Preparing Contract Action Reports

A Contract Action Report (CAR) is a data record you submit in FPDS-NG every time you complete a contract action. That includes new awards, modifications, task orders, delivery orders, and purchase orders. It's how the federal government tracks what it buys, from whom, for how much, and under what conditions.

This data rolls up into aggregate reports that go to Congress, GAO, OMB, and the public. When a senator asks "how much did DoD spend on IT services last year?" the answer comes from the CARs that contracting officers entered into FPDS. When USASpending.gov shows the public where their tax dollars went, that data started with a CAR.

Here's the good news: most of this data is used in aggregate, not to scrutinize your individual buy. Nobody in Congress is pulling up your specific $30K office supply order. The data matters because it feeds the big picture. So don't stress about CARs like it's a pass/fail exam — just take it seriously enough to get it right. When thousands of COs each get a few fields wrong, the aggregate data gets unreliable. The point of this training is to help you fill one out accurately and confidently so you don't have to overthink it.

FAR 4.604 says you report contract actions that exceed the micro-purchase threshold within 3 business days of award. In practice, your contract writing system handles this for you. When you complete an action in CON-IT, SPS, or whatever system your office uses, the system will push the CAR to FPDS-NG automatically. You'll typically get flagged until it goes through.

The catch is that the push doesn't always work. System outages, data validation errors, connectivity issues — there are a dozen reasons a CAR can fail to post. When that happens, make a note of it and circle back when the system is fixed. Don't just forget about it. Unreleased CARs can cause problems downstream, especially when you try to process modifications. When a mod can't find its base CAR in FPDS, you either need IT help or you're creating the record manually in FPDS-NG — and nobody wants to do that.

Some things are excluded from reporting: micro-purchases made with a GPC on the open market, classified contracts, and orders against certain agency-managed vehicles where the managing agency does the reporting (like USTRANSCOM). Check FAR 4.606(c) for the full exclusions list.

FPDS-NG (Federal Procurement Data System – Next Generation) is a web-based system maintained by GSA. You access it at FPDS.gov, which now redirects through SAM.gov. Most of the time your contract writing system pushes CARs there for you automatically. The system auto-populates the majority of fields — probably 80-90% of the data comes from within your contract writing system, which pulls from SAM.gov, your office profile, and the data you already entered during the acquisition.

Your job is to make sure the data that posted is correct. Sometimes the system maps a field wrong, or a dropdown defaults to the wrong value, or a SAM record is stale. A quick spot-check after the CAR posts can catch those issues before they compound.

A CAR in FPDS-NG is organized into 13 sections that appear top-to-bottom on the screen. Here's a quick map of what you'll see. The CAR Walkthrough tab covers every individual field.

1. Transaction Information — system-generated header showing award type, status, and who prepared it.

2. Document Information — contract number (PIID), referenced IDV (if it's an order), modification number, solicitation ID, and treasury account.

3. Dates — date signed, period of performance start, completion date, and ultimate completion date.

4. Amounts — action obligation, base and exercised options value, total contract value, and IDV fee.

5. Purchaser Information — your contracting office, funding agency, and funding office codes.

6. Entity Information — the contractor's UEI, name, address, and CAGE code, pulled from SAM.gov.

7. Business Category — organization type, business types, and incorporation details from SAM.

8. Contract Data — contract type, pricing data, cost accounting standards, performance-based flags, and more.

9. Legislative Mandates — flags for Clinger-Cohen, Service Contract Act, Davis-Bacon, Walsh-Healey, and interagency authority.

10. Principal Place of Performance — where the work happens: state, city, ZIP, congressional district.

11. Product or Service Information — PSC code, NAICS code, country of origin, and the description of requirement.

12. Competition Information — how the requirement was competed (or why it wasn't), number of offers, set-asides, and commercial procedures.

13. Preference Programs / Other Data — business size selection, subcontracting plan, and price evaluation preferences.

Most CAR errors come from the same handful of fields:

Dollar amounts on modifications. The Action Obligation field is the net change in funding, not the cumulative total. On a new award they're the same number. On a mod, they're not. On a deobligation, it's negative.

Exercised vs. All Options Value. "Exercised" means what you've actually put on contract right now. "All" means the total ceiling including options you haven't exercised yet. New buyers often make these the same number and forget to update when options get exercised.

Competition codes. If you got three offers on a full and open competition, make sure the system didn't default to something else. The competition fields are among the most scrutinized in FPDS.

Stale contractor data. If a contractor's SAM registration lapsed or their UEI changed, the CAR may reject or pull old information. Quick SAM check before award prevents headaches.