May 16, 2026
What to Expect During a DCAA Floor Check (and How to Be Ready)
DCAA floor checks are unannounced. Here's what auditors actually do, the questions they ask employees, the most common failures, and how to stay continuously ready.
A DCAA floor check is an unannounced visit to your office. No appointment, no heads-up. The auditor wants to verify that your timekeeping practices match your written policies — right now, today.
If that sounds stressful, it doesn't have to be. Floor checks follow a predictable pattern, and the best preparation is simply running your system correctly every day.
What Actually Happens
The auditor arrives and asks to see your timekeeping system. They have three goals: verify employees are recording time contemporaneously (the same day), confirm that timesheet charges match actual work being performed, and check that your practices align with your written policies.
They'll typically ask to see several employees' current-day timesheets, observe what those employees are doing, and compare the two. If an employee's timesheet shows 3 hours on Contract A this morning, the auditor wants to confirm they've been working on Contract A tasks.
What we've seen in practice "From the DCAA's own perspective, they don't care which software you're using. What they want are reports that contain the data they need to review. The software question is yours to answer based on cost and fit."
— Sarah Sun, CPA — Wendroff & Associates, CPA (from a webinar with a DCAA auditor)
The Employee Interview
This is the part most contractors worry about. The auditor approaches individual employees — usually 3–5 people — and asks straightforward questions.
"When did you record your time today?" Good answer: "I record it each morning and update before I leave." Problematic answer: "I do it on Fridays."
"How do you determine which contract to charge?" Good answer: references specific task assignments or work orders. Problematic answer: "I put everything on the same one" or "my manager tells me."
"What do you do if you make an error?" Good answer: describes the correction and re-approval process. Problematic answer: "I just delete it and re-enter."
"Are you familiar with the timekeeping policy?" Good answer: can describe the basics (daily recording, submit for approval, don't charge time you didn't work). Problematic answer: "What policy?"
The Most Common Failures
Batch time entry. The auditor finds that employees consistently record all their hours on Friday afternoon. This suggests the hours are from memory, not contemporaneous.
Can't explain charges. An employee doesn't know what contract they've charged time to today, or can't explain what work they did on that contract.
Policy mismatch. The written policy says "daily recording" but the system shows most entries are made weekly.
Missing approvals. Timesheets from recent periods haven't been approved by supervisors.
How to Stay Ready
Enforce daily recording. Use a system that timestamps entries. If your system doesn't enforce this, at minimum make it a clear expectation with periodic check-ins.
Train your employees. Annual timekeeping training for everyone. New hire training before their first timesheet. Cover the policy, the why, and the consequences of non-compliance. This doesn't have to be elaborate — a 30-minute session with Q&A is sufficient.
Supervisors must actually review. Approval shouldn't be a rubber stamp. Supervisors need to look at the hours and verify they make sense.
Do your own floor checks. Once a quarter, walk around (or call remote employees) and ask the same questions an auditor would. Fix gaps before DCAA finds them.
"The goal of any audit is to pass it as quickly as possible. The contractor doesn't want to be in audit — they're in it because they need the contract. Run your system clean, give the auditor what they need, and the floor check becomes a non-event."
— Brian Wendroff, CPA — CFO & Co-founder, WiseCost
The goal is to make floor checks boring. The auditor shows up, sees everything in order, and leaves. If your system and training are solid, that's exactly what happens.
Want to know if your timekeeping would survive a floor check today? Run our free DCAA Readiness Self-Assessment — 9 questions auditors actually care about, with prioritized fixes.
Reviewed by Brian Wendroff, CPA — CFO & Co-founder, WiseCost · Founder, Wendroff & Associates, CPA — and Sarah Sun, CPA — Wendroff & Associates, CPA.