Once a year, businesses registered with the System for Award Management (SAM) must update those registrations whether there have been any changes or not.

In 2022, the federal government replaced the old registration with what’s now called SAM. In addition to changing how information about contracting and other opportunities is displayed, the annual registration update process changed.

Here are a few tips and cautions to ease the registration process:

First, and most critically, you’re probably inundated with solicitations and warnings — some bordering on threatening — about the need to immediately update your SAM registration. These offers of assistance and less pleasant emails start showing up months before your renewal is due. Some offers come by mail and tend to be the more threatening sounding communications.

I spoke with a counselor at the Federal Service Desk about these various attempts to get business owners to hire outside entities to handle renewals, and his response was, “Do not use these
so-called offers of assistance.” These entities are almost always shady operators who want two things — your money and business details so they can potentially steal your business identity. Once they have your money and business details, they almost always disappear.
At this point, your problems could just be starting. Not only do these entities not perform your SAM update, they become unreachable and non-responsive. They leave you in the lurch and possibly represent themselves as you and your business.

You don’t need these services to update — or initially register — your business. Resources are readily available to assist you at no cost. They include the Federal Service Desk at www.fsd.gov and SAM resources at www.sam.gov. Small Business Development Centers and Procurement Technical Assistance Centers also offer help. Just don’t try to reach them on the first or last working days of the week.

Second, the registration process through the SAM website isn’t intuitive. In fact, it can be quite frustrating. If you can’t get past the initial two or three web pages, stop and call the help desk at (866) 606-8220.

One way to know you could be encountering a problem is when you reach the page that tells you to expect a one-time password via email for tax status verification or something like that. If you don’t receive the code within 10 minutes, check  if you’ve blocked any emails from “do not reply” or .gov extensions. If you have, you need to unblock them. You might have to go to your IT administrator or web service or email provider to do this.

The registration process can be time-consuming because you have to read lots of data on every page of about 20 pages and often just check one block. Even for renewals, you need to read through each page so you don’t overlook anything.

Third, keep in mind you no longer use your Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number. You must use your Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), or the update process won’t work.

Fourth, if you plan to do business with the federal government, this update process is a necessary evil. Don’t put it off. Block out an hour or so. If all goes well, you’ll be done for another year.

Finally, a caveat: If you haven’t done business with the federal government — including grants — you must register right away. It’s a time-consuming process since there are many verifications to be conducted by the IRS and others.