A government proposal refers to a response to written requirements issued by a government entity that wants to buy something. Outside business circles, it commonly it called a legislative motion. Governments request competitive contract schemes when they believe there are more issues than initial cost in buying a needed product or service.

Most offers contain the following sections:

•Requirement matrix, where in the vendor's response will be found.

•Executive summary, a synopsis of why a customer should buy from the proposing vendor.

•Technical or management discussion that tells how the vendor should meet the requirements. It also contains a discussion of how the vendor will manage the contract if it is awarded.

•Cost volume, a presentation of all costs. It includes the cost basis, implementation plan and implementation schedule.

•Past performance or relevant experience volume gives details of the performance on past contracts of similar size and scope.

Most of these offers are lengthy. It is so as they are a response to written requirements and they have to address each one of them. For instance, in case of competitive ones, the vendor might mention certain facts that might differentiate his product or service from others. Even short ones include cost data of ten pages. The large ones can go up to thousands of pages. They are expensive due to detailed requirements and necessary cost and scheduling information. Business proposals often provide a written description of a transaction as a basis for approval. They are comparatively short. There is little or no regulation of these schemes between businesses. However, larger companies may be bound by a significant amount of policies and procedures. Government procurement processes are very complicated and highly regulated. And the regulations and process is different for each government. Federal, state, local, and international governments all have different regulations and processes. Many government procurement processes are based on those used by the Federal Government. The Federal Acquisition Regulation is the primary set of rules governing how the Federal Government manages the procurement process, including how it issues and receives schemes. Hence, to prepare an offer one has to abide by rules and regulations.