QuickBooks, Unanet, PROCAS, and Costpoint
The question is rarely which system is best. It is whether the manual work your current system requires has grown past the cost of replacing it — and whether the people who do that manual work every month are still keeping up.
What the purpose-built systems do that a general ledger does not
- Accumulate cost by contract, task order, and CLIN natively, with funded and ceiling values attached and burn tracked against them.
- Apply indirect rates automatically at each tier, so a job cost report shows fully burdened cost without a spreadsheet.
- Carry timekeeping in the same system as labor distribution, with the audit trail on corrections built in.
- Generate cost-type vouchers and T&M invoices in government formats, reconciled to the cost accounts by construction.
- Produce the schedules an incurred cost submission needs without rebuilding the year.
The comparison
| System | Fits | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks Online | Fixed-price work, or one or two cost-type contracts with a controller running rates and job cost alongside in a disciplined model. | Indirect allocation and burdened job cost are manual. Timekeeping needs a separate compliant tool. Effort grows roughly with contract count. |
| QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise | Contractors who need more job-cost depth than QBO but are not ready to move. | Same structural limits, plus a desktop footprint. A holding position rather than a destination. |
| PROCAS | Small and lower-mid contractors who want a purpose-built GovCon system without an enterprise implementation. | Less configurable than the larger platforms. Fit depends on whether your structure matches its assumptions. |
| Unanet | Project-driven services firms, particularly where resource planning and project management matter as much as accounting. | Strong project side; make sure the accounting configuration gets the same attention as the project side during implementation. |
| Deltek Costpoint | Larger contractors, complex pool structures, multiple divisions, CAS coverage. | Real implementation cost and ongoing administration. Under roughly $20M it is usually more system than the business can carry. |
Signals that you have outgrown a general ledger
- The monthly job cost report comes out of a spreadsheet that one person maintains and nobody else can rebuild.
- Vouchers are prepared from that spreadsheet rather than from posted cost, so tying billings back to the books takes real work.
- You have more than a handful of active cost-type or T&M task orders.
- Indirect rates are computed once a quarter instead of every close.
- Preparing the incurred cost submission means reconstructing the year.
- An auditor has raised a finding about billings reconciling to cost accounts.
Fix the structure first — chart of accounts, pool definitions, job cost hierarchy, timekeeping policy. A migration carries your structure with it. Migrating a structure that does not work produces an expensive system that still does not work.
Frequently asked
Can QuickBooks Online pass a DCAA accounting system review?
Yes, in the right circumstances. There is no approved product list — the review looks at structure and operation. QBO plus a compliant timekeeping tool and a disciplined monthly rate and job cost process has passed many times. The constraint is manual effort, which grows with contract count.
When should we move off QuickBooks?
The usual trigger is contract count rather than revenue. Once several cost-type or T&M task orders are running at once and the monthly close depends on a spreadsheet only one person understands, the manual burden and the key-person risk have both passed the cost of a purpose-built system.
Is Costpoint worth it for a $15M contractor?
Usually not. Below roughly $20M the implementation and administration cost tends to exceed what the added capability returns. PROCAS or Unanet generally fit better at that size.
How long does a migration take?
Plan on a fiscal quarter for the structural work and the implementation itself, and expect to run parallel for at least one close. Cutting over at a fiscal year boundary avoids splitting the incurred cost submission across two systems.
Related
Building a GovCon chart of accounts
A chart of accounts that segregates direct, indirect, and unallowable costs by construction — so compliance is a byproduct of posting, not a cleanup project.
Read →Job cost accounting by contract and task order
Accumulating cost by contract, task order, and CLIN so that job cost, the general ledger, and your billings all agree.
Read →What an adequate GovCon accounting system has to do
The 18 accounting system criteria in DFARS 252.242-7006, what SF 1408 checks before award, and the small number of things that actually decide whether a system passes.
Read →