What NAICS Code Should I Use?
A plain-language way to pick the NAICS codes that match your business, and how many you should actually claim.
Start from what you invoice for
The reliable way to find your codes is to ignore the code list at first and write down, in your own words, what a customer pays you to do. Not your capabilities — the line items on your invoices. “We mow and maintain grounds at three schools” is a better starting point than “facility services”, because the government's categories are built around delivered work rather than industry labels.
Then search those words against the official NAICS list and read the descriptions, including the examples of what each code excludes. The exclusions are where most mistakes get caught: two codes that sound identical often differ on whether you supply the materials, or whether the work is performed on the customer's site.
How many codes to claim
Fewer than you are tempted to. There is no advantage to listing every code you could conceivably serve, and there are two real costs. A padded list makes your profile a worse matching signal, so you see more work you do not want. And a contracting officer who checks your registration sees a firm that claims to do everything, which reads as a firm that specialises in nothing.
A focused set — the work you have actually delivered, plus the near neighbours you could deliver tomorrow with the staff you have — is more useful than a long one. You can add codes as the business grows.
Your primary code does specific work
One of your codes is designated primary. It is the one that most represents your revenue, and it is what a lot of automated reporting and market research keys on. Choose it deliberately rather than accepting whichever one you happened to enter first.
Each code also carries a size standard — a revenue or employee threshold that decides whether you count as small for work under that code. The same company can be small under one code and not under another, which is why the code on the solicitation, not the code on your profile, is the one that decides eligibility for a given bid.
Check your codes against real awards
The best test of a code is whether the government actually buys what you sell under it. Look at recent awards in a code before you commit to it: if nothing resembling your work has been bought under that code, it is probably the wrong one, however well the description reads.
PathfinderBid uses your NAICS list as a primary matching signal, so the codes you choose here directly determine what you see. If your feed looks wrong, the codes are the first thing to revisit.
Related reading
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