The fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 is coming to a close and it’s time to gear up for 2014. The first day of October will be here before you know it. Use the next month to get ready – don’t wait till it’s too late and you lose an opportunity.

Check your SAM record

The transition from CCR (Central Contractor Registration) to SAM (System for Awards Management) wasn’t an anomaly – it was a mess! Several passes were made to move data from one system to the other. Only you can assure that your listing is correct.

Go to www.sam.gov and search your company name. Try again with your DUNS number, and with your CAGE code. Make sure contracting officials can find you. If your record didn’t make it, reenter the data.

Don’t have a username and password? Get that squared away right now by creating an account and registering your entity—and assigning proper roles. This process is difficult, but you’ll be out of luck if your record is not locatable and accurate.

Once you are sure your company is listed and can be found, check all the core data, assertions, representations & certifications, and Points of Contact. Not all of this data got transferred correctly from CCR. You need to make sure yours is correct.

Check DSBS

If you are a small business (also including SDV, 8(a)/SDB, HUBZone, VOSB and WOSB/EDWOSB), make sure your small business status information has been correctly transferred to the DSBS (Dynamic Small Business Search - website http://dsbs.sba.gov/).

Government contracting officials use DSBS to find potential suppliers and to confirm company information. This is also where they look to assure that you are really interested in federal contracts. If your DSBS record is blank, or woefully lacking in info, you’ll lose out.

The only way to edit your DSBS record is to update or confirm your record in SAM. At the end of that process you have the option to supplement your info in DSBS. Don’t poop out now. You absolutely need to do this!

Make sure your NAICS code and size status for each industry is correct. Put keywords in the record so buyers and specialists can find you when they are looking for “cybersecurity” or “snow removal.” Enter past contract info in the performance history section, so buyers know you have federal (or commercial) experience and have performed contracts recently. Otherwise, you’re just another “fly-by-night” outfit trying to break into the federal market.

Get ready to file annual employment info filings

Annually, you must file your EEOC and VETS-100A forms to stay on Uncle Sam’s good side. You may need to have an affirmative action plan, and maybe even a small business subcontracting plan. Avoid compliance risk — take care of these things now. Generally they are good for a year.

File GSA Schedule Sales Reports

If you hold a GSA Schedule contract, even if there have been no sales, you must file quarterly with GSA’s Schedule Sales Query system using Form 72A. Don’t neglect this task, as your schedule contract will quickly be terminated for failure to report – it’s even worse if you’ve had sales and haven’t paid the Industrial Funding Fee on time.

Monitor Past Performance Reports

Past performance reporting by contracting officials is being enforced more rigorously. Be sure to monitor new filings on your company’s contract performance and utilize the short window of opportunity to request correction of any errors.

Contracting officials will be relying more and more on this system to help them identify good performers and to weed out poor performers as well as those with little or no past experience.

The window for challenging poor reports and enabling revisions is limited so get your responses in immediately and be dogged about correcting any errors.

Review your balance sheet and income statement

Many small companies, privately held, look at financial statements as internal documents, but Uncle Sam will reach into that inner sanctum to assure your company is capable of remaining in business and delivering on the contract over a term that is often multiple years. Do you have an outside accounting firm that at least looks over your shoulder, or writes up a review, if not an opinion?

Check your Quick Ratio and Debt/Equity ratio. Have you been profitable over the last two years? If not, do you have an explanation and a marketing plan to stabilize your future?

Consolidate each contract file

Make absolutely sure you have a comprehensive, clean, consolidated contract file for each and every contract you’ve won. The file must contain everything: Statement of Work, Request For Proposal, proposal, quotes, mods, invoices, indirect rate determinations, escalation rate documentation, audits, claims and right up to the closeout document.

Finally, look over your recent contracts and make sure that you have covered all the necessary deliverables, signed all mods, executed contract close-out documents, and invoiced every nickel you are due.

Good luck in fiscal 2014!

Tom Johnson is publisher of the Set-Aside Alert small business federal contracting newspaper. E-mail him at tjohnson@setasidealert.com.