Before DCAA auditors examine the substance of your incurred cost proposal, they run it through a 47-question adequacy checklist. A single 'No' on the wrong question can trigger a full return of your submission, stalling final rate settlement and leaving you non-compliant until an adequate proposal is resubmitted. Understanding exactly what each question asks and what evidence satisfies it is the difference between an accepted proposal and months of back-and-forth.
Schedules A–D: The Foundation Questions (16 Questions)
The first 16 questions verify your proposal's structural integrity — Schedule A summary of all costs by element, Schedule B direct cost breakdowns by contract, Schedule C home office and field allocations, and Schedule D the reconciliation to your accounting system's general ledger. DCAA auditors use these questions to confirm your claimed costs tie out and that no contracts are missing from the submission.
Schedules E–H: Allocation & Reconciliation (12 Questions)
Questions 17–28 target the heart of your ICP: indirect cost pool allocations (Schedule E), Cost of Money calculations under CAS 414 (Schedule F), general ledger reconciliation (Schedule G), and the master contract schedule (Schedule H). These twelve questions cover the most audit-sensitive areas, including whether your allocation bases comply with CAS 410 and whether pool compositions match your disclosed practices.
Schedules I–O: Cumulative Costs & Certification (19 Questions)
The final 19 questions span cumulative cost schedules (I), subcontract flows (J), T&M/labor-hour contracts (K), payroll reconciliation (L), management decisions and rate agreements (M), the contractor's signed certification (N), and contract closing statements (O). Question 47 — the certification signature — is the single most common reason for adequacy rejection.
How the ICP Dashboard Auto-Verifies All 47 Questions
The ICP Dashboard maps each adequacy question to the specific schedule data and reconciliation checks that satisfy it. As you build your proposal, the dashboard pre-fills adequacy assessments, flags questions at risk of failure, and generates an exportable adequacy report with all 47 responses, comments, and supporting evidence. This transforms adequacy review from a manual audit prep exercise into a real-time compliance guardrail.
Explore the interactive guide below to see every question on the DCAA Adequacy Checklist v3.4, organized by schedule group — with risk scoring, auto-verification status, and the ICP Dashboard's approach to ensuring your proposal passes on first submission.