Primers/Definitions
Definitions
30 working definitions of the documents, instruments, and mechanics of procurement — public and private. Each term has its own page: the first sentence is the definition, and every page cross-links its neighbours. Data-informed terms live in the glossary; the method is taught in the primers.
A
- Advance contract award notice (ACAN)
- A public notice of intent to award directly to a named supplier, open to challenge for a set period.
- Addendum
- A buyer-issued amendment that changes or clarifies requirements — part of the contract documents.
B
- Bid
- A supplier's formal, binding response to a solicitation — the offer the buyer may accept.
- Best value
- Weighing price against quality, capability, and risk rather than awarding to the lowest number.
- Bid bond
- A surety guarantee paying the buyer if a bidder withdraws or refuses to sign after winning.
C
- Compliant bid
- A response meeting every mandatory requirement and submission rule — eligible for evaluation.
- Compliance matrix
- A table mapping every solicitation requirement to the response section and evidence that answer it.
E
- Evaluation criteria
- The published standards — mandatories, rated criteria, weightings — that together decide the award.
G
- GSIN (Goods and Services Identification Number)
- The federal code system classifying the goods and services bought, carried on solicitations and awards.
I
- Incumbent
- The supplier currently holding the contract being re-tendered.
- Indigenous procurement
- The family of policies and programs directing purchasing toward Indigenous-owned businesses.
L
- Lowest-price-compliant award
- The contract goes to the cheapest bid that passes every mandatory requirement — no scoring.
M
- Mandatory requirement
- A pass/fail criterion: fail it and the bid is disqualified, whatever its strengths elsewhere.
- Master standing offer
- A standing offer many authorized buyers across a jurisdiction can call up against, not one named client.
N
- NAICS (North American Industry Classification System)
- Six-digit codes classifying business activity across North America for statistics and procurement.
P
- Pre-qualification
- A screening stage admitting only suppliers who meet defined thresholds into the competition that follows.
- Points-rated evaluation
- Scoring each response against weighted criteria, each criterion carrying a maximum score.
- Performance bond
- A surety guarantee funding completion if the winning supplier fails to perform.
R
- Request for proposal (RFP)
- A solicitation awarded on a weighted evaluation of technical merit and price — not on price alone.
- Request for quotation (RFQ)
- A solicitation that awards on price against a specification the buyer has already fixed.
- Request for information (RFI)
- A non-binding market-research document that asks suppliers to describe capabilities — not to price work.
- Recompete
- The re-tendering of a contract at the end of its term, with the incumbent's advantage in play.
S
- Solicitation
- Any formal document by which a buyer invites suppliers to compete for work.
- Standing offer
- Pre-arranged suppliers and prices a buyer calls up against as needs arise, without re-tendering each time.
- Supply arrangement
- A pre-qualified, unpriced supplier list that buyers invite to compete for specific requirements.
- Set-aside
- A procurement reserved for a defined class of suppliers — small businesses, Indigenous-owned firms, social enterprises.
- Subcontracting
- The contract holder engaging other firms to deliver part of the contracted work.
T
- Tender
- A solicitation whose terms bind both directions: the documents form the contract, the submission a firm offer.
- Teaming agreement
- A contract between two suppliers to pursue and deliver one opportunity together.
V
- Vendor of record (VOR)
- A roster of pre-approved suppliers, set by one competition, filling assignments for years.
Cite this page
The Procurement Institution. (2026). Procurement definitions. https://procurementinstitution.org/definitions
@misc{pi-2026-definitions,
author = {{The Procurement Institution}},
title = {Procurement definitions},
year = {2026},
url = {https://procurementinstitution.org/definitions},
note = {Release 2026.10}
}