The GovCon checklist: Keeping customers informed and projects moving

If you’ve ever waited weeks for a customer to approve a task order modification or watched a deliverable stall because your customer misunderstood the schedule—you already know that communication breakdowns in government contracting cost more than just time. They affect compliance, billing, and the long-term health of your customer satisfaction. 

Government agencies expect government contractors to maintain accountability, keep them informed, and document every critical decision. That’s not a suggestion. It’s baked into Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) guidance, GAO project management best practices, and DCAA audit expectations. The only way to meet those standards in government contracting, consistently, is to build effective communication into your workflows with regular updates—and support it with the right systems. 

Establish a consistent update cadence 

Be proactive. Don’t make your customers chase updates. Establish a weekly or biweekly check-in, and use that time to provide structured insights: current progress, upcoming deadlines, risks, and decisions needed. With the right enterprise resource planning solution, you can automate the generation of these updates using real-time dashboards that reflect current labor, cost, and schedule performance…all in one view.  

You’re not toggling between systems or copying data into spreadsheets. You’re showing exactly where the project stands, which aligns with GAO’s agile framework, which recommends “regular, transparent communication with stakeholders” as a cornerstone of iterative success. 

Communicate delays immediately and with context 

No project manager wants to flag a delay, but transparency is far better than surprise. If a deliverable slips or a cost pool spikes, the right ERP lets you trace the root cause—like a change in resource allocation or under-recorded time—and present mitigation options before it affects invoicing or performance reporting. This transparency supports DCAA audit readiness expectations as detailed in DCAAM 7641.90, which stress the importance of timely, supportable justifications for labor and cost variances. 

Tailor reports to what your customers care about 

Some contracting officers want earned value metrics like CPI and SPI every week. If your contract is under EVMS reporting requirements, these two numbers often carry more weight than a status update.  

CPI, or Cost Performance Index, is earned value divided by actual cost—it tells your customer whether you're staying within budget. SPI, or Schedule Performance Index, is earned value divided by planned value—it's a direct indicator of whether you're ahead or behind schedule.  

A CPI or SPI above 1.0 means you're performing well. Below 1.0 and you’re either over budget or behind schedule. With the right enterprise resource planning solution, you can lets you build and automate these metrics for specific stakeholders, giving your customer what they need without burying them in data they don’t. 

Make dashboards part of your delivery model 

Most contractors share reports. Few give their customers access to real-time, self-service dashboards. But the right enterprise resource planning solution makes this easy. With role-based access, you can provide a COR or technical lead with visibility into active project health without risking sensitive internal data. That reinforces trust and gives the customer oversight without micromanagement. It also aligns with GAO’s performance audit standards, which emphasize linking data reporting to mission outcomes. 

Use approval workflows to eliminate bottlenecks 

Approval latency is one of the most overlooked causes of delay. When you send a change request by email and it sits in someone’s inbox for ten days, that’s a contractual risk.  

The right enterprise resource planning solution allows you to route approvals formally through built-in workflows, set deadlines, and store that record with the task history.  

This structure supports FAR 43.2 requirements for modifications and reduces the chance of unauthorized commitments or audit exposure. 

What effective communication delivers 

When government contractors get communication right, everything else moves faster. You reduce rework, eliminate ambiguity, and make it easier for your customer to say yes because they always know what you need, why it matters, and what happens next.  

And when you embed those practices into the same system that runs your project, accounting, and resource management, you’re not depending on memory or manual processes. You’re running a smarter, more transparent operation that delivers results your customers trust. 

Unanet ERP GovCon doesn’t just help you manage projects. It gives you the tools to communicate with precision…and that’s what keeps projects moving. 

To learn more about how Unanet ERP GovCon can help, schedule a consultation with one of our experts today.