Glossary

Federal contracting runs on acronyms. Here is what the ones in FedScope actually mean, in alphabetical order.

• 8(a) — A Small Business Administration program for firms owned by socially and economically disadvantaged people. Contracts can be set aside for 8(a) firms only.
• CAGE code — Commercial and Government Entity code. Another ID number attached to a registered contractor, alongside its UEI.
• Capability statement — A company's one- or two-page marketing sheet: what it does, what it is certified as, and what it has done before.
• Ceiling rate — The highest hourly rate a company is allowed to charge for a job title on a schedule contract. What actually gets billed is often lower.
• CPARS — Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System. Where the government records how a contractor performed. Access is restricted — you cannot look up someone else's ratings.
• eSRS — Electronic Subcontracting Reporting System. Where primes file reports on how much work they gave to small businesses.
• FAR / DFARS — The Federal Acquisition Regulation is the rulebook for federal buying. DFARS is the Defense Department's add-on to it.
• FFP / T&M — Two ways a contract can be priced. Firm-Fixed-Price means one agreed amount for the job. Time & Materials means you bill hours and costs as you go.
• Good-faith effort (GFE) — Written proof that you genuinely tried to hit your small-business subcontracting goals — outreach, market research, solicitations — when you came up short.
• GWAC — Governmentwide Acquisition Contract. A pre-competed umbrella vehicle for IT products and services — SEWP, CIO-SP, GSA's Alliant and 8(a) STARS III — that any federal agency can order from. Winning a spot does not hand you work; agencies then compete task orders among the vehicle's holders. A GWAC is a kind of IDIQ (see below) and a MAC (see below).
• HUBZone — Historically Underutilized Business Zone. A certification for firms based in, and hiring from, designated areas. Contracts can be set aside for them.
• IDV / IDIQ — An umbrella contract (Indefinite Delivery / Indefinite Quantity). Winning one does not give you work directly; it makes you eligible for task orders issued under it later.
• Incumbent — The company currently doing the work that is about to be rebid.
• JV — Joint Venture. A separate company two or more firms create so they can bid and perform a contract together.
• MAC — Multiple Award Contract. An umbrella contract the government awards to several companies at once; specific work is then competed as task or delivery orders among those holders. GWACs and most GSA Schedules are MACs — the opposite of a single-award contract held by one company. Getting on a MAC is the door; the task-order competitions behind it are where the work is actually won.
• NAICS — North American Industry Classification System. The code for the kind of work (for example, 541512 is Computer Systems Design).
• Obligation — Money the government has actually committed on a contract so far. Not the same as the contract's ceiling, which is the most it could ever be worth.
• Place of performance — Where the work is physically done. Often nowhere near the company's headquarters.
• Prime / Subcontractor — The prime holds the contract with the government. A subcontractor does part of the work under the prime, with no contract of its own with the government.
• PSC — Product or Service Code. The code for what is being bought. It sits alongside NAICS, which covers the kind of work.
• Recompete — When an existing contract runs out and the work goes back out for bid. Your chance to take it from the incumbent.
• SDVOSB / VOSB — Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned and Veteran-Owned Small Business.
• Set-aside — A contract reserved for a specific category of small business — 8(a), WOSB, SDVOSB, HUBZone, and others. If you do not hold the category, you cannot bid.
• Sources sought / RFI — Notices an agency posts before a real solicitation, to see who is out there. An early signal that work is coming.
• Subaward — A subcontract a prime reported to the government. It is the public record of who actually teamed with whom.
• Subcontracting plan — The small-business goals a prime commits to on larger contracts, plus the reports showing whether it hit them.
• Teaming — Two or more firms joining forces to pursue or perform a contract, either as prime and sub or through a joint venture.
• UEI — Unique Entity Identifier. The federal ID number for a registered contractor. It replaced the older DUNS number.
• WOSB / EDWOSB — Woman-Owned Small Business and Economically Disadvantaged Woman-Owned Small Business.