The short version
- 1Most of the earlier text is gone. Of the 7,426 sentences in the revisions DCAA replaced, about 9 percent are still printed, word for word, in anything DCAA publishes.
- 2Chapter 11 is a different chapter. It used to cover contractor compliance with contract financial management requirements. It is now titled Performance Audits and Agreed-Upon-Procedures Engagements.
- 3The decided cases reach only Chapter 6. Of the 13 decisions that cite a numbered paragraph of the manual, eight cite one in an August chapter, and all eight cite Chapter 6.
- 4Eight of the ten cited paragraph numbers no longer exist. Of the five passages a decision quoted, three are no longer printed anywhere.
- 5Cite the manual by its revision date. DCAA replaces the file when it reissues a chapter, so name the revision you relied on and keep a copy of it.
Two terms used throughout
- Numbered paragraph
- The manual is written in numbered paragraphs, such as 6-104.1. The first number is the chapter.
- Still printed
- A sentence is still printed when it appears word for word in something DCAA publishes today: the manual, its cost guidebook, its audit programs or its audit guidance memos. A sentence DCAA reworded counts as gone.
01What DCAA reissued in August
DCAA publishes the manual as one PDF per chapter, listed on its index, and replaces the file when it reissues a chapter. Of the 19 chapters on the index, six carry an August date:
Reissued by DCAA, August 19 to 28, 2026
- Ch. 2Auditing StandardsAugust 20, 2026, replacing the revision of February 24, 202599 to 46 paragraphs
- Ch. 3Audit PlanningAugust 20, 2026, replacing the revision of February 24, 202543 to 30 paragraphs
- Ch. 5Audit of Compliance with DFARS for Contractor Business SystemsAugust 19, 2026, replacing the revision of February 24, 202547 to 12 paragraphs
- Ch. 6Incurred Costs Audit ProceduresAugust 19, 2026, replacing the revision of February 25, 2025241 to 11 paragraphs
- Ch. 11Performance Audits and Agreed-Upon-Procedures EngagementsAugust 28, 2026, replacing the revision of August 31, 202011 to 14 paragraphs
- Ch. 14Other Contract Audit AssignmentsAugust 28, 2026, replacing the revision of April 2, 2026166 to 27 paragraphs
Every chapter that kept its subject got shorter. Chapter 6, the incurred cost chapter, lost the most: 241 paragraphs became 11, and 1.3 percent of its earlier sentences are still printed. Chapter 5, on business systems, kept the most, at 19.8 percent. Chapter 14 was already on a revision dated April 2, 2026, and still went from 166 paragraphs to 27.
For you, a shorter chapter means two things. The paragraph you used to point to may not be in the chapter DCAA publishes today. And most of the old wording can no longer be quoted from anything DCAA publishes.
02Chapter 11 is a different chapter now
The Chapter 11 that DCAA replaced was dated August 31, 2020. It covered "contractor compliance with contract financial management requirements", and its first section opened:
This section provides guidance for auditing contractual limitations on costs, funds, and payments.
The chapter DCAA published on August 28, 2026 carries the same number and a new title, Performance Audits and Agreed-Upon-Procedures Engagements. Of the 79 sentences in the old chapter, one is still printed.
The old chapter is where the manual discussed the limitation of cost and funds clauses. If you cite Chapter 11 on those clauses, you are now citing a chapter about something else. Cite the old one by its date.
03The cited paragraphs are all in Chapter 6, and most are gone
GovConDash collects the decisions of four forums that cite the manual. They are the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (ASBCA), the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals (CBCA), the Court of Federal Claims and the Government Accountability Office (GAO). We read every decision that cites it, 24 in all, and noted each paragraph number cited.
Of those 24 decisions, 13 cite a numbered paragraph, and eight of them cite one in a chapter DCAA reissued in August. Every one of those paragraphs is in Chapter 6, the chapter on incurred cost audits. None of Chapters 2, 3, 5, 11 and 14 is cited by paragraph number in any decision.
The eight decisions come from the ASBCA, the CBCA and GAO. They were decided between 2011 and 2023 and cite editions of the manual from 2009 to 2023.
For each cited paragraph we asked two questions of the Chapter 6 that DCAA published on August 19, 2026. Is the paragraph number still there? And where the decision quoted the manual, are the quoted words still printed?
What happened to each of the ten cited paragraphs
Gone from the chapter: seven
CAM 6-414.3 Commercial salary websites
Battelle Memorial Institute (GAO, 2020). The decision cites this paragraph without quoting it.
CAM 6-414.4 The ten percent range of reasonableness for executive pay
Metron, Inc. (ASBCA, 2012, citing the December 2009 manual). The decision cites this paragraph without quoting it.
CAM 6-501 Charging a program manager direct or indirect
Helionix Systems, Inc. (GAO, 2011). The decision cites this paragraph without quoting it.
CAM 6-608.2 A nomenclature review alone
Voxtel, Inc. (ASBCA, 2023, citing the 2015 manual). The decision quotes "should not be accepted or rejected solely on the basis of a nomenclature review". Those words are no longer printed anywhere.
CAM 6-705.1 What provisional billing rates are for
Tyonek Global Services, LLC; Depot Aviation Solutions, LLC (GAO, 2019). The decision quotes "used for interim reimbursement purposes until settlement is reached on final indirect cost rates". Those words are no longer printed anywhere.
CAM 6-707.2 Closing out a delinquent proposal
Voxtel, Inc. (ASBCA, 2023, citing the 2015 manual). The decision quotes "determines that it is unlikely that an auditable proposal is forthcoming". Those words are no longer printed anywhere.
CAM 6-1008 Reconciling invoiced hours on vouchers
Turner Construction Company (CBCA, 2017). The decision cites this paragraph without quoting it.
Moved to a new number: one
CAM 6-103.1 Audit scope is a matter of judgment
HPM Corporation (CBCA, 2023, citing the April 2023 manual). The decision quotes "is a matter of audit judgment". Those words are now at CAM 6-103.
Still at the same number: two
CAM 6-102.1 The auditor's primary objective
HPM Corporation (CBCA, 2023). The decision quotes "in whatever form they may be presented". Those words are still at this number.
CAM 6-104.1 Risk-based sampling of incurred cost proposals
Advanced Technologies Group, Inc. (ASBCA, 2020, citing the 2013 manual). The decision cites this paragraph without quoting it. The number is still in the chapter, under the title Determining Sampling Eligibility.
One loss matters more than the rest. In Voxtel, Inc., the government had rejected indirect costs after a nomenclature review, which is a read of account names, and never tested transactions. The Board held DCAA's own manual against it. The sentence the Board quoted is one of the three that are no longer printed anywhere.
A dropped number does not undo a decision. Decisions have always cited the edition in front of them: Metron, Inc., decided in 2012, cites the December 2009 manual. What changes is what you can hand an auditor or a contracting officer today. If your argument rests on one of these paragraphs, cite it with its revision date and keep a copy of that revision, because DCAA no longer publishes it.
04Reading both revisions in GovConDash
Everything in this piece came out of two places on GovConDash: the Audit Readiness tab and the public decision pages.
Audit Readiness / Contract Audit Manual
Every chapter, with its earlier revision
The reader keeps the revision DCAA replaced beside the one it publishes, so a paragraph number from an old audit report or decision still opens. Free with an account.
Public decision pages
The decisions themselves
Each decision named above has its own page on this site, linked where it appears in this piece.
Try CAM 6-608.2, the nomenclature passage from Voxtel, or CAM 6-705.1 on billing rates. Each opens in the revision that carries it.
Documents and data used in this piece
Every quotation and every cited paragraph number above was checked against a stored copy of its source before this page was written, 60 checks in all. Each August chapter was also compared with the PDF on DCAA's own site on September 28, 2026. Only sentences of 60 characters or more were searched for, because a shorter one proves little by being found. Counts were computed from the data, not typed. Each link below opens the publisher's own site or document.
The manual, as DCAA publishes it
- DCAA Contract Audit Manual, DCAA's chapter index
Every chapter DCAA publishes, each file stamped with its revision date.
- DCAA Contract Audit Manual, Chapter 2: Auditing Standards
The chapter as DCAA publishes it, revised August 20, 2026.
- DCAA Contract Audit Manual, Chapter 3: Audit Planning
The chapter as DCAA publishes it, revised August 20, 2026.
- DCAA Contract Audit Manual, Chapter 5: Audit of Compliance with DFARS for Contractor Business Systems
The chapter as DCAA publishes it, revised August 19, 2026.
- DCAA Contract Audit Manual, Chapter 6: Incurred Costs Audit Procedures
The chapter as DCAA publishes it, revised August 19, 2026.
- DCAA Contract Audit Manual, Chapter 11: Performance Audits and Agreed-Upon-Procedures Engagements
The chapter as DCAA publishes it, revised August 28, 2026.
- DCAA Contract Audit Manual, Chapter 14: Other Contract Audit Assignments
The chapter as DCAA publishes it, revised August 28, 2026.
The decisions that cite the August chapters
- Helionix Systems, Inc., B-404905.2 (GAO, May 26, 2011)
The tribunal's own copy of the decision.
- Metron, Inc., ASBCA Nos. 56624, 56751, 56752 (ASBCA, June 4, 2012)
The tribunal's own copy of the decision.
- Turner Construction Company, CBCA 2862, 4085, 4802 (CBCA, May 5, 2017)
The tribunal's own copy of the decision.
- Tyonek Global Services, LLC; Depot Aviation Solutions, LLC, B-417188.2 (GAO, October 4, 2019)
The tribunal's own copy of the decision.
- Advanced Technologies Group, Inc., ASBCA Nos. 59986, 61092 (ASBCA, November 18, 2020)
The tribunal's own copy of the decision.
- Battelle Memorial Institute, B-416263.5 (GAO, January 23, 2020)
The tribunal's own copy of the decision.
- HPM Corporation, CBCA 7559 (CBCA, July 12, 2023)
The tribunal's own copy of the decision.
- Voxtel, Inc., ASBCA No. 60129 (ASBCA, March 9, 2023)
The tribunal's own copy of the decision.
This piece is commentary on published audit guidance and on published decisions. It is not legal advice, and it is not a determination about any contractor, contract or audit. The Contract Audit Manual is guidance to DCAA personnel and does not itself create obligations for a contractor. The words each decision is described by are its own.
Keep reading
DCAA Rewrote Seven Chapters of Its Contract Audit Manual in SeptemberThe month that followed: the chapters DCAA reissued in September, how decisions have used the manual, and where the passages they quoted are now.