Elevate Consulting

DUNS Has Been Replaced, Say Hello to UEI

Federal Contractor UEI Number

In this article, we look at the switch from DUNS to the Federal Contractor UEI Number.

Early last month, the United States federal government announced the retirement of and discontinued its use of the Data Universal Numbering Systems (known as DUNS). The DUNS was the previous primary means of identifying entities for federal contract awards. Effective April 4th, DUNS numbers are no longer accepted and all federal contractors will be redirected to obtain the new 12-character alphanumeric identification number, referred to as the Unique Entity Identification, or UEI. In order to remain compliant, all federal contractors are advised to update their E-Verify accounts after obtaining their new UEI from Sam.gov. Here are some items to be aware of during this update:

  • Make note if your organization is a current (active or inactive) registrant and possesses a current DUNS number. Then log into SAM.gov to check if a UEI has already been assigned to your firm. You can navigate to the firm’s “Entities” widget, which resides in the Workspace.
  • Entities with no prior DUNS who wish to conduct business with the federal government will be assigned a UEI during the registration process.
  • The UEI is not meant to expire and the transition to UEI does not affect registration expiration dates and registration is expected to be maintained in active status for participation.
  • The UEI will replace the DUNS for all functions in SAM.gov, including contract data, saved searches, APIs, and extracts.
  • All Integrated Award Environment (IAE) Systems are subject to this update and will now only use the UEI going forward. This includes SAM.gov, eSRS, FSRS, FPDS, FAPIIS, and CPARS.
  • For further instruction on how to obtain a UEI through SAM.gov, please view this informational video here.

If you haven’t done so already, log in to SAM.gov and identify the new UEI assigned to your firm. Ensure all saved searches and APIs are no longer reflecting the previously utilized DUNS number and have been transitioned to the UEI.

Now is a great time to do a maintenance check-up on your firm’s federal contractor status and ensure that a current and active registration in SAM.gov contains the new UEI identifier congruently.