The McKelvey Group offers a complete training portfolio that provides critical skills for individuals and businesses. Customized and standard courses are available to help you and your business achieve full potential.
We offer both private and public courses, both in-person or virtually. Private courses are designed and tailored for your team, covering the key topics and areas of interest that are important to your company. Public courses are offered to an open audience and cover our standard course agendas. Regardless of which format, all our corporate training courses engage participants in learning real-life best practices, resulting in actual working tools you can apply to your business.
As a NASBA CPE Sponsor, most courses qualify for CPE credit.
The McKelvey Group is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State Boards of Accountancy have the final authority on the acceptance of individual course for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website: www.nasbaregistry.org
"I have worked in Fed Gov Contracting for over 30 years and have taken many Continuing Ed courses from universities. None bring the insight to Federal Government Contract accounting, proposal pricing, and surviving DCAA audits that The McKelvey Group does. Federal contract accounting is very different from commercial accounting and understanding the constantly changing FAR, DFAR and DCAA regulations is paramount to the success of our company.”
Jacqueline Adams, CFO, Exeter Government Services
“I must say, and will do so simply, the best training I have received in years! I couldn’t stop learning and writing and thinking. I felt everyone in the room was well versed at an equal level that made the course relevant and well worth the time and money.”
Bradford Blevins, President & Sr. Strategy Advisor, gothamCulture LLC
“TMG provided us with highly relevant, professional training to bring our pricing capabilities to a higher level. Our team was engaged throughout the day and able to apply learned principles to our practices! They were incredibly beneficial to our company and provided valuable insights.”
Megan Mattingly, VP Capture & Proposals, 1Source
“At Federal Publications Seminars, it is important for our customers to receive the best industry training available. That is why we have partnered with Matt McKelvey and The McKelvey Group. His experience, teaching style and ability to connect provides our customers with the practical tools, tips and knowledge they can utilize immediately at their organization and throughout their careers.”
Todd Hatherly, Director of Programs & Strategic Relations, Federal Publications Seminars
“TMG created a custom training course for our group and earned very high marks from our attendees. Great job, TMG!”
Verda Mullings, Director, Corp. Contracts, Lockheed Martin Corp.
| This Course is on our Jan 2021 Schedule! |
This entry-level course is designed to provide an overview of the Pricing process in response to Government Requests for Proposal (RFP). This is an introductory course that focuses on the process, definitions, basic skills, and requirements for completing a Cost/Price proposal in response to an RFP.
Participants will be taught industry best practices for planning, identifying/quantifying elements of cost, building a cost/price model, organizing a narrative, and preparing for submission/audit. The course is interactive, encouraging attendee participation. Samples and templates will be used in the course and provided to all attendees.
This course provides those new to Government pricing a wider understanding of the entire proposal process.
Responding to a Government RFP requires a significant amount of time and resources. Even if your company has the best solution for the Government, simple mistakes in pricing a proposal can cost your company the win. Or your company could win the contract but find after award that it is losing money because of mistakes made in the pricing response. Improving your expertise at responding to Government procurements takes many years. However, this course can give you the foundation to reduce the learning curve dramatically.
This is an entry-level course designed for pricers with 0-3 years of experience. Accounting, contracts, business development, and other non-pricer personnel looking to develop a basic understanding of the pricing function will also benefit from this course. Attendees should have a basic level of experience with Microsoft Excel.
This course leads the attendee through a typical proposal process from RFP release to submission. Upon completion of this course, attendees will:
| This Course is on our Jan 2021 Schedule! |
This course is designed as a workshop to provide attendees industry best practices for developing a cost/price proposal. This is an introductory course that focuses on the process, definitions, basic skills, and requirements for completing a Cost/Price proposal in response to a Request for Proposal (RFP).
In this hands-on workshop, attendees will develop a response to a Government RFP. Attendees will review a sample Time and Materials (T&M) RFP, develop direct labor rates, apply indirect rates, discuss the narrative, and prepare the audit file. The final product of the course is a complemented T&M pricing model.
Most pricing seminars focus solely on the basic structural mechanics of building a price proposal, omitting discussions on important factors that are frequently encountered during the pricing process. This course goes beyond the basic pricing steps to provide even experienced pricers a wider understanding of the entire proposal process as well as post-award contract performance. Participants will not only gain the knowledge needed to build models, but also an understanding of some of the critical issues to consider beyond simply responding to the RFP.
Responding to a Government RFP requires a significant amount of time and resources. Even if your company has the best solution for the Government, simple mistakes in pricing a proposal can cost your company the win. Or your company could win the contract but find after award that it is losing money because of mistakes made in the pricing response. Improving your expertise at responding to Government procurements takes many years. However, this course can give you the foundation to reduce the learning curve dramatically.
This is an intermediate-level course designed for pricers with 2-6 years of experience. Accounting, contracts, business development, and other non-pricer personnel looking to develop a better understanding of the pricing function will also benefit from this course. Attendees should have an intermediate level of experience with Microsoft Excel. This means the ability to navigate menus, create common formulas, and use formatting tools.
This course leads the attendee through a typical proposal process from RFP release to submission. Upon completion of this course, attendees will:
This course provides attendees with industry best practices and strategies for improving the win probability (p-win) for your proposals. This is an advanced course that focuses on the pricing levers available to highlight strengths, mitigate weaknesses, and increase the likelihood that your proposed price will help seal rather than detrimentally impact your proposed technical solution as the best option for the Government.
The levers and strategies discussed will begin with actions that can be taken prior to the release of a draft RFP and carry through to the actions taken after submission and award. The discussions will present the appropriate use of these levers/strategies as well as the pros/cons of each.
In this course, attendees will discuss shaping the RFP, using questions to advance strategy, teaming considerations, cost/price approaches, indirect rate strategies, fee/profit strategies, narrative impacts, ghosting, evaluation assistance, and integration with the technical/past performance responses.
Responding to a Government RFP requires a significant amount of time and resources. Even if your company has the best solution for the Government, your competition may well be using advanced approaches/strategies which can cost your company the win. Improving your expertise at responding to Government procurements takes many years. However, this course can give you the foundation to reduce the learning curve dramatically.
This is an advanced-level course designed for pricers with 6+ years of experience. Accounting, contracts, business development, executive, and other non-pricer personnel looking to develop a better understanding of the pricing levers and strategies used by industry will also benefit from this course.
This course provides insight into the cost/price levers and strategies available to all Government contractors. Upon completion of this course, attendees will:
Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) Audits are a fact of life for Federal Government contractors. Being prepared in advance of an audit greatly increases the likelihood of a successful audit outcome. This workshop will guide participants through multiple DCAA audits – including pre-award, accounting system, purchasing system, and estimating system.
Creating the systems for your company which will pass DCAA scrutiny requires a full appreciation of the entire audit process. This workshop will provide not only the basic steps required, but also anecdotal examples to help you to be prepared for what to expect.
All Federal Contractors eventually must endure and pass a DCAA audit. Federal RFPs increasingly request/ require a company’s DCAA Audit status, especially for accounting and purchasing systems. No company wants to miss an opportunity to respond to an RFP because they have not passed an audit. And without proper preparation and processes in place, an audit can be disruptive and difficult. This workshop will provide a detailed overview of the entire process, from pre-audit preparation through post-audit initiatives. Participants will learn how to:
* Conference participants can earn up to 8 CPE credits in Accounting (Govt.), Auditing (Govt.), Business Mgt. and Org., Finance, Management Adv. Services, Specialized Knowledge and Apps fields of study for the DCAA Audit Workshop.
Having an accounting system which is compliant with Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), Cost Accounting Standards (CAS), and DCAA/Cognizant Auditor requirements is an absolute must for every company doing business with the Federal Government. But what if you are a small Government contractor who lacks the Finance/Accounting experience to set up your Accounting System for compliance? This webinar is for you.
This webinar walks through the actual setup of the Chart of Accounts, calculations of indirect rates, development of an Accounting Policies and Procedures Manual, and the preparation for an Accounting System Audit. By the end of this 3.5 hour seminar, you will have the basic structure in place along with the tactical action plan to complete all documentation and preparation.
What used to be a competitive advantage – having an accounting system deemed adequate for Government contracting – is now a basic business requirement. More and more Government Request for Proposals (RFP) are being released with the requirement that contractors have an adequate accounting system BEFORE a proposal is submitted. In addition, Tier I contractors are getting increased pressure from DCAA and Cognizant Audit Agencies to ensure their subcontractors are CAS and FAR compliant. You may soon find that your company is excluded from a key team because of the status of your accounting system.
* Conference participants can earn up to 4 CPE credits in Accounting (Govt.), Auditing (Govt.) fields of study for the DCAA/FAR Compliant Quickbooks Seminar.
An Incurred Cost Submission is required for ALL Federal Government Contractors with at least one of the following:
It does not matter if your company is a Prime contractor or a Subcontractor. It does not matter how small the Contracts/Tasks are. This is an annual requirement. It should be part of your annual accounting close process.
Most contractors find out about Incurred Cost Submissions when their Cognizant Auditor (CA) contacts them asking for status. The CA may ask for information about submissions from five or more years ago. Thus begins a scramble for the contractor to go back in history and handle multiple submissions in a short time frame. Scrambling to complete submissions in a short time frame is a recipe for failure.
This three-hour seminar will help attendees better understand what Incurred Cost Submissions are. Attendees will learn the answers to the following questions:
This hands-on seminar will provide a discussion about the Who, What, Why, and When. But most importantly, attendees will get a walk-through of each component of the submission. This walk-through will provide them with a list of required information, an explanation of what the auditors are looking for, and an appreciation for how to ensure a fully-compliant submission.
* At this time, the Incurred Cost Submissions Seminar does not qualify for CPE Credits
Negotiation skills are an extremely valuable trait to learn in the contracting environment. Whether you support business development, engineering, accounting, pricing, administration or legal, it is important to know how to negotiate and get to a position as a team to win the contract. Negotiations is not just a skill but an asset to understand. It is important to winning the award as such that both sides have a mutual benefit and a good working relationship after the award.
Negotiating Skills for Government Contractors covers the specifics of negotiating contracts and subcontract provisions, prices and claims including:
Participants will learn the when and why to negotiate as well as the basic concepts of negotiations. Participants will also learn what can be negotiated and the key steps to planning – so everyone understands the objectives to the negotiations. We will discuss how to set up role playing and how to prepare for different scenarios during your negotiation process. Also covered will be some of the traps and ‘gotchas’ as well as timing and how that plays a role during the negotiations process.
By the end of this one-day program participants will have a better understanding of the “why,” the “how,” and the “when” of negotiations. Learning objectives include the following:
In addition to our standard course offerings, we provide customized corporate training. Contact us!
has over 25 years of experience in Finance/Accounting, Government Contracting, Business Valuations, Process Optimization, and Training.
has over 20 years of experience in Government Contracting, Proposal Pricing and Cost Volume Development, Budget Analysis, and Management.
has over 40 years of experience in U.S. Government Contractor Costing, Pricing, Finance and Business Management.
has an extensive background in Mergers & Acquisitions, Federal Government Contracts, and Infrastructure Development for growing companies.
