If you came here looking for a brochure about “government excellence,” close the tab. The buyer words are DCAA, SF 1408, indirect rates, cost-type versus FFP, and whether QuickBooks will survive the next survey. Those are the words I will use.

What does a fractional CFO do for a defense contractor?

I sit in the executive finance seat so you can bid, bill, and cash the contract without lighting the accounting system on fire.

• Indirect rates that come out of the books, not a spreadsheet that drifted off the general ledger three revisions ago.
• SF 1408 readiness — the pre-award survey of the accounting system. Design, not theater. Detail on the DCAA / SF 1408 page.
• Cost-type versus FFP. The P&L that works on firm-fixed-price work will lie to you on cost-plus. I will say so before you bid the mix.
• Cash versus billing. Cost-type invoices lag the work. Payroll does not. A 13-week cash view is not optional.
• Chart of accounts and pools a DCAA auditor can walk. Direct, indirect, unallowable. Labor to cost objectives. Billings that reconcile to cost accounts — DFARS 252.242-7006(c)(16).

Bookkeeping stays with your CPA. I will work with whoever is already closing the month. I will not trash them so I can capture the write-up.

What changes between cost-type and firm-fixed-price?

Contract type is not a legal footnote. It is the operating system of the books.

	Firm-fixed-price (FFP)	Cost-type / T&M
What the government is buying	A price. Overrun is yours.	Allowable cost plus fee. The books are the product.
Accounting system bar	Job cost you can manage to. SF 1408 still shows up if progress payments or a mix is in play.	FAR 16.301-3(a)(3): the accounting system must be adequate for determining costs applicable to the contract. This is the SF 1408 / DFARS 252.242-7006 world.
Indirect rates	You still need them to know if the bid was real.	Provisional billing rates, year-end true-up, incurred cost. Rates that do not tie to the GL get you a finding.
Cash	Milestone or delivery. Still lumpy.	You fund the work, then bill. Miss a billing cycle and the 13-week view goes red.
Unallowables (FAR 31)	Still exist. They just hide in overhead until a mix or a survey.	Must be excluded from costs charged to the government. Entertainment, interest, and the “business development” lunch are where small shops fail.

FAR 16.301-3(a)(3) is the limitation, not a slogan: a cost-reimbursement contract may be used only when “the contractor’s accounting system is adequate for determining costs applicable to the contract or order” (Acquisition.gov, FAR 16.301-3). That is why the survey exists. I will not tell you DCAA certified your QuickBooks. DCAA does not do that. Walk through the criteria on the DCAA compliance page.

QuickBooks vs Costpoint — which one do I need?

Neither package is DCAA-certified. DCAA has said, in its own small-business materials, there is no such thing as a DCAA-approved government accounting system. An accounting system is methods, procedures, and controls — software is one piece.

QuickBooks can be part of an acceptable system for a $3–10M shop on FFP and a thin cost-type mix, if the chart of accounts, timekeeping, and pools are built for it. It can also be a trap: one class list, no unallowable bucket, timesheets reconstructed at month-end. Costpoint (or Deltek equivalent) is the better default once cost-type, CLIN-level, and incurred-cost work is the living, not the exception. I will tell you which side of that line you are on. I will not sell you a software implementation you do not need so the invoice looks bigger.

Systems work is project-quoted after a 30-minute call. Living in the system afterward is the retainer. See pricing.

What proof do I have in this world?

I am not a Big 4 GovCon tourist. I enlisted as an E-1. I commanded the 341st Comptroller Squadron — nuclear-wing CFO, $720M in combined funding ($125M operations budget), 140 people, June 2020. DoD FM and APDP / DAWIA background, CDFM. GDFS is an SBA-certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), CAGE 17A06. Cape Coral HQ. US Central and Eastern.

In Iraq, with the Office of Security Cooperation, I was responsible for $33B in funding. In 2014 I was the finance lead for special operations aircraft operations (excluding Afghanistan) during ISIL operations. That is the operator background. It is not the product, and it is not the first paragraph on this page for a reason. You are buying rates, surveys, and cash. You are not buying a deployment story.

PE seat after the uniform: Entech, two acquisitions, $9M; ARCOS, $158K procurement. Same rule — résumé facts, not invented war stories.

How is this priced?

Same offer as the rest of the practice.

• 10 hours / $5,000 a month — $60,000 a year. Rates, cash, monthly operating review, SF 1408 gap list.
• 20 hours / $7,500 a month — $90,000 a year. Mix of cost-type and FFP, pools that have to hold, a live survey or incurred-cost calendar.
• Project work — chart rebuild, SF 1408 prep, rate model, system stand-up — quoted after a 30-minute call. I do not invent dollar ranges for work I have not scoped.

Full-time comparison: fractional vs full-time.

Questions I get

What does a fractional CFO do for a defense contractor?

Part-time executive finance plus DCAA-ready books. Indirect rates, SF 1408 readiness, cash versus cost-type billing, and the chart of accounts that will survive an auditor. I do not replace your CPA. 10 hours / $5,000 or 20 hours / $7,500.

Does DCAA certify accounting systems?

No. DCAA does not certify or approve accounting systems. DCAA audits them, on request from a federal entity — not from you. What you need is a system that can pass an SF 1408 pre-award survey and, after award, the criteria in DFARS 252.242-7006.

Can QuickBooks be used on a government contract?

Yes, if it is set up to segregate direct, indirect, and unallowable costs, distribute labor to cost objectives, and produce billings that reconcile to the books. QuickBooks is not DCAA-certified, and neither is Costpoint. The system is the software plus the procedures. Costpoint is the better default once you are living in cost-type work.

Who is this for?

$3–25M defense contractors and GovCon shops in US Central and Eastern time zones. SBA-certified SDVOSB. DoD FM / APDP background. Former commander, 341st Comptroller Squadron. Bookkeeping stays with your CPA.

If the next bid assumes the books can take it, let’s look at the books.

Book 30 min. Bring the contract mix and how you currently calculate overhead. We will know in half an hour whether this is a retainer, a project, or a conversation with your CPA.

Book 30 min or call (616) 881-6777

Gabriel Denny — E-1 to squadron commander, nuclear-wing CFO, PE-backed operator.

Gabriel Denny Financial Services, LLC · 1718 NW 14th Terrace, Cape Coral, FL 33993 · (616) 881-6777 · gabe@gabrieldenny.com