How to read a federal solicitation, in the order that matters

What you are holding

A solicitation is the government's request for bids. It tells you what the agency wants to buy, how to respond and how it will choose. Most are posted on SAM.gov, the government's official site for contract opportunities.

The notice and the package are two different things

The SAM.gov page you land on is the notice. It is a summary. The real rules are in the attached files, called the package: the solicitation document, the work statement, the price sheet, wage determinations and other attachments. Download every attachment. A requirement on page 84 of an attachment counts as much as one on page 1.

SAM.gov uses several notice types. Two of them are not requests for bids. A sources sought notice looks for possible sources and, in SAM.gov's own words, is not a solicitation for work. A special notice announces events or asks for information. A solicitation or a combined synopsis/solicitation is the one you bid on. (Source: SAM.gov help, notice types in Contract Opportunities.)

RFQ, RFP and IFB in one line each

• RFQ, request for quotations. Common for smaller buys under the simplified procedures in FAR Part 13. A quotation is not an offer, so the government cannot accept it as a binding contract by itself (FAR 13.004(a)).
• RFP, request for proposals. Used for negotiated buys under FAR Part 15. The agency can weigh price and other factors, such as your technical approach and past performance.
• IFB, invitation for bids. Used for sealed bidding under FAR Part 14. 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 (FAR 14.101).

What the solicitation number tells you

A federal solicitation number follows a set pattern (FAR 4.1603). Take FA480026Q0082, the past Air Force RFQ we use in our demo:

So the ninth character tells you, before you open a file, whether you are writing a quote, a proposal or a sealed bid.

Read this first: can you bid at all?

Before you read the work, find out if you are allowed to bid. Most of these answers sit on the cover form and the first few pages. For commercial buys the cover form is often the SF 1449 (FAR 12.204). Sealed bids and many other buys use the SF 33 (FAR 14.201-1).

The set-aside

A set-aside reserves the contract 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 (SBA, contracting assistance programs). If the buy is set aside for a program you are not in, you cannot bid as the prime contractor.

The NAICS code and its size standard

The contracting officer assigns one NAICS code, an industry code, and its matching size standard to the solicitation (FAR 19.102(b)(1)). The size standard is the most your firm, with its affiliates, can be and still count as small for this contract. It is measured in employees or average annual receipts, depending on the code (SBA, size standards). Look your code up in SBA's table of size standards.

The due date, time and time zone

Write down all three. A 2:00 p.m. deadline in another time zone is not 2:00 p.m. where you are. Our guide to the late rules and how to plan around them is in the checklist.

The place of performance

Where the work happens decides your travel, your staffing and, for service work, the wage rates you must pay.

Your SAM.gov registration

You must be registered in SAM.gov when you submit an offer or quotation, and at award (FAR 52.204-7(b)(1)). Your UEI, the Unique Entity ID that identifies your business in SAM.gov, goes on the cover page of a commercial offer (FAR 52.212-1(j)).

If any of these is a no, stop. A no on day one saves you a week. Our bid or no-bid checklist walks through each check and where to find it.

The rules for your bid: Sections L and M

Two parts of a solicitation decide whether your bid is even read. One says how to build your response. The other says how it will be judged.

Where they are in an RFP

Many RFPs follow the uniform contract format, which splits the solicitation into Sections A to M (FAR 15.204-1):

• Section L, instructions, conditions and notices to offerors. This is how to build your response: volumes, page limits, fonts, file names, what goes where.
• Section M, evaluation factors for award. This is how the agency will judge you. Every factor and significant subfactor, and how much each one counts, must be stated in the solicitation (FAR 15.304(d)).

Some agencies now organize solicitations differently under the FAR overhaul deviations. Look for the instructions and the evaluation rules by what they say, not only by the letter.

Where they are in a commercial RFQ

Many short commercial buys have no Section L or M. The instructions sit in the provision FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors, and an addendum to it. The evaluation rules sit in FAR 52.212-2, Evaluation, and its addendum. The addenda are where the agency writes its own rules for this buy. Read them line by line.

A worked example

Here are real rows from the instructions and the evaluation addendum of our demo RFQ. Each one is a rule that can sink a bid if you miss it.

Read those five rows again. A price on the wrong page gets you excluded. A technical volume that only repeats the work statement is unacceptable. And the technical part is pass or fail, so price decides among the passes. That is what you learn from two pages, before you read the work at all.

Write the instruction rules down as a list you can tick off. People often call that list a compliance matrix.

The work itself: Section C, the PWS or SOW

Section C describes what you will do. It is often a separate attachment called the PWS, the performance work statement, or the SOW, the statement of work. A PWS usually says what result the agency wants. A SOW usually says how the work is done.

Read it for the sentences that bind you. Look for “shall”, “must” and “will”. Each one is a promise you are making. Long solicitations put these sentences in odd places: in a table, a footnote, an attachment, a drawing note.

As you read, mark three things:

• Work you have done before, with a contract or a customer you can name.
• Work you have not done, which you would need a partner for.
• Anything you need before day one: a license, a certification, a clearance, insurance or a bond.

If the solicitation mentions a site visit, check the date. A site visit clause tells offerors they are urged and expected to inspect the site, and not inspecting it is no basis for a claim later (FAR 52.237-1).

Attachments that change your price

The price schedule and CLINs

The price schedule, often Section B or a spreadsheet attachment, lists what you are pricing. Each row is a CLIN, a contract line item number. Line items are set up to define deliverables or organize information about them (FAR 4.1001). Price every line in the format the schedule asks for. Watch for option years: a one-year base with option years means you price every year.

Wage determinations

For service contracts over $2,500, you must pay your service workers at least the wages and fringe benefits the Department of Labor found to prevail in the area (FAR 22.1002-2). These rates are in a wage determination, usually attached to the solicitation. Construction contracts over $2,000 carry their own prevailing wage rates (FAR 22.403-1). SAM.gov hosts both kinds; its help pages explain how to search for Service Contract Act wage determinations.

Build your price from these rates and your own costs. If your price is below the wage floor for the area, the numbers do not work.

Amendments and questions

An amendment is a change to the solicitation. When the government changes its requirements or terms, the contracting officer amends the solicitation (FAR 15.206(a)). An amendment can change the work, the price sheet, a page limit or the due date.

• Check the notice on SAM.gov for amendments until the day you submit, not just the day you start.
• Acknowledge each one the way the solicitation asks. For commercial buys, the instructions list acknowledgment of solicitation amendments among the things your offer must show (FAR 52.212-1(b)).
• Read each amendment against your draft. Change what it changes.

Most solicitations also set a deadline for questions. It is usually well before the due date, and the answers often come out as an amendment. If something is unclear, ask in writing before that date.

What FedRAG does with the same package

FedRAG reads the solicitation package and does the first pass of this guide for you, with the page behind each answer:

• It checks whether you’re eligible to bid: set-aside, SBA size standard, NAICS, facility and staff clearances, bonding, place of performance, certifications, SAM.gov registration and exclusions. Each reason cites its page or its SAM.gov record.
• It lists the requirements with the page each came from, so you can open the page and check the words.
• It puts every date in one ledger with its time zone and its source.
• If a file can’t be read, such as a fillable form, a password-protected PDF or a file over 400 pages, the result names it and says the decision doesn’t cover it.

FedRAG recommends. You decide. It never submits, signs, acknowledges an amendment or sends email for you.

See the bid decision on the home page, or what FedRAG doesn’t do.