if you want a fast and easy way to understand the different parts of the federal acquisition regulations also known as the far then you must watch this video Let's dive into it the fire is often thought to be this big scary word used in the government contract Arena it has excessive amount of regulatory language often difficult to understand and even harder to know where to find specific information when I started in government contracts the far was newly online and although we had PDF versions they were not searchable so I spent many many hours reading Page by Page to absorb the information at the end of this video I promise you will be more at ease with the far and be empowered to seek and find information faster and more easily than before at a very high level the far is a set of overarching rules and guidelines designed to create uniform policies for federal Acquisitions it's broken out by sub chapter part subpart section and subsection and uses the number format below foreign is organized with intention they cover specific areas of the acquisition process and are the rules and guidelines required within the far provisioning Clauses often referred to as far part 52. we will talk about far 52 later in this video I also have a far part series playlist on this channel that could be helpful and I'll include the link in the description of this video let's quickly go through each of the sub chapters a general highlights the foundational items of the far B acquisition planning identifies the various steps required by the government before they can even solicit an opportunity C contract methods and types breaks down the various acquisition options D socioeconomic programs speaks to small and foreign businesses social impact topics like environment labor laws and Freedom of Information Act which is foia then e general contract requirements speaks to finances patents data rights Insurance taxes and disputes and protests and so many other things F special categories of Contracting focuses on more in-depth areas of Contracting like research and development construction services major systems like weapons and Etc G contract management focuses on various operational areas like audits modifications subcontracting quality Transportation government property if you have departments in your company that align with these specific areas I would highly encourage the functional leaders of those areas to fully understand the part applicable to their Department it could be the difference between compliance and non-compliance and profit or loss finally H Clauses and forms spells out the pre-awar provisions and post-awar Clauses that all parties are required to adhere to both the government and you as the contractor and even your subcontractors this part is unique to the others where the provisions and clauses will reference or align with the previous Parts in other sub-chapters I will talk more about this in a few minutes now let's talk about the number system for the far in this example we are using 47.303-1 I've included some pictures from earlier slides to highlight their relationship as you can see the far part is before the decimal it can be one or two digits if you reference the far Parts Matrix from the previous slide you can see far part 47 is transportation that means that this regulation is about transportation it's important to note that you will not be expected to know every subpart section or subsection like I have highlighted in this picture here I simply want to show you the relationship between the far parts and the numbers I do however encourage you to have a good understanding on at least the far Parts numbers and titles to help you speak to regulatory information and meetings negotiations or other conversations that should arise for example if you're on a conference call or put on a spot in a meeting about a transportation regulation or requirement you can simply say I'll need to reference the contract and confirm what's in Far 47 before I Circle back to you in writing either way see you do not necessarily need to know the language and the weeds but you can speak to it appropriately to the group and then validate after it's a win-win let's see another example here we have 25.602-2 as you can see similar to previous examples the digits left of the decimal are the part and our Matrix identifies far part 25 as foreign acquisitions that means that this regulation is about foreign acquisitions so now that you understand the far parts and the relationship with them let's skip to far part 52 provisions and Clause to add a little level of complexity earlier I mentioned far part 52 was unique because the provisions and Clauses in that part relate to or align with other far parts for part 1 through 51 are regulations and not necessarily included in the solicitations or contracts they are the rules and guidelines that establish the provisions and clauses essentially provisions and clauses are the terms and conditions you would see in a normal contract between two companies so let's look at some far apart 52 Provisions or Clauses which relate to some of our same topics used in our previous examples in this example the number 52 is the far part left of the decimal so now you know this is either a solicitation provision or a contract clause then the subpart the 2 after the decimal specifically says that it is the text of provisions and clauses so everything with 52.2 is simply Provisions or Clauses in written form now remember bar 52 is unique to where it aligns or references other far Parts which are far part 1 through 51. given that this example 52.247 are at Clauses for transportation is that an aha moment or what let's look at another example of far part 52. here we use 52.225 now as in the previous example subpart 52.2 is simply the text of Provisions or clauses for the section identified by the next two numbers 25 so 52.225 is Provisions or Clauses for foreign acquisitions that is relationship between far parts and the far closets and that was the gist of what we were talking about today you know the far is a huge piece of regulatory information in fact there are over 800 different provisions and clauses just in Far part 52. if you focus on the far part numbers and titles outlined here and the far part 52 provisions and clauses you will eventually get to a point where it's second nature for you to know what is and is not required or what you need to take exception to so now that you understand for our numbers let's talk about the why why does my company have to follow that clause welcome to prescriptions no not the pharmacy kind the prescribed reason why a provision or Clause is included into a solicitation as a provision or in as a contract as a clause each provisional clause in subpart 52.2 has introductory text that text cross-references to the prescribed far part related to the subject of the provisioner clause and explains why it must be included introductory text is located right below the provision title and number in States as prescribed which you can see highlighted in yellow so using previous examples far Clause 52.247-29 here fob origin specifically states in the opening as prescribed in 47.303-1c insert the following clause if you go to the cross reference 47.303-1c which is usually linked directly to the government Clause page and go to the specific cross-reference line which is C you will see the prescription says the Contracting officer shall insert in solicitation and contracts the Clause at 52.247-29 fob origin when the delivery term is FOB origin the prescription is the why now if your solicitation or contract is not fob origin you will take exception to that before award when you submit your proposal now that you know how to find things in the far I encourage you to check out the far playlist on my channel where I outline each of our part to help you deep dive into the far in a more simplistic way I hope you enjoyed it and I can't wait to teach you more