System for Award Management (SAM)

Overview

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requires agencies to use information contained in SAM as the source for making payments to vendors, with certain exceptions. Current and potential government vendors are required to register in SAM in order to be awarded contracts by any federal agency. Vendors provide basic information relevant to procurement and financial transactions.

The SAM process provides agencies to import and automatically process data pertinent to the Core financial system. This includes:

• Automatically update mandatory payee information in existing vendor records to reflect the relevant changes contained in the daily updates

• Accommodate the data definitions, such as data types, field names, and field lengths, used in SAM for all fields common in both SAM and the core vendor file

• Prevent users from manually updating the relevant data fields whose source must be SAM for vendors required to register in SAM

In addition, the SAM process maintains payee (vendor) information to support obligation, accounts payable, and disbursement processes.

SAM Integration with Oracle Payables

The SAM integration in Oracle U.S. Federal Financials creates or updates these Payables objects with data from SAM:

• DUNS Number in the Supplier Sites window

• Taxpayer identifier in the Suppliers window

• Country and address fields and bank accounts information in the Supplier Sites window

• Bank branch number and branch type in the Banks window

• Account number, account type, and supplier assignment in the Bank Accounts window

The information in the SAM fields cannot be modified.

In the Supplier Sites window, users can navigate to the View SAM Supplier Details window from the Tools menu.

Payables also checks a SAM vendor's registration at certain points during the invoicing and payment processes.

The following table describes how the SAM Vendor Registration status impacts Payables functionality.

Status and Payables Functionality

Vendor's SAM Registration	Third Party Agent's SAM Registration	Invoice Creation (AP)	Invoice Validation (AP)	Payments (AP)
Active	None used	An invoice can be created.	An invoice can be validated.	A payment can be processed.
Expired or Inactive	None used	An invoice can be created for an obligation.	An invoice cannot be validated. An expired registration hold is applied.	A previously validated invoice cannot be paid for selected payment.
Active	Active	An invoice can be created for the SAM vendor.	An invoice can be validated for the SAM vendor.	A payment can be processed for the third party agent.
Expired or Inactive	Active	An invoice can be created.	An invoice cannot be validated. An expired registration hold is applied.	A previously validated invoice cannot be paid for selected payment.
Active	Expired or Inactive	An invoice can be created for the SAM vendor.	An invoice can be validated for the SAM vendor.	A payment cannot be processed for the third party agent.

SAM Integration with Oracle Purchasing

SAM and Purchasing are integrated as:

• Purchase order creation

  A purchase order can be created for a site associated with an expired or inactive vendor.

• Purchase order approval

  Users cannot approve a purchase order for an expired or inactive vendor

• Purchase order modification

  Users cannot modify a purchase order for an expired or inactive vendor.

The SAM impacts on Purchasing are:

• The Purchase Orders window checks the validity of the supplier site registration.

  If the supplier site registration is valid, the document can be submitted for approval and purchase orders can be approved in the Purchase Order Approval Workflow window.

• The Import Standard Purchase Orders checks the validity of the supplier and supplier site when importing approved purchase orders.

  If the supplier site registration is invalid, the program records the exception in the log file.

• The Create Releases Process verifies the validity of the supplier registration when the release generation method is automatic release.

  If the supplier registration is invalid, the corresponding releases cannot be set to Approved.

The following table describes how the SAM Vendor Registration status impacts Purchasing functionality.

Status and Purchasing Functionality

Vendor's SAM Registration	Third Party Agent's SAM Registration	Obligation (PO)
Active	None Used	An obligation can be created.
Expired or Inactive	None Used	An obligation can be created but not approved.
Active (domestic, foreign)	Active	An obligation can be created.
Expired or Inactive	Active	An obligation can be created but not approved.
Active	Expired or Inactive	An obligation can be created.

SAM Process Flow, First Time Use Diagram

These diagrams show the SAM process as described in SAM Process, First Time Use.

SAM Process Flow, First Time Use

SAM Process Flow, First Time Use (continued)

SAM Process Flow Daily Updates Diagram

The diagram below shows the SAM process as described in SAM Process, Daily Updates.

SAM Process Flow, Daily Updates Diagram

System for Award Management

Features

The SAM process includes:

• SAM Data Load Process

• SAM Extract File Request Set

• SAM Vendors Search page

• Add DUNS Number page

• Payables Assignments page

SAM Process, First Time Use

The SAM Process, First Time Use includes:

1. 1. Download the SAM sensitive extract files for processing.

   For the first time use, the latest monthly refresh file, daily update files since the last monthly file up to the current date should be downloaded.

2. Extract the zip file and declassify it, depending on agency policy.

3. Move the extracted files to a location accessible by the Oracle E-Business Suite.

   Note: Add a .dat extension to the file, but do not change the file names.

4. Apply the upgrade patch having SAM Integration.

5. Run the Supplier Merge process to combine duplicate suppliers.

   Note: For the supplier merge, you can do the following:

   • Replace Third Party: This would not have any accounting impact on existing transactions but new transactions would use new third party supplier liability account. There is no real audit trail between new supplier and existing transactions.

   or

   • Transfer Account Balance: This is the recommended option as this would provide an audit trail. For entries after the merge date for the old third party and party site, all the entries will be reversed and rebooked with the new third party and new site. Thus there is no impact on Budgetary control as the reversal and rebooking will have a net zero impact on the expenditure. The net impact on budgetary accounting entries for the expenditure is zero. For the change in liability accounts there is no impact on budgetary accounting

6. In the SAM Vendors Search page, users can add a new DUNS number for each SAM vendor with which the agency contracts by clicking Add New DUNS.

   A new DUNS number is created with the status Unknown.

7. Run the SAM Data Transfer process for the latest monthly file to load SAM data into the E-Business Suite.

   The registration status is updated to Active, Expired, Deleted, or Unregistered when the SAM Data Load Process is run.

8. In the SAM Vendor Search page, find each DUNS number previously entered.

   The SAM Vendor Search page displays:

   • DUNS number and any associated DUNS+4 numbers

   • SAM Data for each DUNS/DUNS+4 number

9. In the Payables Assignments page, assign a DUNS/DUNS+4 number to suppliers and supplier sites.

   If a new supplier and site are required for a DUNS/DUNS+4 number, enter the operating unit for the new site. This step is required to create or update Payables.

10. Click Apply in the Payables Assignments window to run the SAM Data Processing process that maps the DUNS/DUNS+4 number to Payables objects including suppliers, supplier sites, bank branches, and bank accounts.

11. Determine if there are daily files to process.

    If there are no daily extract files to process, the first time use process is complete. If there are daily extract files to process, continue with the next step.

12. Run the SAM Extract File request set to process the oldest daily file and continue through each daily file from oldest to newest.

    This ensures that every vendor record is current.

13. Review the output file from the SAM Data Transfer process for new DUNS+4 numbers.

14. In the SAM Vendor Search page find the new DUNS+4 numbers.

15. In the Payables Assignments page, assign the new DUNS+4 number to a supplier sites.

16. In the Payables Assignments page, run the SAM Data Processing process to create or update Payables.

17. Determine if more daily extract files must be processed.

    If there are more files to process, run the SAM Extract File request set for the next oldest daily file. If not, the first time use process is complete.

SAM Process, Daily Updates

The SAM Process, Daily Updates includes:

1. Download the daily sensitive extract file.

2. Extract the zip file and declassify it, depending on agency policy.

3. Move the extract file to a location accessible by the Oracle E-Business Suite.

   Note: Add a .dat extension to the file but do not change the file name.

4. Run the SAM Extract File request set to process the daily file.

5. Review the output file from the SAM Data Transfer and the SAM Data Processing processes for new DUNS+4 numbers and determine if there are any new DUNS+4 numbers.

   If there are no new DUNS+4 numbers, the daily uptake process is complete. If there are new DUNS+4 numbers, continue with the next step.

6. In the SAM Vendor Search page, find the new DUNS+4 numbers.

7. In the Payables Assignments page, assign the new DUNS+4 number to a supplier site.