controls required to protect your margins, ace audits and drive mission success.
The Government Contracting Hurdle: Complexity Scales Faster Than Headcount
As small businesses take on prime contracts, the limitations of basic accounting software become glaring operational liabilities. Government contractors routinely face severe bottlenecks, including:
- Fragmented, siloed data and delayed billing cycles.
- Manual, error-prone spreadsheet tracking for indirect cost allocations.
- Strict timekeeping and labor hurdles that threaten audit readiness.
- The steep challenge of navigating regulatory and agency oversight mandates, including:
- Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
- Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS)
- Cost Accounting Standards (CAS)
- Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA)
- Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA)
- Imminent Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) compliance and federal cybersecurity expectations.
Without a connected, compliant ERP foundation, finance teams waste critical hours manually reconciling data, project managers lack real-time contract visibility, and executives are left guessing on forward-pricing rates and overall pipeline profitability.
Mitigating Risk and Driving Growth With Costpoint
Costpoint eliminates manual workarounds by replacing disconnected systems with an integrated, audit-ready platform engineered for project-driven federal contractors. It bridges the gap between project management and corporate finance, allowing your firm to:
- Establish a Single Source of Truth: Connect project, contract, labor and financial metrics to make fast, data-driven decisions.
- Master Complex Project Accounting: Effortlessly track costs by project, task and contract line item number (CLIN) to protect profit margins and optimize performance.
- Enforce Compliant Timekeeping: Automate labor capture, multi-level approvals and audit trails to maintain strict DCAA compliance.
- Automate Indirect Cost Allocations: Eliminate spreadsheet reliance by automating complex fringe, general and administrative (G&A), and overhead pools alongside multi-tier rate calculations.
- Accelerate Government Invoicing: Seamlessly support required federal forms and automate electronic invoicing via Wide Area Workflow (WAWF) and Accounting Classification Reference Number (ACRN) detail.
- Strengthen Audit Readiness: Leverage built-in governance, rigorous documentation workflows, and internal controls to confidently face DCAA, DCMA and agency reviews.
- Scale With Operational Agility: Easily support new legal entities, joint ventures, international divisions and rapid employee onboarding on a secure cloud infrastructure.
When Is the Right Time To Transition to Costpoint?
Many growing firms wonder exactly when to make the leap from basic software to a robust government contracting platform. Common trigger events include:
- Bidding on or winning a first complex prime contract or cost-reimbursable contract.
- Expanding from purely commercial work into the defense or civilian federal space.
- Experiencing painful delays in month-end closes, forward-pricing submittals or management reporting.
- Struggling to pass a pre-award accounting system survey or a DCAA audit.
- Realizing that spreadsheets have become a single point of failure for calculating indirect rates and project margins.
- Preparing the operational infrastructure to scale from a small business into a middle-market government contracting powerhouse.
Why a Strategic Advisor Is Vital for Costpoint Success
While Costpoint is exceptionally powerful, its return on investment (ROI) depends entirely on how precisely it is aligned with your specific indirect cost structure, compliance needs and growth model. An ad-hoc or poorly configured implementation can lead to fractured reporting, missing automation, frustrated project managers and compliance vulnerabilities.
A successful ERP transition goes far beyond turning on the software. It requires careful pre-planning around chart of accounts (COA) design, labor category mapping, data migration readiness, security role provisioning and user adoption strategy.
Partnering with an experienced advisor helps ensure your system configuration reflects both industry best practices and your long-term business strategy. The right guide bridges the technical architecture of Costpoint with the practical realities of federal contract management, DCAA standards and strategic corporate scaling.
Maximize Your Deltek Investment With Cherry Bekaert
As a Premier Deltek Partner, Cherry Bekaert helps government contractors evaluate, implement, optimize, and support Costpoint to align with their unique operational models and compliance strategies. Our Digital Advisory and Government Contracting Consulting teams combine deep system knowledge with decades of experience in government contracting accounting, FAR/CAS compliance, risk management and cybersecurity.
Whether you are preparing to implement Costpoint for the first time or seeking to optimize an existing environment that isn't delivering expected value, Cherry Bekaert provides a practical, end-to-end roadmap. We assist with:
- ERP strategy, selection and readiness assessments.
- Compliant chart of accounts and project structure design.
- Data migration strategy, cleansing and validation.
- Custom reporting, business intelligence dashboards and system integration.
- Post-implementation optimization, system health checks and change management.
- Outsource accounting and specialized support for firms using Costpoint.
Go beyond simply launching software to create a resilient, scalable, audit-ready platform that helps move your business forward with confidence.
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