When the Auditor Walks the Floor: Surviving a DCAA Floor Check

Published 2026 | TIKC NewsWire

Imagine an ordinary Tuesday. A government auditor walks into your workspace with no appointment, points at one of your employees, and asks a few simple questions. What are you working on right now? What contract are you charging today? When did you start? That is a floor check, and it is one of the sharpest tools the Defense Contract Audit Agency has. It is not about your paperwork. It is a live test of whether the hours on your timesheets match what your people are actually doing.

What a floor check really is

A floor check is a surprise visit, by design. The auditor compares what an employee says they are doing against what the timekeeping records say, right there in the moment. They may ask whether the person knows your timekeeping rules, how they record time, and who approves it. The whole point is that you cannot prepare a special answer, because you did not know they were coming. A clean floor check is simply your normal habits holding up to a surprise.

Why it matters so much

A floor check is where a timekeeping problem stops being theoretical. If an employee is charging a contract while doing work for a different one, the auditor sees the gap live, and that single mismatch can call every invoice built on those hours into question. It can also turn a sloppy habit into a false statement problem if the records were signed as accurate. The floor check is small in the moment and large in what it can prove.

How you actually pass one

You pass a floor check the same way every day, long before the auditor arrives. Your people record time as they work, they know which contract they are on, and they understand your rules well enough to explain them in plain words. There is nothing to rehearse because the honest answer is the right answer. This is the same discipline that protects you from cross-charging and from uncompensated-overtime trouble. Good timekeeping is not a trick you pull out for audits. It is a habit that makes audits boring.

What to do now

• Write down your timekeeping rules. Have a short, clear policy every employee can read and follow.
• Record time in real time. Make daily, as-you-work logging the normal way, not the exception.
• Make sure people know their charge number. Everyone should know which contract they are on and why.
• Practice the plain answer. People should be able to explain what they do and how they charge, in their own words.
• Keep approvals clean. Have supervisors review and approve time, with any changes made openly.

A floor check feels scary only if your timesheets and your reality do not match. Build honest daily habits and the surprise visit becomes a non-event, because your people just tell the truth and the truth is already on the record. Keep it clean every day, and the auditor finds nothing to find. Brick by brick.

FAQ

What is a DCAA floor check?

An unannounced visit where a government auditor asks employees what they are working on and what contract they are charging, then compares that against the timekeeping records to test whether timesheets are accurate.

Why are floor checks unannounced?

So you cannot prepare a special answer. The auditor wants to see your normal habits in the moment, which is the whole point of the test.

What happens if an employee is on the wrong charge?

A live mismatch between the work and the charged contract can call the related invoices into question and, if records were certified as accurate, raise a false-statement issue.

How do I prepare my team?

Keep a clear timekeeping policy, record time daily, make sure everyone knows their charge number, and have people able to explain in plain words what they do and how they log it.

Sources

Defense Contract Audit Agency. (2026). Contract Audit Manual, employee interviews and labor floor checks.

Federal Acquisition Regulation. (2026). Part 31, allowability and the requirement for accurate labor records.

This article is general information, not legal advice.