Attachment VII_Top-10-SAM.gov-FAQ.pdf

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions Presented by: Salomeh Ghorbani, Katherine

Rollins, and Christy Hermansen

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions Presented by:

Salomeh Ghorbani Lead Program Manager, Stakeholder Engagement and

Outreach

Katherine Rollins Lead Program Manager, Business Applications and

Operations

Christy Hermansen Design Lead

General Services Administration Federal

Acquisition Service Integrated Award Environment

What is the Integrated Award Environment (IAE)?

Entities in SAM.gov

● 700K+ active registrations

● 15K+ Unique Entity ID only entities

SAM.gov users (non-federal and federal)

● 132K+ federal users

SAM.gov site hits per day

IAE Program Scope and Scale (December 2021 - February 2022)

2.5M

1.6M

17.7K

$1.1+ trillion federal awards annually

68+ million monthly searches

1.8+ million monthl y users

5+ million monthly transaction s

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions: #1

1. Sign in to SAM.gov, go to your Workspace and access the “User Directory” widget.

2. Search for the user you want to assign permissions to. Select the “Actions” menu and select “View Access.”

3. Locate the table showing current role assignments. Select the pencil icon in the row for which you need to assign permissions.

4. Carefully review and check the permissions you want to allow, then select the “Done” button.

Note: The required or default permissions are gray and cannot be changed by administrators.

Answe r

As an administrator, how do I update permissions on a role?

How roles work in SAM.gov A role is a group of permissions that allows users to perform tasks.

Each role has a default set of permissions which make up the core of the role. Some roles have permissions that are configurable within that role.

The Administrator role has the power to configure the permissions for individual users.

There are two kinds of permissions in each role:

● Applied by default - not configurable

○ Can not be removed - as permissions are inherent to the role

● Not applied by default -configurable○ Additional permission is granted based on agency need

Role

Permission

Permission

Permission

Permission

Permission

Permission ‒

‒ ContractingOfficer

Create Award Notice

Delete Attachment

Approve/Reject Pending Requests

View Entity TIN ‒

View Interested Vendors

Schedule Reports ‒

Step

Step

Step

Step 4

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions: #2

Answer Some roles, for example, roles to manage exclusions, can’t be requested from the “Add A New Role” section of the Workspace of SAM.gov.

You must contact the administrator with your agency of the domain which you need a role.

If you don’t know who your administrator is, go to the User Directory and use the filters to narrow down the list of users by administrator and by domain to locate the correct person to contact.

This quick start guide for federal role management has more details.

How do I request a role that isn’t shown on the request role form?

https://www.fsd.gov/gsafsd_sp?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0030312

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions: #2

Use the filters on the left to narrow down the list of users by role.

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions: #3

If you want to update your name displayed on your SAM.gov account, sign in and from your Workspace, select your profile. Select the edit button and update your name. You cannot change your email address here.

If you need to update or change your email address, you need to create a new SAM.gov and login.gov account and re-request your roles. If you change your email address on your login.gov account, the SAM.gov system will not recognize it and won’t allow you access. Your SAM.gov account works only with the email you used to create the SAM.gov account.

How do I change my name or email address on my SAM.gov account?

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions: #3

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions: #4

Locate the active notice from the Contract Opportunities Workspace and select “Edit.” In the “Attachments/Links” section, select “Browse” to upload files from your computer to attach to your notice. You can also drag and drop a file from your computer’s default file browser.

You may restrict access to controlled but unclassified information (CUI) in attachments by using the toggle in the attachments section. If you choose to limit access, you will be responsible for authenticating requests for access. You will receive an email when an access request is pending your approval.

How do I attach a document/controlled document to an opportunity notice?

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions: #4

Use the carets to change the order of the documents in the list.

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions: #5

On the SAM.gov search page, when you select “Any Words” or “All Words,” or the “Exact Phrase” option, you will widen, limit, or specifically define your search.

How do I use the search operators (any, all, exact)?

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions: #5 1 The “Any Words” option works like an “or” search operator. The search will return results with one, or some, or all of the keywords.

1 The “All Words” option works like an “and” search operator. All of your keywords must be present in the search results.

1 The “Exact Phrase” option will search for the specific terms or phrases you enter in the keyword box. Each exact phrase and keyword must be present in the search results.

Only one option can be used at a time.

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions: #6

With an individual account and without any roles, you can get an API key to access SAM.gov data.

For a federal system account, you must submit a request through SAM.gov and you are required to request For Official Use Only (FOUO) or Sensitive data access specifically through a REST API service.

What roles do I need to request a system account?

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions: #6 Must request through SAM.gov

For systems owned by the federal government

Must request through SAM.gov

Can pull data through APIs or extracts

Non-Federal System Account

Federal System Account Can pull or push data through APIs or extracts

Required to request For Official Use Only (FOUO) or Sensitive data access

Individual Account (Federal or Non Federal)

Only need a SAM.gov account

Gives you an individual API key

Can pull data through APIs or extracts

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions: #7

Each domain and subdomain on the SAM.gov search page has different data, so filters associated with each domain are different.

When you select the “Search” link from the header menu, the search is set by default to “All Domains.” Select the plus sign next to All Domains to search within a certain domain or subdomain.

As you select different subdomains, such as “Entities” or “Exclusions,” you will see the available filters update below.

I need to search by _____ Where is that filter?

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions: #8

In your Workspace, locate the Entities widget and select its title. You will be shown a list of your entities. Select the three vertical dots (the Actions menu) for the entity you want to update.

From that menu, select “Update.” Review your entity information, correct if needed, then select Next.

If the system locates your new information, then your vendor can complete their update. If they do not get a name and address match, then they must create an incident directly from SAM.gov and attach documents required to prove their information is correct.

How do I update my legal business name and physical address at SAM.gov?

Step

Step

From the Entities Workspace, select the three dots on the entity you want to update, then choose “Update.”

When you update your registration, you will also need to go through the other sections of registration and confirm your information.

Next, the system displays the entity information it has on this page. Update the information here, if needed.

For non-federal entities, the entity validation service will search for a match of the information you entered. Federal entities do not go through entity validation.

If your vendor does not get a name and address match on their new information, then they must create an incident directly from SAM.gov and attach documents required to prove the information entered is correct.

If your vendor needs help validating their entity, they must use this Create Incident form on SAM.gov from the validation pages.

DO NOT call the Federal Service Desk or go to FSD.gov for troubleshooting validation, name and address issues can only be resolved through this incident form on SAM.gov.

This is only place to upload PII documents about an entity.

Do not send PII documents to help agents on FSD.gov, they will be deleted if your vendors send them to FSD.gov.

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions: #9

A current entity administrator can grant the administrator role to other users in their organization. We recommend that each entity assign more than one administrator to ensure continuous access to your registration. Note that the entity administrator role cannot be requested through the “Add A New Role” from in the SAM.gov Workspace.

If no one in your organization holds the entity administrator role, then an individual authorized to manage the entity must submit an incident to the Federal Service Desk at FSD.gov using the steps outlined on the next slide.

How do I become the administrator for an entity registration?

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions: #9 For federal entity registrations: For non-federal entity registrations:

If there are no current administrators for your agency, you need to create a ticket with the Federal Service Desk (FSD.gov) and attach documentation to become the administrator for your agency. If a higher level Administrator is found, you will be directed to contact that individual instead.

Documentation must include:

● Agency name

● Unique Entity ID

● Name of the previous administrator

● Name of the new administrator

If there are no current administrators for your organization, you need to obtain a notarized letter stating you are authorized to manage the registration.

Use the letter templates and follow the instructions in the FSD.gov help article to submit your notarized letter to the Federal Service Desk.

https://www.fsd.gov/gsafsd_sp?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0016652 https://www.fsd.gov/gsafsd_sp?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0016652

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions: #10

You can also go to FSD.gov and search for help.

At the top of the page is a direct link to help about the Unique Entity ID. Below the search bar, the buttons link to some of the most used help resources around entity registration.

Answer The recently updated Help page on SAM.gov has help based on what kind of user you are and what you are trying to do. Explore the menus on the left of the page to browse help around many topics.

Where do I find help on SAM.gov?

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions: #10

Your Turn Let’s hear your questions about SAM.gov

Top 10 SAM.gov Questions Presented by: Salomeh Ghorbani, Katherine Rollins, and Christy Hermansen