Glossary
Government contracting terms, defined
The words in federal, state and local solicitations that matter most to janitorial, grounds and facilities support contractors. Each definition links its source.
Terms
- Wage determinationA wage determination is the Department of Labor schedule of minimum hourly wages and fringe benefits, by occupation and area, that a contractor must pay service employees on a federal service contract. It is attached to the solicitation and the contract, and it sets the floor for labor cost in the bid price.
- Service Contract ActThe Service Contract Act, now codified as the Service Contract Labor Standards statute, requires contractors on federal service contracts over $2,500 to pay service employees at least the wages and fringe benefits in the contract's wage determination. It covers most janitorial, grounds and facilities support contracts performed in the United States.
- Health and welfare (H&W)Health and welfare is the fringe benefit on a Service Contract Act wage determination, stated as a dollar amount per hour. Unless the wage determination says otherwise, it is due for every hour paid, including paid leave, up to 40 hours a week and 2,080 hours a year per employee, in benefits, cash or both.
- Compliance matrixA compliance matrix is a table that lists every requirement in a solicitation, one per row, with its source section and page, and maps it to the part of the proposal that answers it. Bid teams use it to plan the outline, assign writers and check the final draft before submission.
- Sources sought noticeA sources sought notice is market research an agency posts on SAM.gov before a solicitation, asking which companies could do the work. It is not a request for bids. The answers help the contracting officer decide how to buy, including whether to set the contract aside for small business.
- Set-asideA set-aside is a federal contract that only certain businesses may compete for, such as small businesses, 8(a), HUBZone, service-disabled veteran-owned or women-owned small businesses. Contracting officers generally must set a contract aside for small business when they expect offers from two or more capable small businesses at fair prices.
- NAICS codeA NAICS code is the six-digit North American Industry Classification System code for a type of business. In federal contracting, each solicitation carries one NAICS code, which sets the SBA size standard for that contract. Janitorial services are 561720, landscaping services 561730 and facilities support services 561210.
- Product and service code (PSC)A product and service code (PSC) is the four-character code the federal government uses to describe what it buys. Every contract action carries one. Janitorial work is usually S201, landscaping and groundskeeping S208, and facilities operations support S216. Searching by PSC finds notices a NAICS search can miss.
- Unique Entity ID (UEI)The Unique Entity ID (UEI) is the 12-character identifier SAM.gov assigns to a business. It replaced the DUNS number in 2022. A full SAM.gov registration, renewed every year, is required to receive most federal contract awards, and your UEI identifies you on every bid, award and payment.
- Past performance questionnaire (PPQ)A past performance questionnaire is a form, attached to some solicitations, that the bidder sends to its references, usually earlier customers, to rate its work on similar contracts. The references return it straight to the contracting officer. Agencies also check official past performance records, such as CPARS evaluations of earlier federal contracts.
- Quality control plan (QCP)A quality control plan is the contractor's written method for checking its own work against the performance work statement: who inspects, how often, what gets measured, and how defects are fixed and prevented. Service solicitations often ask for one with the proposal, and the government checks the work separately under its own surveillance plan.
- Production rateA production rate is how much area one worker cleans or maintains in an hour, such as 3,000 square feet an hour of routine office cleaning. Dividing the cleanable area by the rate gives labor hours, which drive most of a janitorial or grounds bid price. Rates differ by space type, task and equipment.
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Send us one solicitation you bid on recently. In a 30-minute call we show you what Falkview finds in it, the compliance matrix and a first draft.