With assistance from the USDA’s Glossary of Government Contracting Forms as well as my own personal experience, I have compiled a list of regularly used acronyms used by seasoned federal employees in the arena of federal contracting.
1449
The Standard Form 1449 or SF-1449 is a solicitation/contract/order. It is used to place an order for commercial goods or services for use by the federal government. The form serves as an abstract which summarizes the contents of what the government is seeking, contract and financial terms as well as what the awardee provided.
ACH
The Automated Clearing House is a computerized network used to transfer money between the federal government and the contract awardee. An authorization form is sometimes included in the offeror’s proposal.
BLS
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a sub-agency of the Department of Labor and supplies labor data as well as statistics for perusal by the federal government and the general public. Wage floors and various economic indicators are retrieved from their website on a regular basis.
BOP
A basic contract option period is attached to the base contract period. An option length can range from a specific number of days to multiple years. Common option terms are 30 days, 60 days, 1 year, 5 years or even 20 years in some cases.
BPA
A blanket purchase agreement is an agreement between the government and a company to supply at pre-determined dates and sometimes capped at a specific dollar threshold using previously negotiated pricing.
CFR
The Code of Federal Regulations is the codified general and permanent regulations set forth by the executive departments inside the federal government that is published in the federal register and updated annually. The Federal Acquisition Regulations is housed in Part 48.
CLIN
A contract line-item number corresponds to each item being offered within an awarded contract. A contract may have just one item or thousands. Contracts in the FSS program may have several thousand on a single award!
COI
A certificate of insurance is a document which outlines a company’s various policies, expiration dates and limits of each individual occurrence as well as an aggregate for each policy displayed.
CONUS
These are those 48 states and Washington DC excluding Alaska and Hawaii which make up the greater portion of the United States of America.
COP
The contract ordering period constitutes the initiation and expiration dates of each federal contract. It may also be referred to as the period of performance or POP.
CO
A Contracting Officer is authorized by the federal government to administrate (ACO) and permit (PCO) business agreements on behalf of the United States of America.
COR
The Contracting Officer’s Representative is an assigned federal employee designated by the Contracting Officer who tracks performance on an awarded federal contract to ensure completion on time, within budget and of a satisfactory quality.
COTR
A Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative is a state or federal employee designated by the Contracting Officer who acts as a communications liaison between the federal government and the awardee. They are able to advise concerning the delivery and task orders upon an awarded federal contract.
CSP
The consumer sales practices of a price proposal is a snapshot of an offeror’s sales within both the commercial and federal sectors within a specified timeframe. It also captures the sales and projection of each line-item being proposed.
FAR
The Federal Acquisition Regulations consists of 53 Parts which guide the government’s purchasing processes.
FFP
A firm fixed price concept is that in which the price of an awarded line-item does not change.
GAO
The Government Accountability Office is a non-partisan office of the US Congress which provides auditing, evaluative and investigative services. Many know them for deciding on contract protests. Its published findings are a wonderful professional resource.
GSA
The General Services Administration functions as management and support for the basic operations of the government. Many know of them for their schedule program as well as their title of “Land Lord of the Federal Government”.
GWAC
A government-wide acquisition contract is a multiple award, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity vehicle which allows federal agencies to purchase various IT solutions.
IDIQ
An indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract allows for only a specified performance period to dictate the ordering process. The value of the contract is determined by the sales within that timeframe and no cap is placed upon the number of orders by eligible entities.
IG
The Inspector General is an independent, non-partisan office in each federal agency utilized to investigate misconduct, waste, fraud and abuse inside a specific agency.
NAICS
The North American Industry Classification System is a numeric coding which groups together business industries in which each business category has its own six digit code.
SAM
The System for Award Management is a database that collects, validates and stores pertinent information of suppliers to the federal government. The website now houses a myriad of other relevant information concerning the federal contracting process.
SOP
A standard operating procedure is the normalized process of a specific task or specialized group of operations used to complete an action.
TC
A tracking customer is a like customer or group of customers in size and scope to the federal government ultimately serving as a form of price protection. This is also referred to as the basis of award or BOA.
In my first team meeting which occurred in my first week of employment with the government, former Branch Chief and current co-creator of Orlaithe Consulting, Greg Madden said with a smile, “You’re new. There’s going to be a lot of acronyms thrown around. Don’t hesitate to ask questions.” I nodded. 30 seconds into the meeting I asked one. He then said, “Maybe you should wait until the end. Better yet, maybe you and I will discuss at our first 1-on-1 at the end of the week.” Everybody laughed.
The truth is, government has its own lingo. I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed like I was. The federal contracting process can be hard enough.
If you think I can help you then email nicholas.s.robertson@outlook.com for your introductory email and free consultation.
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