What is "costpoint"

Deltek Costpoint is a project accounting software package sold by Deltek. Costpoint is the "high-end" of the three main project accounting software packages sold by the company.

Deltek Costpoint's niche in the project accounting software market is its tailoring for use by government contractors, which have unique government regulations (mainly the Cost Accounting Standards and the Federal Acquisition Regulations). Among Costpoint users are L-3 Communications, CACI, Northrop Grumman, CSC, Serco Inc., SAIC, Lockheed Martin, DRS Technologies, Orbital Science Corporation, Triple Canopy Inc and SGIS.

Deltek Costpoint has a number of different modules and functions arranged in a tree structure. The software has a breakdown of folders into Accounting, Projects, People, Materials, and Others. Opening up Accounting, for instance, it breaks down into the functions of General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Fixed Assets, Travel, and Multicurrency. Each of those functions breaks down into subfunctions. Some items, like the time and expense module, is a separate Deltek product which must be bought in addition to Costpoint (but which can also be used with the other Deltek products).

Unlike generic software solutions (e.g., those for financial services, manufacturing, etc.), Costpoint is project-centric out of the box. It has functionality built-in that is unique to the requirements of government contractors like support for WAWF-RA (Wide Area Work Flow) for the Department of Defense; support for all standard and required forms including 1034's, 1035's, and DD250's; unlimited number of pools that makes it easy to automatically allocate indirect costs; and built-in formulas based on contract type (cost plus, time and materials, etc.). Costpoint has extra modules available for government contractors that are also project manufacturers.

With company's latest product release, Deltek Performance Management, Costpoint customers also have access to a "GovCon" library of reports (including Incurred Cost Submission) to ease the complexity and time involved being compliant with government regulations.