If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve already registered in the System for Award Management (SAM), the central database for all government contractors. If you have a listing and need to complete your SAM renewal, here are a few facts that you need to know.
- SAM Renewal Needs To Be Handled Early
You probably know that to bid on federal contracting jobs with any federal agency, you must have an active SAM listing. But did you know that if your SAM profile expires in the middle of a contract, an agency cannot and will not pay you? Until you renew your SAM profile and it’s approved and reinstated as active, all payments will cease, and this can seriously affect your business.
In general, we recommend that you handled SAM renewal a couple of months before your SAM profile expires. There are two reasons for this recommendation. One, some agencies will be hesitant to select your company if they notice that your expiration date is coming up soon. After all, while they can’t pay you if your listing is expired, they also might not be able to acquire the goods and services that are part of your contract, and this leaves the agency in a lurch.
Additionally, SAM renewal approval can take several weeks, depending on how busy the Federal Service Desk is at any given time. We’ve seen approvals handled in a matter of days, but we’ve also seen it take several weeks, you just never know. This is why it’s wise to give yourself extra time for the approval process. Of course, you also cannot bid on any government contracts if your listing has expired, and this also can impact your profitability.
- DUNS Numbers Are Now Obsolete
In the past, your SAM listing included your Data Universal Number System (DUNS) identifier, but DUNS is now obsolete. This number has been replaced with the Unique Entity ID, which is generated by the System for Award Management rather than an outside corporation.
For people completing their first SAM registration, attaining this number can be a little complicated. The good news, however, for those with existing SAM registrations, is that your new Unique Identity ID was assigned to you automatically, so you don’t have to go through the process of attaining this ID. Still, we do recommend that you make a note of this change and update your records and add your Unique Identity ID to your capability statement.
- Notarized Letters Might Not Be Needed
A few years ago, the Federal Service Desk, which is the agency that manages SAM, required that all entities send them a notarized letter indicating the Entity Administrator for their SAM account.
This was a bit of a hassle, but the good news is that you don’t need to send in a new letter if your entity administrator has not changed. If you are changing the entity administrator, you should send in a notarized letter listing the name of the new entity administrator, and this also will need to be updated in your SAM profile. We can help with this requirement if you decide to use our firm for SAM renewal.
- SAM Renewals Aren’t As Complicated As New Registration
SAM registration can take 12 or more hours to complete and can be quite frustrating to handle. However, in many cases, completing your SAM renewal might only take a few hours. However, if you are making changes to your SAM account, this can make the process a bit trickier. Certain changes, such as phone number changes or changing the number of employees, are relatively easy to handle.
However, if you are dealing with changes to sections pertaining to Federal Acquisition Regulations or making several changes to your account, this can be trickier, and making any mistakes will delay your SAM renewal approval. This is why some companies will hire a third-party SAM registration service to complete their SAM renewals.
The federal government does not charge a few for SAM registration or SAM renewals. However, if you don’t have time to handle the renewal process or you simply want to ensure that the process is handled correctly the first time, hiring a SAM expert can be a good option to consider.
It’s entirely up to you, but we can process your renewal quickly and accurately and ensure that your listing doesn’t expire. Additionally, we can help small businesses sign up with the Small Business Administration (SBA) and check and see if they qualify for any of this agency’s business development programs. We also can introduce you to Super 8a contractors in our FCR network.
The SBA offers many helpful programs for small businesses, as well as grants and loans, and we always encourage small business owners to take advantage of these programs. For instance, if your business is located in a historically underutilized business zone, or HUBZone, you might qualify to bid on special government contracting jobs that are set aside for businesses in these zones.
There are also options for woman-owned small businesses (WOSBs) and veteran-owned small businesses (VOSBs) and several more. Let us know if you need help determining whether or not you qualify for SBA set-asides as we are happy to help you sign up for these programs.
Need Help With SAM Renewal? Contact Federal Contractor Registry
At Federal Contractor Registry we’ve handled thousands of SAM registration and SAM renewals every year. If you want to bypass the complicated renewal process, just click on the blue Renew Registration tab on our homepage and fill out our quick contact form. A renewal specialist will be in touch as soon as possible to get started on your SAM renewal.