Stimulate your mental synopses with your knowledge of the DCAA ICE Model; then verify your answers with those at the bottom of this article. What do you know?
1. ICE refers to:
- The small cubes in the freezer
- The land east of Greenland and west of Norway
- Incurred Cost Electronically submitted, a workbook created by DCAA
- Indirect Cumulation of Expenses
2. An Intermediate Pool is:
- A Primary Indirect Pool
- Between a wading pool and a diving pool
- Costs allocated to a contract that is a subcontract to a prime, and also has at least one (lower-tier) subcontract
- Costs allocated to another pool, not to a final cost-objective
3. Sched B for G&A, in the DCAA ICE Model workbook, uses account numbers, descriptions, and account balance amounts for accounts included in the G&A Pool. Examples of such accounts include:
- Bookkeeping and Accounting
- Direct Labor
- Salaries of Project Workers
- Subcontracts
4. Direct Costs are entered on Sched H:
- By Buying Command or Prime Contractor (the customer)
- By contract type, then by individual contract
- By type of Service or Product sold
- By calendar month
5. Sched I compares Cumulative Cost:
- Claimed throughout the current calendar year, only
- Billed throughout the most recent Government Fiscal Year, only
- Claimed versus Billed, for each award from inception to the end of the most recent Contractor Fiscal Year
- For Physically Complete awards, only, which are or should be closed out
6. The certification at Sched N, in the DCAA ICE Model workbook, attests that the costs in the workbook:
- Come directly from the general ledger
- Were already billed during the last Contractor Fiscal Year
- Establish Provisional Billing Rates
- Exclude costs that are unallowable under FAR and applicable FAR supplements
7. Most people start entering data on:
- Sched H
- Summary Sched H
- Sched H (Cont)
- Sched A
8. The Reconciliation of Payroll to Labor on Sched L:
- Compares IRS Form 940 to all labor
- Uses account numbers (in Column A) to pull labor dollars into the General Ledger column
- Compares only claimed labor dollars, excluding unallowable labor, to payroll reported to the IRS
- Verifies the contractor paid all payroll taxes when due
9. In the DCAA ICE Model workbook, the requirement for additional Sched C worksheets is established:
- By how much time the Accounting Department staff has to fill out the workbook
- Based on how many Intermediate Pools the contractor uses
- During ‘Setup,’ when the number of pools/rates (including any separate pool to allocate fringe costs) is entered
- Based on the largest number of direct-cost accounts used on (any) Cost Reimbursable award
10. The number of times that the contractor’s Company Name must be entered for Sched A through Sched O is:
- 15
- 4
- Dependent on how many indirect cost pools are used
- Once, during Setup
ANSWERS:
1. c. – Although an Incurred Cost Submission (ICS) is required for Cost Reimbursable awards, regardless which agency funded them (See FAR 42.705-1 [b] [ii].), awards under the purview of DCAA typically require submission of the DCAA-created ICE Model, specifically.
2. d. – Indirect costs, such as G&A, are allocated to cost elements billed, as opposed to other indirect pools. Alternatively, an Intermediate Pool is absorbed by other indirect pools. For example, a Facilities Pool might be allocated to both an Overhead Pool and a G&A Pool – with the former, subsequently, allocated on Direct Labor and the latter allocated on Total Cost Input. In that case, the Facilities Pool is an Intermediate Pool that is not billed as a separate cost element.
3. a. – General and Administrative pools do not include direct costs that are incurred specifically for a project or contract. Instead, this pool includes only costs that are incurred to benefit the company as a whole.
4. b. – This schedule, in the DCAA ICE Model workbook, lists each award on a row and direct costs, by element, in columns. The awards are organized, first, by contract-type (e.g., Cost Reimbursable, Time and Material, Fixed Price, Commercial) and, then, by specific award.
5. c. – The purpose of this schedule is to calculate the cumulative, total amount overbilled or underbilled, by contract. The overbilled or underbilled amount can be credited or billed after approval of the ICE submission.
6. d. – The Actual Incurred Cost amounts claimed via the ICE submission may only be allowable costs, not excluded by regulation.
7. a. – Direct costs, by award and by cost element (e.g., Direct Labor, Direct Material, Direct Travel) are typically entered in Schedule H, first. Indirect pool costs can also be entered in the top portion of Sched B and (if applicable) all Sched C’s.
8. b. – This schedule includes formulas that perform a “lookup” function that matches the account number in Column A to the account number in the relevant schedule(s). On Sched L, the account numbers, not the amounts, can be entered. The amounts are entered automatically. The Form 941 gross pay is not compared to just Labor, but to Labor plus non-productive paid time, such as PTO and Holidays.
9. c. – The contractor checks a box to indicate a separate Fringe rate, if applicable, plus enters the number of pools (or rates) to be calculated, on the ‘Setup’ sheet. These entries determine how many worksheets are used, so that pool costs can be entered for each worksheet/pool.
10. d. – After the company name is entered on the ‘Setup’ worksheet, the other schedules in the DCAA ICE Model workbook use that name in their headers.