You have been considering federal contracting as a business development strategy and are unsure of the registration process. Well, look no further! Today’s topic will cover the System for Award Management (SAM) registration process.
What is the System for Award Management (SAM.GOV)?
The System for Award Management (SAM) is a Federal Government website where any entity receiving federal assistance, contracts or cooperative agreements register. Registration is free!
How to create an account in SAM?
- Go to https://www.sam.gov.
- Click on “Create an individual user account”.
- Complete the requested information, and then click “Submit/Create”.
- Select “Individual User Account.”
- Go to your email to validate your account.
Next, you need to register your entity (business) in SAM
- Log in with your user ID and password.
- Gather all of the required information needed to complete your registration.
- Click on “Register New Entity” from the left side navigation pane.
- Complete and submit the online Registration.
The registration process should take approximately 30 minutes. The actual time will depend on a number of factors such as the size and complexity of your business.
When considering your business development strategy please remember that your registration for SAM will take some time. Don’t wait until the last minute to register. Your SAM registration should be the first thing you accomplish and definitely prior to submitting a proposal. SAM will send status updates throughout the process.
You will need to request a Dun and Bradstreet number for your business before you can register. Your DUNS number is Free. It is not necessary to purchase any services in order to receive your number. Your DUNS number is unique to your business. Note that new registrations can take an average of 7 to 10 business days to process in SAM after the receipt of your DUNS number. SAM will validate your EIN/SSN with the IRS and your DUNS number. The Defense Logistics Agency will issue your business a CAGE code. CAGE stands for Commercial and Government Entity Code which is a unique identifier assigned to suppliers to various government or defense agencies. It is a location specific code. When I initially registered my business it took about three weeks from start to finish.
New Validation Procedures
Please note that the General Services Administration otherwise known as GSA is addressing fraudulent activity in the SAM website. If a registration is submitted before June 29th then a notarized letter will have to be validated by the Federal Service Desk before the registration can be activated. On June 29th, 2018 all non-Federal entities who create or update their registration in SAM.gov will no longer need to have an approved Entity Administrator notarized letter on file before their registration is activated. However, you must still mail the original, signed copy of the notarized letter to the Federal Service Desk. Failure to do so within 30 days of activation may result in the registration no longer being active.
On Jun 29, 2018, SAM will require you to create a new login user account. Your current SAM.GOV username and password will no longer work.
I updated my SAM account in May and mailed in my notarized letter to the Federal Service Desk. I am still waiting for validation. So plan ahead and start your registration now. Eventually, SAM will require two-party authentication. So plan ahead.
To assist you with the registration process we have created a SAM worksheet which can be obtained by emailing us.