Recently, and with very little fanfare, the SBA released its Small Business Search system (SBS), replacing the Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS) system that had been in use for a number of years. Per the SBA, existing business profiles have been migrated to this new platform. However, it is a good idea to take a look and see what has been transferred over to be sure that all information for your company has been properly moved over. We’re going to take a quick look at this new system and how to address some common issues.
Small Business Search
Looking at the new system, while it differs in appearance from DSBS, the information it contains (or at least should contain) looks to be very similar to DSBS. If you go to your business’ entry, it should list seven separate tabs on the left: “Profile overview,” “Organization & ownership,” “Certifications,” “NAICS codes,” “Service information,” “Performance history,” and “Export information.” You should see that all this information is actually on the same home page, those tabs just let you jump to those sections. Otherwise, you should find the information contained in your page very familiar if you’ve ever visited DSBS. Information like a company’s UEI and CAGE codes, address, point of contact, certifications, and NAICS codes are present on this site.
Potential Issues
We have heard some rumblings that some contractors are finding that certain information is missing from their new SBS entries. We can’t really confirm the same, but in any case, SBA does provide some guidance on how to update your information, as well as what to do if your business isn’t showing up in a search.
Editing Information
Any business that you’re allowed to edit should be listed on your account once you create your SBS account. Once you click your name to open the account menu, an option should appear titled “Edit (Insert Business Name Here).” You will then need to sign and date a Small Business Certification Statement in order to proceed, so be sure to read this statement carefully. We have looked carefully for more information on this statement and what it states, but have yet to see any further guidance. As such, if you are unsure whether your business is a small business, it might be prudent to reach out to a government contracts attorney to discuss this further before proceeding. After this, you will be able to edit information in for the business profile. Looking at the guidance, it appears the process should be self-explanatory at this point.
If Your Business Isn’t Showing Up in Search
If your business isn’t showing up in SBS, there are some potential explanations. First, only businesses with an active SAM registration will show up in SBS. If your SAM registration has expired or is otherwise inactive, the first thing you should do is renew that registration. Lacking an active SAM registration can prevent you from receiving federal contract awards. Check on this regularly.
If you have an active SAM registration but are still not showing up, you should also consider if your business is listed small for your chosen NAICS codes. As SBA notes: “Small Business Search gets this information from SAM and will only include businesses that SAM indicates are ‘small’ for at least one of the chosen NAICS codes.” Of course, if you aren’t small for those NAICS codes, you should not change it to indicate you are small, but, otherwise, correcting this in SAM should fix the issue. Consider also whether you have properly noted that your purpose for registration on SAM is “All awards” and that your entity structure is properly listed and not tax exempt.
Finally, there is an option in SAM to opt your business out of SBS when you register. SAM will ask you at that time whether you would like to opt out of being listed for public searches. If you select yes, your business will be hidden from SBS search results.
In all cases, it can take up to 10 business days for SAM to update based on renewed registration, so, if you make changes to SAM and don’t see them immediately reflected in SBS, don’t panic!
Questions about this post? Email us . Need legal assistance? Call us at 785-200-8919.
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