Strictly speaking, there's no such thing as "DCAA-compliant software" on its own — DCAA audits your organization's policies, procedures, and people together with your tools, not software in isolation. What makes a system support DCAA compliance is its ability to segregate direct and indirect costs, calculate and apply indirect rates consistently, enforce DCAA-ready timekeeping with audit trails and approvals, trace billing back to the accounting system, and produce audit-ready financial reports. Unanet software has been reviewed by DCAA auditors at thousands of customer sites and, paired with your documented policies, supports the requirements auditors look for.

It's time to move off QuickBooks once your firm takes on cost-reimbursable or T&M contracts, or once simple questions like "where are we on this project?" start taking days and a spreadsheet to answer. Other warning signs include performance metrics that are only available after month-end close, critical functions (revenue recognition, indirect rates) happening manually outside QuickBooks, and a lack of internal controls like audit trails. QuickBooks works fine for early-stage contractors with simple firm-fixed-price work, but it isn't built to support cost segregation, indirect rates, or audit-ready reporting as complexity grows.

GovCon ERP enforces federal cost accounting rules natively, while regular accounting software (including generic ERP) does not. A GovCon ERP handles direct and indirect cost segregation, indirect rate calculations, and DCAA-compliant timekeeping, and supports contract-based billing for firm-fixed-price, cost-reimbursable, and T&M work in one system. Standard accounting or ERP platforms require heavy customization or bolt-on tools to approximate this, adding cost and complexity.

You don't need to build every accounting capability in-house — the Unanet Partner Network connects small government contractors with GovCon-experienced firms for exactly this. Depending on what you need, that can mean help with processes, procedures, and policies; implementation and configuration support; fractional or advisory accounting; or fully outsourced accounting, so you can focus on winning and delivering work while a partner handles day-to-day financial operations. Availability and scope vary by partner.

Unanet for small GovCons includes DCAA compliance time and accounting management, automated labor distribution and real-time project accounting, and a full business development solution to manage pipeline and win contracts. From there, businesses can add capabilities like AR/AP Automation, Analytics Studio, ProposalAI, and asset/inventory management as they grow.

Not always — it depends on the contract type. Firm-fixed-price work generally doesn't require a DCAA-compliant accounting system, but if you're bidding on your first cost-type (cost-reimbursable) contract, DCAA typically performs an SF 1408 pre-award survey of your accounting system, policies, and procedures before the contract can be awarded. Getting your timekeeping, cost segregation, and indirect rate processes in order before that bid keeps you from scrambling once you're invited to compete for cost-type work.

Both Unanet and Deltek Costpoint support DCAA-compliant GovCon accounting, so the real difference for a small firm comes down to how easy the platform is to run day to day. Unanet is built on a single, integrated database rather than stacked modules, which typically means a more intuitive interface, faster implementation, and a lower total cost of ownership over time — advantages that matter more for a lean finance team without dedicated ERP administrators. In independent G2 user reviews, Unanet ERP GovCon is rated higher than Deltek Costpoint across all nine satisfaction categories, including ease of setup, ease of admin, and quality of support.

Unanet ERP is built for government contractors of any size, from small businesses winning their first cost-type contract to large enterprises with thousands of users, on the same platform. That means you won't need to re-implement a different system as you grow — more than 2,000 government contractors of varying sizes already rely on Unanet.