Federal award values and transactions

How to interpret award summaries, transactions, obligations, potential values, and transaction value fields in GovTribe federal award data.

Use value fields differently depending on whether the question is about an award-level record, a transaction-level event, or a potential contract limit. This guide applies to GovTribe federal contract awards, federal contract IDVs, federal grant awards, federal transactions, and federal sub-award records.

Quick model

Concept	Meaning	Use when asking
Award summary	A rolled-up record for an award, IDV, or grant award.	What is the overall award or parent record?
Transaction	An action-level event beneath a federal award or IDV.	What changed, obligated, corrected, or modified value over time?
Obligation	Money the government has committed or de-obligated.	How much has been committed so far?
Potential value	A ceiling, base-and-options amount, or estimated limit.	How large could this contract or vehicle become?
Transaction value split	Federal and non-federal portions of a transaction value.	What part of this transaction is federal versus non-federal?

Which field or type should I use?

Question	Start with	Why
How much has the government committed on an award or grant?	`dollars_obligated` on award-level records.	This is the summarized obligation signal GovTribe exposes on award records when available.
What happened on a specific modification or spending action?	Federal transaction records.	Transactions are action-level records and can show dates, modification numbers, reasons, and value splits.
What is the maximum potential size of a federal contract award or IDV?	`ceiling_value` on federal contract award or IDV records.	Ceiling value is a potential or maximum value, not the same as dollars obligated.
What is the total value reported on one transaction row?	`total_value` on federal transaction records.	This is transaction-level value, not an award-level ceiling.
How much of a transaction value is federal versus non-federal?	`federal_value` and `non_federal_value` on federal transaction records.	These split transaction value into federal and non-federal portions when the source reports them.

GovTribe field mapping

GovTribe field or data type	Meaning	Related attribute or data type
`dollars_obligated`	Reported obligation amount on federal award-style records.	Dollars obligated
`ceiling_value`	Potential maximum value on federal contract award and IDV records.	Ceiling value
`total_value`	Transaction-level total value.	Total value
`federal_value`	Federal portion of a transaction value.	Federal value
`non_federal_value`	Non-federal portion of a transaction value.	Non-federal value
Federal transaction	Action-level contract or assistance transaction.	Federal transaction

Transaction search amount and date basis

Search federal transactions includes five families. Its statistics and dollar leaderboards sum signed total_value in USD; dollar sorting uses federalValue. total_value combines the reported federal and non-federal portions. It is not necessarily federal-only spending.

Family	Amount basis	Date basis in current source processing
Contract award	Signed action obligation plus reported non-government dollars.	Source date signed.
Contract IDV	Signed IDV action obligation plus reported non-government dollars; ceiling values are separate.	Source date signed.
Assistance award	Federal action obligation plus reported non-federal funding.	Source action date.
Contract subaward	Reported subaward amount.	Source subaward date.
Assistance subaward	Reported subaward amount.	Source subaward date.

Historical stored transaction and effective dates can differ. Search uses the stored transaction date for transaction_date_range, the stored effective date for transaction_effective_date_range, and the immediate parent's award date for award_date_range. A 2022 award's 2025 modification belongs to the 2025 transaction period, not the 2025 award-date cohort. Missing dates cannot match the corresponding range.

Select contract_award and contract_idv for prime contract activity. The transactions_by_type aggregation keeps family counts and amount sums separate. Positive and negative statistics preserve signed values: +$100 and −$20 yield positive $100, negative −$20, and net $80. Zero and absent values enter neither sign group. Net statistics include actual zeros but exclude absent amounts from count and average. Already stored zeros do not reveal whether a source amount was absent.

How to avoid double counting

Use award records when the question is about current award-level history or a standard search result.
Use transaction records when the question requires a time series, modification history, action date, reason for modification, or obligation movement.
Do not add award-level dollars_obligated to transaction-level values for the same award unless you have deliberately designed a reconciliation workflow.
Treat ceiling_value as potential value. It can be much larger than obligated dollars and should not be used as committed spending.
Treat sub-awards as separately reported downstream activity, not as another transaction layer on the prime award.

Official source notes

USAspending Federal Spending Guide distinguishes prime awards, sub-awards, prime award transactions, prime award summaries, obligations, and outlays.
SAM.gov Contract Award Data is the federal contract award source GovTribe uses for contract award and IDV records.
FAR 4.601 defines contract actions and contract action reports for FPDS reporting context.
FAR 4.605 covers FPDS reporting identifiers and award reporting procedures.

Federal contract data model: Understand how awards, IDVs, vehicles, transactions, and sub-awards fit together.
Federal grant data model: Understand how grant opportunities, programs, awards, transactions, and sub-awards fit together.
Federal transaction: Review action-level transaction records.
Dollars obligated attribute: Review the shared obligation value attribute.