DCAA Timekeeping & Indirect Cost — Cost Pools, Actual Rates, Dated Thresholds and SAM.gov Register (Odoo Community)

What it adds

• Calculation of the actual rate of a pool for a fiscal year, from hours recorded on timesheets — and it applies FAR 31.203(d), which is the trap of the field: an unallowable cost comes out of the pool, but not out of the allocation base. Removing it from both inflates the rate and overbills the government. The module shows both amounts side by side, with the unallowable hours kept in the base, so it can be checked at a glance.

• The variance between the actual rate, the provisional rate applied and the final rate settled, pool by pool and fiscal year by fiscal year.

• The cost fiscal year and its deadlines: the final indirect cost rate proposal due within six months of year-end, the completion invoice within 120 days of settlement, and the billing update within 60 days. And the extension nobody calculates: FAR 4.703(b)(3) extends every retention period by one day for each day of delay in submitting the proposal. A company that destroyed its timesheets on the originally calculated date would be destroying records that can still be demanded.

• Dated regulatory thresholds. Each threshold carries its validity period and the citation it rests on, and the module always asks “which threshold was in force on the date of this contract”. This is not theoretical: as of September 14, 2026, two Cost Accounting Standards coverage thresholds change in seventeen days — the rule published at 91 FR 56056 takes effect on October 1, 2026. Both periods ship in advance: the module gives the right figure on both sides of the changeover, with no intervention.

• The eighteen accounting system criteria of DFARS 252.242-7006(c), in their January 2025 version, with their verbatim English text and their self-assessment — met, not met, not applicable — with the supporting evidence and the date of the finding.

• The federal registry: entity identity and exclusions registry, plugged into the dyo_connexions_base source chain, with its queue, call log and stored response. The module does not write a second chain.

The API and its workaround

Unlike Davis-Bacon wage determinations — for which no interface exists — both interfaces used here do exist: the official GSA catalog, consulted on September 14, 2026, lists fifteen SAM.gov interfaces, including “SAM.gov Entity Management API” and “SAM.gov Exclusions API”. Their addresses are taken from their own pages, not reconstructed.

They are shipped inactive because both require a key, free but on request. Without a key, the chain sets them aside with the reason “key missing”, without flagging them as down, and falls back one step: manual entry, which requires neither key nor network, and which is documented first in the guide.

A design point worth mentioning: the exclusions connector distinguishes “the registry states there are no exclusions” from “I could not read the response”. Confusing the two would give a green light where the module understood nothing, on the very information that prohibits the award.

Regulatory values are not guessed

The VERIFICATION.md file shipped with the module gives, value by value, the primary source, the verbatim quotation and the date consulted — and states what was not found, with details of the searches carried out.

One example that applies to all: the often-repeated rule that a time correction must be made “in ink, with a single line, with the employee's initials” was found neither in the 2023 edition of the DCAA manual nor in the 2012 edition it replaces, both read in full. What the manual actually requires is the original charge, the corrected charge and the employee's approval. That is what the pair records, and nothing else is presented as a requirement.

The module records findings; it does not draw conclusions

It says that an amount exceeds a threshold, that an allocation base is empty, that a criterion has no finding, that a proposal is 47 days late. It never says that a contract is covered, that an accounting system is acceptable, or that a company is compliant. Those determinations belong to the contracting officer and the oversight agency — DFARS 242.7502(b)(1) and (c) state this expressly for the accounting system. A false conclusion of compliance would expose the company far more than it would help it.

Not proven in production

Neither the connectors, nor the calculations, nor the self-assessment have been tested against a real audit, agency system or submission. No call has been made to the two SAM.gov interfaces, as no key was available in the workshop: what has been verified is their existence and address; what has not is the exact shape of their responses. The rate calculation works on recorded hours, not on the general ledger: it does not replace an accounting system. Start with a trial fiscal year and compare.