Official Site of The State of New Jersey

Firms without Salary, Overhead, or Lump Sum Costs for CY 2010-2015 with NJDOT and that were cost basis approved prior to 2010, are no longer on the NJDOT Cost Basis Approval list.

Cost Basis Approved Firms (excel 94kb)
   Current as of February 27, 2024

Cost Basis Approval ICQ Required Documents for Approval and Exhibits (pdf 1.452k)
Updated May 13, 2016

Cost Basis Approval ICQ Required Documents for Approval and Exhibits (doc 652k)
Updated May 13, 2016

Cost basis approval packages must be submitted, at a minimum, twenty (20) days prior to any proposal submission date to allow for proper review. Take note of the Anticipated Solicitations page and plan accordingly if your firm requires cost basis approval (primes and subs) and/or prequalification (primes only). Additionally, firms that are a sub/affiliate to a parent entity should submit their own CBA information based on their financial situation and not the parent entity.

The Cost Basis Approval package must be emailed to both PSPD@dot.nj.gov and CSPD@dot.nj.gov.

If your firm is Cost Basis Approved and does not appear on this list, please email PSPD@dot.nj.gov

Professional Services also issues approval letters to all firms. While every effort is made to keep the website up to date, this signed letter is to be accepted as official approval for all contracting purposes in the event that a firm does not appear on the website.

To become prequalified with the Department of Transportation, your firm must receive Cost Basis Approval by completing the questionnaire above.  Cost basis approval is part of the prequalification process and is required for both prime and sub-consultants.

A sub-consultant is any college, university, individual, firm, or business who, for a negotiated fee, renders "professional services" needed to develop or maintain the multi-modal transportation network in NJ, when submitted as part of a prime consultant's technical proposal. A "professional service" is described under N.J.S.A. 45:8-28(b) (rtf 49k). All entities rendering such service as defined, are sub-consultants. All sub-consultants require Cost Basis Approval as of the closing date of the solicitation.

All entities submitted as part of the prime consultant's technical proposal that will not render or offer "professional services" as defined in the statute do not require Cost Basis Approval because they are not sub-consultants.

To obtain approval, your project accounting system must reconcile with your financial accounting system and must be capable of segregating and accumulating both direct and indirect costs on an individual project basis. It should also provide for identification and segregation of costs considered unallowable by the federal acquisition regulations. (Subpart 31.2 contracts with commercial organizations.

These regulations are available from the Superintendent of Documents, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15250-7954 (phone no. (202) 512-1800 - fax no. (202) 512-2250).

The prequalification questionnaire provides a comprehensive look at your accounting system and must be completed fully with all supporting documents so that the department will have enough information to be certain that your system meets the requirements. Incomplete questionnaires cannot be processed for approval.

Where the review indicates that your project accounting system does not meet all of the requirements, you will be advised of what is necessary to bring your system up to an approved level.

A project accounting system that meets the Department’s requirements is also a valuable tool for the consultant in managing resources. Since approval of your system is essential for prequalification, to avoid any delay in approval, please make sure that all of the items on the questionnaire are complete and all supporting documents are included with the initial submission.

In addition to the federal regulations, the Department’s contracts also classify your employee job titles per the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) grades and the New Jersey Civil Service titles. Please click under primary activities, title reviews, and wage rates.

The NJDOT Bureau of External Audit reserves the right to audit consulting firms at any time.