INQUIRY:
Hi Paul, Can you explain the difference of putting travel and client expenses into B&P versus G/A? Look forward your response. Thanks.
RESPONSE:
B&P (Bid and Proposal) expenses for travel and client related expenses are typically for costs incurred during the Proposal Phase of responding to any type of solicitation, RFI, RFQ, etc.
Similar type costs would typically go into G&A when they are Not For B&P/Proposal type activities but are for the General and Administrative activities of the company.
Also, if the expenses are in support of contracts that have already been won and you are performing on them, then you could assign those costs to Overhead if you have an overhead pool.
Another Option is if you incur these types of costs for a specific contract, AND there is a line item in the contract to charge directly, then you can charge the expenses Direct.
So the types of cost you describe could go to any of the categories, depending on the Purpose of The Expense, and what you would like your Policies to be on these type costs.
Typically, B&P costs are related to Direct Employees’ activity that cannot be charged Direct to a contract for B&P effort. So these cost, considered B&P, are tracked and recouped through G&A.
G&A employees sometimes do not separately identify the B&P effort because it goes into G&A anyway. It is still tracked when a firm wants to get a true picture of B&P costs in their company regardless of who is involved.
An Overhead Employee will typically still identify their B&P so the expense is transferred to G&A as B&P rather than residing in the Overhead Pool.
That’s my input. Feedback is always welcome. Join Now!