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The General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Program receives regular updates throughout the year by GSA, and this year the changes have been major. As is, it’s already easy for federal contractors to get behind on the changes that come through the several recent Solicitation Refreshes. In combination with other common misconceptions surrounding the MAS Program, existing vendors and prospective vendors alike may have a hard time parsing old from new, and myth from fact. Here, we’ll clarify both old and new misconceptions that cause some of the most confusion for MAS contractors and prospective contractors.
Misconception 1: A GSA Schedule Contract Guarantees Revenue/Sales
A GSA Schedule contract (sometimes referred to as a “MAS contract,” or just “GSA Schedule”) can be misleading in the “contract” part of its name. It is not a contract in the traditional sense, i.e. a document that defines how goods and services will be exchanged for money. Rather, a Schedule contract is an award to have your pre-vetted goods and services listed on the Multiple Award Schedule Program. While an MAS contract enters vendors into a market that has exclusive bid options with limited competition, it is important to remember that GSA MAS contracts are, by definition, “non-funded” awards. Upon award of a Schedule contract, there are no funds obligated to the awardee.
Misconception 2: There is a “Maximum Order” or Limit on How Much Sales You Can Do Through MAS
Next is one of the most common misconceptions: that there is a maximum order to sales made through a Schedule contract. The source of this misconception is the “maximum order limit” assigned to each Special Item Number (SIN).
This maximum order limit is not a cutoff to the amount of sales that can be made through your MAS contract, whether at the task order level, annual basis, or otherwise. Rather, the maximum order limit is a threshold at which the terms and conditions of your Schedule contract become fungible. This threshold applies to individual task orders.
Here is an example to further clarify this: A MAS vendor receives a task order for IT Professional Services (SIN 54151S) for $750,000. The maximum order limit for this SIN is set at $500,000. Because the task order is greater than $500,000, the discounting mechanisms negotiated at the time of Schedule award become fungible for this task order, and the government ordering entity is obligated to ask for additional discounting terms.
Misconception 3: Getting a GSA Schedule Will Limit Your Commercial Sales Practice Flexibility
Traditionally, goods and services sold under a Schedule contract are bound to the Price Reduction Clause (PRC). This clause mandates that government contractors tie the ceiling prices offered on their Schedule to the best price their Basis of Award (BOA) customer gets. Excepting any non-standard discounts, this BOA customer will typically be the customer class that gets the best price of any commercial customer, often referred to as a Most Favored Customer (MFC).
For some contractors, negotiating prices with the government under the PRC can be the most challenging part of getting prices awarded on Schedule, whether for a new MAS contract or an existing one. Some companies altogether wait on pursuing getting on Schedule because of this. However, there may be more flexibility to this clause than you realize.
Non-standard discount classification is one method contractors use to resolve their Schedule prices with commercial discounts they couldn’t sustain offering to the federal government. More on those here.
Other contractors are turning to Transactional Data Reporting (TDR) to alleviate the burden the Price Reduction Clause places on their commercial sales practices. Under TDR, you waive the requirement to report your commercial discounting practices and abide by BOA discounting restrictions, in exchange for a more rigorous Schedule sales reporting schedule.
Contractors participating in the TDR program have much greater flexibility in how they manage the sales practices they maintain with their federal and commercial customers. GSA has recently expanded the number of contractors eligible under TDR, which we’ll dive into more below.
Misconception 4: Transactional Data Reporting (TDR) is Only Applicable to a Few SINs on GSA MAS
You may have already heard about TDR and if you have a Schedule contract, you may have already determined that your contract isn’t TDR-eligible. TDR eligibility is based on SINs, and for a long time the SINs that were TDR-eligible were a select few, locking the majority of all Schedule holders out of participating in this program. This is rapidly changing as GSA continues to expand the scope of TDR.
As of MAS Solicitation Refresh #28, TDR has been expanded to the Cloud Computing SIN and all product SINs on Schedule. In fact, TDR is now mandatory for all SINs eligible for it. That full list can be found on GSA’s website. For those SINs not yet included in TDR, GSA has made known their intention to have them included within this fiscal year. One or two years ago, the SINs eligible for TDR were few and far between, making it not a viable option for many contractors; in the near future though, we expect to see TDR not just available, but mandatory, for all vendors on MAS.
Misconception 5: A GSA Schedule is Limited to What is Initially Awarded
Another common misnomer with the “contract” part of the Schedule contract is that the awarded terms, conditions, and listed goods/services are set for the entire 20-year lifespan of the contract. This is not the case. Virtually everything, besides the entity awarded, can be changed in a Schedule contract. Terms and conditions can be renegotiated, products can be added or dropped, pricing can be raised or lowered, even entire SINs can be added or dropped. These changes, called contract modifications, are a key part of keeping your Schedule up to date, compliant, and working for you.
If you’re thinking about applying to get a Schedule, or you’re in the middle of putting together a Schedule offer, this is especially important for you. The GSA Schedule acquisition process is daunting, but you can alleviate some of that stress by knowing that not everything needs to be added on the application. In fact, some offerors will add a smaller selection of listed goods or services to streamline the path to award, with the plan to add more line items through post-award modification. You will just need to take into account that some SINs require additional action items, and the modification timelines can vary, so you should definitely include your key SINs in your offer.
Misconception 7: You Need Federal Experience to Get a GSA Schedule
It is not true that an offeror needs prior experience working with the federal government before they can apply for a Schedule contract. It’s a plus, but far from required. Applicants can use experience from the commercial sector, state or local government, or educational institutions, just to name a few valid options. Past experience is a core component of the Schedule acquisition process, especially for service offerings, but as long as the experience is recent and relevant to the SINs you’re applying for, it does not need to be from a federal government contract.
Do You Need Help Getting a GSA Schedule?
These misconceptions, among others, are part of what makes Schedule acquisition so challenging. The information here may have elucidated some aspects of the process, or raised more questions for other parts. Wherever you are in your Schedule acquisition journey, Winvale’s team of expert consultants and proposal writers can help answer questions, guide strategy, and steer you clear of common pitfalls. Reach out today if you’re interested in learning more.
