Small business size for federal procurement can be measured based on receipts or employee counts. Some small business procurements are set aside for small businesses as determined by the employee counts of those businesses, as opposed to the more common receipts based size-standard. SBA size rules, in turn, define what is an employee for those size standards that use employee counts, including whether temporary workers must be included in the employee count.

Employee counts were also utilized for PPP loan purposes, to determine what companies were eligible for PPP loans, with PPP loans only available to companies under certain headcounts. A recent federal district court decision turned on the definition of employee for PPP loan purposes. However, this case should be instructive for determining employee counts for all SBA purposes, including federal procurement, since the employee definitions for PPP loans and small business contracting are the same.