Federal contracting terms, in plain English

A contract reserved for a group of businesses, such as all small businesses, or firms in an SBA program like 8(a), HUBZone, women-owned or service-disabled veteran-owned. If your firm is not in the group, you cannot bid as the prime contractor.

Source: FAR 19.502-2; SBA, contracting assistance programs.

Where you’ll see it: the cover form, and the set-aside field on the SAM.gov notice.

In FedRAG: the eligibility check compares the set-aside with the statuses in your SAM.gov registration. Guide: the set-aside gate.

The common name for the test behind a small business set-aside. Above the simplified acquisition threshold, the contracting officer sets the buy aside for small business when there is a reasonable expectation of offers from at least two responsible small businesses, and of award at fair market prices.

Source: FAR 19.502-2(b).

Where you’ll see it: not printed on the solicitation. It explains why a buy is set aside, and why agencies ask small firms to answer sources sought notices.

Guide: the set-aside gate.

A six-digit code for an industry, from the North American Industry Classification System, for example 561720 for janitorial services. The contracting officer assigns one NAICS code, with its size standard, to each solicitation.

Source: FAR 19.102(b)(1).

Where you’ll see it: the cover form, the instructions, and the NAICS field on the SAM.gov notice.

Guides: reading the cover form; federal contracts by trade.

The largest a business, counting its affiliates, can be and still be small for a given contract. SBA sets one for each NAICS code, usually as a number of employees or average annual receipts.

Source: SBA, size standards; SBA table of size standards; FAR 19.102.

Where you’ll see it: next to the NAICS code on the cover form.

In FedRAG: the SBA size standard is one of the eligibility checks. Guide: the size gate.

The identifier SAM.gov gives your business. It is how the government finds your registration, and it goes on the cover page of a commercial offer.

Source: FAR 52.204-7(a); FAR 52.212-1(j); SAM.gov help, how to view your Unique Entity ID.

Where you’ll see it: your SAM.gov entity record; the offer's cover page.

Your business's record in the System for Award Management, the government's register of firms it buys from. You must be registered when you submit an offer or quotation and at award, and the registration is renewed each year.

Source: FAR 52.204-7(b)(1); FAR 4.1102(a); SAM.gov help, renewing a registration.

Where you’ll see it: the instructions and the clause list (52.204-7).

In FedRAG: registration status is checked against your public SAM.gov record. Guide: the registration gate.

A SAM.gov record that a firm is debarred, suspended, proposed for debarment or voluntarily excluded. Agencies may not solicit offers from, award to, or approve subcontracts with an excluded firm unless the agency head finds a compelling reason.

Source: FAR 9.405(a).

Where you’ll see it: the exclusions search on SAM.gov.

In FedRAG: exclusions are checked against your SAM.gov record. Guide: the exclusion gate.

A request for prices, common for buys under the simplified procedures of FAR Part 13, which covers buys up to the simplified acquisition threshold of $350,000. A quotation is not an offer, so the government cannot accept it alone to form a binding contract.

Source: FAR 13.000; FAR 13.004(a); FAR 2.101 (threshold).

Where you’ll see it: a Q as the ninth character of the solicitation number.

Guide: RFQ, RFP and IFB in one line each.

A solicitation for a negotiated buy, where the agency can weigh price and other factors such as your approach and past performance. The factors and how much each counts must be stated in the solicitation.

Source: FAR Part 15; FAR 15.304(d).

Where you’ll see it: an R as the ninth character of the solicitation number.

Guide: the rules for your bid.

A solicitation for sealed bidding. Bids are opened in public, and award goes to the responsible bidder whose conforming bid is most advantageous considering only price and price-related factors.

Source: FAR 14.101.

Where you’ll see it: a B as the ninth character of the solicitation number; often an SF 33 or a construction bid form.

A SAM.gov notice in which an agency looks for possible sources for a project. In SAM.gov’s own words, it is not a solicitation for work or a request for proposal, so answering it is not a bid.

Source: SAM.gov help, notice types in Contract Opportunities.

Where you’ll see it: the notice type on SAM.gov, before any solicitation is posted.

Guide: the notice and the package.

A request the government uses when it does not plan to award a contract yet but wants price, delivery, market or capability information for planning. Responses are not offers and cannot be accepted to form a contract.

Source: FAR 15.201(e); SAM.gov help, notice types.

Where you’ll see it: usually posted on SAM.gov as a special notice.

The ID of the solicitation, built to a set pattern: six characters for the contracting office, two for the fiscal year, one letter for the type (Q, R or B), then a serial number. FA480026Q0082 is an RFQ from office FA4800 in fiscal year 2026.

Source: FAR 4.1603(a).

Where you’ll see it: the SAM.gov notice and the top of the cover form.

Guide: what the solicitation number tells you.

A change to the solicitation, issued when the government changes its requirements or terms. You acknowledge each amendment the way the solicitation asks, and solicitation amendments are numbered in sequence starting at 0001.

Source: FAR 15.206(a); FAR 52.212-1(b); FAR 4.1603.

Where you’ll see it: new files on the SAM.gov notice, often an SF 30, up to the due date.

In FedRAG: you add each amendment in one step, whether it was posted on SAM.gov, emailed or put on a portal, and each gets an acknowledgment draft citing its number. FedRAG never acknowledges an amendment for you. Guide: amendments and questions.

Section C is the description of the work, often in an attachment called the PWS (performance work statement) or SOW (statement of work). Its “shall”, “must” and “will” sentences are the promises you make if you win.

Source: FAR 15.204-1 (uniform contract format).

Where you’ll see it: Section C of an RFP, or an attachment to an RFQ.

In FedRAG: the Requirements table lists the requirements it finds, each with the page it came from. Guide: the work itself.

The instructions for your response: volumes, page limits, format and what goes where. In many commercial RFQs the same rules sit in FAR 52.212-1 and its addendum instead.

Source: FAR 15.204-1; FAR 52.212-1.

Where you’ll see it: Part IV of an RFP in the uniform contract format; the 52.212-1 addendum of a commercial RFQ.

Guide: Sections L and M.

The evaluation factors for award: how the agency will judge and choose. In many commercial RFQs it is FAR 52.212-2 and its addendum instead.

Source: FAR 15.204-1; FAR 52.212-2.

Where you’ll see it: the last section of an RFP in the uniform contract format; the 52.212-2 addendum of a commercial RFQ.

Guide: a worked example.

One thing the agency scores when it chooses, such as technical approach, past performance or price. Every factor and significant subfactor, and how much each counts, must be stated in the solicitation, and price or cost is evaluated in every source selection.

Source: FAR 15.304(c)(1)(i), (d).

Where you’ll see it: Section M or the 52.212-2 addendum.

One numbered line in the price schedule, for one thing you will deliver or one period of service. Line items are set up to define deliverables or organize information about them.

Source: FAR 4.1001.

Where you’ll see it: Section B or the price schedule attachment, often one set per option year.

In FedRAG: the Price worksheet takes CLINs from Section B and your own rates; FedRAG never proposes a target price. Guide: the price schedule.

A Department of Labor list of the minimum wages and fringe benefits for job types in an area. Service contracts over $2,500 require at least those rates, and construction contracts over $2,000 carry their own prevailing wage rates.

Source: FAR 22.1002-2; FAR 22.403-1; SAM.gov help, searching SCA wage determinations.

Where you’ll see it: an attachment to the solicitation; also searchable on SAM.gov.

Guide: wage determinations.

Your record on past contracts, which agencies use as one sign of how well you will do. In negotiated buys, a firm with no record of relevant past performance may not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably on it.

Source: FAR 15.305(a)(2)(i), (iv).

Where you’ll see it: the instructions (what to send) and the evaluation factors (how it is judged).

In FedRAG: a capability statement and commercial work count as evidence, and where a fact is missing the draft says so instead of inventing it. Guide: can you do the work?

A short document, often one or two pages, that says what your firm does, its codes and statuses, and work it has done. It is a business document, not a regulatory term, and no FAR rule sets its format.

Source: industry practice; no FAR section.

Where you’ll see it: asked for in some sources sought notices; shared with primes and contracting officers.

In FedRAG: a capability statement counts as evidence when FedRAG checks each requirement against your experience.

A written deal between firms to pursue a contract together. The FAR calls it a contractor team arrangement: two or more firms forming a partnership or joint venture to act as the prime, or a prime agreeing to use others as its subcontractors.

Source: FAR 9.601.

Where you’ll see it: between you and a partner, before you bid. Have a lawyer read it before you sign.

In FedRAG: the requirements your documents don’t cover become the gaps a partner should fill.

The cap on how much of a set-aside contract you may pass to subcontractors that are not similarly situated. The clause sets 50 percent of what the government pays you for services, 50 percent for supplies (not counting materials), 85 percent for general construction and 75 percent for special trade construction.

Source: FAR 52.219-14(e).

Where you’ll see it: 52.219-14 in the solicitation’s clause list.

In FedRAG: the workshare calculator checks the limitation on subcontracting before you commit. Guide: the subcontracting check.

An offer that arrives after the deadline is late, and is considered only in narrow cases decided by the contracting officer: for example, an electronic offer that reached the government’s initial point of entry by 5:00 p.m. one working day before the due date. Treat late as late, and plan to be done the working day before.

Source: FAR 52.212-1(f); FAR 15.208(b), (d).

Where you’ll see it: the instructions to offerors, and the due date and time on the cover form.

In FedRAG: your internal deadline defaults to the late-exception line for an electronic offer, or to the working day before at the due time for any other offer. Guide: can you make the deadline?

A table, kept by the bidder, that lists each instruction and requirement in the solicitation and where your response answers it. It is an industry term, not a FAR term, and the solicitation does not ask for one unless it says so.

Source: industry practice; no FAR section.

Where you’ll see it: in your own bid files; a few solicitations ask you to submit one.

Guide: turning Section L into a list.