This article was written by A2B Tracking’s Property Management expert, Pat Jacklets and A2B Tracking’s President and CEO, Peter Collins. It was published in the June 2017 issue of the NPMA Property Professional magazine. To download the full article, click here.
Government contractors within the Department of Defense (DoD) community are responsible for timely and accurate reporting of shipments, invoices, property and materiel. While contractors may follow the military standard for the identification and shipment of products and Government Furnished Property (GFP) in practice, if they are not reporting electronically to iRAPT and IUID (Item Unique Identification) Registry then they are not in compliance with the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS). By not managing this reporting requirement correctly, these contractors are at risk of payment or shipment rejections as well as jeopardizing their DoD contracts or property management system status.
A contractor or supplier working with the DoD must understand the Government’s mission for paperless acquisition and property transfers in order to improve their own internal processes to meet them. It is important for contractors to understand their contract and the Scheduled Government property due in on the contract and whether or not the items are serially managed.
The Government moved to a paperless acquisition system to streamline and modernize their invoice collection. Paperless acquisition of invoices improves accessibility, eliminates lost documents and greatly decreases the processing time. Gone are the days of triplicate paper invoices. Contractors that work with the DoD are required to use the secure web-based system iRAPT system, which is part of the e-Business Wide Area Workflow or WAWF suite (see figure 1) for all their Government invoices, shipments, and GFP receipts and transfers.
The WAWF e-Business Suite is a complex system. It requires a coordinated effort from the contractor’s organization, to manage and submit the appropriate data through the correct channels. A Government Contractor’s (vendor in figure 1) ability to navigate this ecosystem properly is essential to a program’s success. The DoD requires that a contractor submit their data accurately into the iRAPT application to record contracts, invoices and receiving reports to be paid. The Government must inspect, accept and approve all shipments of end items prior to sign off on final invoice payment. Likewise, the contractor is required to report on receipts of “ALL” GFP according to contractual requirements as to whether or not they are serially managed.
