If you’ve managed to find yourself reading Winvale’s regular blog series, odds are you’ve got an idea of what the General Services Administration (GSA) is by this point (if not, that’s okay, we have some articles on that too), but you may be wondering what the differences between a Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) and Veterans Affairs (VA) Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contract are. They’re both federal government contracting vehicles administered by GSA as a whole but they vary in many ways in terms of structure, scope, and usage. This article will provide some answers to your most burning questions.

With government spending on a steady incline year over year, increasing your company’s footprint in the public sector with a GSA Schedule and other government contracts can help to grow your business’ revenue—but how do you actually invoice and receive payment from these agencies? In the private sector, it can be relatively straightforward in most cases, where the seller will specify the invoicing and payment schedule, and the buyer will (normally) oblige the established schedule for payment. However, in the government market, payment functions differently. Government buyers will reserve payment for something until it’s received.

As a GSA Schedule contractor, you are given access to a variety of tools and platforms for advertising and selling to government buyers. Arguably, the most important of these is GSA Advantage!. Much in the way that you and I would purchase items from Amazon or shop online during Cyber Monday, Contracting Officers for government agencies access GSA Advantage! to browse the full catalog of contractors and their offerings. Even if you’ve already established consistent relationships with existing buyers, your public sector footprint could grow even larger with the aid of GSA Advantage!.

The 4th quarter always seems to be the most important--whether it’s in a football game where a quarterback is running a 2-minute drill while down one score, a basketball team is rallying back from a deficit and banking on a buzzer beater to take home the win, or even discussing government spending toward the end of the fiscal year when government agencies are rushing to use up their annual budget. One statistic that stands out to rookies and seasoned contracting veterans alike is that nearly one-third (yes, 1/3!) of federal contract dollars are awarded during Q4 of the government’s fiscal year. With agencies spending the remainder of their annual budget, and a rising need to procure a larger volume of products and services, the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program becomes a key vehicle for both buyers and sellers.

As a government contractor, you’ve probably run into NAICS codes more than a few times, and you likely know which ones are applicable to your products or services. But like many, questions still linger about their true meaning and function. Questions like: “What does the acronym even mean in the first place?” “How do they affect your business and how you work with the government?” “What is a size standard?”

Every government contractor’s main objective is simple – win. But how? How does a compliant, well-qualified company successfully win a contract in such a competitive marketplace? Unfortunately, the answer isn’t as straightforward as some would like it to be. However, one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle is clear, and that's pricing.