ashleyh Posted April 12, 2010 Report Share Posted April 12, 2010 Ok, so I am adminstering a contract where the contractor (a small business) wants to be able to invoive and be paid bimonthly. We have not problem doing this, but we cant dtermine what clause to use. I have asked 2 KO's and looked in the FAR and cannont determine the clause. I thought prompt payment, but that is for 30 days. Can anyone point me in the right direction? TIA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy_Contracting_4 Posted April 12, 2010 Report Share Posted April 12, 2010 Ok, so I am adminstering a contract where the contractor (a small business) wants to be able to invoive and be paid bimonthly. We have not problem doing this, but we cant dtermine what clause to use. I have asked 2 KO's and looked in the FAR and cannont determine the clause. I thought prompt payment, but that is for 30 days. Can anyone point me in the right direction? TIA Is the contract a cost-reimbursement type of contract? If so, does it include FAR 52.216-7, Allowable Cost and Payment? If not, what tpe of contract do you have, and what Payment clause is included? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashleyh Posted April 12, 2010 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2010 It's just a FFP service contract. I will double check what payment clause is in included. Is the contract a cost-reimbursement type of contract? If so, does it include FAR 52.216-7, Allowable Cost and Payment? If not, what tpe of contract do you have, and what Payment clause is included? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest carl r culham Posted April 13, 2010 Report Share Posted April 13, 2010 Whether the contract is a for a non-commercial or commercial item also has bearing. Suggest a read of FAR 32.1 and 32.2 and any agency supplements. See FAR 32.104( specifically. While it does not provide for bi-monthly payments it does give the open door to accommodate a small business when the payment is a form of contract financing. I would suggest that it is the opportunity to make bi-monthly payments if in the best interest of the Government and meets specific needs of a small business contractor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
br549 Posted April 13, 2010 Report Share Posted April 13, 2010 Be careful! "Bimonthly" is ambiguous. It can mean every two months or twice per month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian Posted April 24, 2010 Report Share Posted April 24, 2010 . This warrants some consideration in return. Switching to twice-a-month payments can be a tremendous benefit to a small business. Normally, when a business bids, they built their prices based, at least in part, on their costs. This will cut costs appreciably. If they knew that they could have got more frequent payments up front, don't you think that they would have factored that in ? Don't you think that might have elicited more bids ? Consideration could be a lower price, but it could be something else of value to the Government: perhaps an additional report, or a white paper on a thorny issue. Maybe the contractor could take responsibility for opening up 2 days a week. Negotiate on behalf of your Government client. What would benefit them ? . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ji20874 Posted April 30, 2010 Report Share Posted April 30, 2010 ashleyh, I like Brian's approach -- do what is best for your organization -- if your FFP services contract specifies monthly invoicing, then it's monthly invoicing unless you decide there is a benefit to your organization to entertain a change proposal (including consideration) from the contractor. But please don't go to twice-a-month invoicing just because the contractor wants it. The contractor should have other mechanisms to finance its operations. Perhaps your contract is based on monthly items (such as an annual need described in the contract's schedule as 12 MONTHS, where each month's service is severable). In this case, your contract probably includes the Payments clause at FAR 52.232-1 without any progress payments or other contract financing clauses. In this case, you pay for each completed month and your contract has no authority for progress or other contract financing payments -- and this is probably the right answer and should be left alone. Maybe all of the competitors in the original acquisition proposed with an understanding that progress or other contract financing payments would not be available. If other competitors had known that contract financing would be available, they might have proposed differently and one of them might have ended up as the successful offeror. After all, contract financing is a real cost that every prudent contractor has to bear, and the Government's carrying of that real cost should result in a lower proposed contract price. So if you do give the contractor some contract financing arrangement after award, please be sure to obtain an appropriate price reduction or other consideration to reflect the contractor's lower costs and the Government's increased administrative and financial burden. ji Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cajuncharlie Posted May 11, 2010 Report Share Posted May 11, 2010 Be careful! "Bimonthly" is ambiguous. It can mean every two months or twice per month. Nope. The only meaning of "bimonthly" is every two months. Twice a month would be "semi-monthly." We all know the difference between "semi-annual" and "bi-annual" (or for gardeners, "biennial"), but we all seem to get confused when we change years to months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Vern Edwards Posted May 11, 2010 Report Share Posted May 11, 2010 Nope. The only meaning of "bimonthly" is every two months.Twice a month would be "semi-monthly." We all know the difference between "semi-annual" and "bi-annual" (or for gardeners, "biennial"), but we all seem to get confused when we change years to months. "Only meaning"? Not true. See Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (2002): bimonthly: : occurring, appearing, or done every two months; sometimes : occurring, appearing, or done twice a month <a bimonthly magazine> -- compare SEMIMONTHLY Or see II Oxford English Dictionary 2d (1989) at 198: bi-monthly, (Occurring or produced) every two months... . Also used = occurring (etc.) twice a month... . See also, Bryan Garner, Garner's Modern American Usage (Oxford University Press, 2009) at 104: BI-; SEMI-. One can remember the proper prefix in a given context by remembering that bi- means "two"... and semi- "half". Hence bimonthly = every two months (not twice a month") and semimonthly = every half-month or twice a month... Still, bi- has been used to mean "occurring twice in a (specified span of time)" so often (and legitimately, e.g., in biannual) that, for the sake of clarify, you might do well to avoid the prefix altogether when possible. Bryan Garner is the editor of Black's Law Dictionary. See his A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, 2d, (Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 107, for a discussion of the distinctions among biannual, biennial, and semiannual. Biannual and semiannual both mean twice a year. Biennial means every two years. Bottom line: bimonthly is ambiguous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joel hoffman Posted May 12, 2010 Report Share Posted May 12, 2010 For gosh sakes just say something like "twice-monthly" or "twice per month" payments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cajuncharlie Posted May 26, 2010 Report Share Posted May 26, 2010 Again I find myself so old that what was taught when I was in school has eroded due to popular misuse, to the point where what used to be always wrong is now sometimes right. Examples: "comprised of" instead of "composed of" or "comprising" was always wrong but is now acceptable "judgement" (the only word I missed in 4th grade spelling) is now accepted as a correct alternative spelling although back then it was just plain wrong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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