Government Contracting Blog

As a new or seasoned federal government contractor, you’re probably no stranger to adapting to frequent changes in policy and requirements. There have been a lot of changes to the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Program recently, especially through the Revolutionary Federal Acquisition Regulation Overhaul (RFO). One of these changes is to Order Level Materials, or OLMs. Read on to learn more about what an OLM is, how the RFO impacts OLMs, and how you can utilize the OLM Special Item Number (SIN) with these changes.

Prospective GSA contractors undergo many levels of evaluation before they are awarded a GSA Schedule contract, with GSA examining everything from financial statements to past performance. However, once you’ve successfully acquired a GSA Schedule contract, the evaluations don’t necessarily stop.

As a new calendar year begins, it’s important to review key events that occurred within the federal contracting world recently to prepare for a successful year for your GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract. Forty years ago, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) was established as a “rulebook” featuring policies and regulations that would guide federal agencies during the procurement of supplies and services, totaling over 2,000 pages of content.

For many defense contractors, especially those looking to be involved in Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) programs, National Stock Numbers (NSNs) are an integral part of successful procurement. NSNs have become one of the most important tools for global defense procurement, and contractors who have limited knowledge of them aren’t doing themselves a favor.

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 procures large volumes of goods and services, not every purchase they make is itself large. Smaller purchases are often necessary to ensure regular operations, which helps explain why the government created less cumbersome ordering procedures for transactions under certain dollar thresholds.

Many government contractors are emerging from the recent federal shutdown with stop work orders, reduced contract scopes, and unpaid invoices. With agencies reopening and invoice processing resuming, contractors are now facing a significant payment backlog from their invoices on or before September 30th.