Reporting guidance and DefCARS
Source: gov.uk (2025-02-25)

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 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-provided-by-the-ssro). See our guidance on inflation (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-inflation) and our note on applying SSRO guidance to costs affected by COVID-19 (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/applying-ssro-guidance-to-costs-affected-by-covid-19)

Current system status: Live

The statutory requirements for contract and supplier reporting were 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 25 February 2025

The SSRO has made minor updates to its three guidance documents in response to issues raised by stakeholders or improvements identified by SSRO staff, including clarification of how and when to report component completion, clarification of existing guidance on interim contract reporting dates and on the use of the comments functionality within the system. The list of changes made have been explained in email communications to the SSRO’s Reporting and IT sub-group members. If other contractors require this list they can request it from xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx).

The guidance documents can be accessed at the links below:
- reporting guidance on contract reports: DefCARS - contract report guidance - Version 13.1 published February 2025 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67ab84430f72884e1756aa66/DefCARS_contract_guidance_Version_13.1_February_2025.pdf) (PDF, 2.89 MB, 165 pages)
- reporting guidance on supplier reports: DefCARS - supplier report guidance - Version 11.1 published February 2025 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67ab841b0f72884e1756aa65/DefCARS_supplier_reports_guidance_Version_11.1_February_2025.pdf) (PDF, 972 KB, 49 pages)
- reporting guidance on DefCARS functionality: Guidance on DefCARS functionality - Version 13.1 published February 2025 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67ab84584a8e03aa8a56aa7c/Guidance_on_DefCARS_functionality_Version_13.1_February_2025.pdf) (PDF, 1.63 MB, 24 pages)
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 (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ssro-support) of the SSRO website.

Guidance on validation warnings in the system

DefCARS includes validation checks to help contractors comply with the reporting requirements and reduce 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 10 October 2024 DefCARS validation checks – published October 2024 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6703f29830536cb927482d51/DefCARS_validation_checks_v13___published_October_2024.pdf) (PDF, 401 KB, 9 pages).

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: QBUCAR template (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7f67ffed915d74e33f63b5/Qualifying_business_unit_actual_and_estimatedDC2.xlsm) (76.5 KB).

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 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/defined-pricing-structure-guidance). 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: Example DefCARS MI products published on 25 February 2025 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67ab847f1a116437c7ed8924/Example_MI_requested_by_MOD_and_Produced_by_SSRO_February_2025.pdf) (PDF, 2.16 MB, 17 pages).

Contractors may also require access to previous reporting templates and user guides (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/defcars-user-guidance-for-defence-contractors-version-1-published-on-15-march-2017).

If you have any questions about how to access DefCARS or the guidance please contact the SSRO at xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx).