Compliance Glossary & Definitions

Authoritative terminology guide for corporate classification, small business size standards, and contracting identifiers.

Directory of Terms (34)

Affiliation

A regulatory condition where one business controls or has the power to control another, requiring their combined revenues or staff sizes to be aggregated for SBA size checks.

CAGE

Commercial and Government Entity code. A five-character alphanumeric identifier assigned by the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency to facilities performing federal contracts.

Check Digit

A redundant validation character appended to an identification code to automatically detect data transcription and formatting errors.

Concordance

A mapping or crosswalk table that bridges two different classification structures, such as aligning legacy 1987 SIC codes to modern 2022 NAICS categories.

A base-32 encoding system that utilizes 32 human-readable characters, omitting the four letters I, L, O, and U to prevent character-reading transcription errors and accidental obscenities (note that SAM.gov Unique Entity IDs omit only the letters I and O).

DLA

The Defense Logistics Agency. The combat support agency of the U.S. Department of Defense responsible for managing the CAGE registration system.

DUNS

The Data Universal Numbering System. A proprietary nine-digit identifier owned and administered by Dun & Bradstreet, previously used as the master contractor ID for federal procurement.

Division

The highest-level category in the legacy SIC structure, represented by alphabetical characters grouping major economic sectors.

EDGAR

Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system. The SEC platform where public firms submit filings, classifying filers by legacy SIC categories.

Employee-Based Standard

An SBA size standard category where a firm's size is determined by counting its average number of employees for each pay period over the preceding 24 calendar months (13 CFR § 121.106).

Entity Resolution

The programmatic process of linking diverse records from separate databases that represent the same physical corporate entity.

FAR

The Federal Acquisition Regulation. The principal set of rules governing the acquisition process of goods and services by U.S. federal agencies.

Filer Classification

The categorization of a public company filing regulatory documents under SEC regulations, determined by its primary industry SIC code.

GLEIF

The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation. The international non-profit foundation established to oversee and maintain the global LEI registry.

IRS PBA

Principal Business Activity code. A six-digit classification code used on IRS tax returns, derived from NAICS codes to categorize primary business revenues.

ISIC

International Standard Industrial Classification. The United Nations system for classifying economic activities, serving as a global baseline concordance.

ISO 17442

The international standard defining the structural layout of Legal Entity Identifiers, establishing uniform data elements and formats for global financial entities.

ISO 7064 Mod-97

The mathematical checksum check-character algorithm used in ISO 17442 to compute and verify the validation digits of Legal Entity Identifiers.

Industry Group

The third level of detail in the NAICS hierarchy, represented by a four-digit numerical code grouping closely related business activities.

LEI

Legal Entity Identifier. A global 20-character alphanumeric code standardized under ISO 17442, used to identify financial market participants and legal entities globally.

LOU

Local Operating Unit. A local utility authorized by GLEIF to issue Legal Entity Identifiers and register reference metadata in their local regions.

Major Group

The second tier in the legacy SIC system, represented by the first two digits of the code grouping specific industrial types.

NAICS

The North American Industry Classification System. A standardized six-digit numerical code system used by federal agencies to classify business establishments for statistical and regulatory analysis.

NCAGE

NATO Commercial and Government Entity code. A five-character identifier assigned to international (non-U.S.) firms conducting business with NATO forces or U.S. agencies.

NEC

Not Elsewhere Classified. A classification suffix used in the legacy SIC structure to catch industry categories that do not fit into specific codes.

National Industry

The most specific six-digit tier in the U.S. NAICS hierarchy, tailored to reflect specialized U.S. industrial practices.

Receipts-Based Standard

An SBA size standard category that uses average annual gross receipts (revenues) calculated over five completed fiscal years (13 CFR § 121.104) to determine small business status.

SAM.gov

The System for Award Management. The official U.S. government portal where contractors must register to receive federal awards and bids.

SBA Size Standard

Regulations defining the maximum size limit that a business can reach to qualify for federal small business preferences. Receipts-based standards are determined by summing gross receipts averaged over 5 completed fiscal years (13 CFR § 121.104), and employee-based standards are determined by the average number of employees for each pay period over the preceding 24 calendar months (13 CFR § 121.106).

SIC

The Standard Industrial Classification system. A legacy four-digit numerical code structure developed in the late 1930s to categorize business activities, still used by SEC EDGAR and OSHA.

Sector

The highest classification tier in the NAICS hierarchy, represented by a two-digit code or range (e.g., Sector 54 representing Professional Services).

Size Protest

A formal administrative challenge disputing a contractor's self-certification as a small business under a specific federal procurement solicitation.

Subsector

The second tier in the NAICS hierarchy, represented by a three-digit code that aggregates industries with similar economic processes.

UEI

The Unique Entity Identifier. A 12-character alphanumeric code assigned by SAM.gov to verify and identify corporate entities contracting directly with the U.S. federal government.

Glossary Hub Frequently Asked Questions

What is the purpose of the corporate compliance glossary? ▾

The corporate compliance glossary defines standard acronyms, codes, and registry parameters used by regulatory officers, contracting administrators, and compliance lawyers to verify entity formats.

What are the primary entity identifiers covered in this glossary? ▾

The glossary defines federal contracting markers (UEI, CAGE, DUNS), global financial codes (LEI), taxation identifiers (EIN, IRS PBA), and industrial class standards (NAICS, SIC).

Who maintains the standards listed in this glossary? ▾

The standards are maintained by their respective official authorities: GSA for UEIs, DLA for CAGE codes, Census Bureau for NAICS, OSHA for SIC, and GLEIF for LEIs.

Are the definitions provided based on official guidelines? ▾

Yes, all definitions are sourced directly from official manuals, including the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), the SBA Table of Size Standards, and the ISO 17442 specifications.

How can I verify formatting compliance for these identifiers? ▾

You can use our integrated format validation page, which runs length checks and ISO check digit algorithms in-browser to confirm code structures are valid.

What is a check digit and why is it used in compliance codes? ▾

A check digit is a character appended to an identifier (like an LEI or IBAN) computed via a modulo algorithm. It allows systems to instantly verify that the code was not mistyped.

Does the U.S. government own the DUNS numbering system? ▾

No, the DUNS system is proprietary to Dun & Bradstreet, which is why the GSA transitioned to the government-owned Unique Entity ID (UEI) system in April 2022.

What is a concordance in industry classification? ▾

A concordance is a mapping table that links retired code classifications from older manuals to their active equivalents in a newer system vintage to maintain database compatibility.

How are size standards linked to glossary classifications? ▾

The SBA maps receipts-based and employee-based size standard limits directly to NAICS codes to determine if a business concern qualifies as a small business concern for set-asides.

Can I download the raw definitions for these terms? ▾

Yes, our glossary dataset is open and statically sharded, allowing developers to retrieve raw glossary JSON structures directly from our public repository.