Procurement Intelligence
Your business category code (NAICS — North American Industry Classification System) selection on SAM.gov is not an administrative detail. It determines which contracts you are visible for in market research, which set-aside programmes you qualify for, whether you legally qualify as a small business, and how contracting officers find you when they are building their source lists before issuing a solicitation. Getting it wrong costs you opportunities you never know you missed.
This guide covers the structure of NAICS codes, how to select your primary and secondary codes strategically, size standard calculations, and how to use your code selection to maximise set-aside eligibility — including the specific codes that unlock the highest-value small business programmes.
North American Industry Classification System codes are 6-digit numbers organised in a hierarchical structure. Understanding the hierarchy helps you select at the right level of specificity:
| Level | Digits | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sector | 2 | 54 | Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services |
| Subsector | 3 | 541 | Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services |
| Industry Group | 4 | 5415 | Computer Systems Design and Related Services |
| Industry | 5 | 54151 | Computer Systems Design and Related Services |
| National Industry | 6 | 541512 | Computer Systems Design Services |
SAM.gov requires 6-digit codes. You cannot register at the sector or subsector level. Each 6-digit code has its own size standard — the revenue or employee threshold below which you qualify as a small business for that code.
The authoritative NAICS lookup tool is at census.gov/naics. Do not rely on Google searches or third-party tools for code lookups — they frequently show outdated codes or incorrect size standards. NAICS codes are updated every 5 years (next update: 2027).
The lookup process:
A NAICS code can be technically correct for your business but rarely used in federal procurement. Before registering a code, search it on SAM.gov Contract Opportunities filtered to the last 12 months. If fewer than 10 active solicitations appear for that 6-digit code, consider whether a broader or related code covers more of your actual market. The goal is to be visible for contracts that actually exist, not to be technically precise.
SAM.gov lets you register one primary NAICS code and up to 10 additional codes. The primary code matters for two reasons: it determines your size standard calculation, and it is the code displayed most prominently in the SBA Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS).
Choose the code that best describes your largest revenue stream AND that carries the most favourable size standard for your actual business size. These two factors sometimes conflict — a more specific code may better describe your work but carry a lower size standard that disqualifies you from small business designations.
Example: A company doing both IT consulting and IT hardware resale.
If the company has $28M in annual revenue, they qualify as small under 423430 but not under 541512. If most of their federal revenue comes from services, they might still choose 541512 as primary — but they should understand the size standard consequence.
Add every 6-digit code that legitimately describes a service or product you can deliver. Contracting officers search SAM.gov by NAICS during market research — a narrow code list means you are invisible for contracts in adjacent areas you could actually perform. Do not add codes speculatively for capabilities you do not have: this creates exposure during past performance reviews and can be raised in bid protests.
The SBA uses two types of size standards depending on the industry:
Most service industries and many goods categories use annual average revenue over the past 3 fiscal years. Calculate using your 3 most recent complete fiscal year revenues. Include revenues of all affiliates — subsidiaries, parent companies, and companies with common ownership or control. A common error is excluding affiliated company revenue and incorrectly claiming small business status.
Manufacturing, mining, and some other sectors use employee counts averaged over the past 12 months. Count all full-time and part-time employees. Include employees of affiliates. The largest employee-based standard is 1,500 employees (certain manufacturing NAICS codes).
| NAICS code | Description | Size standard | Measure |
|---|---|---|---|
| 423430 | Computer hardware wholesale | $35M | Revenue |
| 541511 | Custom computer programming | $30M | Revenue |
| 541512 | Computer systems design | $30M | Revenue |
| 541611 | Management consulting | $21.5M | Revenue |
| 561320 | Temporary staffing | $35M | Revenue |
| 561720 | Janitorial services | $22M | Revenue |
| 611519 | Technical and vocational training | $12M | Revenue |
| 334111 | Electronic computer manufacturing | 1,250 employees | Headcount |
| 339112 | Surgical instrument manufacturing | 750 employees | Headcount |
Qualifying as small under your primary NAICS code is the prerequisite for all SBA set-aside programmes. Here is what each programme requires and which codes are most commonly tagged with set-aside solicitations:
| Programme | Additional eligibility requirements | Highest-value codes for set-asides |
|---|---|---|
| Small Business Set-Aside (FAR 19.502-2) | Qualify as small under solicitation NAICS — no additional programme enrolment needed | 541512, 541611, 561320, 423430 |
| 8(a) Business Development | SBA certification; socially and economically disadvantaged; at least 51% owned and controlled by qualifying individual(s) | 541512, 541330, 336411 — agencies have 8(a) set-aside authority across virtually all codes |
| HUBZone (FAR 19.13) | SBA HUBZone certification; principal office in designated zone; 35%+ employees reside in HUBZone | All codes — price evaluation preference of 10% over non-HUBZone offerors in full and open competitions |
| SDVOSB (FAR 19.14) | Veteran with service-connected disability; 51%+ ownership; verify via veteransmallbiz.va.gov | Highest volume in VA contracts: 621111 (Physician Offices), 541512, 561210 (Facilities Management) |
| WOSB / EDWOSB (FAR 19.15) | 51%+ women-owned; self-certify in SAM.gov Assertions; EDWOSB requires additional economic disadvantage declaration | Set-asides only permitted in specific NAICS codes designated by SBA — check current list at sba.gov/wosb-eligible-naics |
Canada (PSPC): Canada's federal procurement agency (PSPC) operates the Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business (PSIB), which mandates Indigenous-only competitions when a requirement can reasonably be performed by an Indigenous business. There is no direct equivalent to US small business set-asides in Canada — all other competitions are open. NAICS codes appear on CanadaBuys alongside Canada's GSIN commodity classification. EU (TED): No NAICS system — the EU uses CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) codes. Above-threshold EU contracts must be published in the Official Journal. No small business reserve system exists across the EU, though individual member states may have SME preferences. Multilateral banks (World Bank, AfDB, ADB): Use their own commodity classification, not NAICS. Supplier registration is project-specific via STEP or equivalent portals.
WOSB set-asides are only permitted in NAICS codes that the SBA has designated as "substantially underrepresented" or "underrepresented" for women-owned small businesses. This is a specific published list — not all NAICS codes qualify. Contracting officers issuing WOSB set-asides in non-designated NAICS codes are acting outside the regulations. If you are a WOSB, verify your primary NAICS code appears on the SBA's current designated list before relying on WOSB set-aside access as a strategy.
Before issuing a solicitation, contracting officers are required by FAR Part 10 (federal acquisition regulations, or FAR — the rulebook governing how US federal agencies buy goods and services) to conduct market research to determine whether there are sufficient small businesses capable of performing the requirement. The primary tool is SAM.gov's vendor search filtered by NAICS code, supplemented by the SBA's Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS).
Specifically, under FAR 19.502-2, a contracting officer must set aside a contract for small business if there is a "reasonable expectation" that at least two small business concerns will submit offers at a fair market price. Market research that fails to find two qualifying small businesses typically results in a full and open competition — meaning you lose the set-aside protection.
If you are not registered with the correct NAICS code in SAM.gov at the time of market research, you do not appear in the CO's vendor search. You are invisible for the set-aside decision. The solicitation gets issued as full and open. You can still bid, but you now compete against large businesses. Your NAICS code registration is not just administrative — it directly affects the competitive landscape of contracts in your market.
| Factor | NAICS (US + Canada) | GSIN (Canada federal only) | CPV (EU) | UN/MDB codes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Used by | SAM.gov, CanadaBuys, SBA, CRA | CanadaBuys and PSPC only | TED Europa / eNotices2 | UNGM, World Bank STEP, AfDB, ADB |
| Format | 6-digit numeric | 7-character alphanumeric (letter prefix + 5 digits) | 8-digit numeric + optional suffix | Varies by bank — typically 5–8 digit numeric |
| Granularity | ~1,000 6-digit codes for goods and services | ~8,000 GSIN codes — more granular for goods | ~9,000 CPV codes across goods and services | Varies; World Bank uses UNSPSC (55,000+ codes) |
| Size standards | Yes — SBA uses NAICS for small business determination | No — Canada has no equivalent small business size standard system | No — EU has no central size standard system | No |
| Set-aside tie-in | Strong — NAICS code is the basis for all SBA set-aside programmes | Weak — only PSIB set-asides exist, not NAICS/GSIN based | None — no EU-wide set-aside system | None |
If you supply to both US federal and Canadian federal buyers, you need both NAICS and GSIN. Your NAICS codes live in SAM.gov and your GSIN codes live in your CanadaBuys SRI profile — they are independent registrations; updating one does not update the other. For EU procurement, register CPV codes via your national e-procurement portal. For multilateral bank procurement (World Bank, AfDB, ADB), supplier registration is project-specific and does not require pre-registration of commodity codes in most cases.
SAM.gov allows you to update your NAICS codes at any time through your entity registration — no waiting period, no approval process. The update takes effect immediately for market research searches. Best practice: review your code selection annually, at the same time as your SAM.gov renewal, and whenever you:
NAICS optimisation is the beginning of the loop, not the end. Once your codes are tuned and you start winning contracts, BidClarity Fulfill tracks every contract deliverable (CDRL), manages supplier outreach, and auto-drafts your past performance (CPARS — your official government performance report card) narrative at closeout. Strong performance feeds directly back into your next pursuit score. BidClarity is the only platform that connects code-level discovery all the way through delivery — no competitor closes the loop.
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