You can reach the FedBizOpps Help Desk by clicking on the Help desk link on the bottom left of every page help@fbo.gov. The Help Desk is open between 9am and 6pm Eastern Time (M-F).
When you are trying to open attachments, assuming you are authorized to view them, if you receive an "open" error or are asked to convert the attachment files it may mean the document type is one that you do not have the softward to view. For instance, you may also need to install a document viewer, such as, Acrobat (.pdf files) or WinZip (.zip files) on your system.
Links to Document Viewers:
If the file type is not on this list, please contact the solicitation Primary Point of Contact for assistance.
The posting may have been deleted, however it is more likely that it was archived. To find an archived posting:
The system allows the buyer to specify the following for each solicitation they enter:
In this system, procurements are classified by Federal Supply Codes/Product Services Codes.The following is a listing of the classification codes:
Note: The contracting official has final authority on which procurement classification code the solicitation will use, Therefore you may want to search on several classification codes related to your area of interest.
The Department of Defense (DoD) is responsible for the repair and continuity of operations of the Iraqi oil infrastructure. The Army is the Executive Agent for this mission and the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is responsible for awarding and managing contracts required to carry out this mission. The DoD Contractor Hot Line for expressing interest in procurements involving the repair and continuity of operations of Iraqi oil infrastructure is 1-866-461-5171. There will be a competitive procurement. The solicitation will be posted at the FBO website, http://www.fedbizopps.gov/. Information can also be obtained from the USACE website, http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/cepa/iraq/iraq.htm
DoD has available an online publication, "Doing Business with the DoD, " offering a step-by-step guide to marketing your business within the DoD arena. The site is located at: http://www.acq.osd.mil/sadbu/doing_business/index.htm.
A DoD small business guide that may be helpful is at http://www.acq.osd.mil/osbp/doing_business/index.htm.The reconstruction effort may encompass everything from power grids, ports, roads, bridges, and telecommunications, to schools and health care facilities. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is involved, and has a number of procurement actions planned and in process. Details can be found at http://www.usaid.gov/iraq/.
The US Department of Commerce provides prime contractor POC information for those seeking subcontracting opportunities at http://www.export.gov/iraq. Commerce also has a hotline (1-866-352-IRAQ).
Contract opportunities in Iraq will be posted at the Government point of entry (GPE), Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) at http://www.fedbizopps.gov// unless a statutory exception to synopsis requirements as described in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) applies. Specific exceptions to the posting of proposed contract actions at FBO include, but are not limited to, requirements where...
For comprehensive coverage of statutory exceptions to posting proposed contract actions, please refer to FAR 5.202 and FAR 5.205. For exceptions to posting contract award information, refer to FAR 5.301. You may access the FAR online at Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Index
For contractors interested in Iraq reconstruction contracts, the following information may also be of interest: The Department of Defense (DoD) is responsible for the repair and continuity of operations of the Iraqi oil infrastructure. The Army is the Executive Agent for this mission and the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is responsible for awarding and managing contracts required to carry out this mission. The DoD Contractor Hot Line for expressing interest in procurements involving the repair and continuity of operations of Iraqi oil infrastructure is 1-866-461-5171. The Corps will be conducting a competitive procurement. The solicitation will be posted at the FBO website http://www.fedbizopps.gov/. Information can also be obtained from the Corps' website, http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/cepa/iraq/iraq.htm.
DoD has available an online publication, "Selling to the Military," that identifies the research, development, and procurement responsibilities of each DoD organizational activity. The publication provides helpful advice for marketing ideas and other relevant information. The site is located at http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps57820/www.acq.osd.mil/sadbu/publications/selling/.
A DoD small business guide that may be helpful is at http://www.acq.osd.mil/sadbu/publications/sbs/sbs.html
The reconstruction effort may encompass everything from power grids, ports, roads, bridges, and telecommunications, to schools and health care facilities.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is involved, and has a number of procurement actions planned and in process. Details can be found at http://www.usaid.gov/iraq/.
The Sources Sought notice is a synopsis posted by a government agency that states they are seeking possible sources for a project. It is not a solicitation for work, nor is it a request for proposal. Reference the FAR, Subpart 7.3 and OMB Circular A-76. You can use the following search technique to find Sources Sought notices. Advanced Search:
The Special Notice is used for the announcement of procurement matters such as business fairs, long-range procurement estimates, pre-bid/pre-proposal conferences, meetings, and the availability of draft solicitations or draft specifications for review. You can use the following search technique to find Special Notices. Advanced Search:
You can obtain your username and/or password by performing the following:
User manuals are available on the home page (www.fbo.gov)
Solicitation number can only contain alphanumeric characters. Spaces are not allowed. As you create a solicitation, the system will prompt you to correct an incorrectly structured solicitation number.
The "Save Draft" button saves the data entered on a form as a draft version. Note, for save as draft, the user is not required to complete all required fields on the form. Required fields are indicated by a red asterisk. Materials saved in draft format will remain on a buyers list of available items, but will not be viewable on the vendor interface until saved and posted/released to vendor review (or deleted).
When you have posted a solicitation with the wrong solicitation number, we caution users from deleting the incorrect synopsis as vendor potentially have already added the solicitation to their watchlist or received communication about the solication through a search agent. To resolve, create a posting with the correct solicitation number. Then post an amendment modification to the errant notice. In the amendment, detail the error and direct the reader to the proper solicitation number. This will allow people who have received email notifications of your opportunity to find the proper synopsis.
Once a user is logged onto the system, the system will check to make sure the user is actively using the site. If a user is inactive for 60 minutes, the user will be automatically logged off the system. Activity in this sense is defined as data that has been submitted by the user. Some examples are the request for a navigational (e.g., selection of a quicklink) or if a user submits a form (e.g., selection of "save draft" during notice creation). To ensure the user is aware of this pending circumstance, after 55 minutes of inactivity, a warning message appears that indicates the pending action. When the warning message appears, to remain logged onto the system, select "click keep me logged in". If the user does not make this selection, the session will be closed and any unsaved data will be lost. The system returns the user to the system logon screen (fbo.gov).
Formatting problems can be caused when word processor (including notepad) formatted text is put into a browser format. The formats are not always compatible. Because the form is WYSIWIG, you should review your inserted text to ensure the material correctly reflects your intention.
Please note that FedBizOpps will not allow a buyer to delete a modification without deleting the associated notice. If an error is made on a modification, you can either post another modification or delete the entire notice. We caution users from deleting a notice as vendor potentially have already added the solicitation to their watchlist or received communication about the solicitation through a search agent.
We caution users from deleting the incorrect synopsis as vendor potentially have already added the solicitation to their watchlist, or received communication about the solicitation through a search agent. .If the solicitation is then deleted, the vendors will be frustrated as they use these features. Instead, we recommend that amendments be posted to the solicitation, explaining the error that was made, and where to find the correct solicitations, if any. This can be done by anyone who has access to those solicitations.
As each notice is created, archival information is established for the notice. Buyers are allowed to specify that the notice archive on a specified date, X days after a response deadline or via "manual archive". Manual archive means the notice remains as posted until a user manually archives the notice. Using modify or amend users can archive any solicitation, regardless of the notices specified archived settings, with the following procedure:
You can unarchive a solicitation with the following procedure:
The system periodically sweeps through the database of notices and releases new notices for vendors to see in batches. Therefore you may notice a brief lag between hitting "post" on the buyer side and seeing it on the opportunities list.
A company must be certified by the Joint Certification Program (JCP) administered by the Defense Logistic Information Service (DLIS) to be eligible to download documents marked Export Controlled. This certification establishes that a company is a U.S. or Canadian contractor eligible to receive unclassified technical data that is under the control of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) or the Canadian Department of National Defense (DND).
Vendors outside the U.S. or Canada must be granted authorization by your agency to access the documents. Upon authorization, you must either distribute the documents directly to the vendor or utilize the Explicit Access feature within the FBO system and manually vet each request.
On April 13, 2009, FBO.gov established a new notice type called "Justification & Approval (J&A)" within the Opportunities section. Buyers are now able to post standalone J&A Notices, as well as associate a J&A Notice to existing notices, such as an Award, if applicable. (Electronic users should reference the new J&A interface template located under General Info.) Note: Buyers are not able to delete/modify a posted J&A Notice type. Please contact your Agency Administrator for assistance.
In addition, Vendors are able to search for and retrieve posted J&A Notices according to specific criteria, such as J&A Statutory Authority, Posted Date Range, and Contract Award Date (via Advanced Search).
Coming soon, Buyers will be able to download a recorded webinar that will walk through the features and functionality of the new Bid Module. In addition, the User Guides are updated and available on the home page (www.fbo.gov).
Agency and Office Location Administrators manage user access to the Bid Module. If you do not have access, it is because this feature is not enabled for your Location. Contact your FBO Administrator for more information.
Login to the Administrator interface and go to "Agencies" found in the left-hand navigation menu which will display all of the organizations in your hierarchy. Click on the "Edit" icon next to the desired organization. At the bottom of the "Core" tab for the Agency Information page, there are two fields used to set the permission level for the Bid Module: Allow CLIN Template and Allow Doc Package. Set both of these fields to "Not Allow." Note: If set to "Ignore," lower level administrators can enable/disable this feature independently. If set to "Allow," lower level administrators will still need to enable the Bid Module for their users to be able to access it.
Login to the Administrator interface and go to "Manage Location" found in the left-hand navigation menu. Click on the "Edit" button. At the bottom of the "Edit Location" tab, there are two fields used to set the permission level of the Bid Module for your users: Allow CLIN Template and Allow Doc Package. To enable either option, set the field(s) to "Allow." To disable either option, set the field(s) to "Not Allow" or "Ignore." Note, if the Agency Administrator disabled this feature for the entire agency, you will not be able to enable it for your Location. Contact your Agency Administrator for more information.
The electronic interface will recognize if user submissions have "Recovery" as the first word in the title (<SUBJECT> tag within the template) for a notice. If so, the notice will automatically be flagged as a "Recovery and Reinvestment Act" action. Note: "Recovery" must be the first word and spelled exactly; letter case will not have an effect.
When creating a new notice, Buyers are required to identify whether or not it is a Recovery Act action. If so, you must select the "yes" radio button for the "Is this a Recovery and Reinvestment Act action" field on the "Notice Details" form (Step 2) located below the "NAICS Code" field.
In order to provide the historic levels of transparency required by the Recovery Act, the government is posting all Recovery Act funded order notices on FedBizOpps. This includes award notices for task orders / delivery orders issued, which were previously unavailable. See FAR 5.704(a)(2) for additional information.
When building the notice, first select an Award Notice. Next, include the following statement in the Description field preceding the actual notice description:
"THIS NOTICE IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY.
THIS OPPORTUNITY IS AVAILABLE ONLY TO CONTRACTORS UNDER
[Contracting officer insert program name. For example: GSA Schedule 03FAC, COMMITS, Navy's SeaPort-e]."
Because these notices are "for information purposes only," FAR 5.203 does not apply and contracting officers should concurrently use their usual solicitation practice (e.g., e-Buy).
FBO allows the contract specialist maximum flexibility in the development of the synopsis number. There are 255 characters available and the field can include any combination of alphanumeric and/or four special characters, - _ ( ). Contract specialist need only use an identifier that is a unique number developed by the local contracting office to distinguish the action from other procurements in the office. The combination of contracting office, contract specialist, and the identifier will ensure the procurement is distinct from any other procurement in FedBizOpps.
It is suggested that if you want to issue a synopsis for a particular delivery order or task order under an existing indefinite delivery type contract, use the contract number of the basic contract and the delivery/task order number on the end.
For example: OM0007-D-09-TEST-0100.
If that is not unique enough, use the original solicitation number, with the contract number of the basic contract, and the delivery/task order number on the end.
For example: OM0007-R-06-TEST/OM0007-D-09-TEST-0100
To locate a specific solicitation without the solicitation number, you will need to search for the solicitation based on unique attributes of the solicitation. So for instance, you might search based on Agency, office, posted date, procurement classification code, and/or archived versus active status. The advance search features of the system are well suited for this purpose.
For information about the GSA schedule, please contact the MAS Helpdesk at: Phone: (800) 488-3111, Email: mashelpdesk@gsa.gov, or go to http://www.gsa.gov/ and click on "GSA Schedules" to walk through the process.
First, you may want to validate your NAICS code selection at an Internet reference site, such as http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html. Once you have selected the 6-digit NAICS code that best represents your business product or service, you can use the code as a search filter. Note the filter search for NAICS Code allows you to select codes at either the broader (3 number) or narrow (6 number) code specificity.
Refer any questions regarding the NAICS code and other synopsis content to the point of contact (POC) in the synopsis.
The systems advance search feature is well suited for this purpose.
A company must be certified by the Joint Certification Program (JCP) administered by the Defense Logistic Information Service (DLIS) to be eligible to download documents marked Export Controlled. This certification establishes that a company is a U.S. or Canadian contractor eligible to receive unclassified technical data that is under the control of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) or the Canadian Department of National Defense (DND).
If you are a vendor outside of the U.S. or Canada you must obtain authorization by the government agency; contact the Contracting Officer directly to obtain the documents.
If electronic response submissions are enabled by the Buyer for a particular notice, a note will be visible within the "Notice Details" sub-tab indicating that the opportunity allows for electronic responses. Note: A vendor must login to the system to be able to submit an electronic response for an opportunity.
If you do not see the option to submit an electronic response, the Buyer did not enable electronic submissions for that opportunity.
There are two types of electronic response submissions possible: Line Item Builder form and Document upload. The Buyer determines which options, if any, are enabled for a particular notice. What the vendor sees depends on which response type(s) the buyer enabled for that particular notice. So, you may see only the Line Item Builder form, only the Document Package upload, both the form and upload options, or neither option.
Once logged into the system, you can either click on the "Find Opportunities" Quicklink on the "My FBO" page, or go to "Opportunities" located in the top navigation. Click on the "Bids/Responses" tab to review a list of all electronic responses. Click on the "View" icon for the desired response. If the response deadline has passed for the opportunity, the system will advise you that you can no longer edit the response. (Note: You can always review a submitted response in read-only mode.) If the response deadline has not yet passed, the system will prompt you to click on a link to make changes. A user can also review a submitted electronic response from the "Notice Details" tab of an opportunity.
If the Buyer modifies the Line Item Builder form after you submitted an electronic response, the FBO system will send an email to the email address on file for you alerting you that a change has been made. Also, when you review the response submitted for that notice, the system will display a message advising you that changes were made to the form.
Effective February 17, 2009, the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Section 6.302 mandates that all Justification and Approval documents associated with any solicitation be posted to the public.
As of April 13, 2009, there is a new notice type called "Justification & Approval (J&A)" established within the Opportunities section. Buyers are now able to post a J&A Notice type and have it associated to the notice of award, if applicable. In addition, Vendors are able to search for and retrieve posted J&A Notices according to specific criteria, such as J&A Statutory Authority, Posted Date Range, and Contract Award Date (via Advanced Search).
Note: For J&As posted prior to April 13, 2009, users can search for J&As attached to an existing notice (such as Award Notice or Synopsis) as an amendment/modification. These documents are titled with the J&A and type of exception to full and open competition in the title of the document. For example, a document title could be: J&A6.302-1, J&A6302-2, etc. This allows any interested party to query "J&A" in the quick search function and find what has been posted.
There is a new search filter that vendors can use to locate notices related to the Recovery and Reinvestment Act. From the FBO.gov homepage, go to "Opportunities" and click on either the "Search by Classification, NAICS code, Recovery actions and more..." link located below the "Keywords/SOL#" search field, or go directly to the "Advanced Search" tab. The new search field is located at the bottom of the form below the "NAICS Code" search field.
The system will display an icon labeled "RECOVERY" next to the notice title within the "Opportunities List" tab, as well as under the notice title found in the heading of a notice within the "Notice Details" tab.
The government is providing new levels of transparency with the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act). Proposed orders do not generally require FedBizOpps notifications because only contractors who received awards under the initial solicitation for the task or delivery order contract are eligible for such orders. However, to provide unprecedented levels of transparency for the use of Recovery Act funds, the government is posting all Recovery Act funded order notices on FedBizOpps. If you are a contractor interested in learning about opportunities for getting your own task or delivery order contract from the government, go to http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/procurement and select "Multi-agency contract opportunities."