Who should attend:

Finance, Accounting, Contracts Personnel, Acquisition Specialist with 5 or more years of experience in Cost and Price Analysis. Those who have taken the Cost & Price Analysis class at least 6 months prior.

With the ever increasing pressure on federal government budgets, the emphasis on ensuring that prices paid for goods and services are “fair and reasonable” are at an all-time high. “Buyers” (both Government Contracting Officers as well as Prime Contractors) are under intense scrutiny to demonstrate that analytical techniques (Cost Analysis and Price Analysis) prescribed in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) for determining “fairness and reasonableness” are being performed appropriately and adequately.

FAR describes “cost analysis” as: ” . . . the review and evaluation of any separate cost elements and profit or fee in an offeror’s or contractor’s proposal, as needed to determine a fair and reasonable price or to determine cost realism, and the application of judgment to determine how well the proposed costs represent what the cost of the contract should be, assuming reasonable economy and efficiency.”

Cost Analysis techniques and procedures include the following:

• The classification of workers

• Verification of cost data or pricing data and evaluation of cost elements

• Evaluating the effect of the offeror’s current practices on future costs

• Comparison of costs proposed for individual cost elements with various sources

• Verification that the offeror’s cost submissions are in accordance with the contract cost principles and procedures in Part 31 and, when applicable, the requirements and procedures in 48 CFR Chapter 99 (Appendix to the FAR looseleaf edition), Cost Accounting Standards.

• Review to determine whether any cost data or pricing data, necessary to make the offeror’s proposal suitable for negotiation, have not been either submitted or identified in writing by the offeror.

• Analysis of the results of any make-or-buy program reviews, in evaluating subcontract costs.

Advanced Cost Analysis focuses on these specific techniques and describes and demonstrates in detail the procedures required to accomplish these. Participants will learn not only the “why’s” but the “how to’s”. The course objective, simply stated, is to have participants obtain a working level understanding of Cost Analysis through a thorough review and analysis of the regulations and illustrated through a variety of real world examples, scenarios and case studies.

Learning Objectives
After completing this course, you will be able to:

• Recognize the contracting officer’s responsibilities in acquisition of products and services at fair and reasonable prices
• Demonstrate the ability to use tools to determine cost reasonableness 
• Ability to define cost analysis 
• Utilize the FAR 15-2 table for Adequate Proposals
• Ability to read and determine correct labor hour estimates
• Correctly define certified cost data
• Correctly use techniques to determine an indirect cost allocation
• Create best practices reporting on cost analysis

Materials include:

• Course Manual
• Handouts & Slides