2023 is going to be the year—your company is looking for ways to expand its network and customer base and you have recently stumbled across government contracting, more specifically the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program. Is it the right choice for your company? How do you get started? You may have been immediately overwhelmed by the amount of government contracting terms, regulations, and confusing information surrounding GSA Schedules. In this blog, we’ll cover what you need to know if you are thinking about getting a GSA Schedule for your company.

With government spending on a steady incline year over year, increasing your company’s footprint in the public sector with a GSA Schedule and other government contracts can help to grow your business’ revenue—but how do you actually invoice and receive payment from these agencies? In the private sector, it can be relatively straightforward in most cases, where the seller will specify the invoicing and payment schedule, and the buyer will (normally) oblige the established schedule for payment. However, in the government market, payment functions differently. Government buyers will reserve payment for something until it’s received.

If you’re a new GSA contractor or new to reporting your GSA sales, you may be wondering what TDR is, and how it can fit into your contract. Transactional Data Reporting (TDR) is a GSA Schedule pilot program for reporting sales that was first rolled out in 2016. TDR is a way for GSA and its partner agencies to collect transaction-level data on solutions purchased through the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program. Ultimately, the purpose is to equip the government’s acquisition workforce with the information needed to make data-driven decisions that save taxpayer dollars. TDR also allows contractors to opt out of Commercial Sales Practices (CSP) and reporting, which could be a benefit for your company.

Once you are awarded a GSA Schedule contract, you are granted access to many platforms and resources to assist in growing your company’s presence in the public sector. As a GSA Schedule contractor, websites like SAM.gov, GSA Advantage!, GSA eLibrary, and more become important assets for success in the federal market. The issue is contractors and government buyers aren’t the only ones that see these resources as valuable. While these sites are crucial for contractors, it also makes their company highly visible with non-confidential information such as email address, numbers, address, and therefore susceptible to a cybersecurity breach.

When you receive your GSA Schedule contract award, you are not entering into a binding document, but rather a contract that will live and breathe with your company. As we know, a lot can happen in 20 years, from technological advancements to changes in company personnel and updates to your products or services. This is where GSA Schedule modifications come in. When you make a change that affects your GSA contract, you will need to submit a modification in the eMod system. But as with any process related to your GSA Schedule, it’s not necessarily an easy or fast process. In this blog, we’ll cover best practices for GSA modifications so you are setting yourself up for success.

As a GSA Schedule contractor, you are given access to a variety of tools and platforms for advertising and selling to government buyers. Arguably, the most important of these is GSA Advantage!. Much in the way that you and I would purchase items from Amazon or shop online during Cyber Monday, Contracting Officers for government agencies access GSA Advantage! to browse the full catalog of contractors and their offerings. Even if you’ve already established consistent relationships with existing buyers, your public sector footprint could grow even larger with the aid of GSA Advantage!.