Last updated October 28, 2026 | Prepared for accounting and compliance advisors
Short answer: eTimesheets.com supports the timekeeping and labor distribution criteria on the SF 1408 pre-award survey and the practices DCAA checks in labor floor checks. Daily entry, employee-owned time, supervisor approval, a full correction audit trail, and approval-gated sync to QuickBooks Online. The tables below map each requirement to the eTimesheets.com control and the evidence an auditor can see.
This page maps eTimesheets.com timekeeping controls to the criteria evaluated in the Standard Form 1408 (Pre-Award Survey of Prospective Contractor Accounting System) and to the timekeeping practices DCAA examines during labor floor checks and incurred cost audits. It is written for CPAs and compliance advisors evaluating whether eTimesheets.com, used together with QuickBooks Online, supports an adequate accounting system for cost-reimbursable and other flexibly priced government contracts.
An accounting system is judged as a whole: policies, software, and practices together. eTimesheets.com provides the timekeeping and labor distribution controls described below. The contractor remains responsible for written policies, consistent practice, and the overall accounting system design.
The SF 1408 evaluates the accounting system as a whole. The criteria below are the ones timekeeping and labor distribution directly support. Criteria unrelated to labor, such as excluding unallowable costs from claims, are handled by the contractor's broader accounting system and advisor.
| SF 1408 criterion | What the evaluator looks for | eTimesheets.com control |
|---|---|---|
| 2.a Segregation of direct costs from indirect costs (labor) | Labor hours are identified as direct or indirect at the point of entry, not reclassified later in the general ledger. | Every charge code is designated direct or indirect when created. Employees can only charge codes assigned to them, so segregation happens at time entry. |
| 2.b(1) Identification and accumulation of direct costs by contract | Direct labor is accumulated by contract, task order, or CLIN, not in a single pool allocated later. | Charge codes are structured by contract and project and map to QuickBooks Customer:Job on sync, so direct labor accumulates by final cost objective in both systems. |
| 2.b(2) Timekeeping system that identifies labor by intermediate or final cost objective | The timekeeping system itself, not a downstream spreadsheet, ties each hour to a cost objective. | Time entries require a valid charge code. Unallocated or free-text entries are not possible. Each entry carries employee, date, hours, and cost objective. |
| 2.b(3) Labor distribution system that charges labor to the right cost objectives | Recorded labor flows to the job cost ledger consistently and reconciles to payroll and the general ledger. | Approved timesheets sync one way to QuickBooks Online as TimeActivity records mapped to Customer:Job, Service Item, and Class, creating a labor distribution that reconciles to timekeeping records. |
| 2.d Accumulation of costs under general ledger control | Labor cost data is not kept in a side system disconnected from the books. | The QuickBooks Online sync keeps timekeeping and the general ledger in step, and the sync log gives a reconciliation trail from timesheet to ledger. |
| 2.h Reliable data for pricing follow-on acquisitions | Historical labor by contract and task is retrievable and trustworthy. | Labor history is queryable by employee, charge code, contract, and period for forward pricing and proposal support. |
DCAA has no formal software certification, and no product is DCAA certified. Auditors evaluate whether the contractor's timekeeping practices meet the expectations below, drawn from DCAA audit guidance and the criteria applied in labor floor checks and timekeeping walkthroughs. eTimesheets.com is designed so that following its default workflow meets each one.
| Requirement | What DCAA expects | eTimesheets.com control and evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Daily time entry | Employees record time daily as work is performed, not reconstructed at the end of the week or pay period. | Timesheets are structured for daily entry, with daily reminder notifications and late-entry flagging. Entry timestamps are retained so an auditor can verify recording patterns. |
| Employee records own time | The employee, not an admin, supervisor, or office manager, personally enters their hours. | Each employee has a unique login and entries are attributed to the authenticated user. Admins cannot silently enter or alter time on an employee's behalf. |
| Total time accounting | All hours worked are recorded, direct and indirect, paid and unpaid, including uncompensated overtime for salaried staff. | Timesheets capture all hours against direct and indirect codes, including overhead, G&A, B&P, PTO, and holiday. |
| Valid charge codes only | Employees charge only authorized, active cost objectives, and charge code changes are controlled. | Employees see only the charge codes assigned to them. Codes are activated and deactivated centrally, and closed contracts cannot be charged. |
| Supervisor review and approval | A supervisor reviews and approves each timesheet, and the approval is documented. | Configurable approval workflow: the employee submits, the supervisor approves, and approver identity and timestamp are recorded. Unapproved time does not sync to QuickBooks. |
| Documented corrections | Corrections are initiated or agreed to by the employee, include a reason, and preserve the original entry. | Every change to submitted time creates an audit trail entry: original value, new value, who, when, and a required reason. Post-approval changes trigger re-approval. |
| System access controls | Unique credentials and no shared logins, the electronic equivalent of not signing someone else's timecard. | Unique user accounts with no shared logins. Role-based permissions separate employee, supervisor, and admin functions. |
| Timely submission and processing | Timesheets are completed, submitted, and approved on a defined schedule aligned to the labor distribution cycle. | Period close workflow with submission deadlines and automated delinquency reminders to employees and approvers. Approval status is visible at a glance for the whole company. |
| Written policy and training | A written timekeeping policy exists, employees are trained on it, and practice matches policy. | eTimesheets.com provides a model timekeeping policy template aligned to the system's workflow and an employee acknowledgment step at first login. The contractor adopts and maintains the policy. |
| Record retention | Timekeeping records, approvals, and correction histories are retained and producible. FAR 4.7 retention periods apply. | All timesheets, approvals, and audit trails are retained for the life of the account and can be exported as PDF or CSV on demand for audit support. |
Floor checks are unannounced. DCAA interviews employees, asks how and when they record time, and verifies that recorded charges match actual work. How quickly the contractor can respond is part of the impression of adequacy. eTimesheets.com supports floor check response in four ways.
Real-time employee status. Supervisors and admins can immediately show whether any employee's timesheet is current through today, which answers the auditor's question of whether time is recorded daily.
Entry provenance. Every entry shows who recorded it and when, demonstrating that employees record their own time as they work.
Charge authorization. The auditor can see exactly which cost objectives an employee is authorized to charge, and that the employee's current work maps to them.
Correction history on demand. The full audit trail for any employee or period can be produced in minutes, not rebuilt from emails and spreadsheets.
Small contractors are often cited not for missing timesheets but for a broken chain between timekeeping, labor distribution, and the general ledger. The eTimesheets.com QuickBooks Online integration keeps that chain intact without a full ERP.
One-way, approval-gated sync. Only approved timesheet entries sync to QuickBooks Online as TimeActivity records. Draft or unapproved time never reaches the books.
Cost objective mapping. Each eTimesheets.com charge code maps to a QuickBooks Customer:Job (contract or task), Service Item (labor category), and Class (direct or indirect, or division), preserving job cost integrity in the ledger.
Reconciliation trail. The sync log ties every TimeActivity record in QuickBooks back to a specific approved timesheet entry, giving auditors and advisors a clean timekeeping-to-ledger reconciliation.
Advisor benefit. Incurred cost submissions, indirect rate calculations, and provisional billing support start from clean, job-costed labor data instead of spreadsheet cleanup.
eTimesheets.com is a timekeeping and labor distribution front end. It does not replace the accounting system of record. It is designed to make QuickBooks Online adequate for labor accounting at small-contractor scale.
Indirect rate structure, pool and base design, unallowable cost screening, and incurred cost submission preparation remain the contractor's and advisor's domain. eTimesheets.com supplies the labor data those processes depend on.
Typical fit: services contractors under roughly $10 to $20 million in revenue on cost-reimbursable, T&M, or hybrid awards, for whom the cost and implementation burden of a Deltek-class ERP is out of proportion.
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