In the chaos of government Q4 of the Fiscal Year, contractors are focused on responding to federal opportunities, but may be missing out on key state and local government opportunities as well. There’s a common misconception that contractors can only sell to the federal government through a GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract. Along with a list of eligible national and international organizations, GSA contractors can also sell to state and local government as well as tribal governments and certain educational institutions through certain purchasing programs. Most state governments end on June 30 or September 30, meaning now's the time to be searching for these opportunities.

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 federal government uses various thresholds to determine who qualifies for government procurement opportunities. One key threshold in this context is the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT). If you’ve familiarized yourself with the similarities and differences between the Micro-Purchase Threshold (MPT) vs. the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT), we strongly encourage you to follow up more about the SAT as there are a lot of contract rules in accordance to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). This blog post defines the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT), its purpose, its impact on small businesses, and what you should do when searching for opportunities within the set threshold.

Navigating the General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Program can be complicated—there are a lot of confused businesses out there trying to make sense of all the requirements and regulations. It can be easy to get lost in the sea of terms and red tape, and possibly form misconceptions about the process. Unfortunately, these misconceptions about GSA Schedules can deter businesses from taking advantage of the opportunities they offer. In this article, we’ll debunk the top 5 GSA Schedule myths so you are well prepared before you enter the world of GSA.

As a GSA Schedule contractor, there are a few pre-requisites you need to meet before you can begin preparing your GSA Schedule proposal that also continue throughout the life of your contract. One of these requirements is Trade Agreements Act (TAA) compliance. In order to maintain TAA compliance with your GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract, you must agree each “final product” you sell will have been “substantially transformed” in the U.S. or in a signatory country designated by the TAA, throughout the entirety of your contract.

If you want to get on the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), the first step is putting together your proposal. Preparing an MAS offer is no easy task, and there’s plenty of pitfalls to avoid. Luckily, we here at Winvale have years of experience with creating GSA Schedule proposals, and we’ve learned a few tricks along the way. In this blog, we’ll talk about some of the Do’s and Don’ts to keep in mind when preparing a GSA Schedule proposal.