# Government contracting glossary: over 100 terms in plain English > More than 100 government contracting terms explained in plain English, from SAM.gov and NAICS to IDIQ, set-asides, past performance and debriefs. Last verified October 2026. Page: https://victavio.com/learn/government-contracting-glossary This glossary explains more than 100 words you will meet in government notices and contracts, in plain English. Each entry is short; follow the links to the full lessons, and check the official source named in a solicitation when a term decides what you must do. ## Registration and identity - **SAM.gov:** The System for Award Management, the federal site where businesses register to sell to the government and where federal opportunities are posted. SAM.gov registration is free. - **Entity registration:** Your business's record in SAM.gov. It must be active when you submit most federal offers, and renewed every 365 days. - **UEI (Unique Entity ID):** The 12-character ID SAM.gov assigns to your business. See [UEI and CAGE codes](https://victavio.com/learn/uei-and-cage-codes). - **CAGE code:** A five-character ID for your business location, assigned through the Defense Logistics Agency's CAGE program after you register. - **Login.gov:** The government sign-in service SAM.gov uses. Keep your account and password to yourself. - **EIN:** Employer Identification Number, the federal tax ID the IRS gives a business. It is free from the IRS. - **TIN:** Taxpayer Identification Number, a general term that covers an EIN or a Social Security number. - **NAICS code:** A six-digit code for an industry. Buyers label each notice with one, and it sets the size standard. - **PSC:** Product and Service Code, a four-character code that describes what is being bought. - **Size standard:** The SBA limit, in receipts or employees, under which a business counts as small for a NAICS code. - **Affiliation:** A relationship, such as common ownership or control, that makes the SBA count two businesses together for size. - **Reps and certs:** Representations and certifications, formal statements you make about your business in SAM.gov and in offers. Answer each one truthfully. - **APEX Accelerator:** A local center, funded by the Department of Defense, that gives free help with government contracting. - **SBDC:** Small Business Development Center, a free counseling office for small businesses. - **Vendor registration:** The account a state or local buyer asks you to create on its own bid portal, separate from SAM.gov. ## Notices and solicitations - **Notice:** Any posting about a planned or completed buy, such as a solicitation, a Sources Sought or an award notice. - **Solicitation:** A document that asks for offers. It can lead to a contract. - **RFP (Request for Proposals):** A solicitation that asks for a proposal the buyer evaluates and may negotiate. See [RFP, RFQ, IFB and RFI](https://victavio.com/learn/rfp-rfq-ifb-rfi). - **RFQ (Request for Quotations):** A request for a price quote, common in simplified buys. - **IFB (Invitation for Bids):** A sealed bidding solicitation, usually awarded to the lowest priced bid that meets every requirement. - **RFI (Request for Information):** Market research. The buyer asks questions and makes no award from the answers. - **Sources Sought:** A market research notice asking who can do the work. Answering it can shape whether the work is set aside. See [Sources Sought: why to answer them](https://victavio.com/learn/sources-sought). - **Presolicitation notice:** An early notice that a solicitation is coming. - **Combined synopsis and solicitation:** A notice that is both the announcement and the solicitation itself, common for commercial items. - **Special notice:** A notice about events, such as industry days or draft documents, rather than a buy. - **Award notice:** A notice that names who won a contract and for how much. - **Amendment:** A change to a solicitation, such as a new due date or a corrected requirement. Read every one. - **Statement of Work (SOW):** The section that says what work must be done. - **Performance Work Statement (PWS):** A work description that states the results the buyer wants, not how to get them. - **Statement of Objectives (SOO):** A short list of goals that asks offerors to propose the work themselves. - **Section L:** In many federal solicitations, the instructions that say what to submit and how. - **Section M:** In many federal solicitations, the evaluation factors that say how offers are judged. - **Due date:** The deadline for offers, with a time and a time zone. Late offers are usually rejected. - **Questions deadline:** The last date to send questions to the contracting officer. - **Industry day:** A meeting where a buyer explains an upcoming buy to interested companies. - **Forecast:** An agency's list of planned future buys. A forecast is a lead, not a promise. ## Small business programs and set-asides - **Set-aside:** A buy reserved for a group of businesses, such as small businesses or a certified program. See [Set-asides in plain words](https://victavio.com/learn/set-asides). - **Total small business set-aside:** A buy open only to small businesses under the notice's size standard. - **Partial set-aside:** Part of a buy reserved for small businesses while the rest is open. - **Rule of two:** The rule that a buy is generally set aside for small businesses when the buyer expects offers from at least two capable small businesses at fair prices. - **8(a):** SBA's business development program for small businesses owned by people who meet its disadvantage tests. - **HUBZone:** SBA's program for small businesses in Historically Underutilized Business Zones. - **WOSB:** Women-Owned Small Business, an SBA program for small businesses at least 51% owned and controlled by women. - **EDWOSB:** Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business, the WOSB program with added economic tests. - **SDVOSB:** Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, certified through SBA's VetCert. - **VOSB:** Veteran-Owned Small Business. - **Unrestricted:** Also called full and open competition. Any responsible business may bid. - **Sole source:** A planned award to one business without competition, which must be justified. See [Sole-source notices and how to challenge one](https://victavio.com/learn/sole-source-notices). - **Capability statement:** A one-page summary of what your business does, sent to buyers and primes. See [Write a one-page capability statement](https://victavio.com/learn/capability-statement). - **Limitations on subcontracting:** Rules that cap how much of a set-aside contract's money can go to companies that are not similarly situated. - **Similarly situated entity:** A subcontractor that holds the same small business status as the prime on a set-aside. - **Mentor-protege:** An SBA program where an established company helps a small business, and the two may bid together as a joint venture. - **Joint venture:** Two or more businesses that bid together under one agreement. - **Teaming agreement:** A contract between a prime and a subcontractor about bidding together. See [Teaming and subcontracting](https://victavio.com/learn/teaming-and-subcontracting). - **Prime contractor:** The business that holds the contract with the government. - **Subcontractor:** A business hired by the prime to do part of the work. - **Subcontracting plan:** A plan large primes file showing how they will use small businesses on big contracts. ## Evaluation and award - **Offer:** A response that the buyer can accept to form a contract. - **Offeror:** A business that submits an offer. - **Responsive:** A bid that meets every material requirement of the solicitation. - **Responsible:** A business the buyer judges able to perform, with the capacity, integrity and finances to do the work. - **Best value:** The buyer's choice of the offer that gives the most benefit, as the evaluation factors define it. - **LPTA:** Lowest Price Technically Acceptable. The award goes to the lowest priced offer that meets the technical bar. - **Tradeoff:** An evaluation where the buyer may pay more for a better technical offer. - **Evaluation factors:** The criteria the solicitation says it will judge, such as technical approach, past performance and price. - **Past performance:** The record of how well you did similar work. See [Past performance when you have none](https://victavio.com/learn/past-performance). - **Neutral rating:** How past performance is treated for an offeror with no relevant record, under the rules for negotiated buys. - **Competitive range:** The offers the buyer keeps for discussions in a negotiated buy. - **Discussions:** Exchanges with offerors in the competitive range, after which they may revise their proposals. - **Clarifications:** Limited exchanges to clear up minor points, without letting an offeror revise its proposal. - **Compliance matrix:** Your table of every requirement and where your response meets it. See [Build a compliance matrix](https://victavio.com/learn/compliance-matrix). - **Proprietary legend:** A marking that asks the government to protect your confidential data. See [Mark your proposal proprietary](https://victavio.com/learn/proprietary-legend). - **Debrief:** An explanation from the buyer of how your offer was evaluated. Ask for one every time. See [Debriefs: ask every time](https://victavio.com/learn/debriefs). - **Bid protest:** A formal challenge to a solicitation or an award, filed with the agency, the GAO or the Court of Federal Claims. - **Contracting officer (CO):** The government official with authority to sign and change contracts. - **Contracting officer's representative (COR):** The person who watches the work day to day for the contracting officer. ## Contract types and vehicles - **Firm fixed price (FFP):** You agree to a set price, and you carry the risk if the work costs more. - **Time and materials (T&M):** You are paid hourly rates plus the cost of materials, up to a ceiling. - **Cost reimbursement:** You are paid allowable costs plus a fee. These need an approved accounting system. - **IDIQ:** Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity. A contract with a range of work, ordered over time through task or delivery orders. - **Task order:** An order for services under an IDIQ or another contract vehicle. - **Delivery order:** An order for products under an existing contract. - **BPA:** Blanket Purchase Agreement, a simple way for a buyer to place repeat orders with a supplier. - **GWAC:** Governmentwide Acquisition Contract, a contract for information technology that many agencies can order from. - **Multiple-award contract:** One solicitation that awards contracts to several companies, which then compete for orders. - **GSA Schedule:** Also called the Multiple Award Schedule, a GSA contract vehicle that agencies use to order commercial products and services. - **Contract vehicle:** Any existing contract, such as a schedule or an IDIQ, that buyers order through. - **Option period:** A period the government may choose to add, such as an extra year, at its discretion. - **Base period:** The first period of a contract, before any options. - **Commercial product or service:** Something sold to the general public, which allows simpler buying rules. ## Money, pricing and payment - **Micro-purchase threshold:** The dollar line, $15,000 for most federal buys, under which a buyer can usually purchase without competing quotes. - **Simplified acquisition threshold:** The dollar line, $350,000 for most federal buys, up to which simpler steps apply. - **Obligation:** Money the government has committed to a contract. USAspending.gov shows obligations, not unit prices. - **Ceiling:** The most that can be spent under a contract or order. - **Price realism:** A check that a price is not too low to do the work. - **Price reasonableness:** A check that a price is not too high. - **Wage determination:** The minimum wages and benefits required for certain service and construction contracts. - **Invoice:** Your bill to the government, sent through the system the contract names. - **Prompt payment:** Rules that generally require federal buyers to pay a proper invoice within 30 days, with interest if late. - **EFT:** Electronic funds transfer, how the government pays the bank account in your SAM.gov registration. - **Bond:** A surety company's promise to pay if you fail to keep your bid or finish the work, such as a bid, performance or payment bond, often required on construction work. - **Retainage:** Part of a payment held back until work is finished, common on construction. ## After the award - **Kickoff meeting:** The first meeting after award, where the buyer and contractor confirm how the work will run. - **Modification:** A written change to a contract, signed by the contracting officer. - **Deliverable:** A product, report or service the contract requires you to hand over. - **CPARS:** The Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System, where federal buyers rate your work on a contract. - **Closeout:** The final steps that end a contract, such as last invoices and releases. - **Termination for convenience:** The government's right to end a contract when it no longer needs the work, with payment for work done. - **Termination for default:** Ending a contract because the contractor failed to perform. - **Records retention:** How long you must keep contract records after final payment, as the contract says. ## Security and compliance - **CMMC:** The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, the Department of Defense's program for protecting information on contractor systems. See [CMMC Level 1 in plain words](https://victavio.com/learn/cmmc-level-1). - **FCI:** Federal Contract Information, information about a contract that is not meant for the public. - **CUI:** Controlled Unclassified Information, sensitive government information that needs extra safeguards. ## Texas terms - **ESBD:** The Electronic State Business Daily, where Texas state agencies post bids. See [Texas state bids: the ESBD and the CMBL](https://victavio.com/learn/texas-esbd-and-cmbl). - **CMBL:** The Centralized Master Bidders List, the Texas list of vendors that state agencies use to send bids. - **VetHUB:** The Texas program, once called HUB, for businesses owned by service-disabled veterans. See [Texas HUB is now VetHUB](https://victavio.com/learn/texas-vethub). - **HSP:** The Texas subcontracting plan required on many state solicitations of $100,000 and up. ### Where do these definitions come from? From the Federal Acquisition Regulation, SAM.gov, SBA and the Texas Comptroller. When a solicitation defines a term, its definition controls for that bid. ### What if a term is not here? Search Learn, or ask in Help. We add terms people ask about. ## Official sources - [FAR 2.101: Definitions](https://www.acquisition.gov/far/2.101) - [Federal Acquisition Regulation](https://www.acquisition.gov/far/part-15) - [SAM.gov: Entity registration](https://sam.gov/content/entity-registration) - [SBA: Federal contracting](https://www.sba.gov/federal-contracting) - [SBA: Size standards](https://www.sba.gov/federal-contracting/contracting-guide/size-standards) - [USAspending.gov](https://www.usaspending.gov/) This lesson is general information, not legal advice. Rules change. Check the official source before you act. Victavio is a Kilobytez LLC product. Not a government agency. SAM.gov registration is free.