Important: Prior to the System for Award Management (SAM) registration you must be registered with DUN & BRADSTREET and obtain a DUNS # in order to complete the SAM information. Please refer to Lesson 2: Proper Registration in Part 2: Understanding D&B and how to Obtain a DUNS number for Government Contracting to find out more on how to receive your DUNS # to start your SAM registration.
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR): Also keep in mind that all updates and important information regarding System for Award Management (SAM) will all be located in the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) or FAR Manual. The 2,200 plus page manual provides all key topics regarding SAM and all it’s entities. Using this FAR Manual as a reference is the best possible way to follow major guidelines in the government registration process.
Please Note: Thousands of businesses choose to use third party registration firms like US Federal Contractor Registration to properly register their business in SAM and make sure everything is entered correctly and is free of errors once submitted to the Federal Government. For more information on contact US Federal Contractor Registration’s Contractor Helpline at 877-252-2700 or registration online in less than 5 minutes at https://www.uscontractorregistration.com/online-registration. After you register you will shortly be sent a confirmation email and contacted by a live Case Manager to assist you with any questions or concerns.
CREATING A SAM ACCOUNT
According to SAM.gov, there are two types of SAM account. The first type is an Individual Account and the second is a System Account. Most businesses follow the instructions to register as an Individual Account.
As stated on the System for Award Management (SAM) transcript of the accounts apply the following features:
An Individual Account:
- Contains your own personal
- May stay with you even when your role in the organization or the permissions you need to do your job change.
Please note: Just because you have created the account and have all the primary information does not mean you have the ability to create or edit records. to do those types of tasks you must have roles. With an account, Federal Government employees can also request access to view personal data on your SAM account to search or extract information.
A system account:
* Represents a particular information technology (IT) system.
* Is primarily for systems which need to send data to SAM (such as a Federal Government contract writing system) or wish to automate the pull of the data through extracts or web
services.
* Is useful if multiple users in your organization need to access the same extract or web service.
When creating an individual account, there is only a minimal amount of information that you must enter. NOTE: You must create a new username and password to access certain information in SAM. You cannot automatically log into SAM with the username and password you had in a legacy system. You need to create an account in SAM. While you can provide additional information, you are only required to enter:
- Your first name
- Your last name
- Your personal or business email address
- Country
- Phone Number
- Username
- A password
- A security question answer
Username: This unique identifier will be permanently associated with your SAM account. Once chosen, it may not be changed. SAM account usernames may never be reused, so once an account with a particular username is created, no other account may ever use that username, even if the account with that username is deactivated. The username must be a minimum of six characters and has a maximum of fifty characters. Please note that you can enter the following four special characters as part of the username: @ . _ -
An individual account and therefore a username, can move with you when you leave an
organization if you, or the organization you were originally associated with allows this (your access and roles will not transfer). It is for this reason that we recommend that you not use your email as your username. Your organization (particularly certain U.S. Federal Government entities) may impose certain guidelines regarding your selection of a username, such as the use of a prefix. Please refer to your internal processes to determine if this applies to you.
Password: Your password proves that you are who you say you are. Your user account password should never be shared with anyone else. Neither the SAM Help Desk nor the SAM Program Office will ever ask you for your password. If you should forget your individual account password, the system will allow you to reset it. Passwords must be changed periodically.
If you have an Individual Account your password will expire in 180 days
If you have an Individual Account with Federal Government Roles is will Expire in 90 days.
Your password must contain, at a minimum:
- At least eight characters total (but no more than fifteen characters are allowed)
- At least one number
* At least one letter
* At least one special character
REGISTERING IN SAM:
Step 1: Located on the top right side of the Home page, click where it says Create an Account. The first account creation page is titled “Personal Information.” Enter the information that pertains to you. When complete, click “Next.”
Step 2: The second account creation page is titled “Account Information.” When entering your username and password a pop-up will inform you if you have met all requirements (such as minimum length). Complete the security questions and answers. Keep in Mind: Answers to security questions are not case sensitive. These provide an alternate method of validating your identity in certain scenarios (such as if you don’t have access to your email account and forget your password). When complete click “Next.”
Step 3: On the summary screen, review the answers provided. For security reasons, the password will not be displayed. If you need to change anything, click “Edit.” Once you’ve confirmed all of the data is accurate, click “Submit.”
Step 4: An email from SAM.gov is sent to your email account. In the email, click the link provided to complete the account creation process.
Step 5: Return to SAM.gov, enter your username and password and click “Login” to complete the account registration.
Once registered it is important that explore the webpage and become comfortable. Explore the ‘My SAM Page’ and discover all the functions available.
a Vendor Profile Form to submit your information click here.
spyware is one of the best ways to get noticed on search engines. Procurement officers use regular search engines like Google and Yahoo just like the private sector. However, they also have other resources and databases to pull their contractors from as well, I will get to that. A government-formatted website is a way to showcase all the required information that a federal buyer needs to see in order to award your business the contract. Providing information like your Capability Statement, Past Performances, a Vendor Profile, Testimonials, and Services that your business provides are all categories that should be on a website of this caliber. 
designed for your business. It provides information like your goods and services, DUNS number, Cage code, North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes, contact information, which Federal Set-Asides your business qualifies for and most importantly a brief description of your business. Every business involved in government contracting should have a Capability Statement, period. But the best way to get it out is by sending it to procurement officers. It is very difficult to track down procurement officers around the nation and you can only track each one down one solicitation at a time if you are searching on FBO.gov. That is why smart businesses choose government marketing services to conduct mass emailing to federal buyers to distribute their Capability Statement. 
refer to this link to learn about the procurement database and become registered. But aside from being registered in SAM there are specialized agency procurement databases that are completely free to sign up for and receive email bid notifications directly to your email just like for FBO.gov.
MORRIS stands for Monthly Online Records and Reports of Information Technology Services. MORRIS allows federal agencies on FTS20001 or crossover contracts to view their inventory, billing and other reports online. It is designed for federal agency use only.
