Insights

How to register as a government vendor, state by state

Written by Ian, founder of Good Stuart. Reviewed September 2026. About the team

Vendor registration is the least interesting and most consequential step in public-sector sales. It does not win you anything. It decides whether you are told a bid exists, whether a purchasing officer can issue you a purchase order below the bid threshold, and whether your award can be executed the week the board votes instead of a month later while accounting chases a W-9.

Here is what registration actually does, what to have ready before you start, where SAM and the UEI fit, and the ten largest state portals with their URLs and fees.

On this page

The short version

Registration gates three things: bid notifications matched to your commodity codes, below-threshold purchase orders, and payment after award. Miss it and the bid you never heard about goes to the company that did.
Have the W-9, a certificate of insurance at $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate, your state tax ID, licenses and any certifications ready. Most portals stall on the insurance certificate.
SAM.gov and a UEI are free and only required when federal funds are in the contract. For ordinary local work you need the state portal and the agency's own registration, not SAM.
State registration is not local registration. Cities, counties and districts keep their own vendor files and their own commodity code lists.

What registration does, and does not do

Three things happen when you register, and none of them is a sale.

Notifications. Agencies tag each solicitation with commodity codes, usually NIGP, and notify only the vendors who selected those codes. Register with no codes or the wrong ones and the posting exists without you.
Below-threshold purchasing. Under the formal bid threshold, a department can issue a purchase order to a registered vendor on a quote. The unregistered company cannot be paid, so it is not called. The thresholds are in government bid thresholds by state, 2026.
Award execution. A contract cannot be signed or an invoice paid until the vendor record, tax form and insurance certificate are on file. Registering after award is how a July 1 start becomes August.

What it does not do is put you on a list anyone reads. Nobody browses the vendor file looking for a roofer. The list exists to push notices out and to let money flow in; the selling still happens with the facilities director. See how to find local government bids: where they actually live for where the notices come from.

What to have ready before you start

Document	Why it stalls registrations
IRS Form W-9	Legal name and EIN must match the Secretary of State record exactly; a DBA mismatch bounces the vendor record
Certificate of insurance	Typical minimums are $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate general liability, $1 million auto, workers' comp at statutory limits, with the agency named as additional insured. Umbrella often required above $250,000 contracts
State tax registration	Many states require a sales tax or withholding account number before payment; Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania check it
Licenses and registrations	Contractor license numbers; California public works contractors also need DIR registration at $400 a year
Certifications	MBE, WBE, DBE, SDVOSB, HUB and state small business certificates are attached to the vendor profile and drive set-aside notifications. See MBE, WBE and DBE certification for government contracts
Commodity codes	Prepare the list before you log in. Choose every NIGP code that touches your trade, including adjacent ones a buyer might use
Bank details for ACH	Most states now pay electronically only; paper checks add weeks

SAM.gov and the UEI: when they matter

SAM.gov is the federal registration, and the Unique Entity ID replaced the DUNS number in April 2022. Both are free; anyone charging you for a UEI is a middleman. You need them to sell to a federal agency and, increasingly, to a local agency spending federal money: HUD-funded housing authority work, FTA-funded transit, grant-funded school projects. Agencies also run a SAM exclusion check on awardees to confirm you are not debarred, which does not require you to be registered.

For ordinary city, county and district work paid from local taxes, SAM is irrelevant. Do it once because it is free and takes an afternoon; do not mistake it for the registration that gets you local bids. See Unique Entity ID (UEI).

The ten largest state portals

By population, with the system name a purchasing officer will use, the URL, and what it costs. Registration on a state portal usually covers state agencies and statewide term contracts; local coverage varies and is noted.

State	System	URL	Fee and notes
California	Cal eProcure	caleprocure.ca.gov	Free. State agencies and SB/DVBE certification. Cities and districts mostly use PlanetBids separately; public works also needs DIR registration ($400/yr)
Texas	Centralized Master Bidders List and Electronic State Business Daily	comptroller.texas.gov/purchasing/vendor/cmbl	CMBL is $70 a year; ESBD viewing is free. State-only; cities and districts post on their own systems or through BuyBoard
Florida	MyFloridaMarketPlace	vendor.myfloridamarketplace.com	Free to register; a transaction fee under Rule 60A-1.031 is deducted from state payments (check the current rate). State-only
New York	NYS Contract Reporter (notices) and OGS vendor registration	nyscr.ny.gov	Free. State agencies and authorities are required to advertise here; local governments optional
Pennsylvania	PA Supplier Portal and PA eMarketplace	pasupplierportal.state.pa.us	Free. eMarketplace lists solicitations; the Supplier Portal is the registration. Locals use their own or PennBid
Illinois	BidBuy	bidbuy.illinois.gov	Free. State agencies; Chicago and Cook County run separate systems
Ohio	Ohio\|Buys	ohiobuys.ohio.gov	Free. State agencies; a growing number of local agencies post here
Georgia	Georgia Procurement Registry	ssl.doas.state.ga.us/gpr	Free. Unusual: state law requires local governments to post public works bids here too, so it carries city, county and school work
North Carolina	NC eVP (electronic Vendor Portal)	evp.nc.gov	Free. State agencies and universities; many local governments also post
Michigan	SIGMA Vendor Self Service	michigan.gov/sigmavss	Free. State agencies only; locals use MITN (BidNet Direct) or their own sites

Next in line: NJSTART in New Jersey, eVA in Virginia (which many localities use and which charges vendors a transaction fee on orders), WEBS in Washington, and the Arizona Procurement Portal. Every one is a separate registration with no reciprocity.

Keeping it alive

Registrations decay. The insurance certificate expires in twelve months and the vendor record goes inactive with it. The CMBL renews annually at $70. Commodity codes change when the NIGP list is revised. The contact email belongs to someone who left. Every one of these silently stops the notifications, and the first sign is a competitor's award for a bid you never saw.

Put the renewals on a calendar: insurance certificate 30 days before expiry, state portal annually, and a quarterly check that notifications are still arriving from each agency you care about. Then register locally with the 15 to 30 agencies you actually serve, because state registration does not reach them. Each how to sell to municipalities and city government, how to sell to county government and how to sell to school districts guide covers the local specifics.

Want these found and written for you?

Registration is the first thing we do for a new client: the state portal, the agencies in your radius, the codes, the certificates, and the calendar that keeps them current. Then we read what arrives, tell you which bids you can win, and write the response. You price it and you sign it. Every response is built for one company and never reused. Book a fit call and we will map the registrations for your region.

Common questions

Does state vendor registration cover cities and school districts too?

Rarely. Georgia is the exception that requires local governments to post on the state registry, and eVA in Virginia and WEBS in Washington are used by many localities by choice. Elsewhere, cities, counties and districts keep their own vendor files and post on their own sites or on rented e-procurement systems. Register with each one you want to sell to.

Is SAM.gov registration required to sell to a school district?

Only when the contract is paid with federal funds, or the district has chosen to require it. Districts spending federal grant money often ask for a UEI so they can document that you are not excluded. Registration is free, so do it, but it is not what gets you local bids.

How long does vendor registration take?

An afternoon per portal if the documents are ready, and weeks if they are not. The usual stall is the certificate of insurance: wrong limits, agency not named as additional insured, or an expired policy. SAM.gov takes longer, typically two to three weeks for validation.

Do I need a DUNS number?

No. The federal government stopped using DUNS in April 2022 and assigns a Unique Entity ID through SAM.gov at no cost. Some state and local forms still say DUNS out of habit; enter the UEI or ask.