CHAPTER Ill, SECTION 2 SECTION 2 ACCOUNTING GENERAL. basis for FY 1957 Financial Plan, which covered For accounting purposes, Operation HARDTACK,Phase I, covered the period from 1 September 1956 through 30 September 1958. HARDTACK. Progressively refined budget esti- Modification No. 55 to Contract AT (29-2)- 20, dated 29 June 1956 andeffective 1 July 1956, established the Commission’s accounting requirements under Article IX, Section 1, Accounts; Section 4, Reports; and Section 8, Internal Audit. Accounting records, books of account, systems of accounting, internal control, auditing, etc., were to conform to generally accepted accounting principles satisfactory to the Commission. Accounting records under the Contract were maintained as a separate and distinct set of accounts which supported all costs incurred, revenues earned, fixed-fee accruals, and the receipt, use, and disposition of all Governmentowned property under the management of H&N. Accounting statements and reports required by the Commission were prepared and submitted in accordance with the applicable provisions of the AEC manual. Additional and special reports for the Commission were prepared and submitted when requested. The Jobsite accounting offices maintained all basic records of time-keeping and payroll, cost accounting, property and material inventory accounting, token payments, travel advances, revenue accounts, etc., and transmitted this in- formation to the Home Office monthly for con- solidation with the firm’s records. Except for an Interim Special Test Cost Report initiated during Operation HARDTACK, all financial statements and cost reports required by the Commission were released by the AEC Project Home Office Accounting Departments. first budget relative to FY 1958 was devoted entirely to Operation mates for the year were prepared in October 1956 and April 1957. The April estimate was applicable as of 1 July 1957, the start of FY 1958, but detailed operational plans werestill subject to change. Accordingly, decisions of the Commission were translated promptly by H&N into plans, which were steadily furnished to the Budget Section. This enabled the Budget Section to interpret the plans into monetary requirements and to issue semi-monthly recapitulations giving the status of known criteria and the estimated result of cumulative changes on total year costs. After several months, the operational program became sufficiently stabilized to permit AEC/ALO, to formulate a Financial Plan, which served as the framework for FY 1958 cost limitations. Concurrently, the Budget Section went to a monthly basis for issuing recapitulations and year-end forecasts. Each monthly forecast was compared with the existing Financial Plan, and an explanation was submitted as to why each item in the Plan was at that time considered satisfactory or inadequate. These monthly forecasts served the purpose of notifying all concerned of the cur- rent financial picture and were used by ALO as the basis for revising the Financial Plan, when advisable. The final phase of Operation HARDTACK, falling within the first several months of FY 1959, was included within the structure of the total estimated cost for that year. GENERAL AND COST ACCOUNTING. Three additional monthly reports were pre- pared by Jobsite during this Operation, primarily BUDGETS, FINANCIAL PLAN, MID-YEAR REVIEW. The the initial stages of Operation HARDTACK. for the use of the JTF-7 Controller, AEC, and the User personnel. These reports were: Operation HARDTACK was submitted in April 1955, covering FY 1956, 1957, 1958, and a portion of FY 1959. In October 1955 and April 1956, revised budgets were submitted, each one giving effect to progressively refined plans based on decisions of the Commission. Experience gained during previous Operations permitted H&N to estimate more closely the budgetary requirements involved as plans became more definitive. The April 1956 budget estimate became the 1. The Estimate Report, which compared the latest working estimates to the Official Estimates of Expendable Con- struction, showing percentage of completion in the following categories: Scientific - Zero Stations Scientific - Numbered Stations Scientific - Other Stations Than Numbered Page 335