Congratulations on your GSA Schedule award—now that you have your contract, you’re ready to begin the process of maintaining compliance. This is essentially the “scope of contract,” which may seem vague to you at first. We advise all new contractors to begin familiarizing themselves with the rules and regulations of holding a GSA contract. As consultants, we can’t stress enough how important it is to look after your Schedule once it’s been awarded. To help you prepare for this process, let’s discuss why scope of contract is important and what you can do to maintain GSA Schedule compliance.

Although contracts can have a reputation of being binding, your GSA Schedule contract is meant to grow and change with your company. Anytime you need to change your address or primary Point of Contact, add or delete a product, alter a product description, or upload new photos, you are able to make these changes through a modification (mod). Each modification type requires a series of documents and/or requirements, and it can be difficult to figure out what needs to be done in order to successfully complete a mod. Thankfully, the General Services Administration (GSA) has created a guide to keep contractors up to date on all the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) modification standards.

As we enter peak hurricane season while continuing to battle the never endless COVID-19 pandemic, government agencies are turning to Disaster Recovery Purchasing for help. Both federal, state, and local agencies can use the GSA Disaster Recovery Purchasing Program to get the supplies they need to mitigate and repair the effects of national emergencies. It's important for GSA contractors to be aware of this program and see what opportunities are available to them. Here's what you need to know about this program and how to add it to your GSA contract.

Whether you are registering your entity for the first time or you are renewing your registration in the System for Award Management (SAM.gov), you need to understand how entity validation works. Some contractors are getting stuck on this process, and it can hold up their contract award or prevent them from getting their annual renewal completed on time. You might be wondering: why are we just talking about this now if SAM.gov has been around for a long time? When the federal government transitioned from the DUNS Number to the Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), the entity validation process changed. This is because it can all be done in SAM.gov instead of a third party source. Here’s what you need to know about entity validation in SAM and how to complete it successfully.

Having a GSA Schedule contract opens up a whole new marketplace and customer base for your business. Billions of dollars go through GSA contracts each year and there are millions of GSA contractors, meaning there are plenty of opportunities for you to win government business and even team up with other contractors on bigger awards. The GSA Schedules program is a great way to break into government sales, but it can be a confusing and lengthy process if you’re not familiar with the requirements. If you want to know where to begin, check out the steps to getting on a GSA Schedule below.

On the journey to obtain your GSA Schedule contract, you will encounter North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Codes. NAICS Codes appear at all phases of GSA contract acquisition and throughout the life of your contract. As you register your SAM.gov account, you will have to select your NAICS Code and if you want to add new Special Item Numbers (SINs) to your contract, you will need to add the appropriate code. Government solicitations such as Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and Requests for Quotation (RFQs) all have NAICS Codes attached to them. Each time you come across one or have to select a NAICS Code, the question is “how do I determine the right NAICS code for my business?”