Overview of Unanet

HOST: SHADA NARAGI: Hello and welcome to the Cherry Bekaert Government Contractors Podcast, where we will discuss current government contracting trends, compliance matters, and best practices to guide federal contractors forward.

HOST: SHADA NARAGI: My name is Shada Naragi. I am a consulting manager, and I have been working for Cherry Bekaert for over eight years.

HOST: SHADA NARAGI: I have worked with a wide range of ERP systems, and over the years I have focused on government contracting systems with an expertise in Unanet. I have been fully certified in Unanet implementation since 2018.

HOST: SHADA NARAGI: With me today is Christine Deulus, and today we're going to discuss an overview of Unanet. Christine, thank you for joining me today.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: Thanks for having me, Shada. Let me give you a little background about myself.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: I am a senior manager at Cherry Bekaert with a couple dozen years of experience in the GovCon world. My career started after school at Virginia Tech, when I joined Deloitte & Touche in their government contracting practice.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: From there, I moved into industry and over the years I alternated between consulting roles, where I provided government contracting accounting and financial support, and roles running financial departments for small- to mid-size government contractors.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: About six years ago, I shifted my career slightly and brought in my accounting information systems degree, becoming Unanet certified. I worked for Unanet for a few years and then joined Cherry Bekaert.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: The mix of government contracting finance experience and Unanet certification allows me to broaden my consulting. I enjoy working with small- to mid-size companies to help them develop a foundation for growth across systems, finance, internal controls, and other areas. I am very excited to be talking with you today.

HOST: SHADA NARAGI: Christine, with your experience in Unanet, are you familiar with how the software got its name?

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: Yes. Back in the day, Chris and Fran Craig, who started the software, wanted to make one network of applications. When they started the system, there were separate tools for time, expenses, and project management, and they wanted one unified system.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: Unanet is a full life-cycle ERP covering everything from planning projects to day-to-day operations, time, expense, and financials. At the end, you get project reporting, financial reporting, customer invoices, and the ability to take everything through project closeout. It is one system that supports the full project lifecycle.

HOST: SHADA NARAGI: Based on your experience, how long does it typically take a company and its employees to adapt to the time and expense modules?

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: Most training provided to employees ranges from 20 to 45 minutes to walk through time and expenses. Manuals, guidelines, and checklists are provided, and employees usually pick up entering time and expenses relatively quickly.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: Unanet is a simple, user-friendly software. Unanet also has a mobile app, which allows time and expense reporting wherever employees may be. From what I've seen with clients, the time and expense modules are very easy for employees to adopt.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: One client told me that going live with time and expense was the biggest non-event they had experienced, which shows how seamless the transition can be.

HOST: SHADA NARAGI: What size company typically needs to be to start on Unanet?

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: You can start with as few as five employees and scale up to 500 or 1,000 employees. We typically recommend implementing as soon as you have the cash flow to pick up the software, because Unanet is simple, user-friendly, and scalable.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: Unanet provides one system for compliance and access to data as needed. It allows customization, so you can take it off the shelf or tailor it to get the right real-time project reporting and data in the right hands.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: You can start as small as five employees and let Unanet grow with you, or you can implement at a larger scale and use Unanet as the foundation for your operations.

HOST: SHADA NARAGI: If a company has no idea what they want their accounting or reporting structure to be, would you still recommend starting an implementation?

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: Yes. We can start with a basic organizational, accounting, and project structure. As the company grows and defines its markets or develops new revenue streams, we can modify Unanet. You are not stuck in a particular organizational or accounting structure.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: Organizations can be split up or combined, which is useful for clients who undergo mergers and acquisitions. The project structure is also flexible; you can have one bucket for a statement of work or break that statement of work into multiple buckets for reporting and invoicing.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: You do not need a single project structure for your entire company. Unanet grows with companies, and you do not have to use all modules initially. You can add modules as your company grows.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: For example, the forecasting module is often implemented in a second phase after clients see how user-friendly Unanet is and how useful the real-time reports are. At that point, they are ready to plan at the resource level across projects.

HOST: SHADA NARAGI: How can Unanet support DCAA and FAR compliance in an accounting system?

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: Software can support compliance, but it needs to be combined with the organization's processes. Unanet has recommended property settings for DCAA compliance available on its support portal. These recommendations include ensuring timesheets are completed daily, submitted, and who has access to modify timesheets and expenses.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: Managers should review the details of timesheets and expense reports rather than doing quick check-through approvals. Unanet supports notifications and reminders to employees and managers when time has not been entered or needs approval, and it provides approval workflows.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: Internal controls can include project management review of timesheets, expense reports, vendor invoices, and customer invoices to ensure accuracy before posting to the general ledger or invoicing the customer. There are reports you can run for floor checks and to ensure compliance with DoD or federal regulations.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: If Unanet does not have a specific report, one can be created using its reporting capabilities. Unanet also has strong audit trails across time, expense, and financial modules, with timestamps for submission, approval, and final posting to track the chain of custody for transactions.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: Regarding compliance forms and reports, Unanet can support incurred cost submissions for cost-plus contracts and assist with SF-1408 assessments or audits. Its reporting and structure enable seamless creation of those forms and reviews based on SF-1408 criteria.

HOST: SHADA NARAGI: I am actually working on an SF-1408 right now for a client on the Unanet software. I did one a few weeks ago on another software and the comparison is night and day. It is much easier to pull supporting reports in Unanet, and the reporting capability really supports compliance needs for government contractors.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: Another piece is purchase orders. Can Unanet track a full purchase order lifecycle from start to finish?

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: Yes. Unanet's purchasing functionality was originally developed to focus on subcontractor purchase orders. You can set up the original purchase order for a subcontractor agreement, handle modifications, report on them, and send purchase orders to the client.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: If you need additional approval workflows, you can add purchase requisitions. With subcontract agreements and purchase orders, you can identify specific lines based on labor category, bill rate, resources assigned, and other details such as whether it's T&M, cost-plus, or fixed-price level-of-effort.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: We have found it beneficial to allow subcontractor employees to enter their time directly into Unanet so you can create customer invoices more efficiently rather than waiting for subcontractor vendor invoices.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: Subcontractor employees can either log into your Unanet instance or use Unanet's subcontractor portal. The portal is linked to your Unanet instance but restricts subcontractor access to only their purchase order details and assigned timesheets.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: Subcontractors can add vendor employees and link them to purchase order lines. As an administrator, you can review those profile setups and ensure accuracy. At the end of each timesheet period, you can review timesheets within Unanet and invoice your customer in a timely manner.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: Unanet has also developed the ability to create purchase orders for items and materials with quantities, units of measure, and links to expense types or categories. They have built out purchasing for both subcontracting and supplies and materials.

HOST: SHADA NARAGI: It is impressive to see the workflow tracking and how ownership is placed back on subcontractors, which speeds up invoicing.

HOST: SHADA NARAGI: Before we wrap up, what resources can Unanet provide during implementation and post-implementation?

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: Within Unanet, you can link help documents directly to screens and dashboards after logging into the instance. Unanet also has a customer experience site with knowledge-based articles that cover technical details of data fields, processes for importing and exporting timesheets, billing and revenue posting, and creating customer invoices.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: The support site also contains articles specific to government contracting, commercial, and not-for-profit industries. Unanet University, under the same umbrella, offers free courses on a variety of topics.

GUEST: CHRISTINE DEULUS: Unanet provides quarterly webinars when they release functionality upgrades and continues to update functionality based on customer feedback. They listen to customers and make improvements or tweak functionality to make it more efficient and user-friendly.

HOST: SHADA NARAGI: It sounds like Unanet is constantly empowering end users and listening to feedback.

HOST: SHADA NARAGI: That is all the time we have today. If you have questions, please reach out to Christine, myself, or email unanet-support@cbh.com.

HOST: SHADA NARAGI: Thank you to everyone for tuning in and listening. Please follow us wherever you listen to podcasts.