How government contracting works, step by step
Government buying follows the same path every time: an agency plans a buy, posts a notice, picks a winner and pays it, and years later bids the work again. Each of those moments leaves a public record. Here are the eight steps a small business takes from getting ready to submitting a bid, the data behind each one, and how that data connects.
The data behind it, and how it connects
SpendQuery reads 18 kinds of public records (80 sources in all, counting each state and city). They join through six shared keys: a company's UEI, industry and product codes, the buying office, notice and award numbers, place, and clause and labor-category names. That is what lets one search go from a notice to its incumbent, the incumbent's registration, its subcontractors and what similar work sold for.
Each line is a shared key: records with the same key can be joined. Pick a step, or point at a dataset or key.
- Where work is announced
- Rules, budgets and prices
- Who won and what was paid
- Companies and places
- Shared key
Agency & office
Who is buying. The same contracting office code is on its forecasts, its notices and its awards.
NAICS & PSC codes
What is being bought. The same industry (NAICS) and product (PSC) codes are on forecasts, notices, awards, registrations and size standards.
Notice & award numbers
A notice's solicitation number is carried onto the award it leads to; the award's ID onto its modifications and subawards.
Company ID (UEI)
The 12-character Unique Entity ID every SAM.gov registrant gets. It ties a company's registration to its awards, subawards and any exclusion.
Place
Where the work is done (state, county, city, district): joins federal awards to state and city records and to Census population.
Clauses & labor categories
The FAR and DFARS clauses a notice cites, and the labor categories priced on GSA contracts.
The eight steps
1 Get ready
Get ready to sell
Can I sell to the government, and under which codes?
- Register in SAM.gov (free). You get a UEI, the ID every award and payment is filed under.
- Pick the NAICS codes buyers actually put on notices and contracts for your work.
- Check you count as small under each code's SBA size standard; set-asides depend on it.
- Write a one-page capability statement from your registration and past work.
2 Discover
Find who buys what you sell
Which agencies and offices spend money on my line of work, and how much?
- Open your industry's page: total spending, the agencies and offices that buy it, the companies that win.
- Find the contracting offices that buy most often near you; each has its own page of awards and notices.
- See which contract vehicles (GSA Schedule, GWACs, IDIQs) carry the money; some work is only bought on them.
3 Discover
See what's coming
What will be put out for bid in the next 6 to 18 months?
- Read agency forecasts: planned buys with an estimated value and quarter.
- List contracts ending soon in your codes: each will likely be bid again, and you can see the incumbent.
- Watch city council agendas and budgets for contracts heading to a vote.
4 Discover
Find open bids
What can I bid on right now?
- Filter open SAM.gov notices by your codes, set-aside, state and due date.
- Check grants, SBIR/STTR topics and state and local bids if they fit your work.
- Save the search as an alert so new notices come to you.
5 Decide
Decide: bid or no-bid
Is this one worth the effort, and can I win it?
- Read the notice's brief: the incumbent, the set-aside, the deadline and what changed since it was posted.
- See how many offers this office usually gets; buys that draw one or two bids are easier to win.
- Look up the clauses the notice cites (cybersecurity, Buy American, limits on subcontracting).
- Score it against your company with the bid/no-bid check.
6 Decide
Know the competition, find partners
Who else will bid, and who could I team with?
- Look up the incumbent: its contracts with this office, their values and end dates.
- Find primes that subcontract in your line of work, and how much they pass down.
- Find registered companies with the certifications or codes you lack, for a teaming bid; check none is excluded.
7 Decide
Price it
What do contracts like this usually go for?
- See typical award sizes for your code and state, by set-aside and competition.
- Compare your labor rates with GSA ceiling rates for the same categories.
- Turn pay rates into fully loaded billable rates (fringe, overhead, G&A, fee).
8 Bid & win
Bid, track and learn
Did we submit on time, and what did the winner get?
- Track each pursuit to its due date with its documents, questions and requirements in one place.
- After the award, see who won and for how much; ask for a debriefing if you lost.
- Feed what you learned into the next bid; the winner's end date is your next recompete.
Do it on SpendQuery
Follow one contract through the data
One janitorial contract at a VA medical center, from plan to re-bid. Each arrow is the key that links one record to the next.
Procurement forecasts · Acquisition Gateway, DHS
A planned buy
A VA medical center's forecast lists janitorial services (NAICS 561720) as a service-disabled veteran-owned set-aside next quarter. See it →
linked by same office and NAICS code (Agency & office)
Contract opportunities · SAM.gov
The notice
The office posts the solicitation on SAM.gov: a solicitation number, a due date, the documents and the clauses that apply. See it →
linked by solicitation number (Notice & award numbers)
Prime awards · USAspending.gov
The award
The award on USAspending.gov carries the same solicitation number, plus the winner, the amount, the competition and the end date. See it →
linked by the winner's UEI (Company ID (UEI))
Company registrations · SAM.gov
The winner
The UEI opens the winner's SAM.gov registration (size, certifications, location) and every other award it holds. See it →
linked by the award ID (Notice & award numbers)
Subawards · USAspending.gov (FSRS)
Its subcontracts
The award ID lists the subcontracts the winner reported: who did part of the work, and for how much. See it →
linked by NAICS code and place (NAICS & PSC codes)
Labor rates · GSA CALC+
The price check
The award sits beside typical awards in the same code and state, and GSA ceiling rates for the same labor. See it →
linked by the award's end date (Notice & award numbers)
Prime awards · USAspending.gov
The next round
Months before the end date the contract shows as a recompete: the cycle starts again, and this time you know the incumbent. See it →
Every dataset, and what it tells you
Where work is announced
Plans, open solicitations and agendas: what you can bid on now and next.
| Dataset | What it tells you | Linked by |
|---|---|---|
| Contract opportunities SAM.gov | Every open federal solicitation, its set-aside, due date and documents. | Agency & office · NAICS & PSC codes · Notice & award numbers · Place |
| Procurement forecasts Acquisition Gateway, DHS | Buys agencies plan for the coming year, before any notice is posted. | Agency & office · NAICS & PSC codes |
| Grant opportunities Grants.gov | Open federal grants for nonprofits, cities, tribes and universities. | Agency & office |
| SBIR & STTR SBIR.gov, SAM.gov | Small-business research topics open now and every award since 1983. | Agency & office · Company ID (UEI) |
| State & local bids 40+ state, county and city portals | Open bids and awards from states, counties, cities, school districts and E-Rate. | Place · NAICS & PSC codes |
| Council agendas Legistar | Contracts going to a city council vote, weeks before the award. | Place |
Rules, budgets and prices
What a buy must follow, what agencies plan to spend, what labor costs.
| Dataset | What it tells you | Linked by |
|---|---|---|
| FAR, DFARS & SBA rules eCFR, Federal Register | The regulations a solicitation cites, rule changes and executive orders. | Clauses & labor categories · NAICS & PSC codes |
| Size standards SBA (13 CFR 121) | The revenue or employee limit to count as small under each NAICS code. | NAICS & PSC codes |
| Labor rates GSA CALC+ | Ceiling hourly rates by labor category from GSA contracts. | Clauses & labor categories |
| Budgets & IT spending OMB, Treasury, IT Dashboard | What each agency and account has to spend, and its IT investments. | Agency & office |
Who won and what was paid
Every award, its winner, amount and end date; state and city payments.
| Dataset | What it tells you | Linked by |
|---|---|---|
| Prime awards USAspending.gov | Every federal contract, grant and loan: winner, amount, dates, competition and set-aside. | Agency & office · NAICS & PSC codes · Notice & award numbers · Company ID (UEI) · Place |
| Subawards USAspending.gov (FSRS) | Which primes subcontract, to whom and for how much. | Notice & award numbers · Company ID (UEI) |
| State & city checkbooks 20+ comptrollers and controllers | What states, counties and cities paid each vendor. | Place |
| Bid results TxDOT, public-works portals | Every bidder and amount on past public-works bids. | Place · NAICS & PSC codes |
Companies and places
Registrations, certifications, exclusions and filings behind each winner, and the places the work is done.
| Dataset | What it tells you | Linked by |
|---|---|---|
| Company registrations SAM.gov | Each registered company's codes, size, certifications and location. | Company ID (UEI) · NAICS & PSC codes · Place |
| Exclusions SAM.gov | Companies barred from federal awards, and since when. | Company ID (UEI) |
| Company filings SEC, SBA loans, lobbying and FEC | Public filings, SBA loans, lobbying and political giving behind a company. | Company ID (UEI) |
| Places & economy Census, BEA, BLS | Population, income and inflation, for per-resident and real-dollar answers. | Place |
Every source with its publisher, update schedule and limits: Sources. How totals are checked against them: Accuracy.
Questions people ask
How does a small business find government contracts?
Register in SAM.gov, pick the NAICS codes buyers use for your work, then look in three places: open solicitations on SAM.gov (and state and local bid sites), agency forecasts of planned buys, and contracts ending soon that will be bid again. SpendQuery puts all three in one search by code, agency and place.
What data shows who won a government contract and for how much?
USAspending.gov publishes every federal prime award with the winner, amount, dates, competition and set-aside; subawards show who the winner subcontracted to. States and cities publish their own payments in checkbooks. SpendQuery joins these by company ID (UEI), code, agency and place.
How are SAM.gov notices and USAspending awards connected?
By the solicitation number and the contracting office: an award carries the solicitation number of the notice it came from. The winner's UEI then links the award to its SAM.gov registration, its other awards and its subawards.
How do I decide whether to bid?
Check the set-aside and your size under the NAICS code, the incumbent and the contract's history, how many offers that office usually receives, the clauses the notice cites, and whether the typical award size fits your capacity. The bid/no-bid check scores a notice on these factors.
Is the data free?
The sources are public government data. Searching, the tools and the pages on SpendQuery are free; the Pursuit desk and alerts need an account.