Bidding, Protesting, and Performing a Government Contract: A Practical Checklist

Business > Government Contracting | Published 26 July 2025 - Updated 11 July 2026 | UpLaw - uplaw.us

⚠ Federal contracting punishes lateness more than it punishes almost anything else. Nearly every irreversible loss in this field is a missed deadline, not a lost argument. Deadlines in this checklist are marked ⚠ and should be calendared the day the triggering event occurs.

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Sequence A — Market entry

A1. Registration and identity

☐ Obtain a unique entity identifier and complete registration in the government's contractor registration system. ☐ Complete the representations and certifications, and ⚠ read each one before certifying. ☐ Identify the industry codes that describe your work, and the size standard for each. ☐ Determine your size under 15 U.S.C. § 632 — employees or average annual receipts, including affiliates. ☐ Set a calendar reminder to update registration annually; a lapsed registration makes you ineligible for award.

A2. Size and affiliation analysis

☐ List every entity under common ownership or control. ☐ List every entity sharing officers, directors, or managing members. ☐ ⚠ Identify economic dependence — any customer providing the bulk of revenue. ☐ Identify family relationships creating an identity of interest. ☐ Evaluate the newly organized concern question if principals came from a larger firm. ☐ For each teaming arrangement, evaluate the ostensible subcontractor rule: who performs the primary and vital requirements, who supplies management, who supplies the workforce, whose past performance is cited. ☐ Confirm compliance with the limitation on subcontracting for any set-aside you intend to pursue.

A3. Program eligibility

☐ 8(a) business development — 15 U.S.C. § 637 ☐ HUBZone — 15 U.S.C. § 657a, including the employee residency requirement ☐ Service-disabled veteran-owned — 15 U.S.C. § 657f ☐ Women-owned small business — 15 U.S.C. § 637 ☐ General set-aside authority — 15 U.S.C. § 644; implementation at 48 C.F.R. part 19; policy at 15 U.S.C. § 631 ☐ ⚠ Do not certify to a status you cannot document. 15 U.S.C. § 645 and 18 U.S.C. § 1001 both apply.

A4. Systems and infrastructure

☐ Determine whether your accounting system can support cost-reimbursement work under 48 C.F.R. part 16; if not, restrict yourself to fixed-price and commercial items. ☐ Review the cost principles at 48 C.F.R. part 31 and segregate unallowable costs from the beginning. ☐ Establish a timekeeping practice that will survive an audit. ☐ Establish a document retention and litigation hold procedure. ☐ Establish an internal reporting channel and a written investigation practice. ☐ ⭐ Subcontract before you prime. One contract as a subcontractor teaches more than a year of reading.

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Sequence B — Reading and answering a solicitation

B1. First pass — is this winnable?

☐ Identify the acquisition method: sealed bidding under 48 C.F.R. part 14, negotiated procurement under 48 C.F.R. part 15, commercial items under 48 C.F.R. part 12, or simplified acquisition under 48 C.F.R. part 13. ☐ Identify the contract type and who bears the risk — 48 C.F.R. part 16. ☐ Identify whether the procurement is set aside, and confirm your eligibility. ☐ ⭐ Find the sentence stating the relative importance of price to non-price factors, and read it twice. It determines your entire bid strategy. ☐ Identify mandatory minimum qualifications; if you cannot meet one, stop. ☐ Identify the incumbent, the period of performance, and any option years. ☐ Assess whether the requirement was written around a specific competitor's capability. ☐ Estimate your realistic probability of award before spending proposal budget.

B2. Compliance matrix

☐ Build a matrix listing every requirement in the instructions, the evaluation criteria, and the statement of work, with the proposal location that answers it. ☐ Verify page limits, font, margin, and file format requirements. ☐ Verify volume structure and what may not be cross-referenced between volumes. ☐ Verify submission method and the exact deadline, including time zone. ☐ ⚠ A late proposal is generally unreadable regardless of the reason. Submit early. ☐ Confirm every required certification, representation, and form is included and signed. ☐ Confirm every "shall" in the statement of work is addressed somewhere.

B3. Clauses

☐ Locate the clauses incorporated by reference — 48 C.F.R. part 52 — and read them, not just their numbers. ☐ Note the changes clause and its notice period — 48 C.F.R. part 43. ☐ Note the termination clauses — 48 C.F.R. part 49. ☐ Note the disputes clause — 48 C.F.R. part 33. ☐ Note payment and financing terms — 48 C.F.R. part 32; prompt payment at 41 U.S.C. § 3903. ☐ Note labor standards and wage determinations — 48 C.F.R. part 22, 41 U.S.C. § 3701, 41 U.S.C. § 3702. ☐ Note domestic preference requirements — 41 U.S.C. § 8702, 41 U.S.C. § 8703. ☐ Note whether funding is incremental — 31 U.S.C. § 1341, 31 U.S.C. § 1501.

B4. Questions and pre-proposal protests

☐ Submit written questions by the stated deadline; answers are issued to all offerors by amendment. ☐ Identify any ambiguity, unduly restrictive specification, or improper sole-source justification under 41 U.S.C. § 3304. ☐ ⚠ A protest of a solicitation defect must be filed BEFORE the deadline for receipt of proposals. Competing without objecting waives the ground. Authority: 31 U.S.C. § 3552, procedures at 48 C.F.R. part 33. ☐ Verify the competition requirements were satisfied — 41 U.S.C. § 3301, 41 U.S.C. § 3306; exclusions at 41 U.S.C. § 3303; design-build at 41 U.S.C. § 3305; simplified authority at 41 U.S.C. § 3307. ☐ Disclose and mitigate any organizational conflict of interest — 48 C.F.R. part 3 — before award, not after.

B5. Pricing

☐ Price to the evaluation scheme, not to habit. ☐ Confirm all labor categories map to the applicable wage determination. ☐ Segregate unallowable costs — 48 C.F.R. part 31. ☐ Verify the price is realistic if a realism analysis will be performed; an unrealistically low price can be a technical risk finding. ☐ ⚠ Check the arithmetic twice. Sealed-bid mistake correction requires clear and convincing evidence and is not reliable relief.

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Sequence C — Immediately after award or loss

C1. If you lost

☐ ⚠ Request a debriefing in writing, the same day, and keep the timestamp. ☐ Attend the debriefing and take verbatim notes; submit written questions if the process allows. ☐ Confirm in writing the date the debriefing closed. ☐ Analyze against the stated evaluation criteria: did the agency credit something the RFP did not identify? Treat comparable features differently? Fail to raise a significant weakness in discussions? Fail to document the tradeoff? ☐ Assess prejudice: would you have had a substantial chance of award if the error were corrected? ☐ ⚠ Protest within ten days of knowing the basis — or within ten days of the debriefing where one was required and timely requested. 31 U.S.C. § 3553. ☐ ⭐ Confirm the filing date that triggers the automatic stay. A protest without a stay is usually academic. ☐ If a size or status issue exists, file a size protest with the contracting officer within the very short SBA window. ☐ Choose the forum: GAO for speed and the stay — 31 U.S.C. § 3551, 31 U.S.C. § 3554; Court of Federal Claims for injunctive relief and appeal rights — 28 U.S.C. § 1491. Remedies are not exclusive — 31 U.S.C. § 3556.

C2. If you won

☐ Read the awarded contract against your proposal; identify every discrepancy and raise it now. ☐ Confirm the identity and warrant of the contracting officer. ☐ Identify the COR and confirm, in writing, that the COR has no authority to change the contract. ☐ Calendar every deliverable, report, and option decision date. ☐ Calendar the funded amount and set a threshold alert. ☐ Confirm insurance, bonding, and any facility or personnel clearance requirements. ☐ Flow required clauses down to subcontractors. ☐ Confirm subcontractor small business status representations in writing. ☐ Establish the contract file: correspondence, meeting minutes, daily reports, photographs, and time records. ☐ ⭐ Set a standing practice: confirm every significant conversation with the government in a short email the same day.

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Sequence D — Performance and money

D1. When the work changes

☐ Identify the direction: who gave it, in what form, on what date. ☐ ⚠ If it did not come from the contracting officer, get written confirmation from the contracting officer before performing. ☐ Determine whether the change is within the general scope (an equitable adjustment) or beyond it (a cardinal change, potentially a breach). ☐ ⚠ Send written notice within the period the changes clause specifies — 48 C.F.R. part 43. ☐ Describe the change, its date, its source, and its anticipated cost and schedule impact. ☐ Reserve the right to an equitable adjustment expressly. ☐ Begin segregated cost accounting for the changed work on day one. ☐ Photograph and log conditions before, during, and after.

D2. Documenting delay and disruption

☐ Maintain a contemporaneous daily log: crew, weather, activities, interruptions, and who directed what. ☐ Maintain the as-planned schedule and the as-built schedule. ☐ Identify each delay event, its cause, its duration, and whether it is on the critical path. ☐ Distinguish excusable delay (beyond the contractor's control and without its fault) from compensable delay (caused by the government). ☐ Identify concurrent delays and analyze them; concurrency defeats compensability in most analyses. ☐ Preserve government-caused impacts: late approvals, denied access, unavailable government-furnished property, changed conditions, and interference. ☐ ⭐ The contemporaneous record beats the retrospective expert analysis every time.

D3. Request for equitable adjustment

☐ Confirm entitlement: a change attributable to the government, causing added cost, with notice given. ☐ Quantify with actual costs where available; use a modified total cost approach only as a last resort and be prepared to justify it. ☐ Include: labor, materials, equipment, subcontractor impacts, extended overhead, and profit. ☐ Support each element with records, not estimates. ☐ ⭐ Note that REA preparation costs may be allowable as contract administration; claim prosecution costs are not. ☐ Submit as an REA first and negotiate before converting to a claim.

D4. Certified claim

☐ Confirm you are within six years of accrual — 41 U.S.C. § 7103. ☐ State a sum certain. ⚠ This is jurisdictional. ☐ Include the certification if the amount exceeds the statutory threshold: good faith; accurate and complete supporting data; the amount accurately reflects the adjustment believed owed; the certifier is authorized. ☐ Request a contracting officer's final decision expressly. ☐ Calendar the date the CO received it — ⭐ interest runs from receipt. ☐ Calendar the date by which a final decision is due. ☐ Applicable framework: 41 U.S.C. § 7101, 41 U.S.C. § 7102, 41 U.S.C. § 7105, 41 U.S.C. § 7106, 41 U.S.C. § 7107.

D5. Appealing a final decision

☐ ⚠ 90 days to a board of contract appeals, or 12 months to the Court of Federal Claims — 41 U.S.C. § 7104, 28 U.S.C. § 1491. ☐ Calendar both deadlines the day the decision arrives, in two systems. ☐ Consider the accelerated or small claims procedure for smaller amounts — 41 U.S.C. § 7106. ☐ ⚠ A government claim (defective pricing, overpayment, liquidated damages) starts the same clock against you. Do not treat a final decision demanding money as correspondence.

D6. Past performance

☐ Read every proposed performance evaluation under 48 C.F.R. part 42. ☐ Respond within the stated comment window, factually and specifically. ☐ Escalate any material inaccuracy to the reviewing official. ☐ ⭐ A negative rating left unrebutted follows the company into every future competition.

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Sequence E — Terminations

E1. Cure notice or show cause notice

☐ ⚠ Calendar the response deadline the day it arrives — commonly ten days. ☐ Address each alleged failure specifically. ☐ Assert every excusable cause with documentation: government acts, acts of God, epidemics, strikes, embargoes, unusually severe weather. ☐ Identify every government act that caused or contributed to the problem. ☐ Provide a concrete corrective plan with dates, staffing, and milestones. ☐ Reserve rights to an equitable adjustment for government-caused impacts. ☐ ⚠ Do not concede fault in an effort to appear cooperative.

E2. If terminated for default

☐ Preserve the entire record immediately. ☐ Analyze conversion grounds: government-caused delay; ⭐ waiver of the delivery date by permitting continued performance; defective or absent cure notice; no actual default; abuse of discretion. ☐ Submit a claim contesting the termination and appeal the final decision within the deadline. ☐ Quantify exposure to excess reprocurement costs and unliquidated progress payments. ☐ Address the past performance consequences under 48 C.F.R. part 42. ☐ Assess responsibility and debarment exposure under 48 C.F.R. part 9.

E3. If terminated for convenience

☐ Stop work as directed and issue stop-work notices to subcontractors. ☐ Preserve and inventory materials, work in process, and special tooling. ☐ Settle subcontractor terminations and document each settlement. ☐ Prepare the settlement proposal — costs incurred, reasonable profit on work performed, settlement expenses. ☐ ⚠ Anticipated profit on unperformed work is not recoverable. ☐ ⚠ File the settlement proposal within one year of the termination notice, or seek an extension in writing — 48 C.F.R. part 49.

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Sequence F — Compliance events

F1. You discover a billing or certification problem

☐ ⚠ Stop the practice immediately. ☐ Issue a litigation hold; ⚠ no one deletes or "cleans up" anything — 18 U.S.C. § 1519. ☐ Retain counsel before interviewing anyone. ☐ Quantify the exposure: how many invoices, over what period, in what amount. ☐ Analyze materiality under Escobar, 579 U.S. 176, and scienter under Schutte, 598 U.S. 739 — ⭐ the question is what the company actually believed at the time. ☐ Assess exposure under 31 U.S.C. § 3729: treble damages plus per-claim penalties. ☐ Assess criminal exposure under 18 U.S.C. § 287, 18 U.S.C. § 286, 18 U.S.C. § 1001, 18 U.S.C. § 1031, and 18 U.S.C. § 371. ☐ Evaluate voluntary disclosure; it is a recognized mitigating factor under 48 C.F.R. part 9. ☐ Consider the administrative remedy path at 31 U.S.C. § 3801, 31 U.S.C. § 3802, 31 U.S.C. § 3803.

F2. A civil investigative demand or subpoena arrives

☐ Preserve everything, in writing, the same day. ☐ Identify the issuing authority — 31 U.S.C. § 3733 authorizes CIDs. ☐ Note that a sealed qui tam may underlie it — 31 U.S.C. § 3730; limitations and burden at 31 U.S.C. § 3731; venue at 31 U.S.C. § 3732. ☐ Do not contact potential relators or witnesses about the investigation without counsel. ☐ Do not retaliate; retaliation is separately actionable under 31 U.S.C. § 3730 and 10 U.S.C. § 2409. See reporting misconduct and preserving a retaliation claim and whistleblower and retaliation claims. ☐ Note that the government may seek dismissal even after declining — Polansky, 599 U.S. 419.

F3. A suspension or proposed debarment notice arrives

☐ ⚠ Calendar the response deadline immediately — it is typically 30 days. ☐ Determine the scope: which entities and individuals are covered. ☐ Notify customers, lenders, sureties, and teaming partners as your agreements require. ☐ Assemble the present responsibility showing: corrective action taken, individuals disciplined or removed, restitution paid, compliance program installed and independently assessed, internal controls changed. ☐ Consider an administrative agreement with independent monitoring. ☐ Governing framework: 48 C.F.R. part 9; ethics rules at 48 C.F.R. part 3. ☐ ⭐ Every document you file should answer one question: why is this a company the government can safely do business with today?

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The deadline table

Event	Deadline	If missed
Solicitation defect protest	Before proposals are due	⚠ Waived permanently
Debriefing request	Within the stated window after notice	Loses the favorable protest clock
Post-debriefing protest	10 days	⚠ Loses the automatic stay
Other protest grounds	10 days from knowledge	Dismissed
Size or status protest	~5 business days	Dismissed
Change notice under the changes clause	As stated, often 30 days	Prejudice defense
Cure notice response	As stated, often 10 days	Default termination
CDA claim	6 years from accrual	Barred
Board appeal	⚠ 90 days	Barred
Court of Federal Claims appeal	⚠ 12 months	Barred
Convenience settlement proposal	1 year	Unilateral determination
Past performance comment	As stated	Rating stands
Debarment response	~30 days	Decided on the government's record

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Related resources

Background and doctrine: government contracting. Plain-language overview: selling to the government. Forms and letters: the government contracting and bid protest toolkit.

Adjacent: starting and running a small business, forming and launching a small business, contracts, drafting, reviewing, and enforcing a contract, the contract drafting and breach response toolkit, the employee who said something, and the whistleblower protection and retaliation claim toolkit.

⭐ One habit covers most of this checklist: write it down, send it the same day, and keep the copy. Federal contracting disputes are decided on the contemporaneous record, and the party with the file wins.

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Appendix: three worked situations

Situation one — "We lost, and the debriefing said our past performance was 'Satisfactory' on a contract where our rating was 'Very Good.'"

☐ Pull the actual performance report from the government system and print it with its date. ☐ Compare it to what the agency said it relied on. ☐ Determine whether the RFP required past performance to be evaluated from that system. ☐ If the agency used stale or incorrect data, that is an unreasonable evaluation, not a difference of opinion — a real protest ground. ☐ ⚠ File within ten days of the debriefing. Do not spend three weeks gathering more evidence; the agency report will produce it.

Situation two — "The government keeps asking for extra deliverables and says it's all within scope."

☐ Compare each request against the statement of work, line by line. ☐ For each item not required, send a short notice: what was requested, by whom, on what date, and that the contractor considers it a change. ☐ Ask the CO to either withdraw the request or issue a modification. ☐ Perform under protest if directed by the CO, with a written reservation. ☐ Track the cost separately from day one. ☐ ⭐ Ten short letters over six months are worth more than a 200-page claim at closeout.

Situation three — "Our subcontractor is doing most of the work on a set-aside."

☐ Compute the percentage of the contract performed by your own employees against the limitation on subcontracting. ☐ Compare the proposal's key personnel and past performance sources against who actually controls the work. ☐ If you are out of compliance, fix it now — reassign work, hire, or notify the CO. ☐ ⚠ Understand the exposure if you do not: loss of the contract, a size protest, potential False Claims Act liability under 31 U.S.C. § 3729, and debarment under 48 C.F.R. part 9. ☐ Document the corrective action contemporaneously; it is the difference between a mistake and a misrepresentation.

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