Supplies or Services and Prices/Costs
Also known as: The pricing schedule; the CLIN structure; the bid schedule
Your role here: Where you enter your prices
At a Glance
- Part
- Part I — The Schedule
- What it contains
- The contract line items (CLINs) and the price/cost blanks
- Structure
- Contract Line Item Numbers (CLINs), quantities, units, unit prices
- You…
- Fill in your prices here — this is your priced offer
- Governing authority
- FAR 15.204-2(b); FAR Subpart 4.10 (line items)
What It Is
Section B is the pricing skeleton of the buy. Under FAR 15.204-2(b) it lists, in Contract Line Item Number (CLIN) order, the supplies or services the government intends to acquire — a brief description, the quantity, and the unit of issue — with blank cells for you to enter your unit price and the extended amount. On a fixed-price buy these are prices; on a cost-reimbursement buy they are estimated costs and fee; on a time-and-materials buy they are fully loaded labor-hour rates and a materials estimate. Section B is where the base period and each option period, and any separately priced line items (travel, ODCs, surge), are broken out so the government can evaluate and later administer the contract line by line. It is deceptively simple-looking, but it is the section the price evaluators read most closely and the section the accounting and payment offices use for the life of the contract, because every invoice and every modification traces back to a CLIN.
What’s In It
- The Contract Line Item Numbers (CLINs) and any sub-line items (SLINs).
- A short description, quantity, and unit of issue for each line.
- Blank cells for your unit price and extended (total) price.
- Separate lines for the base period and each option period.
- Any separately priced elements — travel, other direct costs (ODCs), materials, or surge.
What Goes Here
| Component | What It Means |
|---|---|
| CLIN structure | Each thing the government buys is a numbered line item. Price every CLIN exactly as instructed — a missing or misplaced price can make your offer nonconforming or distort the total the government evaluates. |
| Base and option periods | Section B usually breaks out a base period plus priced option periods. The government evaluates options too (FAR 17.206), so your option pricing affects whether you win, not just what you earn later. |
| Contract type shows here | Whether the lines are fixed prices, estimated costs plus fee, or loaded labor rates tells you the contract type — and therefore how your risk and the limitations on subcontracting will be measured. |
| The total evaluated price | The extended amounts roll up to the price the source-selection authority weighs against your technical merit. Arithmetic errors here are a classic, avoidable way to lose. |
What It Means for an SDVOSB
Section B is where an SDVOSB's price-to-win strategy meets the page. Fill in every CLIN, price all option periods (the government evaluates them), and double-check your extended math — small firms lose winnable competitions to spreadsheet errors in this section more often than to weak technical volumes. Section B also quietly tells you how your self-performance obligation will be measured: on a fixed-price services buy the limitations on subcontracting look at the price you put here, while on a time-and-materials buy they look at labor cost, so the way the lines are structured should shape how you build your team and your subcontracting plan. Use the Price-to-Win Calculator to benchmark your loaded rates before you commit numbers to these cells.
Watch Out For
- Leaving a CLIN blank or mispricing a line — it can render your offer nonconforming or skew the total.
- Forgetting to price option periods — the government evaluates options, and an unpriced option can knock you out or inflate your evaluated price.
- Arithmetic errors in the extended totals — an unbalanced or wrong roll-up can cost you the award or trigger a price-realism concern.
- Ignoring what the CLIN structure implies about contract type — it controls how the limitations on subcontracting are calculated.
Run the Numbers
Frequently Asked
What is a CLIN in Section B?
A CLIN — Contract Line Item Number — is a numbered line in Section B of a solicitation identifying one thing the government is buying, with its quantity, unit of issue, and a blank for your price. Under FAR 15.204-2(b) and FAR Subpart 4.10, the CLIN structure organizes the priced offer and, later, invoicing and modifications on the awarded contract. You enter a unit price and extended total for each CLIN, including the base period and every option period, because the government evaluates option pricing too.
Do I have to price the option periods in Section B?
Almost always, yes. The solicitation's Section B typically breaks out a base period and separately priced option periods, and under FAR 17.206 the government normally evaluates offers for award by adding the total price for all options to the base. An unpriced option period can make your offer nonconforming, and mispriced options change your total evaluated price — so price every period the schedule asks for.
Primary Sources
- FAR 15.204-2 — Part I — The Schedule (Section B)
- FAR 4.1002 — Establishing line items (CLIN structure)
- FAR 17.206 — Evaluation of options
Plain-English reference, not legal advice. The Uniform Contract Format is tailored by agencies, and the FAR sections that define it are amended from time to time — always read the actual solicitation and confirm each section against the official source before relying on it, and consult qualified counsel for your specific situation.
Change log (1)
- LaunchedPublished the federal solicitation sections reference covering the thirteen sections of the Uniform Contract Format under FAR 15.204 — Section A (the SF 33 / SF 1449 cover form), B (prices and CLINs), C (the statement of work / PWS / SOO), D (packaging and marking), E (inspection and acceptance), F (deliveries and period of performance), G (contract administration data and invoicing), H (special contract requirements), I (the FAR clauses, including the SDVOSB set-aside and limitations on subcontracting), J (the list of attachments and wage determinations), K (representations and certifications, where SDVOSB status is certified), L (instructions to offerors), and M (evaluation factors for award) — each with an at-a-glance quick-facts card, a what's-in-it list, a what-goes-here table, an SDVOSB-specific angle, watch-outs, FAQPage, Article, Dataset, and BreadcrumbList structured data, primary-source FAR citations, and cross-links into the glossary, how-to guides, forms, clauses, solicitation types, source-selection methods, FAQ, and the set-aside eligibility, win-probability, price-to-win, and limitations-on-subcontracting calculators.