Reporting guidance and DefCARS
The Defence Contract Analysis and Reporting System (DefCARS) allows contractors to meet the reporting requirements for contract and supplier reports.
See guidance provided by the SSRO. See our guidance on inflation and our note on applying SSRO guidance to costs affected by COVID-19
Current system status: DefCARS will be unavailable between 9am and 10:30am on 3 April for an update to be made.
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 online, 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.
Updates to the guidance applicable from 1 April 2024
The SSRO has updated its three guidance documents in support of its consultation on new and updated reporting guidance following the MOD’s changes to the legislation. The guidance documents can be accessed at the links below:
- reporting guidance on contract reports:
- reporting guidance on supplier reports:
- reporting guidance on DefCARS functionality:
There are updates to all three reporting guidance documents to reflect changes in the reporting requirements being introduced on 1 April 2024. We have reviewed the documents and, to make it easier for stakeholders to see the changes, we have also published ‘track change’ versions of each guidance document.
We have made the following changes to the contract reporting guidance:
- explanation of how component level information can be provided;
- explanation of the information required where alternative pricing methods are used;
- explanation of the frequency of reporting depending on pricing approach;
- introduction of new data fields for new requirements; and
- removal of guidance no longer relevant.
The track change version of the contract reporting guidance is available here:
In the supplier report guidance, the following changes have been made:
- explanation of the change to the definition of a Financial Year to allow a period to be agreed with the Secretary of State;
- a new example scenario to support the above change; and
- removal of guidance no longer relevant.
The track change version of the supplier reporting guidance is available here:
In the guidance on DefCARS functionality, the following changes have been made:
- explanation that some validation warnings in the system may need to be ignored when completing component level information;
- reference to compliance methodology changes; and
- removal of guidance no longer relevant.
The track change version of the DefCARS functionality guidance is available here:
Notification templates for Qualifying Sub Contract (QSC) assessments
The guidance on aggregation principles included in the contract report guidance 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.
Guidance on validation warnings in the system
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 25 March 2024 .
Qualifying Business Unit (QBU) templates
Copy and paste functionality is currently available in many parts of DefCARS. To allow contractors with QBUs to understand their reporting requirements and prepare their QBU Cost Analysis Reports (QBUCAR), a copy and paste template is provided: .
The Defined Pricing Structure (DPS)
Contractors or MOD staff who do not currently have access to DefCARS but wish to understand the DPS cost breakdowns, may access the DPS templates that preceded DefCARS. These previous templates are substantially the same as the current versions within DefCARS.
Analysis of DefCARS information
Under Section 36(3) of the Defence Reform Act, the SSRO must when requested to do so by the Secretary of State for Defence analyse reports provided to it under Section 24 or 25 and provide the results of the analysis to the Secretary of State or an authorised person. The SSRO has published details of example management information products which it supplies to the MOD: .
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 20 March 2024 + show all updates
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Updated reporting guidance following the MOD’s changes to the legislation
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Example MI products supplied to the MOD document updated
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Version 11.2 of contract and DefCARS functionality and version 9.1 supplier reporting guidance published
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Para 2.31 of functionality guidance updated
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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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Version 11 of contract and DefCARS functionality and version 9 of supplier guidance published
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Version 10.1 contract and functionality guidance docs published
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Version 10 of DefCARS functionality guidance published
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V10 of contract reporting guidance published
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Published version 9.1 of contract reports and DefCARS functionality guidance and version 8.1 of supplier reports guidance
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Version 9 of reporting guidance published
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Added link to COVID-19 note
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Version 8 of reporting guidance published
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Version 7 of reporting guidance published
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Version 6 of reporting guidance published
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Version 5 of reporting guidance published
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Version 4 of reporting guidance published
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Version 3 of the guidance published
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First published.