Background

ERP International, LLC (ERP) is a trusted provider of Digital Services, Management Consulting, and Strategic Sourcing solutions that support clients in both government and commercial sectors. When they began the transition from a mall to mid-sized company, they needed help restructuring their indirect rates to be more competitive in the marketplace. At the time, they had one fringe pool, two overhead pools, one material/subcontractor handling pool, one general & administrative pool and two services centers.

Situation

The growing company had implemented the Unanet Project Portfolio Financials accounting system but needed someone who understood indirect rates and the Unanet portfolio of products to help them move forward.

Results

Today, ERP retains WJT to provide consulting services on their Unanet accounting system. They bring the functional expertise and government contracting regulation knowledge to meet their needs. Whether it is ensuring the project ledger and general ledger are in sync, setting up joint ventures, automating their credit card process, or implementing Purchasing, WJT continues to provide consulting when needed.

Download the full story.

Solution

As a certified Unanet Services Partner, and with expertise in indirect rates for government contractors, WJT was the ideal candidate to help ERP CEO and Managing Partner, Melvin Petty, design and implement a new indirect rate structure.

Karen was invited to ERP’s strategic offsite as a subject matter expert to walk them through alternatives for restructuring their indirect rates. She went to the whiteboard and mapped out the options, such as using service centers to allocate operating costs between pools, creating divisional overhead pools, and incorporating another fringe pool for contracts subject to the Service Contract Act (SCA). The creation of an SCA Fringe pool and a non-SCA fringe pool allows ERP to be more competitive when bidding on SCA work. The ERP executive team was engaged throughout the brainstorming session and agreed with the new indirect rate design that would make them more competitive.

Once ERP decided on the final structure, they reached out to Karen to lay out the structure in Excel using their 2019 data to show the impact on their rates and the changes to be made in recording costs in Unanet.

When the new design was approved by the CEO, WJT configured the new structure in a TEST database. Once this was reviewed with the CEO for approval, the new indirect rate structure was configured in the ERP’s Production database, tested, and staff training held to be able to manage the new structure moving forward.

This approach was successful in providing knowledge to the Executive Management team about how the structure would impact the various lines of business allowing them to be a direct part of the solution.

Quotes

“We’re in a highly regulatory industry, which requires a lot of reporting. When you’re a small company growing rapidly like we are, you need people who can turn on a moment’s notice. The WJT team is great about that.”
Melvin Petty, CPA, CSM; CEO and Managing Partner of ERP International

“Karen and her team leaned forward for us. It’s an environment where you need solutions yesterday. They were able to assign energy to the workload and get it done – accurately, timely and efficiently.”

Melvin Petty, CPA, CSM; CEO and Managing Partner of ERP International