Government Contracting Blog

As most contractors know, or will find out, maintaining compliance is one of the most important factors in doing business with the government. One of the most important, and frustrating, aspects of compliance for GSA Schedule holders is the tracking of Commercial Sales Practices (CSP). The idea of disclosing your Commercial Sales Practices, and tracking to make sure that their relationship to GSA pricing are not disturbed, can be daunting to many GSA Schedule holders and prospective contractors.

As a current or prospective federal contractor, you are likely already aware that the federal government is the largest volume purchaser of goods and services in the world. However, while the federal government purchases large volumes, that does not mean every single purchase they make is itself large. Smaller purchases are often made, which helps explain why the government created less cumbersome ordering procedures for transactions under certain dollar thresholds.

In 2016, the General Services Administration (GSA) rolled out a program that allows Transactional Data Reporting (TDR) on GSA Schedule orders for contractors who opt in (and are eligible). As TDR has become more established in the GSA Schedules program, more and more contractors have been opting into TDR and are experiencing the benefits it provides. Now that GSA has expanded TDR to an additional 67 Special Item Numbers (SINs), I would like to help you make an informed decision regarding whether or not you should opt into TDR by providing an overview of both the benefits and potential drawbacks of switching to TDR. Let’s jump into finding how switching to TDR would affect maintenance of your GSA Schedule.

Once you have received your GSA Schedule contract, remaining compliant with its requirements is the most important part to becoming a successful contractor. Non-compliance can lead to the removal of products from your GSA Schedule, resulting in loss of business opportunities and revenue. One aspect of non-compliance that isn’t discussed enough is GSA runs an automated process that helps streamline the removal of non-compliant products from GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contracts. You often will not even get notification before the items are removed in this automatic “RoboMod” process. In some cases, the item might not actually have anything wrong with it, there could just be an error with some of the information you listed, such as an incorrect Country of Origin (COO).

The email from your GSA Industrial Operations Analyst (IOA) to request a Contractor Assessment Visit (CAV) can cause even the most compliant contractor anxiety. Did we accurately report all our GSA sales? Were all of our employees qualified to perform under their labor categories? Is our pricelist still accurate? While the CAV is not an audit, your IOA will be assessing your adherence to the terms and conditions of your GSA Schedule, so you need to be prepared. You may be wondering what kinds of issues they can uncover. To make sure you are informed, we will go over some of the most frequent problems uncovered during Contractor Assessment Visits.

The new year is a time of possibility that often brings about reflection in your business’s strategy for growth in the upcoming year. In the government contracting landscape, businesses often seek effective strategies to expand their horizons, tap into new markets, and secure a steady stream of customers.