How to set up your CLEATUS account
Start your free trial and complete the four setup steps, so CLEATUS can recommend contracts that fit your company.
This guide walks you through first-time setup. Setup takes about 10 minutes. When you finish, CLEATUS uses your Capture Profile to recommend contracts that fit your company.
Before you start
Have these items ready:
- Your Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), if your company is registered in SAM.gov.
- A capability statement (PDF or DOCX), if you have one.
- Details of past work that is not a federal prime contract: commercial projects, state and local work, and subcontracts.
You can change every setting later. Open Capture Profile in the sidebar.
Step 1: Start your free trial
Choose a plan on the pricing page and start your 7-day free trial. If CLEATUS sent you an invitation email, follow the link in that email instead.
Setup has five screens: Company Details, Capabilities, Preferences, Experience, and Finish Up.
Step 2: Complete Company Details
- Click Import from UEI and enter your 12-character UEI. CLEATUS imports your business address, Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) code, registration dates, and annual revenue from SAM.gov.
- Enter your business name and website.
- Under Contract Source, select the opportunity types that you want:
- Federal
- DIBBS (the Defense Logistics Agency Internet Bid Board System)
- State & Local
- SBIR / STTR (Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer)
- Grants
- Forecasts
- In the same section, select Prime contracts, Subcontracts, or both.
- Under Place of Performance, select the states where you work. Use Only these to list your states, or All except to list the states where you never work.
- Under Set-Aside Programs, select the programs that your company qualifies for.
- Under Certifications & Structure, add your business structure and industry certifications.
Accurate details let CLEATUS remove contracts that you cannot bid on.
Step 3: Add your capabilities
Upload your capability statement, and CLEATUS extracts your capabilities from it. If you do not have one, enter each capability by hand. You can also build one with the free Capability Statement Builder.
CLEATUS checks each capability before you save it. A yellow alert gives specific suggestions when a description is too short or does not state what makes you different. Open the tips guide on the Capabilities screen for examples of strong capabilities.
Step 4: Set your preferences
Tell CLEATUS what you want more of and less of. Click Browse & Add Preferences to add standards and certifications from the Preferences Library, or type your own.
Set each preference to one of four levels:
| Level | Effect on your recommendations |
|---|---|
| Must Avoid | CLEATUS removes every contract that matches the preference. |
| Avoid | CLEATUS gives matching contracts a lower score. |
| Prefer | CLEATUS gives matching contracts a higher score. |
| Must Have | CLEATUS removes every contract that does not match the preference. |
You can also ask the CLEATUS agent to change your preferences in plain language after setup.
Step 5: Add your experience
Past performance makes your matches more accurate and feeds the proposals that you write later. Federal contracts from SAM.gov import automatically. Click Add Experience to add commercial projects, state and local work, and subcontracts.
For each entry, add the Customer, the Amount, the start and end dates, and a Description of the work.
Step 6: Finish and explore
On Finish Up, CLEATUS creates your company. Do not refresh the page while it works. Your dashboard opens when setup is complete. Then use these to learn CLEATUS:
- Make the most of CLEATUS: a checklist at the top of your dashboard. It walks you through your first matches and your profile.
- Setup Guide: open Need Help? in the sidebar, then Setup Guide. It lists your next steps, such as your first contract in the pipeline, your first proposal, and your first workflow.
- Profile Strength: the meter at the top right of each page shows what to strengthen next.