Entity Setup for a Federal or Defense Contractor

You can't be awarded a federal contract without an active registration in the System for Award Management, tied to your entity through a Unique Entity Identifier, the identifier that replaced the old DUNS number. Get your entity's legal name and structure fully finalized before you register in SAM.gov, since a name mismatch between your formation documents and your SAM.gov registration is exactly the kind of small detail a contracting officer's own review can flag.

Either Bizee or Doola can file the underlying entity; neither service handles your SAM.gov registration or your Unique Entity Identifier, which you obtain directly through the federal system.

Alongside your SAM.gov registration, you'll be assigned a Commercial and Government Entity code tied to your entity and its specific physical location, and this identifier shows up throughout federal contracting, from proposals all the way to invoicing. If you open a new facility or relocate to a different address, confirm whether that specific location needs its own CAGE code before assuming your existing one automatically covers it.

If you're pursuing small business set-aside contracts, SBA size standards apply, and affiliation rules can pull in the size of other entities under common ownership or control when determining whether you still qualify as small, a detail that matters enormously if you're bringing in new investors or restructuring ownership. Get an SBA-focused attorney to review any ownership change against affiliation rules before it happens, not after you've already lost a set-aside award over an eligibility challenge you didn't see coming.

If your entity structure changes, through a merger, a conversion, or a name change, while you're performing an existing federal contract, you generally need a novation agreement with the contracting officer to formally transfer that contract to the new entity. Skipping this step doesn't just create a paperwork gap; it can put your ability to get paid, and the contract itself, at real risk, so loop in contracts counsel before any structural change whenever your company has active federal awards currently on the books.

Cost-reimbursement contracts often require a DCAA-compliant accounting system capable of properly segregating and tracking costs, a real operational build-out separate from your entity formation. If any of your work requires access to classified information, a Facility Security Clearance comes with its own ownership and control review, including real scrutiny of foreign ownership, control, or influence, so get this evaluated early if classified work is even a realistic possibility for your business.

Larger federal opportunities are sometimes pursued through a teaming agreement or a formal joint venture between two contractors, which is its own legal structure layered on top of each partner's home entity, and SBA has specific rules for joint ventures pursuing small business set-asides that differ from the affiliation rules governing ordinary ownership changes. Get your teaming or joint venture structure reviewed by govcon counsel before you submit a proposal under it, since a joint venture that doesn't meet SBA's specific requirements can disqualify the bid entirely, not just create a paperwork problem to fix later.

This is worth planning for well before a specific opportunity forces the question, since building the right relationship and structure under deadline pressure rarely produces the cleanest outcome for either partner.

For a contractor with one entity and no near-term restructuring plans, Bizee's straightforward filing plus its bundled first-year registered agent covers the entity side while SAM.gov, size standards, and any facility clearance work run through their own federal processes. If you're managing multiple entities or anticipating a structural change while performing active contracts, Doola's ongoing compliance tracking is worth the added cost, though neither service replaces contracts counsel for a novation.

Work through the federal layers in this order:

1. Finalize your entity's legal name and structure, then register in SAM.gov, which ties your entity to a Unique Entity Identifier.
2. Get your CAGE code, tied to your entity and physical location, and check whether a new facility needs its own.
3. Before pursuing set-aside contracts, have an SBA-focused attorney review size standards and affiliation rules, especially ahead of any ownership change.
4. Arrange a novation agreement with the contracting officer if your entity changes while a federal contract is active.
5. Build a DCAA-compliant accounting system for cost-reimbursement work, and plan for Facility Security Clearance review if the work is classified.