This session prepares small satellite and space companies to hit the ground running the moment they’re awarded a U.S. Government contract — whether it’s an SBIR, a Time & Materials (T&M), or a Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee (CPFF) award. Winning federal money starts a compliance clock, not just a project clock: accounting and contract requirements that felt hypothetical during the proposal stage suddenly come with real deadlines, and getting them wrong early can slow payments, trigger audit findings, or jeopardize future awards.
We’ll cover what an adequate accounting system requires, how indirect rates and allowable costs work under the FAR, and the most common first-contract mistakes we see. The session is designed for founders, CXOs, and finance leads at pre-revenue and early-revenue space companies making the shift from grant-funded R&D to FAR-based federal contracting, giving them a practical roadmap for what to have in place before — and right after — they sign.