Determining a fair and reasonable price is the government’s overall pricing objective. Throughout the FAR, guidelines are available to help contracting officers when awarding contracts. Learning how to support this determination not only allows the award to proceed efficiently, but also with economical assurance.
Let’s discuss the highlights and guidelines that ensure a successful contract review.
This post was originally published at Federal Pricing Group and has be syndicated here with permission from the author.
Years back, I recalled a DOE Contracting Officer for a “M&O” cost reimbursable type contract commenting to the prime that the two percent fee they were earning was very generous and that the contractor should be grateful. I was appalled and could remember saying to myself, “Who in their right mind would think 2 percent profit is acceptable?”. Was my opinion reasonable? Let’s look at six reasons “six R’s” for justifying higher profit on your next contract.
Convenience, versatility, and perceived effectiveness make many people believe that spreadsheets can be used for anything. While Excel can be useful for many projects, the truth is, spreadsheets are not the most effective tools to create, manage, and analyze cost proposals. The inability to quickly import inputs, perform analysis, make changes, and create reports are among the biggest challenges organizations face in using spreadsheet applications as their primary proposal pricing tool.
During these uncertain times brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, we'd like to let you know that the PROPRICER team at EBS is continuing to support our customers and the larger government contracting community in maintaining normal productivity wherever possible.
Experienced negotiators know: preparation is critical to your efforts in forming a win-win deal. It might seem like a no-brainer, but lack of preparation is all too common on both sides of federal contract negotiations.
When you interface with DCAA, you are developing a relationship that will last years beyond the current proposal audit. The type of relationship you forge can yield good results, or can cause difficulties that can be challenging to overcome.
Here are some suggestions for building a productive relationship with DCAA:
The coronavirus (COVID-19) and the actions taken by federal government to help curb the effects of this pandemic have affected government contracting in several different ways.
Below are some brief tips on how contractors can best deal with COVID- 19, followed by resources published by law firms and consultants that we hope you find helpful.
In the world of government contracting, there seems to be an abundance of conferences, trade shows, and webinars on a variety of subjects and disciplines. More often than not, these events cater to both industry and government agencies and the focus of them can be fairly narrow or extremely broad in nature.
Scientific Applications & Research Associates (SARA), Inc., was formed in 1989 to provide engineers and scientists an agile and flexible work environment to help create specialized technologies and innovations. SARA prides itself on being able to provide state-of-the art technology at small business rates.
Regardless of the product or service government is acquiring, and regardless of the acquisition method, pricing is and always will be an essential element in the buying process. No legal contract can occur without the establishment of a price. And in the larger sense, pricing determination matters not only to an agency’s contracting operation, but also to the programs that set the requirements for each acquisition and are ultimately responsible for taxpayer dollars. The challenge for government is not getting the lowest price, but rather, getting the right price.