SAM.gov Update

The SAM.gov Update delivers the latest information about consolidation efforts and other updates to IAE systems.

Latest update: November 2021

What do I need to know about the new Unique Entity ID in SAM.gov?

On April 4, 2022, the U.S. government will switch from using the DUNS Number to a new Unique Entity ID (SAM), also known as a UEI. IAE systems such as SAM.gov (entity registration, contract award notification), FPDS.gov, eSRS, FSRS, FAPIIS, and CPARS will require the use of your UEI after April 4, 2022.

All entities wanting to register to do business with the federal government or wanting to get a Unique Entity ID (SAM) only before April 4, 2022, must first obtain a DUNS Number. The DUNS Number is the current unique identifier that the government uses to verify your entity. FSD.gov has a new button on the home page that opens a list of help resources for the UEI transition.

RECAP: August 12, 2021 IAE Stakeholder Forum

Thank you, SAM.gov stakeholders, for joining our recent forum hosted by GSA's Integrated Award Environment (IAE) the transition to the new Unique Entity ID (SAM). To view our slides, written answers to stakeholder questions, and a recording of the event, please visit our space on Interact.

What's new in SAM.gov

Integrating beta.SAM.gov and SAM.gov on May 24th was certainly the biggest change we made this year but did you know we've continued to deliver incremental improvements over the past few months? Here's a recap of some of the recent changes.

Request controlled attachments on notices: Now, when you request access to controlled attachments, you can submit one request for all controlled attachments for the entire notice. If you want only to request access to a specific attachment, you can still do that, too.
Shorter wait when searching by CAGE code: As of June 2021, if you're searching the Entity Status Tracker by CAGE Code, you should notice the search results come up faster. We updated the system's back end; there is no other noticeable difference in how you track entity status.
Expanded permissions now available for federal roles: As of August 2021, if you're a federal user, you can request permission to view TIN, FOUO Data, and entity reports as part of multiple roles. You can still request the stand-alone "FOUO Entity Management Data Viewer" and "Sensitive Entity Management Data Viewer" roles to access this data.

What's new for Administrators in SAM.gov

If you have an administrator role in SAM.gov, you should know about some recent updates.

New Federal Hierarchy Filter: As of June 2021, if you manage the federal hierarchy for your agency, a new filter is now available for the Federal Hierarchy. You can use the "Offices" filter under "Organization" on the results page to filter by office within the federal hierarchy widget.
Filter by entity or user: If you are a non-federal entity administrator, as of July 2021, you can now filter by entity or user on the main user directory in the main Workspace page.
Role assignment and management improvements: SAM.gov will cancel and remove duplicate pending requests to the same domain and organization when you assign a role. We've added validations to restrict users to one role request per domain. And, you can now see and evaluate the comments submitted by the requestor while reviewing the role request.

What's new in Reports in SAM.gov

If you use reports in SAM.gov, we've made some recent updates.

List of FPDS Users Report: The new List of FPDS Users Report is an administrative report allowing Administrators in the contract data domain (or those with administrative report permission) to access the information of FPDS.gov users through FPDS.gov live users data. If you have the above role, you can find this new report in the contract data domain of SAM.gov DataBank as of June 2021.
FY20 Small Business Goaling Report: As of July 2021, you can view the FY20 Small Business Goaling Report, per the SBA's instructions. This department-level report displays small business data for the fiscal year 2020 by funding/contracting agency.
USMCA and GPA Trade Agreement Report: You may know that the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on July 1, 2020. You can now use a new USMCA and GPA Trade Agreement Report to retrieve contract information covered by the USMCA and GPA trade agreements as of the end of July.

What's new for Exclusions and Wage Determinations

If you use exclusions and wage determinations in SAM.gov, here are some recent updates.

Exclusions: As of June 2021, you can search by "Individual Name" in the Entity Name search field of the exclusions domain to find related exclusions in the SAM.gov search. Also, in response to your feedback, we reviewed the emails that points of contact were receiving about exclusion verification. To reduce confusion, we simplified the instructions in the "Verify Agency Exclusion" email.
Wage Determinations: Even-numbered Service Contract Act Wage Determinations have been removed. You can obtain even-numbered Service Contract Act (SCA) Wage determinations using the Department of Labor's E98 process. You can still see odd-numbered SCA wage determinations through the main public search.
Notifications and Alerts: As of June 2021, alerts do not appear in the Notification area of the site. This area will now be used only for subscriptions. You can continue to access system alerts at any time through the SAM.gov footer link for Alerts.

What's Coming Soon in SAM.gov

Let's talk about what's coming in the future to SAM.gov.

CAGE Code requirements change for some entities: As of October 21, 2021, some entities will no longer be assigned a CAGE code at registration, per the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Federal Financial Management. Go to our blog on Interact to learn about the new criteria for no longer receiving a CAGE Code.
New medical category: On October 30, 2021, a new medical category, Product Service Code (PSC) 6632 Analysis Instruments, Medical Laboratory Use, will appear in the public PSC API; SAM.gov displays and data entry; and FPDS. Acquisition.gov will update the manual and category alignment documents to reflect this addition.
Now calling testers! Share your thoughts on SAM.gov and see what's being enhanced. Your input is the best way for us to know how SAM.gov is working! You can now sign up to test features of the site during usability and alpha testing. 85 federal and non-federal SAM.gov users, just like you, have participated in SAM.gov tests over the last several months. The feedback we received will continue to be incorporated into upcoming releases.

A PDF of this page is available at this link. [PDF - 190 KB]

What's Changing with the SAM.gov and beta.SAM.gov Integration?

On May 24th, 2021, SAM.gov will merge with beta.SAM.gov, becoming one system. This milestone marks the culmination of significant work with IAE system users and stakeholders across the board who all have helped create what will be the new SAM.gov. The new SAM.gov—that will now be much more than a registration system—incorporates customer-focused functionality changes, improving the overall experience for you.

The SAM.gov that you experience today is where entities register to do business with the federal government, find exclusion records, search entity registrations, and perform other tasks. That functionality will move into the new system along with all the functionality from beta.SAM.gov—contract opportunities, assistance listings, wage determinations, and the federal hierarchy. We published a series of blogs on our Interact space detailing changes users will see on May 24, as well as what will not change:

RECAPS: IAE Stakeholder Forum and Federal Training Webinar

Thank you, SAM.gov stakeholders, for joining our recent webinars hosted by GSA's Integrated Award Environment (IAE) about what's changing (and what's not changing) when SAM.gov integrates with beta.SAM.gov. On May 5 and May 12, IAE subject matter experts reviewed details about the integration of SAM.gov into the beta.SAM.gov environment, tailoring presentations for our non-federal (May 5) and federal (May 12) stakeholders. To view our slides, written answers to stakeholder questions, and a recording of the events, please visit our space on Interact. Materials from the May 5th event may be accessed here. Materials from the May 12th event may be accessed here.

A PDF of this page is available at this link [PDF - 193 KB].

Stakeholder Forum Recap

On Tuesday, February 9, the U.S. General Services Administration's Integrated Award Environment hosted an online Stakeholder Forum webinar. With almost 1,100 participants, the program focused on an introduction to the new design of beta.SAM.gov, which will launch on April 26, 2021.

A copy of the slide deck presentation [PDF - 7 MB] is available for download. A full recording of the program is available here.

The program began with an introduction and overview of the modernization project to-date. Next, participants were given a presentation about the differences between the current beta.SAM.gov design and the new design. And to wrap up, participants received a brief preview of some of the changes coming in the future when SAM.gov and beta.SAM.gov are merged into one, which will occur on May 24, 2021. There will be much more detail about that in the near future.

Please stay tuned to the IAE space on Interact for more information about all of the IAE systems, including the future migration of SAM.gov into beta.SAM.gov, as well as for details about future events.

Multi-Step Transition of SAM.gov: New Look and Feel Coming to beta.SAM.gov April 26; Systems Merge May 24

The General Services Administration launched beta.SAM.gov in 2017 as the modernized environment where the 10 Integrated Award Environment (IAE) systems will become one. To date, three IAE systems have migrated into beta.SAM.gov completely and some functionality from a fourth system has also merged into the new environment.

Now, we are preparing to merge legacy SAM.gov into the beta.SAM.gov environment. SAM.gov, IAE's largest system, is where users register to do business with the federal government, find exclusion records, and perform other tasks. After the merger, the system will be known only as SAM.gov (no more "beta").

Phase one, scheduled for April 26, 2021, will change the look and feel of beta.SAM.gov to prepare for the SAM.gov merge that will happen a few weeks later. The new look and feel will remain when the two systems merge. Essentially, we're giving our current beta.SAM.gov users a head start and a chance to get used to the new design before SAM.gov functionality migrates over.

Phase two, scheduled for May 24, 2021, will migrate the functionality of SAM.gov into beta.SAM.gov (keeping the new design). The term "beta" will be retired, and there will be only one SAM.gov. This change affects all SAM.gov users.

After May 24, SAM.gov users will see a home page that enables them to perform tasks currently found at beta.SAM.gov such as searching for contract opportunities, finding wage determinations, and more, as well as the things they can do at SAM.gov today - all under a single sign-on.

More About the New Look for beta.SAM.gov Coming April 26

We are excited to introduce the new beta.SAM.gov experience coming April 26, 2021. Functionality within the system is not changing (yet!).

Users will notice beta.SAM.gov's home page, help pages, and search all have a new design built to address the feedback we have heard from our users. The main menu also will have a new look and feel that will make the selections (that aren't changing) easier to find. The feedback tool (which we rely on for input from our users) will move to the footer, providing a consistent location for every page throughout the system.

We are rolling out the new design of these key parts of beta.SAM.gov in preparation for and in conjunction with the upcoming transition of current (or legacy) SAM.gov into beta.SAM.gov. SAM.gov will transition on May 24, 2021, at which time the two merged systems will be known only as SAM.gov (the "beta" is being retired).

The new design provides a dedicated landing page or "home" for each of the different functions within the system (what we call "domains") such as wage determinations, contract opportunities, or assistance listings. On May 24, entity registrations (SAM.gov) will be the newest domain. These new landing pages provide a helpful starting point for users interested in any specific domain.

Additionally, we also continue to enhance the integrated system's search capabilities. The new design makes it easier to find advanced filters for each domain and improves the usability of the date filters. We've also made it easier to see what filters are available for each domain. The new design incorporates significant user feedback from our feedback tool and numerous discussions with stakeholders.

The original (current) design of beta.SAM.gov hasn't changed since it's initial launch in August 2017. In the three-plus years since launch, we have integrated several legacy IAE systems and other functionality into beta.SAM.gov, but haven't changed the design, until now.

April's new design adheres to new U.S. Web Design System and GSA standards for digital experiences. Those standards help agencies to streamline content and are secure, responsive, accessible, and consistent.

The new design of our home page, help, and search are the first steps in introducing our new SAM.gov design standards. As we continue to make improvements and add functionality, we will be further applying the most recent standards across our system.

New Security Offering for SAM.gov for Entity Administrators Available May 24

As with all of the IAE systems, security for SAM.gov is always paramount. With that in mind, we will be offering access to new security features in SAM.gov on May 24, 2021.

The new security enhancements - called identity proofing - will be voluntary (and recommended) at first, and will become mandatory in fiscal year 2022.

By introducing identity proofing, we are adding a layer of security that protects you, your entity, and the government by making it more difficult for someone to gain unauthorized access to your entity registration account. Your entity registration contains sensitive data that, if exposed, could cause harm or damage to your entity. Verifying the identity of entity administrators helps everyone ensure that entity data remains in the right hands.

Identity proofing will be for users who manage SAM.gov registrations. We will begin validating the identity of each entity administrator in SAM.gov as an optional benefit at first. However, we recommend that all existing entity administrators become familiar with and take advantage of this added level of security as soon as possible. Early adopters will have the opportunity to provide feedback that will help us improve the process moving forward.

After May 24, 2021, users will be able to initiate the identity proofing process directly from SAM.gov. Those who verify early will be well prepared once identity proofing is fully required in FY22.

Managed and run by login.gov, the identity proofing process will collect, validate, and verify information about a person. Entity administrators will be asked to upload a photograph of their state-issued photo identification, provide their social security number, and provide a valid phone number. To learn more about how the process works and how data is secured, visit Login Security.

A PDF of this page is available at this link [PDF - 176 KB]

SAM.gov to be integrated into beta.SAM.gov environment on April 26, 2021

GSA's Integrated Award Environment (IAE) program is consolidating what were recently many separate systems into one place, currently called beta.SAM.gov. On April 26, 2021, the functionalities of current SAM.gov will be integrated into the modernized beta.SAM.gov environment. Once integrated, the environment will be renamed SAM.gov and the term beta will be retired.

This transition aligns with GSA's commitment to modernize the IAE systems to improve the user experience. We have held focus groups within and outside the government to learn more about what works for our various users, and the changes coming have been planned with their feedback in mind.

After successfully integrating CFDA.gov (assistance listings), WDOL.gov (wage determinations), FBO.gov (contract opportunity listings), and the contract data reports functionality from FPDS.gov, we're looking forward to bringing you this next transition.

While the core data and functionality of the systems aren't changing, there will be a new look and feel for much of that functionality. We will be sharing updates regularly about what changes to expect with the SAM.gov integration and more details about future user testing opportunities.

The Federal Service Desk has a New Login and a New Look

The Federal Service Desk (FSD.gov) is the free service to help our system users with issues ranging from a lost or forgotten password to more complex issues with a specific system. On December 8, the FSD implemented two changes: a new look and feel and the use of multifactor authentication (MFA) via login.gov.

The new look is more consistent with our modernization effort while maintaining all the service options that our customers rely on. To help ease the transition to this new FSD.gov layout, users can view tours of the site. Tours are available after you log in. You will find them in the upper right-hand corner of the FSD.gov homepage.

You do not need to log in to browse the site. However, if you want to open a service ticket online or chat with a live agent, you do need to create a user account and log in using MFA provided by login.gov. Follow the IAE on Interact for more information and the latest updates.

Product Service Codes (PSCs) Have Been Updated to Align with the New PSC Manual Release

Product Service Codes (PSCs) classify products, services, and research and development items purchased by the federal government. The IAE recently deployed changes to PSCs throughout the IAE systems. These PSC changes:

Activated 155 new research and development (R&D) PSCs while end-dating 721 R&D PSCs
Activated 40 new information technology PSCs while end-dating 68 IT PSCs
Activated two product codes--PSC 6835 (new) and PSC 6830 (revised)
Renamed PSC Q901 to Healthcare Environmental Cleaning from Aseptic Housekeeping Services

Throughout IAE systems, including beta.SAM.gov, SAM.gov, and FPDS.gov, updates to the PSC codes have been implemented. Users will need to utilize the new PSCs for system interfaces, APIs, extracts, search filters, and data entry processes.

Users should update their saved searches, search filters, and followed items to reflect the updated PSC codes. Users of the PSC application programming interface (API), which provides third-party applications access to the PSC data, should check the updated API documentation to ensure your submissions are accurate. You can view the documentation at open.gsa.gov/api/PSC-Public-API.

The most recent version of the PSC Manual and supporting documentation can be found at acquisition.gov/PSC_Manual.

A PDF of this page is available at this link [PDF - 154 KB].

Government to Transition from DUNS Number to Unique Entity Identifier in 2022

A new unique entity identifier generated by the System for Award Management (SAM) will replace the proprietary D-U-N-S® (DUNS) number as the official identifier for entities doing business with the federal government. The deadline for this change has been extended. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directed agencies to complete their transition to using the SAM-generated unique entity identifier (unique entity ID or UEI) by April 2022. GSA will be contracting with Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) to ensure full continuity of services—including DUNS number assignment, monitoring, and validation of entity uniqueness—during the extended transition period.

Current active registrants will have their UEI generated within SAM.gov before the transition; there is no action entities need to take to get a new UEI. In addition, any entity coming to SAM.gov to register for the first time will have their UEI generated for them as part of the registration process.

The benefits from this change include reducing the burden on registrants, who will no longer be required to acquire an identifier from a third party. In addition, by separating the government requirement for a UEI from the government requirement to validate that the entity is unique, the government introduced competitiveness into entity validation services. And, if an entity encounters an issue with their registration or their UEI, they will only need to engage with a single helpdesk, the Federal Service Desk (FSD).

The transition will be completed in phases with interim milestones, and, as we move through this transition, the IAE team will continue to communicate about the status of the change in this forum to help inform system users and other interested parties.

FPDS contract data reports are now available only at beta.SAM.gov

The IAE is pleased to announce that the reports function of FPDS completed the transition into the beta.SAM.gov Data Bank on October 17, 2020—the reports module in FPDS.gov has retired. Now, beta.SAM.gov is the only place to create and run contract data reports. Only the reports function transitioned—the rest of FPDS (search, data entry) remains in place. This transition concludes a successful soft launch and agile iterative improvement process that began in March, 2020.

To help ease the change, we have worked with federal government and industry users to develop and hone training videos, reference guides, and FAQs that can help both new and experienced reports users. This series of tutorial videos to help new and experienced users alike learn to use ad hoc reports in beta.SAM.gov:

Static reports like National Interest Action reports (including the bi-weekly COVID-19 report), the annual Small Business Goaling Reports, the annual Top 100 Contractor Reports, and other periodic reports of government-wide data, remain publicly available on the beta.SAM.gov Static Reports page.

We appreciate your feedback and support in the process of building beta.SAM.gov. It's been a truly collaborative effort among the IAE team, our users, and our stakeholders, and this collaboration continues as we integrate reports capabilities from FPDS. The cutover was initially planned for mid-March, but we got the feedback that you needed more time. In response, we operated the two systems in parallel for seven months, giving you time to learn the new tool and giving us time to make improvements. We hope you'll continue telling us what you think and what you need every step of the way.

A PDF of this page is available at this link [PDF - 214 KB].

Contract Data Reports Integration Extension

The IAE is pleased to announce that the reports function of FPDS is slated to complete the transition into beta.SAM.gov on October 17, 2020. At that time, beta.SAM.gov will be the only place to create and run contract data reports and the reports module in FPDS.gov will be retired. Only the FPDS reports function is transitioning--the rest of FPDS will remain in place. This transition concludes a successful soft launch and agile iterative improvement process that began in March 2020.

Prior to October 17, 2020, while reports are available in both places, we encourage all users to become familiar with contract data reports in beta.SAM.gov. Make sure to create and run reports in beta.SAM.gov and use the feedback button in beta.SAM.gov to let us know what you think. You also should go to your reports history to see any ad hoc reports that were migrated from FPDS.gov.

Help Resources

To help ease the change we have worked with users throughout the federal government and industry to develop and hone training videos, reference guides, and FAQs that can help both new and experienced reports users.

We recommend that new users start with:

Experienced users should review the previously mentioned resources, as well as:

Expanded Search Capabilities on SAM.gov

Improvements to the features and functionalities of SAM.gov are delivered on a continual basis. Because we use the agile process for development, we are able to adapt quickly to our users' needs. We have expanded the search capability in SAM.gov to help you find more relevant search results. When you enter two or more words as a phrase, the search tool will look for that phrase and prioritize results by relevance. Learn more about this updated feature on Interact.

A PDF of this page is available at this link [PDF - 142 KB].

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Last Reviewed: 2022-06-24