D.C. Mun. Regs. tit. 27, r. 27-3399
When used in this chapter, the following terms and phrases shall have the meanings ascribed:
Actual costs - amounts determined on the basis of costs incurred, as distinguished from forecasted costs. Actual costs include standard costs properly adjusted for applicable variances.
Advance cost agreement - an agreement between the District and a contractor concerning the treatment of special or unusual costs which are expected to be incurred.
Advertising costs - costs of advertising and directly associated costs regardless of the medium employed, when the advertiser has control over the form and content of what will appear, the media in which it will appear, and when it will appear. Advertising media includes conventions, exhibits, free goods, samples, magazines, newspapers, trade papers, direct mail, dealer cards, window displays, outdoor advertising, and radio and television programs.
Allocate - to assign an item of cost or a group of items of cost to one (1) or more cost objectives.
Allowable costs - costs determined to be permissible based on reasonableness, allocability, and generally accepted accounting principles and practices appropriate to the particular circumstances.
Bona fide employee - an employee who is employed in a specific position for a specific purpose relating to promoting or securing business for the contractor.
Business unit - any segment of an organization or an entire business organization that is not divided into segments.
Consultant - a firm or individual with knowledge and special abilities not generally available to an agency who renders services of a purely advisory nature relating to governmental functions or agency administration and management.
Contingency costs - costs based on a possible future event or condition arising from presently known or unknown causes, the outcome of which is not determinable at the present time.
Cost objective - a function, organizational subdivision, contract, or other work unit for which cost data are desired and for which provision is made to accumulate and measure the cost of processes, products, jobs, and capitalized projects.
Council - the Council of the District of Columbia.
Deferred compensation - an award made by an employer to compensate an employee in a future cost accounting period or periods for services rendered in one (1) or more cost accounting periods before the date of the receipt of compensation by the employee. This term does not include the amount of year end accruals for salaries, wages, or bonuses that are to be paid within a reasonable period of time after the end of a cost accounting period.
Depreciation - a charge to current operations which distributes the cost of a tangible capital asset, less estimated residual value, over the estimated useful life of the asset in a systematic and logical manner. Useful life refers to the prospective period of economic usefulness in a particular contractor's operations as distinguished from physical life, as evidenced by the actual or estimated retirement and replacement practice of the contractor.
Direct cost - any cost that can be identified specifically with a particular final cost objective or is incurred directly for a particular contract.
Directly associated cost - any cost which is generated solely as a result of the incurrence of another cost, and which would not have been incurred had the cost not been incurred.
Director - the Director of the Office of Contracting and Procurement or the District of Columbia Chief Procurement Officer.
Established commercial or selling agency - a firm whose primary products are activities designed to secure business for the contractor such as technical, consulting, or demonstration services.
Estimating costs - the process of forecasting a future result in terms of cost based upon information available at the time.
Expert - a person with excellent qualifications and a high degree of attainment in a professional, scientific, technical, or other field, whose knowledge and mastery of the principles, practices, problems, methods, and techniques of his or her field or activity, or of a specialized area in the field, are clearly superior to those usually possessed by ordinarily competent persons in that activity, and whose attainment is such that he or she usually is regarded as an authority or as a practitioner of unusual competence and skill by other persons in the profession, occupation, or activity.
Expressly unallowable cost - a particular item or type of cost which, under the express provisions of an applicable law, regulation, or contract, is specifically named and stated to be unallowable.
Final cost objective - a cost objective that has allocated to it both direct and indirect costs and, in the contractor's accumulation system, is one of the final accumulation points.
Fiscal year - the accounting period for which annual financial statements are regularly prepared.
Fringe benefits - allowances and services provided by the contractor to its employees as compensation in addition to regular wages and salaries.
Indirect costs - any cost not directly identified with a single contract but identified with two (2) or more final cost objectives or an intermediate cost objective.
Indirect cost pools - groupings of incurred costs identified with two (2) or more cost objectives but not identified specifically with any final cost objective.
Insurance administration expenses - the contractor's costs of administering an insurance program which may include the cost of operating an insurance or risk management department, processing claims, actuarial fees, and service fees paid to insurance companies, trustees, or technical consultants.
Material costs - costs of items such as raw materials, parts, sub-assemblies, components, and manufacturing supplies, whether purchased or manufactured by the contractor, which may include such collateral items as inbound transportation and intransit insurance.
Normal cost - the annual cost attributable to years subsequent to a particular valuation date under the actuarial cost method in use.
Operating lease - the acquisition of real or personal property which is considered normal property to the operations of the contractor by lease or rental.
Organization costs - costs such as incorporation fees and costs of attorneys, accountants, brokers, promoters, organizers, management consultants, and investment counselors, including employees of the contractor.
Pension plan - a deferred compensation plan established and maintained by one (1) or more employers to provide systematically for the payment of benefits to plan participants after their retirements. The benefits are paid for life or are payable for life at the option of the employees. Additional benefits such as permanent and total disability, death payments, and survivorship payments to beneficiaries of deceased employees may be an integral part of a pension plan.
Pension plan participant - any employee or former employee of an employer, or any member or former member of an employee organization, who is or may become eligible to receive a benefit from a pension plan that covers employees of such employer or members of such organization and who have satisfied the plan's participation requirements. Beneficiaries receiving benefits or who may be eligible to receive benefits are included in this term.
Pre-contract costs - costs incurred before the effective date of the contract directly pursuant to the negotiation and in anticipation of the contract award when those costs are necessary to comply with the proposed contract delivery schedule.
Preparatory costs - an initial cost, such as those costs incurred for initial plant rearrangement and alterations, management and personnel organization, and production planning.
Pricing - the process of establishing a reasonable amount or amounts to be paid for goods or services.
Profit center - the smallest organizationally independent segment of a company charged by management with profit and loss responsibilities.
Proposal - any offer or other submission used as a basis for pricing a contract, contract modification, or termination settlement or for securing payments thereunder.
Rental costs - costs of renting or leasing real or personal property, except automatic data processing equipment.
Residual value - the proceeds, less removal and disposal costs, if any, realized upon disposition of a tangible capital asset. It usually is measured by the net proceeds from the sale or other disposition of the asset or its fair market value if the asset is traded in on another asset. The estimated residual value is a current forecast of the residual value.
Selling costs - costs that arise in the marketing of the contractor's products and includes costs of sales promotions, negotiation, liaison between District representatives and the contractor's personnel, and related activities.
Service life - the period of usefulness of a tangible capital asset or group of assets to its current owner. The period may be expressed in units of time or output. The estimated service life of a tangible capital asset or group of assets is a current forecast of its service life and is the period over which depreciation cost is to be assigned.
Special test equipment - single or multi-purpose integrated test units engineered, designed, fabricated, or modified to accomplish special purpose testing in performing a contract. It consists of items or assemblies of equipment that are interconnected and interdependent so as to become a new functional entity for special testing purposes. It does not include material, special tooling, facilities, and plant equipment items used for general plant testing purposes.
Special tooling - jigs, dies, fixtures, molds, patterns, taps, gauges, other equipment and manufacturing aids, all components of these items, and replacement of these items, which are of such a specialized nature that, without substantial modification or alteration, their use is limited to the development or production of particular goods or parts thereof or to the performance of particular services. It does not include material, special test equipment, facilities, general or special machine tools, or similar capital items.
Standard cost - any cost computed with the use of pre-established measures.
Tangible capital asset - an asset that has physical substance, more than minimal value, and is expected to be held by an enterprise for continued use or possession beyond the current accounting period for the services it yields.
Unallowable cost - any cost that, under the provisions of any pertinent law, regulation, or contract, cannot be included in prices, cost-reimbursements, or settlements under a District contract to which it is allocable.
Variance - the difference between a pre-established measure and an actual measure.
D.C. Mun. Regs. tit. 27, r. 27-3399