Honey the Hamster

Government financial staff are required to report expenses to its regulators (GAO, Congress, etc.). The main goal is to ensure that what is purchased is what has been approved for purchase. Step 1: To enter your contract financing in Quickbooks, you need to make sure that the “Estimates” feature is enabled in Quickbooks. To enable “Estimates”, go to the “Settings” screen, then select “Order and Estimates” and select “Yes” in the “Create estimates” field. Federal contracts are generally funded at the contract position level (CLIN). A CLIN is a line in your contract, usually in Appendix B, that lists the services and products to be delivered, with a price or limit that must not be exceeded. When settling accounts with the federal government, it is important not to calculate beyond funding. Your DCAA auditor will want to make sure you have a system in place to avoid overbilling. THE CLIN are specified in Part 4.10 of the FAR. They have two objectives: (1) they break the contract based on the goods purchased (hours of work of services, travel financing, quantity of product A, quantity of product B, etc.) and (2) they provide understandable accounting classification quotes. The confusion comes from this second goal. It is determined by the government`s internal accounting requirements, such as fiscal years and appropriations, which are often not visible to the external observer. Thus, budgets are broken down at least by financial year, organization, function and/or project.

Often, they are broken down to even lower levels of detail. Regardless of this, the internal accounting system (e.B. Chart of Accounts) of a government agency whose budget structure provides its funds. As a result, contracts with external suppliers must comply with the accounting system to ensure traceability. Ultimately, all government spending must comply with the authorization laws (laws) passed by Congress. These laws are adopted annually (i.e. they concern expenditure for a given financial year (from 1 October to 30 September) and by the authorities (defence, transport, etc.). Not surprisingly, they don`t just give a blank check. On the contrary, they go into detail about the purpose for which the means are intended. These outbreaks are sometimes by function (research and development, procurement, operation and maintenance, personnel and training, etc.) and sometimes by project (ship construction, program management) and sometimes both. The CLIN outbreak seems strange when there is no individual relationship between the products purchased and the sources of funding used.

This is not uncommon, as products and services are often funded with dollars from several pots of money. When this happens, THE CLIN should be broken down by both product or service and financial accounts. So rest assured that CLINs are not just an attempt by government bureaucrats to make your life difficult; There is actually a method behind madness. .