New York City buys from tens of thousands of vendors every year, and almost none of that money moves outside two portals. If your business is not enrolled in both, you cannot bid and you cannot get paid. The good news is that the City consolidated most of the process into one system, PASSPort, so the path is more direct than it was a few years ago. Here is the actual sequence, the office that runs each step, and where the bids get posted.
Step 1: Enroll your business in PASSPortThe City's procurement system is the Procurement and Sourcing Solutions Portal (PASSPort), run by the Mayor's Office of Contract Services (MOCS). Vendor enrollment in PASSPort is how you introduce your company to City agencies. You create an account, complete the enrollment, and select the commodity codes that describe what you sell or the services you provide.
Completing PASSPort enrollment puts your business on the Citywide Bidder List. That matters because of how the City sources smaller work. For procurements valued at $100,000 and under, agencies pull from the bidder lists plus their own outreach, so being on the list is what makes you visible for the bulk of day-to-day City spending. Vendors used to enroll in commodities through the older Payee Information Portal. That moved to PASSPort, so commodity selection now happens inside PASSPort.
Step 2: Set up payment through PIP and get your vendor numberEnrollment lets you bid. It does not let you get paid. For that you need an active account in the Payee Information Portal (PIP) and a City vendor number. The vendor number is generated in the City's Financial Management System (FMS), either assigned by an agency or created when you sign up in PIP, and you cannot receive a City payment without it.
Treat PIP as a separate task on your checklist, not an afterthought. New vendors sometimes win an award, then discover they have no vendor number on file and the invoice stalls. Do this early so your payment record is live before your first contract.
Step 3: Certify as a New York City M/WBE through SBSNew York City runs its own Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE) certification through the Department of Small Business Services (SBS). This is the City program, separate from New York State's M/WBE certification run by Empire State Development. If you want credit on City contracts, you need the City certification, and the application lives in SBS Connect.
A few specifics worth knowing before you start:
- You must be registered in PASSPort first. The City ties M/WBE status to the same vendor record you built in Step 1.
- You apply by logging into SBS Connect or creating an account, and SBS offers both a standard and a Fast Track application path.
- A City M/WBE certification is good for five years from the date on your confirmation letter, so it is not an annual renewal grind.
Certification is what lets prime contractors and agencies count your firm toward the City's M/WBE participation goals, which is the practical reason buyers seek out certified firms. If you are weighing City certification against state or federal options, our state-by-state certification guide lays out how the programs differ and where each one carries weight.
Who qualifies
The City M/WBE program certifies businesses that are at least 51% owned, operated, and controlled by minority group members or by women, with the business meeting the program's residency and size criteria. SBS reviews ownership documentation, so have your formation documents, ownership records, and personal identification organized before you open the application. Our certification guides walk through the documents most City and state programs ask for, so you can assemble the package once and reuse it.
Step 4: Find and respond to bidsThe City posts solicitations in City Record Online (CROL), the searchable version of the City Record, the official journal of the City of New York. Every procurement solicitation over $100,000 is advertised in CROL. You can register on CROL to subscribe to notices in your categories or browse the database directly. Set up the subscription so relevant bids land in your inbox instead of relying on yourself to check.
For the work below that $100,000 threshold, visibility comes from being on the Citywide Bidder List you joined in Step 1, plus agency outreach. That is the part founders miss: a lot of City spending never hits CROL because it falls under the advertising threshold, and the bidder list is how you get sourced for it.
When a solicitation matches, you respond inside PASSPort. The portal carries the process from solicitation through response, evaluation, award, contract, and invoicing, which is the reason the City pushed everything into one system.
Step 5: Build a capability statement buyers can act onCity agency buyers and prime contractors looking to hit M/WBE goals want a fast read on what you do, your certifications, and your relevant past work. A tight capability statement does that. If you are also chasing prime contractors who carry City subcontracting obligations, the firms in our supplier diversity program directory are the ones actively sourcing certified suppliers, and a clean one-pager is what gets you a meeting.
Where to get helpSBS runs the M/WBE certification unit and answers questions directly. You can reach the SBS Certification Unit at mwbe@sbs.nyc.gov with your full name, phone number, and email, and a certification analyst will respond. For enrollment and portal mechanics, MOCS maintains step-by-step PASSPort articles on NYC.gov.
Your next stepThe order matters: PASSPort enrollment, then PIP for your vendor number, then SBS M/WBE certification, then CROL for bids. Most founders stall at the certification document gather, because the City and other programs each want ownership and financial records assembled a specific way. If you would rather build that document package once and apply across the certifications you qualify for, CertifyAll handles the paperwork and submission so you can keep running your business while the applications move.
