How does PSA software support DCAA-compliant timekeeping?

PSA software can support DCAA-aligned timekeeping by enforcing daily time entry, keeping employee entry separate from supervisor approval, and logging every change with a timestamp and a reason. The Defense Contract Audit Agency does not certify or approve any software, though. Compliance depends on your written policies, employee training, and system configuration, not on the tool alone.

What auditors expect. Consulting, IT, and engineering firms are among the industries that get the most from PSA software, and the ones holding US cost-reimbursable, time-and-materials, or labor-hour contracts face a stricter standard for time records. DCAA guidance converges on five expectations. Employees record their own time daily, as work is performed. Total recorded hours reconcile to total paid hours, including leave. Each hour is charged to the contract or indirect account the work belongs to. A supervisor approves each timesheet as a separate step and cannot overwrite an employee’s entry. Every correction shows who changed what, when, and why.

How a PSA helps. A PSA puts those controls inside the system where hours are already logged. Look for daily entry reminders and limits on late or retroactive entries, task codes that tie hours to a specific contract or charge account, and a timesheet approval workflow that locks entries once submitted. Because the same record feeds cost reports and the invoices built from approved time, an auditor can trace a labor charge back to the original entry. Records also need to survive the audit window, generally at least three years after final contract payment under FAR Subpart 4.7.

What software cannot do. A PSA does not make a company compliant. DCAA auditors also read the timekeeping policy, run floor checks (unannounced employee interviews), and compare what staff say with what the timesheets show. An edit log will not help a firm where employees fill in the whole week on Friday from memory, or where a manager approves 40 timesheets in two minutes.

How Birdview handles these controls. On Birdview PSA Enterprise licenses, turning on multi-step time log approvals moves each time log from draft to submitted to approved. A submitted entry is locked for the employee, a rejected one returns for correction and resubmission, and an approved entry stays locked until the approver grants an edit request. Approvals can run in sequence or in parallel, such as a project manager followed by a reporting manager. Firms that already keep DCAA timesheets in HMS TimeControl can sync approved, posted time into Birdview for project actuals.