About WiseCost

The compliance layer small government contractors were missing

WiseCost adds DCAA-compliant timekeeping, labor distribution, and an immutable audit trail on top of the QuickBooks Online contractors already use, so a five-person firm can pass the same audit as a large prime, without an enterprise ERP.

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GovCon Industry Partners & Clients

QuickBooks OnlineWendroff & Associates CPADunbar ConsultingStation DCMission CultivateVirginia Society of CPAs, Northern Chapter

The company

WiseCost, Inc. is a DCAA-compliant job-costing, timekeeping, and labor-distribution platform for small and mid-size U.S. government contractors. It's headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, in the heart of the DC/Northern Virginia GovCon corridor.

The product

WiseCost connects securely to QuickBooks Online and adds the DCAA compliance layer QuickBooks doesn't have: daily timekeeping, manager approval, an immutable audit trail, and labor distribution posted back as a traceable journal entry. No migration and no new ledger, so most teams are live the same day.

Who it's for

Small and mid-size government contractors on QuickBooks Online, whether they hold federal contracts today or are getting audit-ready before their first award, plus the CPA firms that advise them.

Built by GovCon insiders, for GovCon teams

WiseCost combines 20+ years of government contracting experience with modern software engineering. Our mission: make DCAA compliance simple, affordable, and automatic, so you can focus on winning and delivering contracts.

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How it started

A State Department fellowship, a CPA, and a founder from Buenos Aires

In 2022, the U.S. Department of State's Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI) paired Alfonso Aguilera, a tech founder from Buenos Aires, with Brian Wendroff, a CPA who had spent two decades serving government contractors from Arlington, Virginia. They were matched over a shared interest: using technology to fix problems in accounting.

Brian had watched the same pattern repeat for years. His small-contractor clients needed DCAA-compliant systems to win cost-type work, but the only real options were enterprise ERPs built for firms ten times their size. They were on QuickBooks, didn't want to leave it, and there was nothing in between. So they built a prototype on QuickBooks Online, tested it with real contractors from Brian's client base, and it worked. It became WiseCost, headquartered in the same building where the collaboration began.

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THE GAP THEY SAW

  • Enterprise ERPs: five- and six-figure implementations built for much larger firms.
  • Spreadsheets: break past a handful of employees and leave no audit trail.
  • WiseCost: keeps QuickBooks, adds the compliance layer on top, live the same day.
The people behind WiseCost

The people behind the product

A CPA who has served government contractors for over 20 years, and a technologist who has spent a decade automating accounting. That combination is the whole point.

Brian Wendroff, CPA
Brian Wendroff, CPA
Co-Founder & CFO

Brian founded Wendroff & Associates, CPA in 2006, after four years of military service, including a tour at the Pentagon for the Secretary of Defense's Office, and a staff role at the International Accounting Standards Board in London. A CPA, CGMA and Service-Disabled Veteran, he spent two decades building one of Arlington's most recognized practices, with government contracting and DCAA compliance as a core specialty, and served on Intuit's QuickBooks Online Advisory Board. He's been repeatedly named Top Financial Adviser by Washingtonian and Top Financial Professional by Northern Virginia Magazine. Known as an "Entrepreneur's CPA," he's spent years helping small government contractors build the DCAA-compliant systems federal work requires. At WiseCost, he brings the domain: a deep understanding of what auditors actually look for.

Alfonso Aguilera
Alfonso Aguilera
Co-founder & CEO

Alfonso Aguilera is co-founder and CEO of WiseCost. A technologist from Buenos Aires, he co-founded Impacto Digital, a nonprofit that grew to work with the United Nations, Disney, and JP Morgan across offices in Argentina and Costa Rica. He also led data science at Acamica and built Mono, a SaaS that automates accounting for small businesses. In 2022, the U.S. Department of State's Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative paired him with veteran GovCon CPA Brian Wendroff over a shared interest: using technology to solve problems in accounting. Alfonso stayed on as an advisor to Wendroff & Associates, where he saw firsthand how small government contractors struggled with DCAA compliance, priced out of enterprise systems built for companies ten times their size. At WiseCost, he brings the technology: the automation that makes compliance affordable for small contractors on QuickBooks.

Why we built it

In their words

I spent 20 years working with government contractors and kept running into the same problem: staying compliant meant leaving QuickBooks. WiseCost solves that by adding a compliant layer on top, with fast onboarding and built-in audit controls.

Brian Wendroff, CPA
Brian Wendroff, CPACo-Founder & CFO, WiseCost · Managing Partner, Wendroff & Associates, CPA

Compliance shouldn't depend on the size of your budget. A small contractor deserves the same audit-ready foundation as the largest prime. That's why we built WiseCost on top of QuickBooks Online: no migration, no ERP, just the controls DCAA expects. And once your labor is tracked the right way, you finally see what each contract really costs and earns, so you can make better decisions and grow your business with confidence.

Alfonso Aguilera
Alfonso AguileraCo-Founder & CEO, WiseCost

More than 20 years helping government contractors with accounting and compliance

WiseCost pairs that experience with modern software engineering. Every guide and workflow is grounded in work done for real contractors and reviewed by a practicing CPA, not repackaged from the web. And WiseCost reaches contractors the way trust actually travels in this market: through the CPAs who already advise them, anchored by Wendroff & Associates, CPA.

20+ yearsof GovCon CPA experience behind the product
60+GovCon clients at Wendroff & Associates, CPA
CPA-firstdistribution through trusted advisors

See where WiseCost shows up in the field

Features and guest articles from the people who work in GovCon compliance every day.

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