Size Protests and NAICS Code Appeals: How to Fight a Bad Set-Aside Call
A size protest and a NAICS code appeal challenge different things and have very different deadlines. Here is how each one actually works.
-
-
VETS-4212: The Annual Report Most Federal Contractors Forget
VETS-4212 is an annual veteran employment report required above a dollar threshold. Here is who must file, the deadline, and why it gets missed.
-
Shutdowns and CRs: How Small Contractors Survive a Funding Lapse
Stop-work orders, incremental funding, and the Limitation of Funds clause explained for small contractors facing a shutdown or continuing resolution.
-
The Incurred Cost Submission (ICE): Who Files, When, and What Breaks
The ICE submission is due six months after fiscal year end. Here is who has to file, the required schedules, and the mistakes that cause rejection.
-
Provisional Billing Rates: How New Contractors Set Indirect Rates
A provisional billing rate is your estimate of year-end indirect rates. Here is how a new contractor sets one with no actuals to forecast from.
-
Federal Contractor Cybersecurity Insurance: Do You Actually Need It?
Nothing in CMMC or DFARS explicitly requires you to carry cyber insurance — but the way CMMC compliance actually works has created a real, specific financial exposure that most small federal contractors haven’t fully priced in. Here’s what the actual risk is, and what a policy for a federal contractor should cover. The Real Exposure…
-
Other Transaction Agreements (OTAs): The Back Door Into Defense Work
If your small business has ever been told it doesn’t have the past performance to compete for a traditional FAR contract, Other Transaction Agreements are worth understanding — they’re a completely separate acquisition authority DoD uses specifically to reach companies that don’t fit the traditional government contractor mold, with a fraction of the regulatory overhead….
-
FAR Flow-Down Clauses: What Primes Must Pass to Subcontractors
When you sign a subcontract, you’re not just agreeing to the terms on the page — a specific set of FAR and DFARS clauses attach automatically, whether or not the prime bothered to write them into your agreement. These are flow-down clauses, and misunderstanding which ones are mandatory versus negotiable is one of the more…
-
Section 889 Compliance: The Banned-Equipment Rule That Kills Registrations
Section 889 has quietly disqualified more small businesses from federal contracting than almost any other single compliance rule — not because the underlying requirement is complicated, but because contractors skip the annual SAM.gov certification, get it wrong, or don’t realize it applies to their entire company, not just their federal-facing operations. Here’s what it actually…
-
FCI vs CUI: How to Tell Which Federal Data You Actually Handle
Every small business in federal contracting eventually hits the same confusing moment: someone mentions “CUI” and you’re not sure if that applies to you, or if you’re just dealing with ordinary FCI. Getting this wrong isn’t a paperwork technicality — it determines whether you need basic safeguarding or a full NIST 800-171 implementation, and which…