WiseCost is DCAA compliance software for small government contractors who run their books in QuickBooks® Online. It gives you the timekeeping, labor distribution, and job costing a DCAA auditor expects: daily time entry, timesheet approval, an immutable audit trail, and cost-pool allocation, and works with QuickBooks Online, so you get audit-ready without an enterprise ERP, a data migration, or spreadsheets.
The problem WiseCost solves
QuickBooks Online handles the money well, but it was never built for government contracting: no DCAA-compliant timekeeping, no approval workflow, no audit trail for time entries, and no way to distribute labor across cost pools and post the result as a traceable journal entry. The usual workarounds: spreadsheets, or a $30K–$100K ERP like Deltek or Unanet, either don't survive an audit or don't fit a 2–60 person team. WiseCost closes that gap.
How it works
- Time tracking: Employees log hours daily by project, task, and cost category from any device, by timer or manual entry.
- Approval workflow: Employees submit timesheets; managers approve or return them. Every action is timestamped and attributed.
- Labor distribution_ A guided wizard turns approved hours into dollars across direct and indirect cost pools (Fringe, Overhead, G&A), with penny-precise rounding that ties each employee's distribution exactly to payroll.
-Journal-entry posting: The distribution posts as a journal entry in QuickBooks Online, fully traceable. Reopen a period and WiseCost creates an automatic reversal, the original is never deleted.
- Immutable audit trail: Every entry, edit, approval, rejection, and posting is preserved with its original author and timestamp, exactly what auditors request in a floor check or incurred cost audit.
Built for the SF-1408 review
WiseCost maps directly to the timekeeping and labor-distribution criteria of the SF-1408 pre-award accounting system review: daily timekeeping by employee and project, employee certification, manager approval, an immutable audit trail, labor distribution to direct and indirect cost pools, and journal-entry posting to QuickBooks with full traceability. Whether you already hold T&M or cost-type contracts or you're getting audit-ready before your first award, Pre-DCAA mode lets you demonstrate cost-accounting maturity from day one.
For CPA firms and advisors
CPAs advising GovCon clients get a multi-tenant, white-labeled dashboard to onboard and manage every client from one place.
An affordable alternative to Deltek and Unanet
No migration, installs in hours, and starts at $149/month (5 users included, plus $15 per additional user). You keep QuickBooks. You keep your data. You get compliant.
Who it's for
Small and mid-size U.S. government contractors (2–60 employees) on QuickBooks Online with T&M, cost-plus, or mixed contracts, or firms bidding on federal prime or subcontracts that need compliant timekeeping before their first award.
Key capabilities
DCAA-compliant timekeeping · Daily time entry by project and task · Manager approval workflow · Labor distribution to direct and indirect cost pools · Penny-precise rounding tied to payroll · Automatic journal-entry posting to QuickBooks Online · Immutable audit trail · Job costing by contract · Timekeeping and labor records ready for DCAA floor checks and incurred cost audits · Multi-tenant CPA dashboard · SF-1408 support · Pre-DCAA readiness mode · QuickBooks Online integration (OAuth) · Mobile / PWA access · Affordable pricing from $149/month.
Average Rating: 4.5/5.0
Total Reviews: 1
How Do G2 Users Rate WiseCost?
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Has the product been a good partner in doing business?: 10.0/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
Who Is the Company Behind WiseCost?