Methodology

Every figure the Index publishes is built from public federal data through documented, reproducible steps. This page states the sources, the definitions, and the checks — including the ones that could have gone against us.

Sources

[To be completed from the methodology paper: USAspending/FPDS award records (FY2022–FY2026, ~30.1M contract actions, 25.0M distinct awards); SAM.gov Public Monthly Entity Extract (758,617 registrants, July 2026 baseline); SBA certification records; U.S. Census Bureau Annual Business Survey (2021, NAICS 2017). Retrieval dates and file inventories listed per source.]

Definitions

[To be completed: protection-layer banding (award-level, era-appropriate thresholds — $10K/$250K FY2022–FY2025, $15K/$350K FY2026); order-channel classification (delivery orders, task orders, BPA calls); category flags (small business, WOSB, EDWOSB) as derived in the goaling-consistent pipeline; treatment of de-obligations and partial fiscal years.]

Reconciliation

Before publication, category totals are reconciled to the Small Business Administration's published goaling figures, and every derived series is cross-checked against the base analysis it must agree with. The order-channel series, for example, must reproduce the pooled five-year order shares of the protection-layer analysis exactly — and does. [Reconciliation tables to be included.]

Limitations

[To be completed: FY2026 figures are partial-year and labeled as such; Census availability measures cover employer firms; self-representations in SAM are unverified unless certified; data-source transitions (FPDS retirement into SAM) are monitored and noted in the changelog.]

Reproduction

The analysis scripts, the site generator, and the published tables live together in the public repository. Rebuilding any figure requires only public data and the code provided. Corrections policy: errors are corrected promptly, disclosed in the changelog, and never silently.

Interest disclosure

[Stewardship and contributor disclosure to be finalized: the Index is produced with the support of the American Small Business Chamber of Commerce; contributors of specific data layers are identified here, with interests stated plainly.]