Codes and identifiers
NAICS: the North American Industry Classification System, a 6-digit code for the kind of work being bought. The first 4 digits are the industry group. Notices carry one NAICS; your profile holds up to 50.
PSC: Product Service Code, a finer classification of the specific product or service being procured, used alongside NAICS. Filters take a prefix of 1 to 4 characters, for example R4.
UEI: Unique Entity Identifier, the 12-character code SAM.gov assigns to a registered company. CAGE: Commercial and Government Entity code, 5 characters, assigned during SAM registration. The platform matches your awards and teaming partners by UEI.
Set-aside programs
A set-aside restricts a notice to companies in a program. Small business: the size standard for the NAICS. 8(a): the SBA business development program for socially and economically disadvantaged firms. HUBZone: firms in Historically Underutilized Business Zones. SDVOSB: service-disabled veteran-owned small business; VOSB: veteran-owned. WOSB: women-owned small business; EDWOSB: economically disadvantaged women-owned. Unrestricted or full and open means any company may offer. On award records, codes such as SBA, 8A, SDVOSBC, WOSB and HZC map to these programs.
Regulations and compliance terms
FAR: the Federal Acquisition Regulation, the rulebook for civilian federal buying; clauses are numbered like 52.212-1. DFARS: the Defense FAR Supplement, the Department of Defense additions, numbered 252.xxx. NIST SP 800-171: the set of 110 security requirements for protecting controlled unclassified information on contractor systems. SPRS: the Supplier Performance Risk System, where contractors self-report their NIST SP 800-171 assessment score. POA&M: Plan of Action and Milestones, the document that tracks how and when a security gap will be closed. CMMC: the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification programme that assesses those requirements. OSCAL: the NIST machine-readable format for security plans and POA&Ms.
Notice and contract types
Sources sought: a market research notice before a solicitation; responding is not an offer. Presolicitation: notice that a solicitation is coming. Combined synopsis/solicitation: the notice and the solicitation in one. Solicitation: the request for offers. Special notice: anything else the office wants to publish. Grant: a funding opportunity, kept out of some lists by default.
IDIQ: Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity, a contract vehicle for an unspecified quantity of supplies or services within a fixed period, used through task or delivery orders. GWAC: a Government-Wide Acquisition Contract, an IDIQ any agency may order from. Period of performance: the dates a contract runs between. Recompete: a new competition for work an expiring contract covers. Nothing in the platform's data links an award to the notice that follows it, so a recompete is only ever shown as awards that share an agency and NAICS unless you confirm the link.
Platform words
Notice: one SAM.gov opportunity record. Pursuit: a notice you added to your pipeline, with its stage, team and documents. Bid packet: the assembled response to a notice. Tracked: a notice you saved to Tracked contracts, which turns on deadline alerts. Saved search or alert: filters stored to run on a cadence. Fit: the search score from your profile. Evidence points: the teaming finder's rule-based count of award facts, never a prediction.