Earned Value Management

Control Account

Control Account (CA) is a management control point at which budgets (resource plans) and actual costs are accumulated and compared to earned value for management control purposes.  A control account is a natural management point for planning and control since it represents the work assigned to one responsible organizational element (or integrated product teams) for a single program Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) element.

The Control Account Manager (CAM) is the individual within the contractor’s organizational structure that has been given the authority and responsibility to manage one or more control accounts.

Control Account Topic
Control accounts are discussed during a program Integrated Baseline Review (IBR). While it may seem ideal to review 100% of all control accounts, this is usually not practical. The general guidance for the selection of the appropriate control accounts includes the following:

  • all elements with high to moderate technical risk;
  • all control accounts of high to moderate value;
  • all elements on the critical path;
  • all elements already identified in the program risk plan; and
  • all non Firm Fixed Price (FFP) subcontracts or material items.

Selection of these control accounts should result in at least 80% of the Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB) value being selected for review.  Low dollar value control accounts or Level of Effort (LOE) accounts may be candidates for exclusion.

The contractor can provide a matrix that lists all control accounts, names of responsible CAMs, approved budget amounts, and Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP) technique.  This listing is normally called a dollarized Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM), and represents all performance budgets on the contract.

AcqTips:

  • The DoD has accepted the ANSI/EIA-748 – American National Standards Institute/Electronic Industries Alliance Standard 748, Earned Value Management Systems as the DoD standard
  • Formerly called Cost Account

AcqLinks and References:

Updated: 6/15/2018

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