How to Get the Most Out of Deltek Costpoint

ROMAIN ROBVEILLE: Hello, welcome to Cherry Bekaert's Government Contractors podcast, where we discuss current government contracting trends, compliance matters, and best practices to guide federal contractors forward. My name is Romain Robveille. I lead the Deltek Practice at Cherry Bekaert, and with me today is Justin Pell, Senior Manager of our Deltek Practice.

ROMAIN ROBVEILLE: Today, we're talking about getting the most out of Deltek Costpoint. Justin, thanks for joining me today.

JUSTIN PELL: Thank you for having me.

ROMAIN ROBVEILLE: So let's dive right in. We often hear current users complaining about their Deltek Costpoint system. They do not understand how to get the system to function effectively for their business and needs. Most often, we need to talk to them and their team to assess current needs and evaluate how the system is currently set up.

ROMAIN ROBVEILLE: Justin, what are some of the issues we find when we dig into their current Costpoint user structure and leadership?

JUSTIN PELL: They may have had a poor implementation, or they may now understand the Costpoint structure and functionality better than they did during implementation. They want to take advantage of what they've learned. Sometimes they've added new divisions or acquired companies.

JUSTIN PELL: Often they're not able to get effective reporting for business owners or other stakeholders. We take a deep dive into their project, account, and organization structure and discuss what makes more sense for their current business environment and reporting requirements.

ROMAIN ROBVEILLE: There's a lot of frustration from both management and users. Users do not understand how to update the structures to report at the needed level, and they may not even realize that is the issue. What other issues usually frustrate management?

JUSTIN PELL: A big one is the timeliness of the monthly close and financials. Cumbersome processes for accounting staff are common. We see many issues related to employee timekeeping and subcontractor timekeeping, cost accounting, and calculation of indirect rates.

JUSTIN PELL: Inadequate configuration of the expense module can add frustration for accounting staff processing expense reports and for employees who travel and delay submitting reports because of system setup problems. Other frustrations stem from a lack of training, rapid corporate growth, or data quality issues from a poor implementation. High accounting department turnover also causes frustration.

ROMAIN ROBVEILLE: Turnover and rapid growth can bring tremendous changes to the organization and cause inconsistent system processes and accounting inefficiencies. Hiring folks who don't understand Costpoint can lead to data history issues from incorrect process steps, correct?

JUSTIN PELL: Yes, that's exactly what happens. Organizations can become months behind on entering transactions and on their monthly closing and reporting. Reconciliation issues add up as deadlines are missed and people rush to complete work because they're so far behind.

JUSTIN PELL: When errors snowball, reconciliation becomes a nightmare, and turnover follows. With turnover, there's a critical need to document system processes and desktop procedures.

ROMAIN ROBVEILLE: Who's getting the most out of the system? Realizing reorganizations, acquisitions, and growth can require reconfiguration, what other areas might a company need to consider to make the most of their investment?

JUSTIN PELL: Deltek Costpoint is an investment, and companies should consider other system functionality that may benefit them. Deltek is constantly improving and adding functionality, and companies may not be aware of module capabilities or may not be using them correctly.

JUSTIN PELL: For instance, do they need to use purchasing to create more efficiency for accounts payable? If they have numerous subcontractors and timekeeping issues, the subcontractor module can streamline the process. The contract management module can streamline the entire project lifecycle from bid to contract award and can integrate with Gov1IQ.

JUSTIN PELL: Budgeting and planning is another area. Many companies rely on cumbersome Excel spreadsheets for budgeting that were created by employees who are long gone. Over the last several years, Deltek has focused on improving the planning module. Clients who had frustrating experiences in the past with budgeting and planning should revisit the much improved and renamed planning module to streamline their budgeting process.

ROMAIN ROBVEILLE: Most companies using Costpoint could benefit from a discussion and potential assessment. At minimum, this can highlight how things are going well or prompt exploration of current system structure and use. Sometimes simple capabilities are underutilized, such as computing pools outside the system or creating and calculating customer invoices offline.

JUSTIN PELL: We see this way too often. Manual processes create a huge risk of errors, leading to invoices where accumulative amounts do not tie out, among other issues. Anything that holds up the invoicing process prevents the government from paying until those issues are resolved.

JUSTIN PELL: Getting cash in the door is critical for businesses, so having efficient processes is key.

ROMAIN ROBVEILLE: Thank you for the conversation, Justin. We are at the end of our time for now. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me or Justin. Thank you to everyone for tuning in and listening. Please join us again for our next podcast.