What Are Simplified Acquisition Procedures (FAR Part 13)?

Simplified acquisition procedures are the streamlined rules in Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 13 that federal agencies use to buy supplies and services worth up to $350,000, with a higher ceiling of $9 million for commercial products and services. As of October 2025, the Simplified Acquisition Threshold rose from $250,000 to $350,000, and the micro-purchase ceiling moved from $10,000 to $15,000.1Federal Register. Federal Acquisition Regulation: Inflation Adjustment of Acquisition-Related Thresholds The point of these procedures is to cut paperwork, speed up decisions, and reserve routine buying for small businesses, without forcing every transaction through the formal source-selection process that governs large contracts.

The Dollar Tiers That Drive Everything

How simplified a purchase gets depends entirely on its size. The rules tighten as the dollars climb.

Agencies must post proposed contract actions expected to exceed $25,000 on SAM.gov, which is the governmentwide entry point for federal procurement notices.5eCFR. 48 CFR Part 5 Subpart 5.1 – Dissemination of Information Below $20,000, no public posting is required, which is why many micro-purchases never appear on any platform. What agencies cannot do is split a larger requirement into smaller pieces to duck under a threshold; FAR 13.003 explicitly prohibits it.6Acquisition.gov. 13.003 Policy

Small Businesses Get First Look

Every purchase above the micro-purchase threshold and at or below the Simplified Acquisition Threshold is automatically set aside for small businesses, unless the contracting officer concludes that fewer than two capable small firms would submit competitive offers.7eCFR. 48 CFR 19.502-2 – Total Small Business Set-Asides This “rule of two” is the gateway. If at least two responsible small businesses can compete at fair market prices with acceptable quality and delivery, the purchase stays reserved.6Acquisition.gov. 13.003 Policy

Before defaulting to a general small business set-aside, the contracting officer considers targeted reservations for HUBZone small businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned firms, woman-owned and economically disadvantaged woman-owned small businesses, and 8(a) program participants. Whether a specific vendor qualifies as small turns on the NAICS code assigned to the solicitation and the corresponding size standard, measured in either annual revenue or employee count depending on the industry.8U.S. Small Business Administration. Size Standards

How Competition Works

Less paperwork does not mean less competition. FAR 13.104 requires contracting officers to promote competition to the maximum extent practicable and prohibits restricting solicitations to preferred vendors or specific brand names.9Acquisition.gov. 13.104 Promoting Competition The working standard is to seek quotes from at least three sources, and to rotate vendors by including at least two sources that were not part of the previous solicitation for the same item.

Below the Simplified Acquisition Threshold, contracting officers are expected to solicit orally whenever that is more efficient than a written solicitation.10eCFR. 48 CFR 13.106-1 – Soliciting Competition Above $25,000, oral-only solicitation is generally impractical because the public notice is required and vendors need written evaluation criteria to respond. Each solicitation must tell vendors the basis for award: price alone, or price combined with other factors such as past performance and quality. Simplified solicitations do not have to spell out the relative importance of each factor the way formal Part 15 selections do.

Three Ways Agencies Actually Buy

FAR Part 13 authorizes three purchase vehicles, each suited to different circumstances.

Government Purchase Card

For micro-purchases, the government purchase card works like a corporate credit card and is the preferred method. Agencies are directed to use it to the maximum extent practicable because it skips the paperwork of a formal contract document and pays the vendor immediately.6Acquisition.gov. 13.003 Policy For a vendor, a card sale means no invoice, no 30-day wait, and no contract administration afterward.

Purchase Orders

For transactions above the card ceiling or those requiring more formal terms, agencies issue purchase orders. A purchase order is a written offer from the government to buy specific goods or services at a stated price, and it becomes a binding contract when the vendor either signs the order or begins performing.11eCFR. 48 CFR 13.302 – Purchase Orders When the government wants a binding agreement before any work starts, the contracting officer will require written acceptance up front.12eCFR. 48 CFR 13.302-3 – Obtaining Contractor Acceptance and Modifying Purchase Orders

Sometimes the price cannot be pinned down in advance. Equipment repairs are the classic example: the agency knows a generator is broken but not what the fix will cost until a technician opens it. FAR 13.302-2 allows unpriced purchase orders in those cases, provided the order carries a realistic dollar ceiling and the contracting officer reviews the final price for reasonableness before approving payment.13eCFR. 48 CFR 13.302-2 – Unpriced Purchase Orders

Blanket Purchase Agreements

When an agency buys the same category of supplies or services from a vendor repeatedly, a Blanket Purchase Agreement removes the need to compete and document each transaction.14eCFR. 48 CFR 13.303 – Blanket Purchase Agreements The government and vendor agree on general terms, pricing, and delivery conditions in advance; the agency then places individual calls against the agreement as needs come up. No funds are obligated until a call is placed. Under standard simplified rules, a single call cannot exceed $350,000. For commercial products and services under FAR 13.5, that ceiling rises to $9 million, or $15 million during contingency operations.15eCFR. 48 CFR 13.303-5 – Purchases Under BPAs

Evaluation and Award Are Deliberately Informal

Contracting officers running simplified acquisitions have far more flexibility than those running full Part 15 source selections. There is no requirement to build a formal evaluation plan, establish a competitive range, hold discussions with offerors, or score each quote on a point system.16Acquisition.gov. 13.106-2 Evaluation of Quotations or Offers The officer can compare quotes side by side and rely on professional judgment, prior experience with the vendors, or data from the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System to weigh quality and past performance.

Award happens when the government issues a signed purchase order or the vendor begins performing the work. Successful vendors receive a written notice. Notification rules for unsuccessful vendors are lighter than in formal procurements: if the solicitation was posted electronically through SAM.gov, the system’s automatic notifications may be enough, and otherwise the agency only has to notify an unsuccessful vendor if the vendor requests a response or if FAR 5.301 requires the notice.17eCFR. 48 CFR 13.106-3 – Award and Documentation The formal debriefings common in large-dollar procurements are not standard here.

Getting Paid After Award

Payment requires a “proper invoice,” and missing any required element gives the agency a reason to reject it and restart the clock. A proper invoice includes the contractor’s legal name, address, and taxpayer identification number; invoice date and number; the contract or order number; line-item detail with description, quantity, unit of measure, unit price, and extended price; shipping terms, shipment date, and bill of lading number where applicable; the name and address of the payee, plus electronic funds transfer banking information if required; and a contact for questions about a defective invoice.18eCFR. 48 CFR 32.905 – Payment Documentation and Process

Once the agency has a proper invoice and has accepted the goods or services, the Prompt Payment Act requires payment within 30 days.19Acquisition.gov. 52.232-25 Prompt Payment If the agency misses that deadline, the vendor is entitled to automatic interest. For the first half of 2026, the Prompt Payment interest rate is 4.125%.20Bureau of the Fiscal Service. Prompt Payment Contracts that include a fast payment clause shorten the window to 15 days from invoice receipt. The payment clock starts from the later of proper invoice receipt or acceptance of the deliverable.

Protests Are Available but Limited

A vendor that believes the agency made a mistake can file a protest directly with the contracting agency. The regulations encourage trying to resolve the concern informally with the contracting officer first.21eCFR. 48 CFR 33.103 – Protests to the Agency If that fails, the protest must be filed within 10 days of when the vendor knew or should have known the basis for it. Protests about the solicitation itself must be filed before the closing date for receipt of quotes. The protest goes to the contracting officer or another designated agency official and must include the solicitation or contract number, a detailed statement of the legal and factual grounds, copies of relevant documents, and the relief requested.

The agency aims to resolve protests within 35 days, and some agencies provide an independent review above the contracting officer. Protest rights under simplified acquisitions are narrower than those attached to large-dollar contracts, and the informal nature of the evaluation gives contracting officers substantial discretion that can be hard to challenge successfully.