Cold-formed steel connections are commonly fastened using self-tapping self-drilling screws. The behavior of these connections can differ based on the screw manufacturer or the cold-formed steel product used, both of which have a large selection available for use in industry. Because of their popularity and the many possible variations of these connections, researchers have frequently tested screw connections to characterize their behavior. However, repeatedly conducting this type of experiment is time consuming and expensive. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to create finite element models that can successfully predict the behavior of single lap shear screw connections, a common connection type used in cold-formed steel framing. These models were created using the finite element program Abaqus/CAE. To validate these models, test results from Pham and Moen (2015) were used to compare the stiffness, strength, and failure mode of multiple connections. A parametric study is also conducted to determine the influence of contact parameters on the behavior of the model. The results showed that all models consistently had good agreement with the connection stiffness and that most of the models also had good agreement with the peak load and failure mode of the v tests. These results were also compared to the design equations available for screw connections from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). This comparison revealed that the models are more successful at predicting screw connection behavior than AISI, and thus work is required to improve the accuracy of AISI’s design equations. The eventual goal of this work is to develop a procedure to build and validate models without requiring test data. This work continuing in the future can lead to recommendations to improve AISI’s design equations and to implement the behavior of the connections into large cold-formed steel framing models such as diaphragms or shear walls.