TEST YOUR
KNOWLEDGE
ACROSS:
1. 9 to 5 clothes + Sacajawea Uniform Guidance
4. Satiated Bees on a clock Full Time Employees
6. Intoxicating, yet unallowable Alcohol
9. To spend funds Expenditure
Make sure you are signed up for next quarter's magazine to find out the answers.
38 CAPTURE. COSTTREE 2016 Q2 ISSUE
CASE STUDY: City of Boston, Massachusetts
"The file upload feature is an enormous time saver. The file
attachment feature will be a time saver during the audit process."
Kelli Lazar
Assistant City Auditor
DOWNLOAD PDF
DOWN:
2. Another word for foundation Infrastructure
3. Distribute with purpose Allocate
5. A sum with exclusions Modified Total Direct Cost
7. Oval.Micro.Bargain. Office of Management and Budget
8. "Engaging" your rate on the side
Indirect Cost Rate Proposal
10. A tiny consideration De Minimis
LAST ISSUES ANSWERS:
WORD SEARCH:
ALLOCATIONS
APPLICATIONS
COST
COSTTREE
ECIVIS
EXCEL
GRANTS
PLAN
TRANSPARENCY
TRUE
CHALLENGE: For years, the City of Boston created their cost allocation plan using an outdated local application. This application was time consuming, only allowed one user on the system at a time, and was not transparent or easy to follow.
SOLUTION: By switching to our Web-based platform, the City of Boston was able to solve the challenges of using this application.
RESULT: The City of Boston was able to spend less time inputting numbers and more time on the methodology of their plan, leading to the city finding tens of millions of dollars in missed overhead reimbursements.
CITY NAME: City of Boston, Massachusetts
The City of Boston is the capital and the largest city in Massachusetts in the United States. The city proper covers 48 square miles with an estimated population of over 655,000 people in 2014, making it the largest city in New England and the 24th largest city in the United States.
CHALLENGE: Outdated local application
The City of Boston had been preparing their cost plans in-house for years using what became an outdated local application with many limitations. These included a lack of transparency within their plan, the inability to have multiple users on the platform at the same time, and required manual inputting of all data, which made their cost plan preparation lengthy and hard to follow. This application also did not posses the ability for uniform, all-in-one reporting, so the city had to manually compile a finished cost plan before submitting it.
SOLUTION: Switch to Web-based platform with robust features
By partnering with CostTree, the City of Boston was able to quickly and seamlessly transition to our Web-based cost allocation plan software, and was able to start benefiting from the robust features and transparency they were long missing. “The file upload feature is an enormous time saver,” said Lazar. By utilizing our Excel upload feature, the city was able to upload Excel files directly into our platform instead of manually inputting data. “The file attachment feature will be a time saver during the audit process,” continued Lazar, referring to CostTree’s document repository which keeps track of all associated files with your cost plan in the system. The arrangement of departments within the report to match the organization layout, uniform, all-in-one reporting, and the abilities to export into Excel and have multiple users on the platform at once, were also time savers for the city.
RESULT: Greater transparency and millions of dollars more in reimbursements
With the support of CostTree experts, the City of Boston submitted a plan that enabled them to recoup tens of millions of dollars in missed reimbursements. “We were able to easily follow how the costs were allocated from the central service departments to the receiving departments. The 2nd step of allocation from the central service departments is much clearer,” said Lazar. This clarity has made it easier and faster than ever for the City of Boston to recoup the highest allowable indirect costs while adhering to and remaining fully complaint to OMB guidelines. With less time spent inputting and more time spent where it mattered–maximizing reimbursements.