The System for Award Management (SAM) is the central database that includes information about all government contractors. If you wish to bid on government contracting jobs, you’ll need to keep an active listing in this database, and we can help. First, though, let’s discuss a few important facts about SAM.
- SAM Registration Is Required
No one can do business with the federal government without an active SAM listing, which means that SAM registration is your first step into the world of government contracting. You can either complete registration on your own or you can hire a third party to complete your SAM registration.
While the government does not charge a fee for SAM registration, the registration process is frustrating and often takes 12 or more hours to complete. If you make any mistakes on the application, this can delay your approval into the database. For both of these reasons, many people choose to hire a SAM expert to complete their application.
Once your application is approved, you will receive what is known as a CAGE code, or Corporate and Government Entities code. This code is one of the unique identifiers for your company in the SAM database. When you apply for government contracting jobs at any government agents, the procurement agents will ask for your CAGE code to ensure that you have an active SAM listing.
- New Applicants Must Complete Extra Steps
Several years ago, the Federal Service Desk, which is the agency in charge of SAM, started requiring companies or entities to send in a notarized letter listing the Entity Administrator of their SAM account. This is simply the person or persons at your company authorized to make changes to your SAM account.
New SAM registrants need to send in a notarized letter within 30 days of completing their SAM registration. Typically, the Federal Service Desk will send you an email after they have received and processed the letter, but it can take several weeks before this agency emails confirmation to you. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of a few business days, but you never really know the timeline, so we recommend sending in the letter as quickly as possible.
The second change involves the previous requirement to submit your DUNS number when applying for SAM. In the past, you were required to list this number on your SAM application as well as in the notarized letter. However, this has been replaced recently by a new identifier, the Unique Entity ID.
This new identifier can be acquired at SAM.gov, and you will need to register for this identifier prior to SAM registration. However, we do include attaining this new ID as part of our SAM registration service, so if you choose to use Federal Contractor Registry, this will be one less step you need to take on your own.
- You’ll Need To Renew SAM Every Year
As we stated above, you must have an active SAM registration in order to do business with any government agency. So, whether you plan to bid on FEMA disaster jobs or DOD contracts or work with another agency, they need to see that your SAM listing is active so you will need to renew your listing every year.
We recommend that every federal contractor renew their SAM entity registration several months in advance of the expiration date. In some cases, the Federal Service Desk has a backlog of registrations and renewals, which can delay approval. For this reason, it’s best to renew early because if a government agency sees that your expiration date is fast approaching, they may hesitate to award a contract to your business as they can no longer work with you once the registration expires.
In addition to SAM registration, we can provide you with SAM renewals, as well. SAM renewals can be less complicated than your initial registration, but if you do need to make any changes, it can be smart to hire a third-party registration service to ensure that all changes are completed correctly.
If you have had an active listing in the System for Award Management (SAM) in the last few years, you won’t need to worry about either the notarized letter requirement or the DUNS number change. This change was made automatically when they moved over to the new identification system. We do recommend, however, that if you have an existing SAM account, go into the account and find your Unique Entity ID and make a note of it for your records.
- Use SAM To Find Contract Opportunities
The System for Award Management isn’t just a database listing all government contractors, it’s also a great source for finding federal government contractor jobs. Just head to the SAM.gov website and click on the Contract Opportunities page. Then click on Advanced Search and you have many ways to search for jobs that might match your goods or services.
We typically recommend that you search using your North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes as these describe the exact goods and services you provide. If you aren’t sure of your NAICS codes, we can identify them for you during SAM registration or you can browse through the codes at Census.gov.
If you are a small business, we also recommend signing up with the Small Business Administration and taking advantage of the many programs they offer small businesses. We can help you sign up for SBA programs as part of our SAM registration system.
SBA also has a search engine for subcontracting called SubNet, and this can be a great way to find subcontracting jobs. Subcontractors work with larger companies to help fulfill these large companies’ government contracts and it can be a great way to get your start in government contracting.
Get Started With Government Contracting!
If you want to bid on state or federal contracting jobs, we can complete your System for Award Management (SAM) registration quickly and accurately. To get started, just click on the green New Registration tab on our homepage and fill out our quick contact form. A registration specialist soon will be in touch to gather information and get started on your SAM registration.