How to Pass a DCAA Floor Check (and Why First-Timers Usually Fail)

2026-05-26 · DCAA Timekeeping Team · Audits

A floor check (sometimes called a "floor visit" or "labor floor check") is one of DCAA's most common — and most underestimated — engagements. It is not a desk review of your timesheets. It is an unannounced visit, in which DCAA auditors walk through your space and talk to employees about what they are doing right now and how they are charging it.

If your timekeeping system and training are tight, a floor check is a 30-minute non-event. If they are not, it is one of the fastest ways for a contractor to land a "significant deficiency" finding on a labor system review.

What DCAA does in a floor check

DCAM Chapter 5, Section 902 outlines the procedure. In practice the auditor will:

1. Show up without prior notice — or with very short notice.
2. Walk through one or more work areas — onsite, hybrid space, or via teleconference for remote workers.
3. Interview employees one-on-one about what work they are performing, for which contract or task, and how they record it.
4. Inspect the employee's actual timekeeping screen — looking at the entries already made for that day and the prior day.
5. Compare what the employee said with what the timesheet shows.

The goal is not to catch one employee out. It is to verify that the system, the training, and the day-to-day practice are aligned.

What auditors actually ask employees

The questions are direct and predictable:

• "What are you working on right now?"
• "Which contract or task does that work charge to?"
• "How do you know which one to charge?"
• "When was the last time you entered time? Can you show me?"
• "If you switch tasks during the day, how do you record that?"
• "What do you do for time you cannot bill — meetings, training, unallowable activity?"
• "Who approves your timesheet and when?"

An employee who can answer those calmly is a contractor in good standing. An employee who answers "uh, my manager does it" is a finding.

Why first-timers usually fail

The common failures are mundane, and they cluster in a few buckets:

• Training gap. Employees know how to use the timesheet but not why. They cannot articulate the cost objective they are charging.
• End-of-week entry. "Daily" entry got eroded to "Friday afternoon." The auditor opens the timesheet and the current week is blank.
• Mid-day uncharged work. An employee has been pulled into an unrelated meeting all morning and has not switched cost objectives.
• Manager-driven entry. "My boss does mine for me." This is essentially a sole-source labor cost finding waiting to happen.
• No visible audit trail. A correction was made yesterday and nobody can show who made it.

Five things to do this week

You do not need a 90-day program to be floor-check ready. You need a few habits:

1. Refresh the policy and training. Every employee should be able to name the policy and where to find it.
2. Make daily entry frictionless. If logging time takes more than 30 seconds, daily entry will not happen.
3. Use a system with a real audit trail — corrections logged with who/when/why, original entry preserved.
4. Run a quarterly internal floor check. Ask employees the same questions DCAA will ask.
5. Resolve open items the same week. Auditors notice patterns of unresolved corrections more than the corrections themselves.

A floor check is one of the easiest exams to pass — but only if you have already been doing the right things.

This is informational, not legal or audit advice. Always confirm specific expectations with your CO/ACO.