Contract Insights

Contract management for government contractors demands meticulous attention to detail and leaves much risk of error. These contractors work with an almost endless supply of different government agencies. Different levels of government contract complexity and various strict regulatory requirements inherent to these agreements can become overwhelming quickly. Until now! In today's environment, contract management software for government contractors makes everything more straightforward and less intimidating. Here's how.

But First - What Are Government Contractors?

Government contractors are private organizations that are awarded contracts to provide goods and/or services to government agencies. They are responsible for fulfilling contractual obligations while ensuring quality control and compliance with various regulations. Common types of government contractors include those providing:

• facilities and construction.
• information technology.
• transportation and logistics.
• medical services.
• industrial products and services.

Government contractors and their government counterparties are jointly responsible for ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely. Additionally, government contractors should foster the efficient and effective delivery of goods and services to essential government agencies for the betterment of society at large. The goal of successful government contract management is to facilitate a smooth contract process while maintaining compliance with a variety of regulations inherent to working with government counterparties. Moreover, government contractors should build strong relationships with various government agencies.

What Is Contract Management Software for Government Contractors?

Government contractors use integrated contract management and eProcurement software to streamline processes, uphold compliance, and manage contracts effectively with a focus on transparency, fair competition, and accountability. Features that government contractors love include:

• the ability to dynamically author contracts.
• easy line item management.
• automated tracking of contract payments and deliverables.
• contract analytics, searching, and reporting.
• streamlined compliance management (including GSA).

#1 - Dynamically Author Contracts

Government contractors can use contract management software to leverage pre-approved templates and clauses for FAR, DFARS, and GSA contracts. Flow-down clauses, or those that indicate that terms and conditions of a contract apply to a newly introduced third party, can be tagged for inclusion in subcontractor documents. Auto-redlining can help ensure that preferred clauses are included in contractor and subcontractor contracts.

#2 - Easily Manage Line Items

Contract management software helps government contractors manage CLINs (Contract Line Item Numbers) and SLINs (Sub-Line Item Numbers) by streamlining the process of adding, tracking, and managing these items within contract templates. This facilitates better organization and ensures compliance with government regulations. Contracts can easily be exported to standard file formats, including PDF and MS Word. Government contractors can easily capture information about goods and services that they need with contract management software.

#3 - Automate Payment & Deliverable Tracking

Leading contract management software for government contractors helps capture nearly unlimited deliverables and due dates with automated email alerts, in-system notifications, and calendars. An automated workflow can be configured based on when delivery should be performed. Warnings can be triggered for potentially overlooked deliverables, helping prevent government contractors from missing critical dates.

#4 - Experience Better Contract Analytics

Advanced contract management software for government contractors offers a myriad of tools for contract analytics, reporting, searching, and financials.

Comprehensive audit trails help track system login attempts, contract viewing, and edits. They include time and date stamps and give contractors control over employee and subcontractor performance and task awareness.

Government contractors can also take advantage of budget tracking and pricing tools. They can:

• track costs, deliverables, and line items.
• run financial reports.
• receive budget alerts so that they can remain aware of approaching key dates.

Ad hoc reports provide user-defined status reports, upcoming task reports, financial commitment reports, and more. They can easily be exported to standard file formats.

These are just some of the many advanced reporting tools offered by contract management software for government contractors.

#5 - Support & Streamline Compliance

Advanced compliance reporting and auditing with key dates, reporting metrics, and renewal requirements support adherence to regulations such as SAM, the Service Contract Act, and the Safety Standards Act. Government contractors can also utilize OFAC search data integration, which automatically checks company, vendor, and employee data against search data entries within OFAC’s (Office of Foreign Assets Control) national sanctions list.  These OFAC checks can provide critical risk analysis snapshots at a glance.

When selling goods and services through a General Services Administration (GSA) approved contract, vendors must adhere to advanced compliance and reporting standards. Utilizing a leading contract management software solution, government contractors are able to easily provide the details needed for formal U.S. GSA audits and compliance requirements. Searching, advanced reporting, line item tracking, contract hierarchies, prime and sub contract tracking, and other advanced CLM features can turn a painstaking audit to a stress-free experience.

Now that you know how contract management software for government contractors works and helps positively transform processes, it’s time to make the switch to the solution that offers you all of the features mentioned above and many others. That solution is CobbleStone Software. Book a free demo today!