Once you receive your GSA Schedule, it’s important to consider the maintenance and compliance required to successfully manage your contract. While you’ve overcome the significant hurdle of getting your GSA Schedule awarded, you are not off the hook for the remainder of your contract. There are steps you need to take to ensure your contract complies with GSA regulations and requirements. If you fail to adhere to some of the regulations, you could risk getting your contract cancelled. To avoid contract cancellation and to maximize contract success, we put together a blog of some important rules you should keep in mind throughout the life of your GSA Schedule.

It’s never too early to start preparing for next year—as 2021 comes to a close, GSA is planning their strategic moves for 2022 and outlining what changes will be made to the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program. In early December, we attended the Southwest Supply and Acquisition Center’s Industry Days, which is a yearly event devoted to providing contractors and industry partners developments on GSA. This year’s events gave insight to all the important updates that are expected to happen within the next year or two. What are some of these updates and how will it impact your business tactics? Here are some of the biggest takeaways.

As a contractor for the General Services Administration (GSA), you know that a key part of contract compliance is regularly reporting your sales and paying the Industrial Funding Fee (IFF). Whether you report on a monthly or quarterly basis, it’s essential you have a consistent and accurate invoicing process so you can be certain you are reporting the correct sales. To ensure that contractors are compliant with their sales reporting process, GSA will conduct Contractor Assessments on a semi-regular basis. During these assessments, an Industrial Operations Analyst (IOA) will analyze your sales practices and reporting history to ensure you are compliant with GSA terms and conditions.

As a federal contractor, have you ever gotten an email saying that you will need to pay hundreds of dollars to renew your SAM.gov registration? Contractors should be wary of these offers, some of which are outright scams, because registering and updating your business’s registration in SAM.gov is always free. If you are already a federal contractor, you probably have dealt with registration in SAM.gov, and as you can imagine, keeping this registration updated yearly is important.

If you are coming to the end of your GSA Schedule contract’s 5-year option period, chances are you have received a notice from GSA for a contract extension. What do you do with this information? Well, you have 2 options: you can let your GSA Schedule contract expire, or you can choose to continue your contract through an option extension. If you are unfamiliar with the GSA Schedule extension process, you may have several questions swirling around in your head. Here’s what you need to know about the option extension so you can make the best decision for your company.

Once you get your GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract, you can have it for up to 20 years. It’s a rewarding contract vehicle, but it’s a long-term commitment, meaning you’ll need to frequently update your GSA Schedule to grow with your business and to keep up with GSA regulations. GSA requires regular contract maintenance, involving contract updates, reporting, modifications, and adhering to new GSA regulations.