Glossary
Government contracting, in plain language.
Every solicitation assumes you already know these terms. Nobody does at first. Definitions below link to official government sources — and two things are always free: registering in SAM.gov and applying for SBA certifications.
Getting registered
- SAM.gov
- The government's official vendor registration and opportunity site. Your business must hold an Active SAM.gov registration before any federal contract can be awarded to it, and the registration must be renewed every year. Registering is free — be cautious with third parties who charge for it without saying it is optional. Register on SAM.gov (free)
- UEI (Unique Entity ID)
- The 12-character letter/number ID the federal government uses to identify your business. SAM.gov assigns it for free during registration; it replaced the old DUNS number in April 2022 and never contains the letters O or I. UEI on SAM.gov
- CAGE code
- A 5-character Commercial and Government Entity code identifying your physical location. U.S. entities receive one automatically — and for free — as part of SAM.gov registration. Defense contracts and many forms ask for it; entities outside the U.S. use an NCAGE code instead. CAGE program (DLA)
- NAICS code
- A 6-digit industry code describing what a business sells. Every solicitation lists one, and it determines the small-business size standard for that competition. Your company can hold several; your primary NAICS matters most for certifications and matching. NAICS search (census.gov)
- PSC (Product Service Code)
- A second code system that describes what is being bought (the product or service itself), while NAICS describes the industry doing the work. Solicitations usually carry both, and searching by PSC is often more precise than keywords. PSC manual (acquisition.gov)
- Size standard
- The SBA threshold — annual revenue or employee count, set per NAICS code — that decides whether your business counts as small for a given competition. You can be small under one NAICS code and other-than-small under another; size is judged per solicitation, not as a fixed identity. SBA size standards
- Reps & certs
- Representations and certifications: formal statements about your business (size, ownership, compliance) completed in SAM.gov and referenced by every offer. They must be accurate and current at the time you submit — misstatements carry legal consequences.
- Capability statement
- A one-to-two-page resume for your company: core competencies, differentiators, past performance highlights, codes (UEI, CAGE, NAICS), and contact details. Contracting officers and primes expect one when you introduce yourself.
Finding opportunities
- Solicitation
- The umbrella term for a government request for offers — an RFQ, RFP, or IFB — together with its instructions and attachments. The solicitation's own text legally controls how, where, and when you must respond; summaries and notices do not.
- Sources Sought / RFI
- Pre-solicitation market research notices. Responding is not a bid, but it puts you on the agency's radar and can shape whether the eventual competition is set aside for small businesses.
- RFQ (Request for Quotations)
- A request to quote price and capability, typically for simpler or commercial purchases. Quotes are usually faster to prepare than proposals but often have short response windows.
- RFP (Request for Proposals)
- A request for a full proposal — usually separate technical and price volumes — evaluated against criteria stated in the solicitation. Most negotiated federal competitions use this format.
- Set-aside
- A competition limited to a class of businesses: small business, 8(a), HUBZone, women-owned, or service-disabled-veteran-owned. If your business is not in the named class (and small under the listed NAICS code), you cannot win the prime award — though subcontracting may still be open. SBA on set-asides
- Recompete
- An existing contract nearing its end that the government is expected to compete again. Watching recompetes gives you months of lead time that a fresh notice never does.
- Bridge contract
- A short extension or interim award that keeps an incumbent working while a delayed follow-on competition catches up. A bridge is often a signal that a real competition is coming.
- Follow-on
- The successor requirement to an existing contract — the next generation of the same work.
- IDIQ / GWAC / BPA
- Umbrella contract vehicles (Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contracts, Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts, Blanket Purchase Agreements). Vendors first win a seat on the vehicle, then compete for task orders inside it — which is why many opportunities never appear on SAM.gov.
- GSA Schedule (MAS) & SIN
- GSA's long-term, governmentwide Multiple Award Schedule. Holding one is what gives a vendor access to GSA eBuy. A SIN (Special Item Number) is the category on the Schedule a product or service is sold under. GSA MAS overview
Reading a solicitation
- Amendment
- An official change to a solicitation — new deadline, changed requirements, updated wage rates. Material amendments must be acknowledged in your offer; failing to acknowledge one can get an otherwise winning offer rejected, and the defect usually cannot be fixed afterward.
- Section L / Section M
- In many RFPs, Section L is the instructions for preparing your proposal and Section M is how it will be evaluated. Requirements are often scattered across both plus attachments — build your response against all of them, not just the statement of work.
- Compliance matrix
- A table mapping every mandatory requirement ("shall" statement) in the solicitation to the exact place your proposal answers it. Evaluators use one; offers that skip requirements are routinely set aside without evaluation.
- Wage determination / SCA
- For service contracts, the Department of Labor wage floor (under the Service Contract Act) you must pay covered workers. It is part of your cost from day one — pricing below it is not fixable later. Wage determinations on SAM.gov
- FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulation)
- The rulebook governing how the federal government buys. The clauses in your contract come from it, and phrases like "FAR 52.212-1" in a solicitation point to specific rules you are agreeing to follow. Browse the FAR
- Period of performance / option year
- The base term of the contract plus the government's one-sided options to extend it, usually a year at a time. A "1 base + 4 option years" contract can run five years — or end after one.
Small-business programs
- 8(a)
- SBA's nine-year business development program for socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses. Certification opens 8(a) set-aside and sole-source awards. Applying is free through SBA. SBA 8(a) program
- HUBZone
- Certification for small businesses located in — and hiring from — Historically Underutilized Business Zones. Certified firms can compete for HUBZone set-asides and receive price-evaluation preference in some full-and-open competitions. SBA HUBZone program
- WOSB / EDWOSB
- Women-Owned and Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business certifications, granting access to set-asides in industries where women-owned firms are underrepresented. Free to apply through SBA. SBA WOSB program
- SDVOSB / VOSB
- Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned and Veteran-Owned Small Business certifications, issued through SBA's VetCert portal. SDVOSB set-asides exist governmentwide; VOSB set-asides apply mainly at the VA. SBA veteran programs
- SDB (Small Disadvantaged Business)
- A self-designation in SAM.gov for small businesses majority-owned by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. It supports agency subcontracting goals; 8(a) is the certified program built on the same criteria.
Portals & systems
- GSA eBuy
- GSA's RFQ marketplace for Schedule and GWAC orders. It is visible only to vendors who hold the relevant contract and SIN — without a GSA Schedule, eBuy is effectively invisible to you, and RFQ windows can be as short as 48 hours. GSA eBuy
- FedConnect
- A portal used by the Department of Energy and other civilian agencies to post opportunities, run Q&A, and receive responses. Registration is keyed to your SAM.gov record, and responses must go through the portal's Responses tab — email replies do not count. FedConnect
- PIEE / WAWF
- The Department of Defense's Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment. Its Solicitation module receives offers for many DoD solicitations, and Wide Area Workflow (WAWF) is how you invoice after award. Account roles take time to provision — do not wait until the deadline. PIEE
- Contracting Officer (CO/KO) & COR
- The Contracting Officer is the only government official authorized to commit the government — your official point of contact, and the person your questions and offers go to. The COR (Contracting Officer's Representative) manages technical performance after award.
Submitting & after
- Proposal volumes
- The separately bound parts of a proposal — commonly technical, price, and past performance — each with its own page limits, formats, and naming rules. Exceeding a page limit can render an offer unacceptable even when the extra page is a cover sheet.
- "Late is late"
- The working rule for federal offers: delivery risk sits entirely with the vendor. An offer that arrives a minute late — or gets caught in the agency's email filter — is normally rejected regardless of fault. Submit early and confirm actual receipt, not just transmission.
- Debrief
- Your right to ask the agency why you lost (or won). For most negotiated procurements you must request it within 3 days of the notice to preserve full rights — miss the window and the agency owes you nothing. FAR 15.505 (debriefs)
- Protest
- A formal challenge to a solicitation's terms or to an award decision, filed with the agency or the Government Accountability Office on strict deadlines. Most vendors never need one, but knowing the clocks exist protects your options.
Where CaptureCore fits
CaptureCore organizes this world — scored matches, readiness checks, submission packages, and receipts — but it does not submit bids for you, does not store or ask for government portal credentials, and does not guarantee contract awards. Submissions happen in the official government systems.