Getting ready for a first federal contract.

Register, and do not pay a third party to do it

SAM.gov is an official government site. The entity checklist says it is free to use. ¹

An All Awards registration lets the entity bid on contracts and other procurements, and also apply for financial assistance. A Financial Assistance Awards Only registration is for grants and loans, and does not set the entity up to bid on contracts. ¹

FAR 52.204-7, System for Award Management (Nov 2024), says an offeror is required to be registered in SAM when submitting an offer or quotation and at time of award. The same provision points to FAR 52.204-13 for keeping the registration active during performance and through final payment. Registered means the offeror has entered all mandatory information, including the unique entity identifier and, if applicable, the Electronic Funds Transfer indicator, the Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) code, and the data required by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, has completed the Core, Assertions, Representations and Certifications, and Points of Contact sections, and has been validated by the Government and marked Active. ²

Unique Entity ID

SBA says a Unique Entity Identifier is a unique 12-character alphanumeric value, and that you receive it when you register at SAM.gov. Entities doing business with the federal government use the identifier the system creates. Businesses no longer go to a third-party site for a DUNS number. ³

The checklist asks for the legal business name, a physical address (a post office box may not be used as the physical address), the date of incorporation, and the state of incorporation before SAM.gov issues the identifier. SAM.gov validates the name and address. ¹

SBA also points to a Federal Service Desk guide for getting a Unique Entity ID without a full registration. Some transactions, such as reporting as a sub-awardee, may need only the identifier. ³

CAGE code

For a U.S. entity, the checklist says to enter a CAGE code if you have one. If you do not, select No, and one will be assigned after you submit the registration. An entity outside the United States requests an NCAGE code before starting a SAM.gov registration. ¹

The Defense Logistics Agency runs the Commercial and Government Entity Program at cage.dla.mil. ⁹

NAICS codes

The North American Industry Classification System is the standard federal statistical agencies use to classify business establishments for collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistics on the U.S. business economy. The official site is census.gov/naics. ⁴

The SAM.gov checklist tells you to enter NAICS codes for the organization and sends you to that Census page. Product Service Codes are optional on the same screen, and the checklist points to the Product and Service Code Manual on acquisition.gov. The checklist also asks for worldwide annual receipts and number of employees under 13 CFR 121. ^{1, 11}

SBA says a business generally has a primary NAICS code and can have more than one if it sells more than one product or service. ³

Size standards

Size standards decide whether a business counts as small for a given contract. SBA assigns a size standard to each NAICS code. The standards are generally based on employees or annual receipts, and they vary by industry. ³

SBA's own general picture: most manufacturing companies with 500 employees or fewer, and most non-manufacturing businesses with average annual receipts under $7.5 million, will qualify as small. There are exceptions by industry. The table of size standards and 13 CFR 121.201 are where the number for a specific code lives. ³

For federal contracting, receipts are averaged over the latest five complete fiscal years. Employees are the average number of people on the payroll for each pay period over the latest 24 calendar months. Anyone on the payroll counts as one employee. Affiliates' receipts and employees are included. Affiliation is based on the power to control, whether or not that power is used. SBA points to 13 CFR 121.103, 121.104, and 121.106 for those calculations. ³

SBA also says a small business, for these programs, is a for-profit business of any legal structure, independently owned and operated, not nationally dominant in its field, and physically located and operating in the United States or its territories. ³

You can represent small-business status, and eligibility for SBA contracting programs, in the SAM profile. ³

SBA certifications

Certifications are separate from the free SAM registration. Government agencies reserve some contracts for small businesses in SBA programs. ³

The 8(a) Business Development program is for experienced socially and economically disadvantaged owners who have been in business for at least two years. SBA says the certification does not guarantee contract awards. ⁵

The HUBZone program makes a firm that holds that status eligible to compete for the program's set-aside contracts. Those businesses also get a 10 percent price evaluation preference in full and open competitions. ⁵

To be eligible for the Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract program, SBA says the business must be small under SBA size standards, at least 51 percent owned and controlled by women who are U.S. citizens, and managed day to day by women who also make the long-term decisions. Some of those contracts are limited further to economically disadvantaged women-owned small businesses. ⁵

Service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses that hold SBA's veteran certification can compete for federal sole-source and set-aside contracts. SBA's certification route is the Veteran Small Business Certification program, VetCert. ¹⁰

A subcontracting plan is a prime-contractor duty, and small businesses are not the ones who submit it. FAR 19.702 says subcontracting plans are not required from small business concerns. For other-than-small offerors, the section requires an acceptable plan on acquisitions expected to exceed $900,000, or $2 million for construction, when subcontracting possibilities exist. The same section lists other cases where a plan is not required, including personal services contracts and contracts performed entirely outside the United States and its outlying areas. ⁸

Where the work is posted

SBA's market-research list for new contractors names three public records. The Federal Procurement Data System is the repository of federal contracting data for contracts over $25,000. USASpending.gov tracks spending through the contracts the government awards. Each agency also publishes a procurement forecast, and SBA points to the collection at acquisition.gov/procurement-forecasts. ³

Subcontract notices are a separate door. Prime contractors can post a subcontracting opportunity to SBA's SUBNet database. Small businesses can search and view those posts. SBA tells primes who want to post to email the address on that page. ⁶

APEX Accelerators offer no-cost guidance and support for businesses that want to compete for government contracts, including companies new to contracting. The program office sits under the Department of War Office of Industrial Base Growth. The public site is where you find the local office. ⁷

SBA's own caution on cost and time: some businesses spend between $80,000 and $130,000 to earn a first contract, and a return can take up to two years. That is SBA's general statement, not a fee schedule. ³

Compare tools that find contract opportunities beyond SAM.gov.

A minimum tool stack

The free layer is SAM.gov for registration and bidding eligibility, the Census NAICS search, USASpending and the Federal Procurement Data System for who already buys what you sell, SUBNet for subcontract notices, and a local APEX Accelerator. ^{1, 3, 6, 7}

DFARS 242.7503 says the accounting-system clause, DFARS 252.242-7006, is used when a contract is cost-reimbursement, incentive-type, time-and-materials, or labor-hour, or when it has progress payments made on costs incurred or on a percentage or stage of completion. A plain firm-fixed-price award without progress payments is not on that list. When the clause is in a contract, it requires a system that can separate direct and indirect cost, keep time by cost objective, and keep unallowable cost out of government billings. ^{12, 13}

Accounting-system requirements arrive with the contract type, so read the solicitation's clauses before you buy job-cost or timekeeping software. Paid opportunity-search tools are optional, and the free government sources above cover registration, market research, and subcontract notices. Dollar prices, when a vendor prints them, stay on each vendor page in this directory.

If you will sell to the Department of War

SBA says small businesses selling to the Department of Defense will have to show they can safeguard their systems and data, and points to Project Spectrum, a free DoD platform for CMMC tools and training. Since July 13, 2026, the Department's program offices may ask only for Level 1 or Level 2 self-assessments, and the CIO's memorandum keeps Project Spectrum among the no-cost resources it names. See the guide on CMMC Phase 2 for what that means. ^{3, 14, 15}

Sources checked October 16, 2026. Not legal advice.