BigTime Enables Thousands of Firms Access to Government Contracting Opportunities

CHICAGO, Ill. – BigTime by Edison’s Attic, the leader in web-based
time and billing software for professional service firms, has released a new
version of their product designed for government contractors. The release lowers
the hurdle for thousands of small firms seeking to do business with state and
federal government agencies.

The rules and standards surrounding government contracting have kept most small
consulting firms out of it. “Taking on government work means altering
the way you do business, and that change was just too expensive for most small
or mid-sized firms to consider,” says Brian Saunders, CEO of Edison’s
Attic.

Now, however, many smaller firms are seeing a silver lining buried in this
year’s economic storms. “We’re responding to customer demand,”
says Saunders. “By reworking a system that thousands of firms around the
country are already using every day, we’ve removed many of the costs associated
with doing government work.”

For professional service firms such as architects, engineers, IT consultants,
lawyers and other firms who stand to benefit from an increase in government
spending, those costs are typically related to DCAA audit rules. The DCAA is
a federal standard that governs, among other things, how an employee timesheet
is filled out and approved and how that time gets translated into an invoice.

“DCAA was designed to keep the department of defense from buying $500
hammers,” says Saunders, “but it’s morphed into an audit standard
that governs federal contracts with just about any agency.”

“DCAA is responsible for performing all contract audits for the DOD,
and there are several types of audits that DCAA can perform, including timekeeping
audits, “says Beverly Arviso, who formerly worked for the Department of
Defense as a contracts specialist, as well as in private industry as a Director
of Contracts, controller and CFO. She also was a partner for a regional public
accounting firm that providing government contract consulting services before
starting her own firm in 2008. She worked as an advisor to the Edison’s
Attic development team.

“There are lots of products out there that claim to meet DCAA guidelines,
but they don’t have to pass any sort of audit test,” Ms. Arviso
explained. “So, we have clients that are faced with a huge cost or a big
penalty because they assumed their systems were compliant when they weren’t.”

To avoid that fate, Edison’s Attic made Ms. Arviso an integral part of
their product development team. “We’d come to Beverly with an approach
that we thought was streamlined, and she’d tear it apart and then we’d
start over,” Saunders explained. “It was hard on our egos, but great
for the product to have a person who’s been through countless audits playing
that role.”

“In the end, we got a great product,” Saunders says. “It’s
browser based, web-enabled and easy to use. And, it helps our customers streamline
the whole audit process.”

“We put it in place as soon as they released it.” Says Philip Thayaparan,
a partner at Prudent Engineering. “We aren’t doing federal work
yet,” he explained, “but we hope to. And, we have state contracts
that have many of the same audit requirements, so it’s got an immediate
benefit.”

Firms like this have a lot to gain. “Why pay tens of thousands for specialized
accounting software that’s too complex for your firm,” says Ms.
Arviso, “when you can use a solution like BigTime and an off-the-shelf
accounting package like QuickBooks.”

“A simple accounting solution based on QuickBooks won’t work for
every firm,” she was careful to explain, “but with a small investment
in consulting, and some clear procedures in place, it’s a great first
step.”

More information is available at www.edisonsattic.com.

Technology