Small Business Program FAQs

Establishment of a Small Business Program at an institution is required when an organization is receiving federal funding for contracts or subcontracts as dictated by the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FARS). The delegation of authority to manage the program is issued through the Office of the President (UCOP) policy.

Reference: FAR: Subpart 19, Subpart 52.219-9 / UCOP: Business Finance Bulletin 43: Materiel Management, HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS webpage.

The requirements are spelled out in the plan notice (available on the Small Business Subcontracting Forms webpage) which the Small Business Program Manager must issue to any funding organization when submitting a Small Business Subcontracting Plan

Each UC campus designates and gives delegation of authority to a Small Business Coordinator or Manager. Reference: BFB-BUS-43

Based on federal and state of California-Small Business classification type definitions, policy, and for state-public contract code.

Reference: Federal: Small Business Administration website, The ABCs of Federal Supplier Classifications

State of California – Doing Business with the State of California

No. Campuses are working with UCOP on setting goals for the small business classification types for which we need to report.

See 4 above

The numbers change given new submission, amended plans and expiring plans, as of Weds. Jan. 10, 2018. We have 13 active plans and three pending the funder awarding a contract or subcontract.

By RA and SPO, as soon as possible during the proposal stage, when the budget is finalized with the funding organization. Unfortunately, the need for a plan may not be determined until late in the process, when the funder is about to fund, and realizes a plan has not been submitted.

Total spend, spend for each of materials and supplies, equipment over $5,000 (inventorial), services outside of the University and travel. Proposed small business spend for all relevant small business types by dollar amount and percentage. All of the required language, showing a commitment to supporting and monitoring small business spend over the life of the agreement.

Reference: Roles and Responsibilities – Creating an SBSP, FARS 19.702, 52.219-9

Yes. The Small Business Subcontracting Plan Worksheet. Must be completed for each phase or Clin for which funding is being requested. Access url in item 1 on the Small Business Subcontracting Forms webpage.

Who creates the plan and submits it?

RA works with PI and team to provide information, so Small Business Program Manager can create plan documentation and email to SPO to email to funder. Reference: Roles and Responsibilities – Creating an SBSP

Review time: Data in budget, accuracy of small business classifications, types of spend like whether materials & supplies, equipment or services

Available personnel: One person, the Small Business Program Manager, has multiple responsibilities and no back-up staff are available. Also, FARS requires that a designated employee manage the program.

Review by funder: Funders may take days, months, to review the plan. Notification back to us: May not actually tell us if and when plan accepted. We often have to query them multiple times. Some funders may not notify.

Electronic repository for plan: The agreement award documentation should include the plan, so it is loaded into Phoebe. If not SPO or Small Business Program Manager may have to load it into Phoebe either in the ? section or the other documents section.

No. Any action on the plan must be taken by the Small Business Program Manager. Since that person has the delegation of authority on behalf of the University, no one else can make changes to the plan. The action to be taken will depend on the situation:

If the goals need to be changed before an award is made and after the plan is submitted, SPO has to inform the funder to discuss whether a revised plan needs to be submitted. If the award has been signed and the budget has been revised, the PI and team need to work with SPO to determine the action that needs to be taken if additional.

Yes. The Small Business Program Manager is responsible for filing an Individual Subcontracting Report (ISR) for each contract or subcontract and twice per year in the Federal Electronic Subcontracting Reporting System (eSRS). Reporting dollar amounts, periods and deadlines:

• Cumulative dollar amounts and percent of total spend for October 1 of prior year to March 31st of current year, due by April 30th of current year.
• Cumulative dollar amounts and percent of total spend for for October 1 of prior year to September 30th of current year, due by Oct 30th of current year.

The Small Business Program Manager must also file a Summary Subcontracting Report (SSR) once per year in October for the period of October 1 of the prior year to September 30th of the current year for each of the contracts or subcontracts for which an ISR has been filed. The SSR shows spend for the annual reporting period, rather than cumulative spend.

Reference: Refer to Required Monitoring/Reporting webpage. See FARS and BFB-BUS-43 urls in item 1 above.

The funder can determine that the PI and team have not made a good faith effort to procure small businesses and require repayment of some or all of the dollars that were not spend with small businesses. Since April 2009, we have not seen any agreements where payment had to be made.

Reference: Required Monitoring/Reporting webpage

In most cases, the funder will require an amended plan that will include prior and future small business goals.

Yes, they need to create a plan and email to the UC Berkeley Small Business Program Manager, who needs to accept it in order for funding to be issued to that subcontractor. Reference: FARS Flow Down content in FAR 52.219-9/

They must file an Individual Subcontracting Report (ISR) with delivery to the Small Business Program Manager here at UC Berkeley every six months in eSRS. They also need to file an SSR for every agreement with the appropriate federal agency.

Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs) and Women Business Enterprises (WBEs) as defined by the Small Business Administration

Reference: Minority Business Enterprises and Woman Business Enterprises Grant Utilization, EPA Grants: Spend with Minority (MBE) and Women Business Enterprises (WBE) webpage

The award document will include the specific text under the Administrative Conditions section requiring reporting and will articulate the MBE/WBE based on the percentage set for the geographic reason where the research will take place.

Effective February 5, 2015, the EPA reporting provision changed the threshold for annual MBE/WBE reporting to $150,000, when certain types of budgeted procurement exceed this amount. Therefore, reports will only be filed each October for awards greater than the $150,000 threshold. If the total dollar amount for an agreement increases to more than $150,000, an annual report will be required.

The Small Business Program Manager files the EPA Form 5700-52A.

See the Searching for Small Business Suppliers.

• BearBUY: Once the small business classifications are entered into BFS by the Vendoring Unit, the coding interfaces with BearBUY to create the icons for each type of small business classification type.
• System for Award Management (SAM): See the Search for Suppliers on SAM Guide on the Searching for Small Businesses? webpage.
• Supplier.io Explorer tool: See the Searching for Small Businesses? webpage

If a PI needs to procure from small businesses in order to fulfill Small Business Subcontracting goals for a plan, the business must get certified in SAM and complete a Substitute W-9 and Supplier Information form and mail or fax to UC Berkeley Vendoring unit.

Yes, for federal registrations in SAM will send an annual email to renew.

UC Learning Center and website: Supplier Diversity Training 1-2-3 webpage.

Specifically designed for PIs, RAs, and staff, anyone can access the training on the UC Learning Center. RAs should participate in the training as part of the RAPDP training curriculum.

The Small Business Program Manager worked with Kathy Mendonca and Jeremy Linneman to design the training as a required part of the RADPDTraining Program, called ST6-Supplier Diversity Overview which you can access when you authenticate into the UC Learning Center.

The three module training on the Small Business website is an expanded more detailed training, from which the UC Learning Center training was developed.