Primer on Cost Contract Versus Fixed-Price

I don't mean to sound sarcastic, but put Comparison of Major Contract Types into Google. DAU has a pretty handy chart that covers all of the major contract types and it should be the first link that comes up.

Jason, I was afraid my question would generate too much depth of a response, so appreciate your simple referral to the DAU chart pack. There are lots of good charts in there that should get me at least 90 percent of what I am looking for. Thanks very much!

Forget the charts. The best way to understand the distinctions between the two contract types is to compare the following categories of FAR clauses: inspection (52.246-2 and 52.246-4) to inspection (52.246-3 and 52.246-5); payment (52.232-1) to allowable cost and payment (52.216-7) and limitation of cost (52.232-20}; and termination for convenience (52.249-2) and for default (52.249-8) to termination (52.249-6).

Study the differences in those, and you'll know more about the differences between fixed-price and cost-reimbursement than most of your colleagues.

Vern,

Thanks to you, also for your help. Those are they types of differences I am intending to distinguish. I am also planning on delving into risk of loss differences for work in process plus, what I consider to be a big difference is the third party liability protections. The cost type contracts usually contain FAR 52.228-7 "Insurance - Liability to Third Persons" while the fixed price contracts typically do not. Absent, special actions like Indemnification, I believe the third party risks are inherently much different. My contracts often involve potential risks, albiet very low probability, of liabilities exceeding available insurance, so this is an area of concern when moving from cost type to fixed price.