Ownership and control
51% unconditional ownership and day-to-day management by the qualifying individual — documented with operating agreements, stock ledgers, and board minutes.
The most rigorous SBA certification package a small business can submit.
CertPath assembles a documentation-complete, audit-defensible SBA certification package — every statutory element, every required document, the ownership-and-control analysis, the size/affiliation screen, and the continuous-eligibility calendar — checked against the letter of 13 C.F.R. before a specialist releases it.
Every subsection of 13 C.F.R. Parts 124, 125, 126, 127Five statutory certification elements, gate-checkedSBA · DUNS · SAM · IRS · Secretary of State searchesSpecialist release on every package5-business-day SLA
Why packages fail
A single missing element can void the entire certification.
A small business's SBA set-aside certification is only as strong as the package behind it. Miss one of the five statutory elements, skip a required document, mis-state ownership or control, or fail to disclose a material change — and the certification can be denied, suspended, terminated, or expose the owner to False Claims Act liability.
Most firms prepare this by hand, from memory, once. The regulations have not been read end-to-end since the last time it mattered. That is exactly where completeness gaps hide.
CertPath exists to close that gap with a single, exhaustive standard applied identically to every file.
1 of 5
missing certification elements is enough to jeopardize approval
The benchmark
Measured against the letter of the regulation — subsection by subsection.
We do not summarize the law and hope. Every package is scored against a versioned rule pack tied to the exact text of 13 C.F.R. Parts 124, 125, 126, and 127. These are the provisions each package is held to.
Size and affiliation
Small-business size under NAICS-specific standards, with affiliation rules applied to identify any aggregated revenue or employee counts.
Economic disadvantage (EDWOSB/8(a))
Personal net worth, income, and asset caps verified with tax returns, financial statements, and asset schedules.
HUBZone principal office and residency
Principal office located in a HUBZone, with proof (photos or live virtual walk-through) and employee residency documentation.
SDVOSB service-connected disability
VA disability rating documentation and unconditional control by the service-disabled veteran.
Social disadvantage narrative (8(a))
A detailed narrative establishing social disadvantage under the SBA's 2026 standard, with corroborating evidence.
How a package is built
Intake to specialist release, with deterministic gates the AI cannot overrule.
AI extracts and drafts. Deterministic rules — running as code, outside the model — decide what is complete. A human specialist signs every release. That order is never reversed.
01
Eligibility Scan
Upload corporate, ownership, financial, and personnel documents. We return a free completeness read: which statutory elements and documents you already have, and which are missing.
02
Evidence & searches
As your authorized clerical agent, we order SBA, DUNS, SAM, IRS, and Secretary of State searches and build the eligibility record, corroborated across sources.
03
Grounded drafting
The ownership-and-control analysis, size/affiliation screen, and disadvantage narrative are drafted from your validated data and the 13 C.F.R. rule pack into field-locked templates — no legal opinions, no invented facts.
04
Deterministic completeness gates
Ownership percentages reconcile to the ledger; size standards are verified; net-worth caps are checked; the document checklist is resolved; any failure blocks release.
05
Specialist release
A GovCon eligibility specialist reviews the exception queue and signs the release. High-value or complex cases route to attorney review first.
06
Delivery
You receive the package: application, ownership/control analysis, size/affiliation screen, evidence log, document checklist, and the continuous-eligibility calendar — ready for the firm to submit under its own name.
The bar we hold
Rigor you can measure.
100%
Specialist-released
No package ships without a human signature.
5 days
Standard SLA
From complete intake to released package.
<1%
Critical-defect target
Tracked against a gold-standard package library.
4
Search sources
SBA · DUNS · SAM · IRS · Secretary of State, every applicable file.
Why CertPath
Built to be the most thorough option a small business has.
Documentation-complete, by design
The deliverable is completeness itself — every statutory element and document accounted for or explicitly exception-coded. Nothing is left implicit.
Deterministic, not vibes
The gates that decide completeness are code, not a model's opinion. A drafting error cannot slip past a regulatory requirement.
In its lane, on purpose
We prepare documentation and run searches as your clerical agent. We never give legal advice, represent you before the SBA, or make eligibility determinations.
Engagement
Milestone fee per approved certification + annual maintenance retainer. No hourly billing, ever.
Simple, predictable, and aligned with a documentation standard — not a cut of any contract award.
- A free Eligibility Scan before you commit — see exactly what is missing.
- One milestone fee per approved certification; disclosed pass-through search fees.
- Annual maintenance retainer for recertifications, program exams, annual reviews, and material-change filings.
- Optional fixed-fee attorney review for complex or high-value cases.
FAQ
Questions, answered precisely.
Is CertPath a law firm?
No. CertPath, a service of Your Deputy, Obuke LLC, provides documentation-completeness services. It is not a law firm, does not provide legal advice, and does not represent you before the SBA. Attorney review is available and recommended for complex or high-value cases.
Do you file the application with the SBA?
We prepare the complete package and provide it to you for submission. As your clerical agent, we can assist with uploading under your SBA account with your authorization, but you remain the applicant.
What makes a package 'complete'?
Completeness is defined by the regulations: the five statutory elements present, all required documents, ownership/control analysis, size/affiliation screen, and disadvantage narrative — all verified against 13 C.F.R. Deterministic gates enforce each one before release.
How fast is it?
The standard SLA is five business days from complete intake to a specialist-released package. The free Eligibility Scan is returned much sooner and tells you exactly what is still needed.
How are you priced?
A milestone fee per approved certification, plus an annual maintenance retainer for ongoing eligibility. No hourly billing and no percentage of any contract award.
See what's missing before it costs you a certification.
Start with a free Eligibility Scan. Send your corporate, ownership, and financial documents and we'll return a completeness read against every subsection of 13 C.F.R. Parts 124, 125, 126, and 127.
Documentation-completeness service · not legal advice · the firm submits every application.