Cherry Bekaert: Government Contractors Guidance

What are size standards and how does the Small Business Administration (SBA) determine a small business’s size?  In this episode of Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contracting podcast series, John Ure and Carol Marin , Tax Partners in Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contractor Industry practice join James Kahrs , a Business Development Director in the Firm’s GovCon practice. Together, they discuss SBA siz...

The 8(a) Business Development Program is a nine-year program created by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to help small, disadvantaged businesses compete and conduct business with the Federal government. The 8(a) Program offers small, disadvantaged businesses tremendous opportunities but contains stringent compliance requirements.  What must companies be aware of to avoid early graduation fr...

What year-end, tax-saving steps can government contracting businesses and their owners take? How can they prepare for tax law changes impacting 2023?  In this episode of Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contracting podcast series, John Ure and Carol Marin , Tax Partners in Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contractor Industry practice and Private Client Services practice, discuss year-end tax planning at the...

When should government contractors that work with the Department of Defense (DoD) be concerned about Cost Estimating System Requirements for compliance and adequacy per the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) What are the requirements and trends being seen in solicitations? In this third episode of Cherry Bekaert’s podcast series on each of the six Contractor Business Systems...

The Contractor Business Systems podcast series hosts members of Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contracting Industry team to discuss each of the six contractor business systems—Accounting, Estimating, Purchasing, Earned Value Management Systems (EVMS), Material Management and Accounting System (MMAS), and Property Management.  In this second episode, Eric Poppe , a Director in Cherry Bekaert’s Governm...

Continuing in our series on the Small Business Administration (SBA) 8(a) Business Development Program and the All-Small Mentor-Protégé Program (previously the 8(a) Mentor-Protégé Program), the focus of this podcast episode is on how to handle basic accounting when entering into a Joint Venture (JV) agreement as part of a Mentor-Protégé (M-P) arrangement. Listen to Eric Poppe , a Director in Cherry...

Join Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contracting Industry team for part one of a new podcast series discussing the six contractor business systems—Accounting, Estimating, Purchasing, Earned Value Management Systems (EVMS), Material Management and Accounting System (MMAS), and Property Management. The series will discuss Business Systems applicability, requirements and trends currently seen for Busines...

As companies prepare for graduation from the Small Business Administration (SBA) 8(a) program , there are many important considerations and decisions to be made. The key to successfully graduate and thrive is to plan well in advance.  Listen to Susan Moser , Partner and Leader of Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contracting practice, John Ure , a Tax Partner and member of the Firm’s GovCon practice, an...

On February 14, 2022, the Office of Inspector General (OIG), U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) issued a report on SBA’s Business Development Assistance to 8(a) Program Participants. The objective of the audit was “to determine to what extent SBA measures and monitors an 8(a) firm's progress toward achieving individual business development goals. The objective was also to ensure 8(a) fi...

Idle facilities and the associated costs have always been a topic of debate between government contractors and the Federal government. Contractors need to proactively monitor their facility use to avoid potential questioned costs while ensuring they can meet contract work fluctuations and future demand.  With businesses becoming more comfortable with employees working from home due to the COVID 19...

Listen to Brynn McNeil , an Assurance Partner in Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contracting Industry practice and Eric Poppe , a Senior Manager in the Firm’s GovCon practice, discuss the important elements of an agreement when forming a Mentor-Protégé/Joint Venture arrangement. They discuss: Benefits of the Mentor-Protégé Program Basic principles to consider in Agreements Regulatory requirements Othe...

The nine-year Small Business Administration (SBA) 8(a) Business Development Program is a business assistance program that was created to help small, disadvantaged businesses wanting to do business with the Federal government gain a foothold in Federal government contracting.  Listen to Susan Moser , Partner and Leader of Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contracting practice and John Ure , Tax Partner a...

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act at the start of the pandemic was a lifeline for millions of small businesses in the U.S. The Paycheck Protection loan program (PPP) and the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) provided relief and cash for all kinds of small businesses, but for government contractors, the confusion and changing guidance and interpretations has caused much c...

Join Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contractor Services Group for part six of our podcast series discussing various aspects of the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 8(a) Business Development Program. In this episode, Brynn McNeil , an Assurance Partner in Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contracting practice and Eric Poppe , a Senior Manager in the Firm’s GovCon practice give an overview of the Small...

Listen to Brendan Halloran , a Senior Manager in Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contracting Industry practice who previously spent 10 years at the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), and Curt Smith , a manager in the Firm’s GovCon practice who spent 12 years at the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), discuss allowability and where contractors might run into audit findings with questioned cos...

Many of our government contracting clients are taxed as a pass-thru entity, generally an LLC that's taxed as a partnership or an S corporation. It is important to plan at both the entity level and the individual level since in the case of pass-thrus, the income is passed down to the individual owners through a Form K-1 regardless of distributions received during the year. Year-end tax plannin...

The Incurred Cost Submission (ICS) is an administrative hurdle and something that government contractors do not look forward to putting together every year. However, it is required to be submitted six months after the end of a company’s fiscal year for any contractor who has cost-type and T&M contracts that contain the Allowable Cost and Payment Clause. Listen to Eric Poppe , Senior Manager in...

Listen to Susan Moser , Partner and Leader of Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contracting practice, and Eric Poppe , a Senior Manager in the Government Contracting practice, discuss winning an 8(a) competitive contract in episode five of our podcast series on the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 8(a) Business Development program. In part five, they discuss: An overview of what Section 8 of the Sm...

Listen to Susan Moser , Partner and Leader of Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contracting practice , Deb Walker , Compensation & Benefits Leader, and John Ford , Senior Consultant in the Firm’s Government Contracting practice discuss some of the unique considerations for government contractors around executive compensation, including financial reporting, tax considerations (both to company and emp...

The Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 8(a) Business Development program offers small, disadvantaged businesses tremendous opportunities for sole source and limited competition contracts. During the program, participants can be awarded sole source contracts up to $4.5 million for goods and services ($7.5 million for manufacturing). But what does the contracting process entail and what should 8(...

It’s year end and your company has closed out its fiscal year. What should you do from an indirect rate standpoint? Listen to Eric Poppe , Senior Manager in Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contracting practice and Rich Wilkinson, Director of Product Marketing at Unanet discuss the importance of indirect rates and the close out process. Rate variance is consequential. It has a half-life of about a year...

Listen to Eric Poppe , a Senior Manager in Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contracting practice, and Brendan Halloran , also a Senior Manager in the Firm’s Government Contracting practice who previously spent 10 years at the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), including 7 years as a Divisional Administrative Contracting Officer (DACO), discuss proposal pricing in response to solicitations, from...

Join Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contractor Services Group for part three of our new podcast series discussing various aspects of the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 8(a) Business Development Program. In this third episode, Brynn McNeil , an Assurance Partner in Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contracting practice and John Ure , Tax Partner and member of the Firm’s GovCon practice discuss the co...

Listen to Eric Poppe , Senior Manager in Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contracting practice and Rich Wilkinson, Director of Product Marketing at Unanet discuss the importance of indirect rates. In part two we talk about monitoring indirect rates, why it is important, best practices in calculating indirect rates and why it is a great tool for project management. Monitor the rates: If your accounting...

Join Cherry Bekaert’s Government Contractor Services Group for part two of our new podcast series discussing various aspects of the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 8(a) Business Development Program, created to help small disadvantaged businesses wanting to do business with the Federal government gain a foothold in Federal government contracting.  In this second episode, Susan Moser , Partner...