AI-Augmented Fractional CFO · Government Contractors
RatesAuditsIndirectsNumbersStrategy

GovCon finance, executed.

You know your indirect rates leak margin. You know that proposal is underpriced. You know DCAA is coming. What you don't have is a partner who acts with you in a regulatory environment where mistakes are expensive. That's Lineate.

// NO JUNIOR STAFF. NO HANDOFFS. YOU WORK WITH THE CFO.

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Proposals priced as lead
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Years in DoD contract finance
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Largest program supported
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Contract types, prime & sub
The Pattern We See

Small GovCon firms don't fail on knowledge. They stall on action.

Most $3M–$30M contractors already own the tools and understand the rules. What stops them is the fear of getting it wrong in front of DCAA, a contracting officer, or a prime.

Symptom 01

Rates set once, never touched

Indirect rates built years ago, now leaking margin on every invoice — but nobody wants to open that box before an audit.

Symptom 02

Proposals priced by gut

Bids won at rates that can't carry the work, or lost because nobody could defend the cost volume with confidence.

Symptom 03

Compliance as anxiety, not system

DCAA readiness lives in one person's head. Every data call is a fire drill. Every FAR clause is a fresh search.

The product isn't advice. It's execution confidence — a CFO who has done this at $500M scale, working inside your business, moving with you.
Intel Feed

What we're tracking in GovCon finance right now.

Curated signals from the audit, pricing, and policy landscape — the items we're flagging for clients this quarter.

LINEATE INTEL // GOVCON FINANCE SIGNALSMONITORING
Prove It To Yourself

Run your own numbers before you ever talk to us.

Free tools built from the same models we use in engagements. No login. No gate.

TOOL-001 / CALCULATOR

Wrap Rate & Margin Calculator

Enter your labor and pools. Get your wrap rate, fully burdened cost, and margin at your bid rate — and find out if you're bidding underwater.

TOOL-002 / SCORECARD

DCAA Readiness Scorecard

Fifteen questions mapped to SF1408 criteria. Score your accounting system's audit posture in five minutes — before DCAA scores it for you.

Open the free tools
Next Step

30 minutes. Bring your rate structure.

A discovery call is a working session, not a pitch. Bring your current indirect rates or an active pricing problem — you'll leave with at least one thing you can act on.

Book a discovery call
What We Execute

Four disciplines. One operator. AI-augmented throughout.

Every engagement runs on a proprietary library of GovCon-specific AI workflows — big-contractor rigor at small-contractor speed and cost.

CLIN-001 / PROPOSAL PRICING

Cost volumes that win and hold margin

Pricing strategy and cost volume development across FFP, cost-plus, and T&M — prime or sub — backed by $5B+ in led proposals.

  • Price-to-win and rate strategy
  • Cost narrative and BOE support
  • Sub vs. prime teaming economics
CLIN-002 / INDIRECT RATES & DCAA

Rate structures that survive audit

Design, restructure, and defend your indirect rate pools. Provisional billing rates, incurred cost submissions, and accounting system readiness.

  • Pool/base design and forward pricing
  • ICS preparation and audit response
  • SF1408 / accounting system readiness
CLIN-003 / PROGRAM FINANCE

Cash, EACs, and margin — by program

Program-level financial management drawn from $50M–$500M contract experience: EACs you can brief, cash forecasts you can trust.

  • EAC discipline and variance analysis
  • Contract-level cash flow forecasting
  • Monthly close and leadership reporting
CLIN-004 / LABOR & COMPLIANCE

SCA, unions, and benefits — handled

Service Contract Act compliance, wage determination mapping, benefits design, and union negotiation support from someone who has sat at that table.

  • SCA compliance and WD mapping
  • Benefits design and cost modeling
  • Union negotiation financial support
Rate Schedule

Fixed monthly rates. No surprises. No timesheets to audit.

Three engagement levels, structured like your world: clear scope, clear rate, clear deliverables.

Tier I / Advisory
$2,500/mo
For firms with a capable controller who need GovCon-specific judgment on call.
  • Monthly strategy session
  • Rate & pricing review on demand
  • DCAA / FAR question support
  • Async access between sessions
Start here
Tier II / Fractional
$6,500/mo
For firms that need a working CFO inside the business, part-time.
  • Everything in Advisory
  • Monthly close ownership & reporting
  • Indirect rate management
  • Proposal pricing support (up to 2/qtr)
  • Cash forecasting & program finance
Book a call
Tier III / Embedded
$12,000/mo
For firms in growth, audit, or recompete mode that need a CFO in the room.
  • Everything in Fractional
  • Unlimited proposal pricing
  • DCAA audit management
  • Board / bank / prime representation
  • Systems & ERP process buildout
Book a call

// MONTH-TO-MONTH AFTER 90-DAY INITIAL TERM. NO LONG-TERM LOCK-IN.

Fit Check

Built for a specific kind of contractor.

Focus is the point. If you're outside this profile, we'll tell you on the first call and point you somewhere better.

We're a strong fit if you are

  • A DoD or federal contractor doing $3M–$30M in revenue
  • Holding or pursuing cost-plus, T&M, or complex FFP work
  • Facing DCAA scrutiny, a growth inflection, or a recompete
  • Tired of generic accountants who don't speak FAR
  • Ready to act, not just collect another assessment

We're not a fit if you need

  • Bookkeeping or tax preparation only
  • A full-time, on-site CFO hire
  • Commercial-only finance with no federal work
  • Someone to bless a plan you won't execute
Questions

Asked before every engagement.

How is this different from hiring a GovCon consultant?
Consultants deliver assessments and leave. This is an operating role: Lineate owns the close, manages the rates, prices the proposals, and sits in the room when DCAA or your prime shows up. The deliverable is outcomes, not decks.
What does "AI-augmented" actually mean?
Proprietary AI workflows built specifically for GovCon finance — indirect rate scenario modeling, cost volume first drafts, compliance cross-checks against FAR/DFARS. Every output is reviewed and owned by the CFO. You get senior judgment at higher speed and lower cost, not a chatbot.
Can you work with our existing accountant or controller?
Yes — that's the normal setup. Your bookkeeper or controller keeps the transactional work. Lineate sits above it: rates, pricing, compliance posture, cash strategy, and leadership reporting.
We have a DCAA audit coming. Is it too late?
Usually not, but the clock matters. The first two weeks of an audit-response engagement are triage: what's defensible now, what needs remediation, and what we tell the auditor when. Book the call before the entrance conference, not after.
Why not just hire a full-time CFO?
At $3M–$30M revenue, a full-time GovCon CFO costs $250K–$350K fully loaded — and you don't need 40 hours a week of one. The fractional model buys the same judgment at a fraction of the cost, with the option to scale up when a recompete or audit hits.
Free Tools

The same models we use in engagements. Free, because confidence starts with your own numbers.

No login. No gate. If the output raises a question you can't answer alone — that's what the discovery call is for.

Wrap Rate & Margin Calculator

TOOL-001
Raw hourly wage for the labor category.
Benefits, PTO, payroll taxes — applied to direct labor.
Applied to direct labor + fringe in this model.
Applied to total cost input (labor + fringe + OH).
The rate you're bidding or billing. Leave as-is to test margin.

Output — Burdened Rate Buildup

Direct labor$60.00
+ Fringe$19.20
+ Overhead$22.18
+ G&A$12.17
Fully burdened cost$113.54
+ Fee$9.08
Loaded rate w/ fee$122.63
Wrap rate (cost)1.89×
Margin at your bid rate

Disclaimer: This calculator is an educational estimate using a simplified single-pool model. Actual indirect rate structures vary by pool design, allocation bases, and contract terms. Outputs are not accounting, pricing, or legal advice and should not be used directly in a proposal or billing without review by a qualified professional. Verify against your approved provisional rates.

DCAA Readiness Scorecard

TOOL-002

Fifteen yes/no questions mapped to the criteria DCAA evaluates in an SF1408 pre-award accounting system survey. Answer honestly — nobody sees this but you.

Disclaimer: This scorecard is a self-assessment for educational purposes. It approximates, but does not replicate, the SF1408 evaluation and does not predict any audit outcome. It is not audit, accounting, or legal advice. For an actual readiness determination, consult a qualified GovCon accounting professional.

Fractional vs. Full-Time CFO Cost

TOOL-003
Benefits, taxes, bonus, equity — typically 30–45%.
Advisory $2,500 · Fractional $6,500 · Embedded $12,000

Annual Cost Comparison

Full-time CFO, loaded$324,000
Lineate engagement$78,000
Annual difference$246,000
Cost ratio24%

Disclaimer: Illustrative comparison only. Salary and load assumptions vary by market and role scope. A fractional engagement is part-time by design and is not a like-for-like replacement for every full-time CFO responsibility.

Insights

Field notes from inside a DoD contractor.

Written by a sitting GovCon finance executive — not a content team. What actually happens in floor checks, rate reviews, and pricing rooms.

The Operator

One CFO. Real contract scar tissue.

NAME....... JALPESH — CFO
BASE....... SAN DIEGO, CA
TENURE..... 15+ YRS GOVCON FINANCE
PROPOSALS.. $5B+ AS PRICING LEAD
PROGRAMS... $50M–$500M DOD
SYSTEMS.... JAMIS ERP / DCAA
LABOR...... SCA + UNION NEGOTIATIONS
EDUCATION.. WHARTON AI SPECIALIZATION

I've spent 15+ years as the finance lead inside a DoD aerospace contractor — currently as CFO. I've led pricing on more than $5 billion in proposals across every major contract type, managed program finance on contracts from $50M to $500M, negotiated with the Machinists union, built benefits programs from scratch, and kept a DCAA-audited accounting system clean.

That matters because most fractional CFOs come from commercial finance and learn GovCon on your dime. I've already made the expensive mistakes on someone else's payroll — and built the systems that prevent them.

The AI layer isn't a gimmick. I've built a library of GovCon-specific AI workflows — rate modeling, cost volume drafting, compliance checking — that let one senior operator deliver what used to take a finance department. You pay for judgment; the machines handle the volume.

Lineate — from lineate: marked with lines. Rate structures, contract baselines, audit trails. We keep every line clean, defensible, and yours.

Book a Discovery Call

30 minutes. Bring your rate structure.

A discovery call is a working session, not a pitch. Bring your current indirect rates, a DCAA notice, or an active pricing problem — you'll leave with at least one thing you can act on, whether we work together or not.

Request a discovery call

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