Glossary

The hourly wage paid to this person, before any add-ons.

Employee costs beyond wages, such as payroll taxes, health insurance, retirement and paid leave, as a percentage of direct labor. Leave at 0 if your firm includes these in overhead.

Shared costs of running your operation, such as rent, utilities, equipment and supervision, as a percentage.

General and administrative costs of the business as a whole, such as executive time, accounting, legal and corporate insurance. Many firms and most local RFPs don't use a separate G&A rate; leave at 0 if yours doesn't.

Your profit above cost, as a percentage.

The single hourly rate charged for a person. RFP Lift builds it as the direct rate, times one plus fringe, times one plus overhead, times one plus G&A when your firm uses it, times one plus fee, with each percentage written as a decimal.

Example: a $60.00 direct rate with 30% fringe, 50% overhead and 10% fee gives $60.00 x 1.30 x 1.50 x 1.10 = $128.70 per hour. G&A is optional, and a G&A of 0 changes nothing.

Rounds each person's billing rate to the nearest dollar or five dollars. Raises for later years are not rounded again.

Replaces the calculated rate with the rate you enter, for example a rate already approved by an agency.

A percentage that spreads a firm's shared costs, such as overhead and sometimes G&A, across its direct labor. In RFP Lift your overhead and G&A percentages play this role.

Some funding programs ask that the rate follow federal cost principles, and some ask that it be reviewed by an audit agency or an independent accountant. The RFP or the funding agency says which rules apply to your work.

Billing rate: Shows each person's single, all-inclusive hourly rate times their hours. Use this for most local RFPs, including ones asking for personnel, hours and hourly rates.

Cost build-up: Shows how each rate is built: direct labor, fringe, overhead, G&A if used, and fee. Use it only when the RFP asks for direct salary, an overhead or indirect rate, or profit or fee as separate items, which is common on federal and federally funded work.

Escalation is the yearly raise built into a multi-year budget, so work done in later years is billed at higher rates. Year 1 uses each person's billing rate. Each later year raises it by the escalation % per year, compounded (3% gives 103% in Year 2 and 106.09% in Year 3), rounded to the cent. Other direct costs never escalate. Subconsultants escalate the same way as your own staff, and the subconsultant markup is added to their escalated labor.

When each new escalation year starts. The RFP or the agency's cost proposal instructions usually say which basis to use, so check them first.

Contract anniversary: Year 2 rates start on the first anniversary of the proposal start date, Year 3 on the second, and so on.

Calendar year: rates step up each January 1 after the start date.

Fiscal year: rates step up on the first day of each fiscal year after the start date. Choose the month the agency's fiscal year starts (often July, sometimes October).

No escalation: rates stay the same for the whole contract and the escalation % is not used.

A month that contains the date rates step up is priced at the rates in effect on its first day. For example, with a March 15 start, March of the next year still uses Year 1 rates and April uses Year 2 rates.

Which date decides a task's escalation year.

By task dates: each task's hours are spread evenly across the months it is scheduled on the Timeline tab, and each month is priced at the rates for the escalation year it falls in. Tasks without dates are priced at their phase's start year.

By phase start: every hour in a phase is priced at the year the phase starts in, whenever its tasks run. This is how proposals made before this choice existed were priced, so their totals stay the same.

Switching shows the old and new totals before anything is saved.

Each person's billing rate in each escalation year of the project, with the hours and dollars that fall in each year. Agency forms that ask for estimated hours per contract year can be filled from this table or from the Hours by year sheet in the Excel export.

The most the agency says it will pay for the work, usually stated in the RFP or in an answer to a question. It is also called a fee cap. RFP Lift compares your total with it and shows how far under or over you are. A total exactly at the cap counts as under.

Leave the field blank when the RFP and its answers state no amount.

Costs other than staff time that you charge to the project, such as venue rental, translation, printing and travel. Each has a quantity, a unit cost and an optional markup percentage. An other direct cost can be tied to a task or kept on its own. Other direct costs never escalate.

A percentage a prime firm adds to a subconsultant's labor, for example to cover the cost of managing that firm. In RFP Lift the markup applies to the subconsultant's escalated labor. Check the RFP for whether it allows a markup and how it must be shown.

Each person's share of the project's total hours, shown as a percentage. Agencies often ask for it so they can see who will do the work. In the Excel file it is a plain share of hours, so it can differ from the screen by 0.1 point on ties.

Reads the scope tasks listed for this RFP and shows what it would do with each one before anything changes. An RFP task that one of your budget tasks is already linked to is recognized and left alone, even after you renumber. If a task on your budget has the same number or a similar name as an RFP task, you can link the two instead of adding a copy. Any other RFP task can be added as a new budget task with the RFP's name, number and deliverables. Untick a task to skip it. Nothing is saved until you confirm. It also brings back a budget task you deleted, with the RFP's name, number and deliverables but not its hours.

A document in which an agency describes the work it wants to buy, the rules for responding, how responses are scored and when they are due. The RFP itself is the authority. A summary or a checklist made from it, including one made by RFP Lift, can be wrong.

A written change to an RFP issued by the agency, such as a new due date, a changed requirement or answers to questions. Check every addendum, because it can change what the RFP requires.

Most RFPs set a deadline for written questions and say how the agency will answer them, often in an addendum. Follow the RFP's own rules for how to ask and for which answers count.

The part of a proposal that states price: rates, hours, other costs and the total. Some agencies ask for it as a separate file or envelope, and some open it only after they score the technical proposal. The RFP says how to submit it.

The prime is the firm that holds the contract with the agency and answers for the work. A subconsultant is a firm that works under the prime. In RFP Lift, subconsultants are entries on your roster, grouped by firm, and they do not need logins.

An agreement that lets an agency assign work to selected firms over time, usually through task orders priced from rates agreed in advance. Proposals for on-call contracts often ask for a rate schedule instead of a task budget.

Many agencies treat submitted proposals as public records after the contract is awarded, and some ask you to mark parts you consider confidential or proprietary. Agencies decide what they may withhold. Read the RFP's instructions on marking confidential material before you submit.

This is one reason to include a cost build-up (wages, overhead and fee shown separately) only when the RFP asks for it.

A way of choosing consultants in which the agency ranks firms on their qualifications first and then negotiates a fair and reasonable price with the top-ranked firm, instead of choosing on lowest price. When a selection works this way, the RFP may ask for a cost proposal later, or only from the firm it selects.

Whether a particular procurement must use this method depends on the services and the funding source. The RFP says how it will select.

A certification used on projects funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation. It is for small firms owned and controlled by individuals who are socially and economically disadvantaged. Firms are certified through a state's unified certification program, and an agency may set a contract goal for DBE participation that a proposal answers by naming certified firms. A firm cannot simply declare itself a DBE.

Whether a DBE firm counts toward a goal depends on the certification, the type of work it is certified for and the rules of the program. Check the RFP and the agency's DBE instructions.

The meaning depends on who is asking. Some agencies use a federal size standard, some run their own certification and some accept a self-certification. Read the RFP for the definition that applies and for any proof it requires.

A firm that meets an agency's definition of local, often because it has a business address inside a city or county, and sometimes because it is registered or certified with that agency. Each agency writes its own definition, so a firm can be local for one agency and not for another.

Extra scoring points or another advantage that an RFP gives to firms that qualify as local. The RFP states the conditions, such as where your office is and how long you have had it. Some funding sources limit or prohibit geographic preferences, so an RFP for federally funded work may not offer one.

The main rulebook for federal government contracts, published in Title 48 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Part 31 sets cost principles for contracts. A local or state RFP usually does not require it unless federal money pays for the work, but some agencies borrow its cost principles.

A federal agency that audits contractors' costs and indirect rates, mainly for the Department of Defense. Some RFPs ask for a rate that a government audit agency or an independent accountant has reviewed. Most small local contracts do not require a DCAA audit.

The federal rules for grants and for money passed through to states, cities and others. They include cost principles that say which costs can be charged to an award and standards for how a recipient buys services. When a city pays a consultant with federal grant money, these rules can shape the RFP and the contract.

The federal highway regulation on buying engineering and design related consultant services for projects that use federal-aid highway funds. It covers how agencies select consultants, which payment methods they may use, and how they treat indirect cost rates. If your RFP is for such a project, it may follow these rules, and may ask for a reviewed indirect rate.

A California law that says state and local agencies choose certain kinds of private professional firms, such as architects, engineers, land surveyors, environmental firms and construction project managers, on demonstrated competence and professional qualifications, and then agree a fair and reasonable price. Whether it covers a service such as planning, engagement or evaluation depends on the work. Ask the agency or read the RFP.

Costs that a funding source accepts as chargeable. Federal and federally funded work uses published cost principles to decide this. A cost can be real and still not be allowable. If the RFP says costs must follow a rulebook, check each rate and other direct cost against it.

How months are labelled on the Timeline tab and in the Excel and Word timelines. Month 1, 2, 3 counts from the month your proposal starts (Month 1 is the month that contains the start date). Calendar months show the month and year, such as Jan 2027. The choice is saved with this proposal.

Enter the month a task starts and how many months it lasts; the end month is worked out for you. A task with subtasks shows the span from its earliest subtask start to its latest subtask end, so enter dates on the subtasks. A task with no dates stays marked "Dates not set" and is never given its phase's dates.

Lines up this phase's tasks that have no dates, one after another in task order, starting at the phase start. You choose how many months each one lasts. Tasks that already have dates are never changed. You see a preview first, and can undo it for a short while afterwards.