The Board of Contract Adjustment heard witnesses and then rendered a decision as to the terms of a Class B contract. After that it did one of two things: it referred the now established contract to the proper district board for settlement, or else it determined itself the financial obligation of the Government and issued an award to the producer. In addition to this work the War Department Board of Contract Adjustment, as a convenient agency, also settled contracts of all sorts made by such presidential agencies as the War Industries Board and the United States Food Administration. After the Dent Act was in operation, the War Department extended to the informal contractors also the privilege of receiving partial payments in advance of final settlement. Such, in outline, was the system which liquidated the war industry and struck the balance between the War Department and the munitions producers. A few details of organization should be noted. The War Department Claims Board greatly expanded its own organization during the episode by creating various subsidiary bodies. One of these was its Standing Committee (composed of members of the Board), which did most of the actual work for the Board and presented its acts for the consideration of the entire Board in the form of resolutions. These resolutions in time became a body of precedents to standardize the whole procedure. To handle engineering and other technical questions, the War Department Claims Board created its Technical Section, which, in turn, established within itself its Plant Valuation Group, made up of men specially qualified to appraise the contemporary value of plants erected for the War Department by producers with the understanding that the Department would pay for these plants, or an agreed-upon portion of their cost. The Special Auditing Committee of the Board also conducted a work of great importance. During the war numerous manufacturers held contracts with two or more production bureaus of the War Department. After the armistice they filed separate claims for the settlement of such contracts. There was always danger that in these claims there would be duplicate items of such costs as overhead expense and plant deterioration. The Auditing Committee consolidated the claims of individual producers and thus enabled the War Department Claims Board to strike out duplicate items of cost. Numerous contractors followed the old peace-time procedure of filing claims with the auditor of the War Department. So many claims originated from this source that the War Department Claims Board established in the office of the Director of Finance a Classification Board to separate all claims coming to the auditor and to refer them to the proper bureau boards.