Consider This Your RFP Industry Glossary

Procurement runs on acronyms, and five of them account for most of the confusion: RFP, RFQ, RFI, IFB (or ITB) and RFT. Each names a different kind of solicitation, and the difference is not stylistic - it tells you how much freedom you have to propose your own approach and how the winner will be chosen. Read the acronym at the top of a document correctly and you already know whether you are being asked for ideas, for a price, or for information the buyer will use to write a real solicitation later.

Which Procurement Acronym Am I Looking At?

What Does RFP Stand For?

Request for Proposals. It is the most open-ended solicitation type: the issuer describes a need and invites vendors to propose how they would meet it, then scores those proposals on approach, qualifications and price together. Because responses are custom-written and evaluation is comparative, RFP timelines run longer than any other type - longer for you to write, and longer for the issuer to decide. Our explainer on what an RFP is covers the document in depth.

What Does IFB or ITB Stand For?

Invitation for Bids, also written Invitation to Bid. This is the sealed-bidding method, and in US federal contracting it is the formal term used in FAR Part 14: bids are submitted sealed, opened publicly, evaluated without discussions, and awarded to the responsible bidder whose conforming bid is most advantageous considering only price and price-related factors. It is used when the buyer knows exactly what it wants and the only open question is cost. Note that this is standard American procurement vocabulary, not a European convention - state agencies, school districts and federal buyers all issue IFBs. See what an invitation to bid is for how to approach one.

What Does RFQ Stand For?

Request for Quotes, sometimes Request for Quotation. The buyer has already decided the specification and quantity and simply wants competing prices, which makes RFQs fast to issue and fast to answer. They are commonly used for smaller purchases and against existing contract vehicles. One correction worth making: RFQs are not inherently private. Plenty are posted openly on SAM.gov and state portals alongside every other solicitation type, though some are sent directly to a short list of known suppliers. Our guide to what an RFQ is covers how to price one.

What Does RFI Stand For?

Request for Information. It comes before a purchase decision rather than during one: the buyer is surveying what exists, who supplies it and roughly what it costs. No contract is awarded from an RFI, and responses generally bind nobody - which is exactly why they are worth answering. The information vendors provide frequently becomes the requirements of the RFP that follows. In federal contracting the same function often appears under the label Sources Sought Notice. See what an RFI is.

What Does RFT Stand For?

Request for Tender. The issuer sets out detailed requirements and invites priced offers against them, with the award going to whichever supplier can deliver on the best combination of cost, time and resources. American buyers rarely use the word: it is standard in the UK, Australia, Canada and other Commonwealth markets, and shows up in US-facing work mainly on international or multilateral projects. If you see it on a domestic notice, read the document rather than the label.

Which Acronyms Show Up in Government Bids?

Public-sector bidding adds a second layer of vocabulary on top of the solicitation types:

• Sources Sought Notice. The federal equivalent of an RFI, used to test whether capable suppliers - particularly small businesses - exist before a solicitation is written.
• Combined synopsis/solicitation. A single notice that serves as both the public announcement and the solicitation itself, used to speed up commercial-item buys.
• GPE and SAM.gov. The governmentwide point of entry, where federal agencies must synopsize proposed contract actions expected to exceed $25,000 under FAR 5.101. Registration is free.
• UEI. The Unique Entity ID, a 12-character identifier assigned in SAM.gov. It replaced the DUNS number in April 2022, so any guide still telling you to get a DUNS number is out of date.
• NAICS code. The industry classification that determines which solicitations you match and, with SBA size standards, whether you count as a small business for a given contract.
• SOW. Scope of Work, sometimes Statement of Work - the section defining exactly what the winning vendor must deliver.
• FAR. The Federal Acquisition Regulation, the rulebook for federal purchasing. It is currently being rewritten under the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul, with agencies operating on class deviations while formal rulemaking proceeds, so verify any FAR citation against the current text.

The reason all of this matters commercially: the federal government sets a goal of directing at least 23% of contracting dollars to small businesses each year, with further subgoals for women-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned and HUBZone firms, according to the SBA. Knowing the vocabulary is the entry fee for competing for that share.

What Are GSA Schedules?

A GSA Schedule is a long-term government contract that lets federal, and often state and local, buyers purchase from you at pre-negotiated prices without running a new competition each time. What used to be dozens of separate schedules is now a single Multiple Award Schedule, also called the Federal Supply Schedule, organized into twelve large categories from IT to professional services and facilities, as GSA describes. You apply for it directly rather than in response to a specific solicitation, compliance obligations are ongoing, and holding a schedule is a licence to sell rather than a guarantee of sales - you still have to market to agencies and compete for task orders.

Where Can I Find the Full Glossary?

This page is the acronym decoder. For the working definitions behind the terms - best value procurement, sole source, bid bonds, IDIQ, blanket purchase agreements, termination for convenience and dozens more - use our full RFP glossary of bid and procurement terms.

See It in a Real Bid

Acronyms make immediate sense once you see them at the top of a live notice. Open a few and check which type you are actually looking at before you start writing. Search open bids on Bid Banana.