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How Are Government Contractor Costs Tracked?

Costs for government contractors are tracked just like the costs for any business. In fact, the federal government demands transparent accounting that will stand up to an audit at any time, for any reason. A government contractor needs to have a strong understanding of the basic principles of accounting, even if the contractor keeps a full time accountant on staff. Federal contractors also have to know the requirements involved in creating a cost proposal for the federal government. Cost proposals are essential to government contracting because the government needs to see if a given contractor will use tax dollars more efficiently than the government itself could.

Government Service vs Contractor

We’ve heard a lot of people ask “What’s the difference between government service versus government contracting?” Well, the two do tend to have a lot in common, which is why retired government or military people are so valuable in the field of government contracting. However, the differences are multiple and important for many looking for a direction to take their career.

Government employees, whether military or civilian personnel, have their own unique pros and cons to deal with. On the one hand, continued employment is far more secure than in the private sector. In addition, government benefits are legendary for their comprehensive nature and reliability. One last benefit is the level of skills and training the government provides to its employees. That sort of training would generally cost a small fortune for anyone trying to get it privately. On the other hand, promotion can occasionally go at a snail’s pace for some job positions, and then there are mandatory retirement ages or lengths of service that don’t necessarily match up with an individual’s health and skill level. After all, you can retire after twenty years in the military, but if you got in at eighteen do you really want to retire at thirty-eight?

Civilian Contractor Jobs in the Military

Many people don’t know that there are a multitude of jobs for civilian contractors in the military itself. Sure, everybody knows that a contracted company provides airplanes, tanks and clothing, but our conception of our military doesn’t generally include civilians out there with them. Fortunately for a multitude of federal contractors, this perception is quite mistaken.

One of the bigger areas in which you’ll often find civilians working alongside military is in service capacities. While the military is more than capable of providing its own food in many circumstances, often they’ll opt to have a catering company come in and do it more efficiently. Laundry, dry cleaning, and many other amenities you can find on most military bases are all often provided by civilian contractors. Military support services is a huge industry for civilians, both at home and overseas.

Another area you’ll often find civilian contractors working alongside military is in on-site construction. After all, somebody needs to build the bases and housing for military installations all over the world. The military does keep its own engineers and construction crews, but again, it’s often more efficient to hire a full construction contractor who does it all the time for a variety of clients.

How Federal Government Contractors Get Work

Many people wonder how to go from life as a regular contractor to life as a federal government contractor. It’s not as hard as some people think, but the regulatory loopholes a company has to jump through can be quite impressive on occasion. A government contract is specifically defined as “any agreement or modification thereof between any contracting agency and any person for the furnishing of supplies or services or for the use of real or personal property including lease arrangements.” (41 CFR Part 60-250.2) In other words, if you provide goods, services, or facilities that any given government wants to use, and you can come to an agreement about it, you can be a government contractor. Of course, if the agency in question is part of the federal government, you become a federal government contractor.

The first thing to get is a DUNS number. DUNS stands for “Data Universal Numbering System” and it’s used by the federal government to keep track of contractors and their locations. You need this number in order to register with the Central Contractor Register, which is used by the government’s information exchange system. Then, once you have that, you can go over to www.FedBizOps.gov to find and bid on all of the current contracts being offered. Sounds easy, right?

Private Military Contractor Jobs

There’s a whole plethora of private military contractor jobs out there today. Simply put, a private military contractor job is any job that the military needs done and wants a civilian to do instead of one of their own people. Active duty military personnel are valuable for three reasons. The first, of course, is that they’re comparatively rare. Of course the military recruits for trained active duty people, but in some capacities it just seems that there are never enough people to go around. The second reason they’re so valuable is because the military has generally spent a lot of money training them, and would like to put them where they’ll do the most good. The last reason is because active duty military personnel have volunteered to place themselves in harm’s way for the good of the country, while civilians have not. Therefore, the military is much more likely to put an active duty vehicle mechanic in a strategically hot location and a civilian vehicle mechanic back behind the line of fire.

What Is A Military Contractor?

It’s surprising how many people don’t know this one, or who get confused about it. Quite simply, a military contractor is someone who has an agreement with the military to provide goods or services. That contract might be as simple as leasing a large bit of land to the military for warehousing purposes or as complicated as the distribution, integration and implementation of software across multiple countries and IT platforms. You never really know what the military is going to need until they ask for it.

We here at Sabre Consulting run a Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned Small Business that specializes in military contracting. This puts us ahead in the contracting game a couple of ways. First off, of course, the Small Business Administration has some pretty specific rules and regulations about letting us try for some of the federal contracts coming down the pipeline. Second, of course, is that we actually have been in the military and so we’re familiar with their rules, regs and requirements. It’s a lot easier to work with military personnel when you actually know how they think and what they want.

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“Sabre Consulting & Training provides consulting, training, integration, management, engineering and logistical support to industry and government clients around the world. The members of Sabre Consutling & Training are highly respected and credentialed professionals with a vast portfolio of experience and relationships extending throughout the United States and internationally.”