Sources
- Open notices: the public Contract Opportunities data extract published by the U.S. General Services Administration on SAM.gov. It contains every active notice: solicitations, presolicitations, sources sought, special notices and award notices. BidFox downloads the full file every morning shortly after it is refreshed.
- The last 12 months: the archived Contract Opportunities files for the current and previous U.S. fiscal years (October to September), refreshed weekly. They are used for the counts of past solicitations and for award notices.
- NAICS titles: the 2022 NAICS code list published by the U.S. Census Bureau.
All of this is public U.S. Government information. BidFox is independent and is not connected to SAM.gov, GSA or any agency.
What counts as an open notice
- Only notice types a business can act on: solicitations, combined synopsis/solicitations, presolicitations, sources sought and special notices.
- A notice whose response deadline has passed is not counted as open. A notice without a deadline counts for 120 days after it was posted.
- The same procurement is often posted several times (amendments). BidFox keeps only the latest version of each solicitation number, so each job is counted once.
- Work outside the United States and its territories is left out.
States, trades and agencies
- State is the place of performance written in the notice. When a notice gives no place of performance, it is not attributed to any state on the public pages. Award notices without a place take it from the original solicitation with the same number, when there is one.
- Trade pages group NAICS codes: for example construction is every code starting with 236, 237 or 238. The codes in each trade are listed on its page.
- Agency is the sub-tier agency named in the notice (for example Department of the Army), or the department when no sub-tier is given.
Awards and amounts
Award figures come only from award notices published on SAM.gov in the last 12 months. Amounts are shown as published. Some are the ceiling of a multiple-award or indefinite-quantity contract rather than money actually spent, and many contracts are awarded without a public award notice, so award counts are a floor, not a total. For complete spending figures use USAspending.gov.
The match score
Each notice gets 0 to 100 points for each subscriber, with the same rules for everyone:
- Same NAICS code as the subscriber's trade: 35 points (same family 32, closely related code 25).
- Work in a state the subscriber works in: 20 points.
- Open for bids now: 20 points; presolicitation 14; sources sought 10; special notice 4.
- Set aside for a certification the subscriber holds: 18; small business set-aside: 15; open competition: 8.
- 7 to 30 days until the deadline: 12 points; more than 30 days: 10; less than 7: 3. Notices closing in under 2 days are not sent.
Notices set aside for a certification the subscriber does not hold are never sent to them.
Which pages are published
A page for a state, trade, NAICS code, agency or set-aside is only offered to search engines when it has at least 3 open notices or 5 published awards in the last 12 months. Pages with less are still reachable but marked noindex, so nobody lands on an empty page from a search.
Updates and corrections
Open notices are refreshed every morning and the 12-month history every week. If you see a wrong figure or a notice in the wrong state, write to [email protected] and it will be checked against the official notice. Always read the official SAM.gov notice before you bid. More about who runs BidFox on the about page.