IDIQ

IDIQ contracts are covered in FAR 16.504. The contract sets the scope, the period (base plus options), a guaranteed minimum and a ceiling. Winning an IDIQ is a license to compete for or receive orders, not a promise of revenue beyond the minimum.

A single-award IDIQ gives every order to one contractor. A multiple-award IDIQ has several holders, and under FAR 16.505(b) each must get a fair opportunity to be considered for orders above the micro-purchase threshold, with limited exceptions. Agency-wide or government-wide vehicles such as a GWAC are multiple-award IDIQs.

There are two competitions: the IDIQ proposal itself, which often weighs corporate experience and past performance heavily, and then each task order, which may have short turnarounds and its own evaluation criteria. Plan for both: an on-ramp win with no capacity to answer orders earns little.

Common mistakes: counting the ceiling as expected revenue, bidding a vehicle your customers do not use, and treating task order requests as routine when they are full competitions.

State and local governments use similar arrangements under other names, such as master agreements, term contracts, on-call contracts or qualified vendor lists, where an award places you in a pool and individual projects follow. The same lesson applies: being on the list is the start, and the revenue depends on how often the agency uses the vehicle and how well you compete for each project. Ask about historical usage during the questions period, and track the orders or projects placed under similar contracts.