Do I need SAM.gov registration for city or county work?

Only when federal money is involved, which is common in transportation, water, and grant-funded projects. It is free and takes a few weeks the first time, so most firms register regardless.

How long does government vendor registration take?

Local vendor lists take minutes. State portals take an hour or two. SAM.gov commonly takes two to four weeks for a first registration, and DOT prequalification can take longer because it requires reviewed financials.

Does registering mean I will be notified of every opportunity?

No. Notifications are driven by the commodity codes you select and by each agency's own practice. Select codes broadly and still monitor your target agencies directly.

Guide

How to register as a government vendor

Registering as a government vendor is a stack, not a single form: SAM.gov for federal and federally funded work, your state's vendor or eProcurement portal for state agencies, a secretary of state filing to do business in that state, and a local vendor list for each city, county, or district you serve. Most of it is free and takes a few hours of paperwork, but SAM.gov and DOT prequalification can take weeks. Do the slow ones first so a registration gap never costs you a bid you already found.

Do the slow registrations first

The registrations that gate the most money are also the ones with the longest processing time. Start them before you have a specific bid in mind, because a solicitation window is rarely long enough to complete one from scratch.

SAM.gov — required for federal contracts and for any state or local project using federal funds. Free, renewed annually, and it issues your Unique Entity ID.
State DOT or agency prequalification — required before you can bid many highway, bridge, and vertical construction packages. Financial statements and bonding letters are usually part of it.
Secretary of state foreign qualification — needed to do business in a state where you are not incorporated, and often checked at award.
State vendor or eProcurement portal — the single registration that puts you on the notification list for state agency solicitations.
Local vendor lists — one per city, county, district, or authority. Fast individually, slow in aggregate.

Get your identifiers and codes right

Registrations are keyed to codes, and the wrong codes quietly remove you from notification lists. Your Unique Entity ID from SAM.gov, your legal entity name exactly as filed, your EIN, and your commodity codes all need to match across every system you register in.

Commodity codes deserve real attention. Most state and local portals notify vendors by NIGP or UNSPSC code, so a job you would have won never reaches your inbox because you selected three codes when your business touches eleven. Select every code that genuinely describes what you sell, and re-check them once a year as your service lines change.

Assemble the document packet once

The same handful of documents is requested by nearly every agency. Keep a current folder so a registration or a bid submission is an upload, not a scramble.

W-9 with the legal name and EIN that match your registrations.
Certificate of insurance with general liability, auto, workers' compensation, and umbrella limits, plus the endorsement language agencies commonly require.
Surety letter stating single-project and aggregate bonding capacity.
Business licenses, contractor or professional licenses, and any trade certifications.
W-9-adjacent tax and good-standing certificates, plus DBE, MBE, WBE, or veteran certifications if you hold them.
Three to five past performance references with contact names, contract values, and dates.

Keep them alive

Registrations expire. SAM.gov lapses at twelve months, insurance certificates roll annually, prequalification is usually re-filed each year with updated financials, and many local vendor lists purge anyone who has not responded in two or three cycles.

An expired registration is the cheapest possible way to lose a pursuit you already invested in. Put every renewal date on a shared calendar with a sixty-day warning, and assign one person to own it.

Last reviewed August 2026

How Hank automates this

Registration is paperwork you do once; finding the work is the ongoing part. Hank monitors the agencies you register with — reading their budget approvals, board minutes, capital plans, and expiring contracts — and surfaces the opportunities that match your service lines as a Great fit, Good fit, or Decent fit, with the agency contacts named. Every signal, contact, and document stays in one place your team works out of.

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Common questions

Related guides

How to find government contracts

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Bid bonds and performance bonds explained

What is Hank?

Hank is how companies find, pursue, and win state and local government work. Every day it reads tens of thousands of sources — agency portals, board packets, budget approvals, capital plans, meeting minutes, and expiring contracts published by cities, counties, school districts, and state agencies — and surfaces what matters to your service lines in real time, often months before a solicitation posts. When the solicitation does post, Hank breaks it down into scope, key dates, submission requirements, evaluation criteria, and compliance items, names the people at the agency to contact, and drafts a first-pass proposal from your own past work. Every signal, contact, document, and pursuit stays in one place your team works out of.