Loading Training Academy...
Training Academy
Module 1: Your Contracting Path. Written explanation, fictional example, and sources.
Educational content. Follow the applicable solicitation and contract. Official sources are provided below.
18 min · Progress tracking is not available yet
After this lesson you should be able to tell a federal contract from a grant, recognize a solicitation as a request for offers or quotations, and move a notice you found on SAM.gov into an AsherGate company draft with every related file attached. You will also know what this workspace will not do for you: it does not register your company, import SAM.gov, write a bid, or submit one.
Confirm every requirement in the source documents.
Federal acquisition begins when an agency has a need for supplies or services and decides to obtain them by contract. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) describes that process as including the description of requirements, solicitation and selection of sources, award, financing, performance, and administration.
A contract, in FAR terms, is a mutually binding legal relationship: the seller must furnish the supplies or services, and the buyer must pay. Except where another rule allows otherwise, those commitments are in writing. Grants and cooperative agreements are not contracts under that definition.
Until an award exists, what you usually hold is not a contract. You hold a solicitation: any request to submit offers or quotations to the Government. Under sealed bidding that request is an invitation for bids. Under negotiation it is a request for proposals. Simplified acquisitions may ask for a quotation or an offer.
For proposed contract actions expected to exceed $25,000, contracting officers must synopsize in the Governmentwide Point of Entry (GPE). The FAR says the GPE may be accessed at https://www.sam.gov, and that synopsized solicitations are made available through the GPE. SAM.gov Contract Opportunities are procurement notices. They can include pre-solicitation notices, solicitation notices, award notices, and sole-source notices.
Anyone may search Contract Opportunities without an account. An account lets you save searches, follow changes, and join interested-vendor lists. Grant opportunities are not the same system; SAM.gov points those searches to Grants.gov.
If you intend to bid as a prime, a Unique Entity ID by itself is not enough. SAM.gov entity registration is what allows an organization to bid on government contracts and apply for federal assistance as a prime. A Unique Entity ID is assigned during registration. You can request a Unique Entity ID only, but then you cannot apply directly for federal awards. Registration is free on SAM.gov, must be renewed every 365 days to stay active, and can take up to 10 business days to become active after you submit it.
AsherGate does not browse SAM.gov for you and does not import a notice URL. Your workflow is: find the notice and its attachments on SAM.gov (or from the issuing office), then create a company solicitation draft in this workspace and upload the files your team will actually use.
A company draft can store PDF, Word, Excel, and image files. Saved drafts can run AI analysis on PDF, Word (.docx), and Excel (.xlsx) files. That analysis is a starting extract of facts such as quantities, deadlines, and instructions. A bidder must compare it with the source documents before relying on it. It is not a bid, an eligibility decision, or a legal opinion.
If analysis is refused, incomplete, or times out, AsherGate leaves your files and any previously saved analysis unchanged. Nothing in this product phase sends a proposal to SAM.gov, email, or a portal.
Using the Harborline story below, the facts copied from the files are notice AG-DEMO-26-0918, Coastal Facilities Support Office, 240 LED exit signs, and a response due 8 October 2026 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. If any of those lines were missing from the PDFs, the team would treat them as Not found instead of guessing.
The product step is to open Solicitations, create a New Solicitation draft named with that notice number, and upload the RFQ PDF, Amendment 0001 PDF, and the price-sheet workbook. After analysis, compare quantity 240 and the 45-day delivery period with Amendment 0001. Stop there. Do not submit a bid.
Fictional example
Harborline Maintenance LLC is a fictional facilities supplier in Savannah, Georgia. The company already has an active SAM.gov entity registration and sells commercial LED exit signs to private building managers. It does not have a federal award yet.
On SAM.gov, Harborline finds a fictional request for quotations, AG-DEMO-26-0918, from a fictional Coastal Facilities Support Office. The notice asks for 240 LED exit signs, delivered within 45 calendar days, with a response due 8 October 2026 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The posting includes three files: the RFQ PDF, Amendment 0001 PDF, and a price-sheet workbook.
Harborline does not start a price spreadsheet in email. A teammate opens AsherGate, chooses New Solicitation, names the draft AG-DEMO-26-0918 Harborline, and uploads all three files. After analysis, the extract shows quantity 240 and the 2:00 p.m. time. Amendment 0001 changed delivery from 30 days to 45 days. The bidder opens the amendment PDF, confirms the 45-day period in the source wording, and writes a team note that the extract is usable only after that check. Harborline has not submitted anything.
Each official source is listed with the teaching claim it supports. Product behavior is labeled separately. Review dates are when AsherGate last checked the page.
Acquisition.gov · Official source · Reviewed 2026-09-27
Supports: Acquisition starts at an agency need; a contract is a mutually binding written relationship for supplies or services and payment; grants are excluded; a solicitation is a request for offers or quotations (IFB, RFP, or simplified quotation/offer).
Acquisition.gov · Official source · Reviewed 2026-09-27
Supports: When the FAR requires a notice to be published, the contracting officer must transmit that notice to the GPE.
Acquisition.gov · Official source · Reviewed 2026-09-27
Supports: Proposed contract actions expected to exceed $25,000 must be synopsized in the GPE.
Acquisition.gov · Official source · Reviewed 2026-09-27
Supports: The GPE may be accessed at https://www.sam.gov, and synopsized solicitations are made available through the GPE.
SAM.gov / GSA · Official source · Reviewed 2026-09-27
Supports: Contract Opportunities are procurement notices (including pre-solicitation, solicitation, award, and sole-source). Anyone may search without an account; an account is needed to save searches and follow notices. Grant searches go to Grants.gov.
SAM.gov / GSA · Official source · Reviewed 2026-09-27
Supports: Entity registration is required to bid on contracts as a prime. A Unique Entity ID is assigned during registration. A Unique Entity ID only does not let you apply directly for federal awards. Registration must be renewed every 365 days and can take up to 10 business days to become active.
SAM.gov / GSA · Official source · Reviewed 2026-09-27
Supports: SAM.gov is free to use. There is no charge to get a Unique Entity ID, register an entity, or maintain that registration.
U.S. Small Business Administration · Official source · Reviewed 2026-09-27
Supports: SBA requires SAM.gov registration to participate in government contracting. This lesson does not use SBA as the source for the Unique Entity ID-only limit; that limit is taken from SAM.gov Entity Registration.
AsherGate · AsherGate product · Reviewed 2026-09-27
Supports: AsherGate stores company drafts and files, can analyze PDF, DOCX, and XLSX with required bidder review, and does not import SAM.gov or submit bids.