How to Prepare Your GSA Schedule Proposal: The Administrative Section

The road to securing your GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract can be a tedious but incredibly rewarding process for your company. Before you dive into the world of MAS, you’ll want to set yourself up for success. To begin, you will need to submit a proposal, which consists of three parts: the Administrative section, the Technical section, and the Pricing section. In this blog, we will cover the ins and outs of the Administrative section.

What is the Administrative Section of the GSA Schedule Proposal?

As the first section of the proposal, the Administrative section serves as the introduction to your company for GSA and your assigned Contracting Officer (CO). It contains basic information such as your address, contact information, and business registration. It also begins to indicate what products and/or services you will be offering, but more of that is covered in the Technical section.

The Administrative section establishes your company as legitimate and acts as an “checklist” of sorts to ensure you are eligible to apply for a GSA MAS contract. As with all aspects of GSA, compliance is key. So, before you create your proposal, make sure to gather and review the following information.

Company Registration

You must include proof of your System for Award Management (SAM) registration, which is required to do business with the government and can be found on sam.gov. Be sure to check that your registration does not expire within the next year. You are required to update your SAM registration every year, and you do not want it to expire during the period in which your offer will be reviewed by the CO.

You’ll also want to check that your SAM registration page has the corresponding North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code(s) listed for your Special Item Number(s) (SINs). You can check the list of SINs and NAICs Codes here. Additionally, you will also need to provide your Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), which is a number assigned along with your SAM registration. This information helps GSA ensure federal compliance with a number of requirements.

Financial Information

To demonstrate your business’s financial responsibility, GSA requires you to provide two years of financial statements, including income statements and balance sheets for both years. GSA prefers if these statements are audited, but it is not required. If you will be submitting your offer in the middle of a Fiscal Year, you will also need to supply your YTD financial statements.

If your company has experienced net loss for either year, it’s crucial that you create a “Net Loss Narrative” to explain the reasons, defend your company’s credibility, and reduce the risk of your proposal getting rejected.

If you are a new or smaller IT company who has not had 2 years of corporate experience, you may still be able to seek out a Schedule through the Startup Springboard program. This allows offerors with less than two (2) years of corporate experience to provide other financial documentation that demonstrates their financial responsibility, but you must also have a written request from a federal agency among other requirements

Company Information

In addition to your registration and financial information, GSA also asks for information about your company. This includes:

• Your employee handbook with the Uncompensated Overtime Policy and Professional Compensation Plan
• Your organizational chart with position titles
• Your address(es) for the place of performance/point of production

These documents give GSA and your CO greater insight into your business.

Other Documents Required in the Administrative Section

There is additional information that you will need to provide in the Administrative Section.

• Readiness Assessment: The Readiness Assessment is a series of questions designed to help you understand the Schedule offer process and if pursuing it is a good fit for your business. It must be completed within one year prior to submitting your offer. You will submit a PDF copy of your answers to these questions.
• Previous Contract Statement: This is a statement confirming whether your company has any other GSA Schedules, has had any Schedules rejected in the last three years, or has any other schedules pending. As a reminder, businesses are not required to have previous government contracting experience to apply for a Schedule.
• Subcontracting Plan: This outlines details such as the types of subcontracting opportunities, methods to identify potential subcontractors, and subcontracting goals. If you are an “other than small” business, you are required to submit a subcontracting plan per the FAR 52.219-9 Small Business Subcontracting Plan.
• Exceptions to Representations and Certifications: This is a statement explaining if you take any exceptions to the Representations and Certifications listed in sam.gov.
• Statement on Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act: This is a statement that details whether Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act is applicable to your business. For companies offering Information and Communication Technology products/services, you will detail your accessibility standards here.

Although this blog covers most of the required documents and information in the Administrative section, each GSA offer can vary based on the specific SIN(s) you are offering and your company. Further, the GSA MAS requirements can change often, as we saw recently with Refresh #32. So, always stay up to date with the MAS Solicitation document on sam.gov to be sure of the most current, specific guidelines.

Beginning to Create Your GSA Proposal Offer

Starting your proposal off strongly with an administrative section that is compliant and detailed is a great foundation to continue building on. This section is an instrumental piece in establishing credibility and trust with the CO that reviews your proposal.

Once you’ve compiled everything in the Administrative section, you will then work on the Technical and Pricing sections. If you’d like more information about the entire GSA Schedule Acquisition Process, feel free to check out our recent blog post. Our team at Winvale is available if you have questions as you navigate the journey to your GSA Schedule contract.