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!.

GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contracts have many compliance requirements to ensure that contractors provide products and services that align with federal procurement regulations. This fall, GSA renewed efforts to take action to remove non-compliant products from GSA contracts and GSA Advantage!. In the coming months, GSA will be removing items from a contractor’s Schedule if they are not in compliance with Trade Agreements Act (TAA) regulations, include prohibited hardware and telecommunications, as well as non-authorized refurbished items. Compliance with the terms and conditions of your Multiple Award Schedule is critical to the success of your contract, so let’s cover what you need to know about these non-compliant products.

The short answer is yes, you can participate in government bids without a GSA Schedule. However, it’s much more nuanced than that, and you can be missing out on huge opportunities within the federal marketplace. Open market sales to the federal government take much longer and can be more costly than sales through a government contracting vehicle, and other vehicles are not as flexible or available.