Getting registered and eligible
None of this is optional and none of it is quick. Start it before you have anything to bid on, because most of the elapsed time is waiting on other people.
UEI, CAGE, then normalized name
By the end of this module you will be able to
- Complete a federal registration in the right order, without the two mistakes that add a month to it
- Say what each identifier is, who issues it, and which systems read it
- Choose NAICS codes deliberately, knowing that the code on a buy decides whether you count as small for it
- Answer the representations and certifications knowing which ones are legal statements about your business
- Keep the whole thing alive, so an expired record never stops you being paid for work you already did
The chain, and why the order matters
Each step below depends on the one before it, and the most common cause of delay is a name or address that does not match between systems. Decide once, exactly, how your legal name and physical address are written, and use that spelling everywhere without exception.
Write it down on one sheet: legal name exactly as the IRS holds it, physical address exactly as it appears on a utility bill, EIN, date of incorporation, state of incorporation. Every system below will ask for some subset of that, and every difference between two answers is a ticket somebody has to work.
The rest of this module opens with your name and email
All sixteen modules open on this device for about six months. No card and no password.
Still to come in this module
- In order
- The step that stalls
- What usually goes wrong, and what it costs you
- Choosing NAICS codes, which is a bigger decision than it looks
- Representations and certifications
- What each identifier is for
- The exclusion list, and why to check yourself on it
- Questions at this stage