All other business support services: NAICS 561499 contract obligations

A residual code with a $2.73 billion contract book

Census places 561499 at the end of the business-support group for establishments that supply support services not listed elsewhere. On federal awards the same six digits appear because a contracting officer reported them. The $2,732,289,975.98 total therefore mixes whatever work was tagged this way; it is not a curated catalog of miscellaneous offices, nor a judgment that the work was miscellaneous in quality.

One thousand seven hundred eighty-nine awards produced that sum. The implied average is about $1.53 million per award. Residual NAICS codes often collect both large umbrella contracts and small task orders, so the average is a quotient, not a description of a standard support engagement. This packet does not split the 1,789 rows by vehicle type.

Contracts only, and only where NAICS was filled in

USAspending.gov stores NAICS on procurement actions. Assistance awards frequently leave the field blank. If a cooperative agreement paid for similar clerical or document-support work, those dollars would not increment the $2,732,289,975.98 figure. Readers comparing this industry with grant-heavy programs should keep the instrument split in view rather than adding the two feeds together.

The 1,789-award count is likewise a contract count. Each modification that retains 561499 can add a row. Negative modifications reduce the obligation total without deleting the history of the earlier positive actions. The live table, not this guide, is where those signed rows can be inspected.

Obligations versus payments

An obligation is the government’s recorded commitment on the award action. Outlays are later disbursements. SpendingVault’s industry rollup follows the obligation column from USAspending.gov. A support contract can be fully obligated in one fiscal period and paid across several, or de-obligated if the requirement ends. None of those cash movements are restated as a second total on this page.

How to use the 561499 hub without over-reading it

Open the All Other Business Support Services industry page to see which recipients and awarding agencies appear under the code. Sort there; this guide does not invent those names. The all-industries list shows where $2.73 billion sits relative to other NAICS totals. Because 561499 is a catch-all, two awards with very different statements of work can share the code if both were reported that way.

Limits of the packet

The only quantitative facts available here are NAICS 561499, the industry name, $2,732,289,975.98 in obligations, and 1,789 awards. No fiscal year split, place of performance, or set-aside flag is in the packet, so none is cited. Anything beyond those four fields belongs on the live table or in the raw USAspending.gov download.

Citing a residual support code without inventing the work

Quote $2,732,289,975.98 as USAspending contract obligations on 1,789 awards tagged NAICS 561499. Do not treat “all other” as a finding that the government could not classify the work. It is Census’s residual bucket as copied onto the award. More specific business-support codes—telemarketing, collection agencies, court reporting—sit elsewhere when tagged that way and are not inside this total.

Readers sometimes convert residual codes into a waste story or a hidden-spending story. The public record does not support either move from these two numbers alone. The $2.73 billion is the obligation stock for actions that carried 561499. Option years and task orders can inflate the recorded commitment before invoices catch up. Outlays are not in the packet.

The 1,789 awards are procurement records, not 1,789 support shops. A single IDIQ can generate many of those rows. If a contracting office later recodes an action to a tighter NAICS, dollars can leave 561499. Record corrections in the USAspending.gov warehouse can move both the dollars and the count. Treat the live industry table as current.

Assistance without NAICS remains outside the rollup. A grant that funds document processing would not increment $2,732,289,975.98. Quote USAspending.gov, quote obligations, quote 1,789 awards, and open the hub for recipients. Do not add agency budget justifications to this figure; appropriations are a different public-record layer.

Business support is a services family. Telephone answering, private mail centers, and collection agencies have their own six-digit lines when contracting offices use them. 561499 is only the residual. If a reader sums every 5614xx code, that sum is a new calculation this packet does not contain. Stay on $2,732,289,975.98 and 1,789 awards unless you open other industry pages and add their published totals separately, citing each code.

Questions

What is NAICS 561499 in federal contracting?

It is the Census residual code All Other Business Support Services as reported on USAspending.gov contract actions. The indexed total is $2,732,289,975.98 in obligations on 1,789 awards. The code does not by itself list the tasks performed. USAspending.gov is the source for the $2,732,289,976 obligation stock and the 1,789 contract awards tagged ALL OTHER BUSINESS SUPPORT SERVICES (NAICS 561499). Assistance awards that omit NAICS are outside both figures.

Why might similar support work appear under other codes?

Contracting offices choose a NAICS for the award. Work that fits a more specific business-support code would not be in 561499. Only actions tagged 561499 feed the $2,732,289,975.98 and 1,789 figures. Keep the citation on contract obligations: $2,732,289,976 on 1,789 awards coded NAICS 561499. Outlays, grants without NAICS, and unit counts are not in the packet that produced this page.

Are business-support grants in this total?

Usually not. NAICS is a contract field. Assistance awards may not carry NAICS, so grant dollars are omitted from this industry rollup even if the activity looks similar on a program page. The industry hub lists the underlying USAspending.gov rows. This answer restates only packet facts: NAICS 561499, $2,732,289,976 obligated, and 1,789 awards for ALL OTHER BUSINESS SUPPORT SERVICES.

Does obligated equal spent for NAICS 561499?

No. The $2,732,289,975.98 is obligations—legal commitments on contract actions. Outlays, invoices, and de-obligations are separate. This page does not publish a payment total. Do not treat 1,789 as establishments or $2,732,289,976 as cash disbursed. Both numbers describe USAspending.gov contract actions tagged NAICS 561499 (ALL OTHER BUSINESS SUPPORT SERVICES), not assistance and not outlays.