Quick Start
Get up and running with GovScout in under 10 minutes. Create your account, set up your company profile, and find your first matching contracts.
This guide walks you through setting up GovScout and finding your first matching government contracts. The entire process takes less than 10 minutes.
Create Your Account
Visit govscout.io/register and sign up with your email address or Google account. You will start on the Free tier, which includes basic search and up to one saved company profile.
After signing up, you will be taken to your dashboard. This is your central hub for managing searches, reviewing opportunities, and configuring your company profiles.
Set Up Your Company Profile
Navigate to Dashboard > Companies and click Add Company. Fill in the following:
- Company Name -- Your legal business name as registered on SAM.gov
- UEI Number -- Your Unique Entity Identifier from SAM.gov
- NAICS Codes -- Select all NAICS codes that apply to your business
- Set-Aside Certifications -- Check any programs you are certified under (8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, WOSB, etc.)
- Capability Description -- Write a plain-English description of what your company does. This is the most important field because it powers AI matching.
Write your capability description the way you would describe your business to a contracting officer. Include specific technologies, domains, and types of work. For example: "We provide cloud migration and managed IT services for federal agencies, specializing in AWS GovCloud, FedRAMP compliance, and Zero Trust architecture implementations."
Run Your First Search
Go to Dashboard > Search and type a natural language description of the contracts you are looking for. For example:
"IT modernization services for Department of Defense agencies"
GovScout will return matching contract opportunities from SAM.gov, ranked by AI relevance score. Each result shows:
- The opportunity title and posting agency
- Set-aside type and NAICS code
- Response deadline
- AI relevance score (0-100)
- A brief description of the scope of work
Meet Your AI Assistant
Click the chat bubble in the bottom-right corner of your dashboard to open the AI assistant. It can do everything you just did above -- and more -- through conversation.
Try typing:
"Search for IT cybersecurity opportunities set aside for small business"
The assistant will search SAM.gov and display results as structured cards right in the chat. From there, you can ask it to score any result against your company profile, save opportunities to your pipeline, or check upcoming deadlines.
On the Free tier you have access to four tools (search, score, details, and entity lookup). Upgrade to Pro to unlock pipeline management, deadline tracking, and more.
The chat assistant shares your daily search limit on the Free tier. Pro and above get unlimited chat searches.
Save and Configure Alerts
When you find a search that returns good results, click Save Search to create a recurring alert. GovScout will automatically re-run this search daily and notify you when new matching opportunities are posted.
Configure your notification preferences in Dashboard > Settings > Notifications to receive alerts via:
- Email -- Daily digest or real-time notifications
- Slack -- Post to a channel in your workspace
- Microsoft Teams -- Post to a Teams channel
Review and Track Opportunities
From any search result, click on an opportunity to view full details including the solicitation description, attachments, and contracting officer contact information. Use the relevance score to prioritize which opportunities to pursue first.
Next Steps
- Learn more about how natural language search works
- Understand AI relevance scoring and how to improve your match quality
- Explore the AI assistant and its eight tools
- Set up notifications for your preferred channels
- Review subscription tiers to unlock advanced features