Getting Started: An Introduction to Doing Business with the City of New York

To do business with the City of New York (NYC), organizations want to create two vendor accounts:

(1) Create a PIP account (to get paid)
(2) Create a PASSPort account and complete the PASSPort Enrollment (for all other contracting actions, including finding and responding to contracting opportunities, completing contracting actions upon contract award, and much more.)

(1) Create a PIP (Payee Information Portal) Account

Vendors need a PIP vendor account to receive payments from the City of New York. In PIP, vendors can register for Electronic Funds Transfers/Direct Deposit, view payments, and register subcontractors. Vendors should create a PIP account prior to setting up a PASSPort account. See also the Guides listed on the PIP website.

(2) Create a PASSPort Account and Complete the PASSPort Enrollment

Creating a PASSPort vendor account and enrolling in PASSPort allows you to complete the required vendor disclosures to be able to do business with the City, to search for and respond to contracting opportunities, to sign a contract upon contract award, to submit invoices, to view Performance Evaluations, and much more!

Tip from the MOCS Service Desk: Before creating a PASSPort account, please be aware that the vendor contact submitting the account request on behalf of the organization automatically becomes a Vendor Admin with full PASSPort account administration privileges, including updating business information and adding additional system users to the account. The Vendor Admin receives all PASSPort email notifications at the email address that was used when submitting the PASSPort account request.

Step 1: Register a NYC.ID. A NYC.ID (often referred to as "Nice-ID") is a secure, single sign-on that provides access to online services at multiple NYC government agency websites, including PASSPort. This ID should not be confused with IDNYC. Registering a NYC.ID essentially means registering a vendor contact’s work email address and creating a password which become the vendor contact’s login credentials to access PASSPort. For instructions on how to register an NYC.ID, see the Requesting a Vendor PASSPort Account guide or watch this tutorial. Note: If you are using HHS Accelerator, you may skip this step as you already have created an NYC.ID. The same NYC.ID (registered email address and password) can be used to log in to PASSPort and HHS Accelerator.

Step 2: Submit a PASSPort Account Request. Use the same email address that was entered when registering the NYC.ID to submit a PASSPort account request. For instructions, see the Requesting a Vendor PASSPort Account guide or watch this tutorial. Once you receive an email from MOCS indicating approval of your account, you can log in to PASSPort using your NYC.ID credentials to access your organization's PASSPort account.

Step 3: Complete the PASSPort Enrollment. For City Agencies to be able to initiate any contracting action with a vendor in PASSPort, vendors need to be enrolled in PASSPort. Enrolling in PASSPort, or sometimes also referred to as "Completing the Enrollment Package in PASSPort", means that vendors need to log in to PASSPort and complete Business Information, Vendor Questionnaires, Principal Questionnaires, Parent/Controlling Entities Identifications (if applicable), submit a Certificate of Incorporation (or equivalent), and an authorized representative’s signature. For instructions, see the Vendor Enrollment Guide. The Vendor Profile status will update to "Filed" status upon successful enrollment in PASSPort, and PASSPort will send an email confirming Filed status.

New York City procurement policy encourages agencies to develop prequalified lists (PQLs) for various categories of goods, services, construction, and construction-related services. Information and application to be included on such PQLs can be found here. Vendors may submit a request through the PASSPort portal at any time a PQL is open. MOCS will approve or deny a PQL request within ninety days from the date of submission of a properly completed application.

Attention Health and Human Services Providers: In addition to creating an account and enrolling in PASSPort, organizations providing Health and Human Services must complete a Health and Human Service Prequalification Application (or short: “HHS PQL Application”) in PASSPort. An approved HHS Prequalification Application is required to respond to Health and Human Services (HHS) solicitations (RFx) in PASSPort. For instructions, see the HHS Prequalification Guide.

There are several options to learn about contracting opportunities with the City of New York.

Note: Solicitations are called “RFx” in PASSPort. RFx is a PASSPort catch-all term that represents the range of solicitations (Request for...), with the most common procurement methods of RFx released in PASSPort being Requests for Information (RFI), Requests for Proposals (RFP), and Competitive Sealed Bids (CSB).

• Watch the Getting Started: Finding Contracting Opportunities recorded training.
  • Spanish language translation also available: Grabación del Seminario Web: Encontrar Oportunidades de Contratación.
• Browse opportunities in PASSPort. Once logged into PASSPort, click the "RFx" tab to browse opportunities. RFx can be filtered by City Agency, Industry, status, and more. See also the Finding and Responding to RFx Guide. Note: Only RFx in "Released" status are open for response submissions. Also, while vendors only need to have a PASSPort account to view and respond to RFx, vendors need to complete the PASSPort Enrollment to complete any contracting action in PASSPort.
• View opportunities on the Procurement Navigator. No PASSPort account is required to search for solicitations on the Procurement Navigator. Read the guide or watch a short tutorial to learn more. To respond to a solicitation, however, vendors will need a PASSPort account.
• Regularly check if a City Agency invited your organization to respond to an RFx. From the PASSPort homepage, click "RFx" and select "Browse My RFx Responses" from the drop-down menu. Your organization should have received an email notification as well upon invitation.
• Read the Weekly Digest, our weekly PASSPort email notification announcing the latest RFx releases across all industry fields. System users with one of the following user roles receive the Weekly Digest: Vendor Admin or Vendor Procurement L1 or Vendor Procurement L2. You can view your role(s) in your organization's PASSPort Vendor Profile > Contacts tab. Note: PASSPort users can have multiple roles. Only Vendor Admins can make modifications to user roles. See also this Quick Guide for assistance.
• Sign up to receive The City Record Online email notifications. City business opportunities valued at or above $100,000 can be found in PASSPort and they get published on The City Record Online (CROL). Vendors can sign up to receive email notifications to learn about new solicitations in their field(s) of interest.
• Tools for Business Planning - View upcoming procurement plans by City Agency:
  • Under Local Law 1, City Agencies are required to publish anticipated contracting actions that form the basis for the agency M/WBE utilization plan - view here. This information is helpful for M/WBEs to identify potential contracting opportunities in the coming year.
  • Under Local Law 63, agencies publish anticipated standard and professional services contracting actions for the upcoming year - view here. This information helps contractors identify opportunities to grow their business with the City of New York.
• Check City Agencies' websites. Most agencies post current and upcoming opportunities on their websites.

To answer a NYC Agency RFx (solicitation), vendors must submit a response in PASSPort. Only RFx in “Released” status are open for response submissions. To verify a successful response submission, the Response Submission status should read "Submitted". See also the Finding and Responding to RFx Guide.

Attention Health and Human Services Providers: An approved HHS Prequalification Application in PASSPort is required to respond to Health and Human Services (HHS) solicitations (RFx) in PASSPort. See also the HHS Prequalification Guide.

More than 10,000 businesses currently benefit from the New York City Certification. The City is committed to awarding $25 billion in City contracts to M/WBEs by the end of Fiscal Year 2025.

New York City’s business certification programs include the Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE) Program, the Emerging Business Enterprise (EBE) Program and the Locally-based Business Enterprise (LBE) Program. Learn more at NYC Business.

Once certified with the City, vendors may self-disclose approved business certification(s) in PASSPort to make them visible to City Agencies. For instructions, see the Vendor Account Maintenance Guide.

When vendors enroll in commodities (commodity codes) in PASSPort, they identify the goods and/or services they provide and are ready to offer to the City of New York. City Agencies leverage a vendor’s disclosed commodity codes when soliciting procurements so be sure to only enroll in commodities that best reflect your organization’s current capacity to delivering goods and/or services. Commodity enrollment can be updated at any time as your organization expands or otherwise changes the goods and/or services being offered.

For instructions, see the Enrolling in Commodities in PASSPort video and reference the NYC Commodity Classification Directory.

Attention NYC Certified Businesses Vendors: Commodity codes can no longer be selected in PIP, and they cannot be added to your SBS Vendor Profile either. All Commodity Code enrollments take place in PASSPort. For your convenience, your SBS-approved commodity enrollments in PASSPort will automatically transfer and display on the SBS NYC Online Directory of Certified Businesses in the “NIGP Class and sub Class code information” section of your Vendor Profile. This allows City Agencies to review your certifications both in PASSPort and on the SBS NYC Online Directory of Certified Businesses.

Vendors may consult the Award Milestones tracker listed in PASSPort to view the status of their contract as it progresses from contract award towards contract registration with the Comptroller's Office. To learn more, please review this guide: Award Milestones Tracker. The Comptroller must register the contract before vendors can submit invoices.

Each year the New York City Council awards discretionary funds to nonprofit organizations to meet local needs.


For discretionary awards cleared in or after Fiscal Year 2021, the Contract Registration Process is managed in PASSPort. PASSPort will send your organization’s Vendor Admin(s) a task notification email when it is time to start the contract document submission process. Exception: Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) awards are not processed through PASSPort; DCLA will contact their cleared awardees.

To view your organization’s award designations and their clearance status, please visit the Discretionary Award Tracker. To learn more about the discretionary award process, visit NYC Nonprofits Discretionary Funding.

To get paid and/or get reimbursed for goods delivered and services provided, a vendor must have a PIP vendor account. Direct Deposit and other payment arrangements are set up and updated in PIP. See the Guides listed on the PIP website. Note: For questions related to invoices submitted outside of PASSPort and fiscal policies on how to submit invoices, contact your contract manager.