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When preparing a GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) offer, many contractors dive into selecting Special Item Numbers (SINs), gathering past performance examples, and assembling proposal documentation. However, one of the most valuable planning resources is often overlooked early in the process: the Large Category Attachment related to your offerings.
Large Category Attachments are industry-specific solicitation documents that help contractors understand SIN requirements and documentation required specific to the products and services they plan to offer. It’s important you review the relevant Category Attachments before you get too deep into the MAS offer process because it will help you decide whether you meet the requirements and if a GSA Schedule is the right fit for your company. We’ll cover how to review these attachments and how they impact your offer below.
Start With the MAS Solicitation and Category Attachment
Before investing significant time in proposal development, contractors can use the Large Category Attachment(s) to evaluate SIN fit, identify documentation gaps, and determine whether they can meet GSA's requirements.
The first essential step is reading and understanding the MAS Solicitation to determine the requirements that apply across MAS offers. From there, focus on the Category Attachment associated with the Large Category and Special Item Numbers (SINs) that best correlate to your products or services.
This information can help determine whether the SIN you’re considering is a practical fit for your federal contracting strategy.
The image below is an example of what the MAS Large Category attachments look like published on the GSA eOffer site.
As reflected in the attachments above, there are 12 Large Categories in the GSA MAS Program. They are:
- A – Office Management
- B - Facilities
- C - Furniture & Furnishings
- D - Human Capital
- E - Industrial Products and Services
- F - Information Technology
- G - Miscellaneous
- H - Professional Services
- I - Scientific Management and Solutions
- J - Security and Protection
- K - Transportation and Logistics Services
- L – Travel
Use MAS Category Attachments to Help with SIN Selection
One of the first things we do when we meet with a client who is unsure where they fit into the MAS Program is review the Category Attachments that most closely align with the products and/or services they plan to offer.
The attachments provide important information about the scope and requirements associated with the SINs within a Large Category. It can be easy to identify several SINs that appear related to your commercial offerings, but each additional SIN can introduce additional scope, qualifications, experience requirements and documentation standards that must be addressed in the offer. Make sure you are able to fulfill these requirements before choosing the SINs you want to go after.
For example, a company providing Environmental Consulting Services may identify several Professional Services SINs that appear relevant to its capabilities. After reviewing the Category Attachment, the company may determine that SIN 541620 focuses on Environmental Consulting Services such as environmental planning, compliance support, environmental assessments, NEPA documentation, and natural resource management activities that closely align with its documented project experience.
The same company may also consider SIN 541690, which covers a broader range of Technical and Scientific Consulting services. However, your business’s strongest SIN selection strategy is determined by past performance experience and supporting materials. We suggest you use the Category Attachment requirements early, to focus your initial offer on the SIN that is most supported with past performance etc. rather than pursuing multiple SINs that may be more difficult to justify during evaluation.
The image below shows a detailed SIN description for 541620 and what kind of companies may fall under this selection.
You can also find a full list of Large Categories, SINs and their descriptions on GSA eLibrary. However, the Category Attachments provide the information on what’s required in the offer; eLibrary will just outline the description.
Build Your Technical Section Around Evidence
The Category Attachments can guide the development of the supporting evidence for your GSA MAS offer, especially in the Technical Section. Companies should review applicable experience requirements, technical capability expectations, past performance considerations, certifications, industry credentials, and other category-specific requirements before you begin drafting your offer. This might help you decide whether it’s feasible to go after a certain SIN or several.
The objective is to establish a clear connection between the requirement, the company's capability, and the evidence supporting that capability in your technical and corporate experience narratives. The more relevant the experience to the SIN, the better.
Do You Need Help with Your GSA Schedule Offer?
If your company understands the requirements laid out in the Category Attachments, you can use them to evaluate SIN fit, identify documentation or capability gaps, organize supporting evidence, develop more focused offers, and plan for future Schedule expansion. Instead of treating the Category Attachment as a document to review at the end of proposal development, businesses can use it at the beginning of the process to help determine what action to take next.
Of course, with these tips the MAS offer process is still lengthy and can be confusing, especially for companies who are new to federal procurement. If you have questions about past performance documentation, SIN requirements, or any other aspect of the offer process, our team of experienced consultants can help guide you through the process and position your offer for success.
