Single Source Regulations Office
See our note on applying SSRO guidance to costs affected by COVID-19
Current system status: Live
The statutory requirements for contract and supplier reporting are introduced by the Defence Reform Act 2014 (the Act) and defined in the Single Source Contract Regulations 2014 (the Regulations). The Defence Contract Analysis and Reporting System (DefCARS, the system) is an on-line, web-enabled system which facilitates submission of statutory reports to the SSRO and MOD.
When preparing reports, contractors must have regard to guidance issued by the SSRO. The SSRO has published three guidance documents: which can be accessed at the links below:
- reporting guidance on contract reports:
- reporting guidance on supplier reports:
- reporting guidance on DefCARS functionality:
The 28 September 2022 release only impacts the contract report guidance which is now version 11.1. This update makes available examples of how the Amendments Spreadsheet, which is part of an on-demand Contract Pricing Statement submission, can be completed in different regulation 14 scenarios.
The guidance on aggregation principles included in the contract report guidance [insert link] references notification templates which contractors can use once a QSC assessment has been undertaken. These templates are available on the SSRO Support page of the SSRO website.
The supplier report guidance (version 9) was last published on 28 July 2022 and was updated to include new guidance on general reporting requirements for these types of report.
The following changes were made to the guidance on DefCARS functionality (version 11) published on 28 July 2022:
- details of user permissions for the system have been updated;
- new guidance on how to search for contract details; and
- new guidance on the closure of compliance issues in reports.
The guidance is integrated within DefCARS so that users can easily access the relevant information they need. The SSRO reviews the guidance on a regular basis and discusses the priorities for improvement with stakeholders.
DefCARS includes validation checks to help contractors comply with the reporting requirements and reduces the amount of data entry required by eliminating duplication. The SSRO has published a list of all the validation checks which are currently applied within the system and these were last updated on 26 January 2022 .
The SSRO has developed a spreadsheet to enable contractors to report details of pricing amendment(s) separately from other pricing segments. should be attached to the profit page in an on-demand Contract Pricing Statement when reporting regulation 14 pricing amendment(s) and the re-determined contract price. Examples on how to complete the spreadsheet in different regulation 14 scenarios have been developed to provide assistance to contractors:
Copy and paste functionality is currently available in many parts of DefCARS. To allow contractors with Qualifying Business Units (QBU) to understand their reporting requirements and prepare their QBU Cost Analysis Reports, a copy and paste template is provided: .
Contractors or MOD staff who do not currently have access to DefCARS but wish to understand the Defined Pricing Structure (DPS) cost breakdowns, may access the DPS templates that preceded DefCARS. These previous templates are substantially the same as the current versions within DefCARS.
Contractors may also require access to previous reporting templates and user guides.
If you have any questions about how to access DefCARS or the guidance please contact the SSRO at helpdesk@ssro.gov.uk.
Last updated 28 September 2022 +show all updates
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Version 11.1 of the contract guidance published along with examples of how the amendments spreadsheet can be completed
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