After your SAM.gov registration is active: what changes, and the first steps toward work

The word the rules turn on. The FAR's provision on SAM registration defines registered as four things. The offeror has entered all mandatory information, the unique entity identifier and, where it applies, the CAGE code included. It has completed the Core, Assertions, Representations and Certifications, and Points of Contact sections. The Government has validated all mandatory data fields, the taxpayer identification number with the IRS included. And the Government has marked the record Active (FAR 52.204-7).

The same provision says when that matters: an offeror is required to be registered in SAM when submitting an offer or quotation and at the time of award, and it points to the clause at FAR 52.204-13 for keeping the registration during performance and through final payment. For grants, 2 CFR 25.200 has an applicant keep an active registration while it has an active federal award or an application under consideration. So Active is the state an offer, an award and a grant application are checked against.

A year. SAM.gov's comparison of its registration purposes shows the same expiration for Financial Assistance and for All Awards, one year, and the public record carries the date. The year runs from the day the registration became active, and a renewal goes through the same checks the first registration did. When to renew your SAM.gov registration: the year, the date, and what to have ready is about that date, and Your watch list and reminders is how Firmenza reads the record and emails you before it.

The record. GSA's page on registering a business says that once a registration is active, the business becomes searchable governmentwide. SAM.gov's registration pages say the status, legal business name, physical address and other non-sensitive information are searchable by any authenticated user. GSA's document for the Entity Management API lists what its public tier holds: the name, UEI, registration details, physical and mailing addresses, business types, PSC and NAICS codes, and the points of contact's names and addresses. The Federal Service Desk's article adds that other government systems see the information a little after SAM.gov does.

What is not public stays that way. Taxpayer and banking details sit in a tier only a federal system account with that permission can request, and a contact's email and phone are not in the public tier either. What SAM.gov shows the public about a registration, and what it does not goes through the tiers in GSA's words.

SBA's own search for small businesses, in SBA's words: Small Business Search is the new, modern interface by the Small Business Administration for finding small businesses engaged in federal government contracting, and SBA says it will not charge a cost for Small Business Search content or profile management. It replaced the Dynamic Small Business Search, which SAM.gov's checklist and the Federal Service Desk's articles still name. The checklist says that if at least one small business NAICS code is selected, SAM.gov offers a link to SBA's supplemental page, for market research or for applying to SBA's HUBZone or 8(a) programs. The Federal Service Desk says that profile can be completed after the registration is submitted.

The profile is a separate thing from the registration, kept with SBA. Both SAM.gov's and SBA's pages address it to a business that qualifies as small, and whether yours does is its own statement, worked out under SBA's size rules from its own receipts or employee counts; this guide does not say it. The card just below this guide names the free counselors and the attorney who read those facts with you.

Where the notices are. Federal agencies publish their contract opportunities as notices on SAM.gov, and a notice can carry the agency, a type, a response date, a NAICS code and a set-aside, which are the fields that narrow the list to work that fits. Only some notice types ask for an offer, and an offer needs an active registration when it is sent. How to find federal contracts: where notices are published and what to check before you respond is the longer guide, written from the FAR.

A first response need not be an offer. A sources sought notice is how an agency asks businesses for information, and a response to one is not an offer; Sources sought notices: what they are and what a response contains says what one contains. A capability statement, one page on what the business does and has done, is what a contracting officer or a prime contractor asks to see; Your capability statement: what to include, and how to write it in Firmenza is how to write one.

Not every purchase is posted, and free counseling exists before anyone pays for help. Federal contracts for any business: where do I start? names the identifier, the registration and the counselors, and leaves size, set-asides and affiliation to the people who read a business's own facts.

The facts the public record shows. The points of contact, since the government's notices go to them; the NAICS codes, which SAM.gov says can be updated at any time; and the legal name and address, which a renewal checks again. A change between renewals is an update to the record, and Points of contact in a SAM.gov registration: who they are and what each receives says where a change to a contact goes with Firmenza.

Whether your business is small, whether a set-aside applies to it or how an agency will read its record: those are questions about the business's own facts and the buyer's own choices. It describes the contract side; an applicant for a grant goes on at the funding agency, and Do you register in SAM.gov for contracts, grants, or both? says what a Financial Assistance registration is for. It quotes the Federal Service Desk, the FAR, GSA's pages, SAM.gov's checklist and SBA's search as they were read, and nothing else.

Firmenza's watch reads your public record, emails you before the expiration date and after a read finds the status changed, and shows the date on your dashboard. Firmenza's contract opportunity matches compare each new notice with the profile you save, and say why each matched; Contract opportunities in Firmenza goes through them. The capability statement is written in Firmenza from your own answers. None of it says whether to bid, whether the business is small or whether it will be chosen; those stay yours.