Show Your GSA Schedule Some Love and Keep it Updated
Are you keeping your GSA Schedule maintained? If you neglect your Schedule there could be consequences down the road, so this is your reminder to review all the major maintenance tasks and ensure they are completed. Here are 3 ways to stay on track:
First, let's start with sales reporting. Depending on your reporting type, you are required to report your GSA contract sales either every quarter or every month. Even if you have zero sales for the period, it is still required that you submit this information. It's crucial to report your sales correctly and on time so you can remit the quarterly Industrial Funding Fee (IFF).
It's also important to keep up with general contract changes such as primary contact information, product/service additions, or your pricing. Your prices will almost definitely need to be modified as time goes on, which means submitting modifications for approval and uploading the corrected pricelist within 30 days of modification award.
Lastly, is your SAM registration fully up to date? A change in contacts, addresses, or business size can create a ripple effect that will need to be changed in quite a few places like SAM.org, eLibrary, and your FSS Pricelist Textfile. This may seem like a smaller issue that does not come up often, but once a contact is unreachable by GSA, you may miss notifications, questions, concerns, or even orders from GSA and it may be quite the ordeal to get things back on track. Don’t let this get away from you!
To learn more about all the maintenance for your GSA Schedule, check out our blog.
Couldn't make it to last month's webinar? Watch it here on demand. In this webinar, we'll discuss the ins and outs of the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program, including benefits, how to determine if it's a good fit, and where to start.
We are proud to announce that Winvale Public Sector has successfully earned ISO 9001:2015 certification. You can learn more about our certification here.
The GSA Schedule is a long-term governmentwide contract with commercial firms providing federal, state, and local government buyers access to more than 11 million commercial supplies (products) and services at volume discount pricing.
Join this free virtual training course that will outline the GSA Schedule Program and help your small business understand the process for getting on the GSA Schedule.
The General Services Administration (GSA), Office of Small Business Utilization is hosting this 30-minute webinar for all small businesses looking for additional information and guidance on GSA and our opportunities. The webinar will include an overview of the GSA Multiple Award Schedule Program, Public Buildings Service, Federal Acquisition Service, Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts, the Forecast of Contracting Opportunities, the Small Business Administration’s Subcontracting Network (SubNet), Section 889 guidance, and more.
Winvale Webinar
Thursday, February 22, 2024
12:00 PM ET - 12:30 PM ET
When acquiring a GSA Schedule, contractors show their value in the federal market, unlocking access to new contracting opportunities. However, these benefits come with responsibilities as well. Upon submitting the offer for your GSA Schedule, you agreed to the terms and conditions set forth in GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Solicitation. These requirements encompass aspects such as pricing, sales reporting, and more. To ensure ongoing contractor compliance, your GSA Industrial Operations Analyst (IOA) will hold Contractor Assessment Visits (CAVs) to assess your adherence to the terms and conditions of the GSA Schedule.
Even if you don’t yet know your IOAs from your CAVs yet, we would like to invite you to a webinar where we will discuss:
Understanding what a CAV is and how it differs from an audit
There are some significant updates coming to Transactional Data Reporting (TDR) contractors. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has recognized GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) as an agency leader in increasing transparency and achieving better buying outcomes through the TDR pilot program. As a result, GSA is planning to improve the quality and usage of TDR data while leaving the size of the pilot program unchanged (for now). Here’s a summary of the changes:
GSA plans to improve the TDR validation process so the systems are better at synthesizing data by enabling real-time validation of Manufacturer Name, Manufacturer Part Number, Unit of Measure, and Unit Price fields against each contractor’s catalog.
GSA will begin sending recurring contractor feedback reports that will provide TDR contractors with a more holistic view of their TDR data quality performance. These reports will be rolled out in phases.
Lastly, GSA is introducing four new optional TDR reporting fields in Quarter 3 of government Fiscal Year 2024 (April-June). These new fields will be optional for now, but may become mandatory depending on stakeholder feedback. These fields are: Order Date, Ship Date, Zip Code/Shipped to, Federal customer. All of these apply to products only except for Federal Customer.
The Department of Defense has officially published the proposed rule for Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). While this isn’t the final rule, it outlines the DoD’s plan to implement CMMC requirements over the next few years. The CMMC is intended to create a more organized and consistent way for contractors in the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) to meet National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines for protecting Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). The CMMC will be implemented in a four-phase plan over the next 3 years. To learn more about all phases, refer to our blog.
To prepare for the Final CMMC rule as a contractor, we suggest a member of your team reads the proposed rule in full so your business fully understands all the requirements applicable to you. Once you have a better understanding of the rule, we recommend developing a strategy to train your employees to help ensure your company is well prepared once the final rule is released.
QUICK TIPS
EPA Temporary Moratorium Set to End March 31, 2024
As of now, GSA has not announced the extension of the temporary moratorium on a number of limitations within Economic Price Adjustment (EPA) clauses. These flexibilities were created to mitigate the effects of inflation and supply chain disruptions. Last fall, GSA extended the moratorium to March 31, 2024. So, we suggest you take advantage of this moratorium now and consider submitting modifications for any price increases before it ends or prepare for these clauses to take full effect again.
As a reminder, you can’t just change your pricing to any number that suits your company, it has to be within certain guidelines. This moratorium loosened these guidelines, such as relaxing time limitations on EPA increases and the limit on the number of EPA increases a contractor may request, but there were still parameters. To learn more about the moratorium and the different EPA clauses, check out our blog.
EMERGING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
Sources Sought for Developing Innovative Approaches for Collecting Food Price Data in U.S. Territories and the Non-Contiguous States
The Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Services (FNS), is seeking a professional to investigate, pilot, and implement at scale new methods of collecting food price data in regions of the country that tend to be under-represented in sources of food price data currently accessible to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), specifically the non-contiguous States: Alaska and Hawaii, and the five U.S. Territories: Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code(s) assigned to this procurement is 541910 - Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling. Responses are due no later than March 6, 2024, 12:00 pm EST. More information can be found under Notice ID RFQ1676570.
Pre-solicitation for Platform Accelerating Rural Access to Distributed & InteGrated Medical care (PARADIGM)
The National Institute of Health (NIH), NIH Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), is issuing this pre-solicitation for their Platform Accelerating Rural Access to Distributed & Integrated Medical care (PARADIGM), which will deliver hospital-level care via a multi-purpose Care Delivery Platform (CDP) that is as convenient as telehealth. The CDP will pioneer new developments in point-of-care diagnostics, ensure seamless data exchange between medical devices and electronic health records (EHRs), and offer real-time guidance for medical tasks. The CDP is designed for large-scale deployment by healthcare systems, particularly in rural and resource-limited settings. This pre-solicitation falls under NAICS Code 541715 - Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology). Responses are due no later April 26, 2024, 4:00 pm EDT. More information can be found under Notice ID ARPA-H-SOL-24-02.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: What are NAICS Codes and why are they important?
A: NAICS Codes, or North American Industry Classification System Codes, are six-digit numeric codes developed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to classify businesses. They are crucial for government agencies to categorize industries and evaluate procurement needs. NAICS Codes help businesses find relevant opportunities and determine size standards for Small Business Administration (SBA) qualifications.
Q: Where can I find my primary NAICS Code related to my GSA Schedule?
A: GSA Schedule holders can find their NAICS Code on the System for Award Management (SAM) webpage. It's essential to know your NAICS Code as it aligns with Special Item Numbers (SINs), helping GSA determine which products or services match with specific industries.
Q: Why is self-assigning NAICS Codes beneficial, and can I change my NAICS Code?
A:The self-assigning feature of NAICS Codes allows companies to choose a code that best describes their core business. Companies can request a NAICS Code change if it aligns with their business scope. Self-assigning also applies to GSA Schedule contracts, but OSHA, EPA, and DEP codes are exceptions.
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