GSA Schedules Newsletter Series

• Public Postings of GSA Schedule Purchases
  

  A new federal regulation requires that notices of GSA Schedule purchases be posted publicly at FedBizOpps. This will allow all to see what's be transacted through GSA Schedules.  It will give companies not holding Schedule contracts the chance to... read more

• Get Your GSA Schedule Contract for the Buying Season
  

  The federal government's fiscal year ends on September 30th. Although there are no guarantees, most federal contracting experts believe that the federal 4th quarter spending spree is going to take place later this year. Savvy... read more

• GSA Schedule Characteristics
  

  A GSA Schedule is an IDIQ that is ALWAYS open for bid.  GSA schedules are the grandfather of all IDIQs. All schedule contracts share the following four characteristics: They are open to small businesses. A services company can be virtually... read more

• GSA: The Home of the Oldest IDIQ
  

  About $40 billion, or 7 plus percent, of last year’s $535 billion in total federal procurement spending was awarded through GSA schedules. The General Services Administration is the central administrative agency of the federal government. GSA is the... read more

• Do Not Open Yourself Up to Whistle Blowers
  

  A whistle-blower exposure caused the federal government to claw back $200 million dollars from the Oracle Corporation for GSA schedule Price Reduction Clause violations. In many GSA schedule contractors, the sales organization may not want to know about... read more

• GSA Schedule Compliance, We have simplified the process
  

  Like learning to ride a bicycle, analyzing a federal contract to identify its compliance requirements is easy if you have done it before. Meeting the compliance requirements after they have been identified is easy if you: List the compliance... read more

• More Small Business Opportunities Under GSA Schedule Contracts
  

  Effective November 2, 2011, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) was amended to allow federal buyers who want to purchase through GSA Schedule contracts to set aside opportunities for small businesses. This new interim rule may... read more

• GSA Schedule Price Increases
  

  GSA Contract Modification: Simplify and accelerate GSA schedule contract modification preparation with Fedmarket's new GSA eModification. When asked about GSA schedule price increase, many of Fedmarket's customers say: "You mean we can increases... read more

• Are Your GSA Schedule Prices Up to Date?
  

  GSA Schedule prices can be increased according to the terms of a schedule contract. Seems simple but many GSA contractors do not increase their prices during the entire five years of their contract. Obviously, not requesting price increase can hurt... read more

• GSA Contract Compliance; Do it Right from the Start
  

  The most important aspects of contract compliance are: Compliance with restrictions on discounting practices (the biggest risk factor financially) Paying the GSA Industrial Funding Fee (IFF) on time Making best efforts to subcontract according to... read more

• PRC Compliance; the Most Misunderstood GSA Schedule Requirement
  

  Non-compliance with the Price Reduction Clause (PRC) clause (violating disclosed discounting practices) can result is return of money to GSA and the dollar amount can pile up if the non-compliance is caught late in the contract period. PRC problems have... read more

• The Sensitivity of GSA Schedule Contract Modifications
  

  GSA Schedule contract modification requests are comprised of a series of specific documents required by GSA to change a GSA Schedule contract, e.g., product or service updates, price changes, and name change. The content and format of modification... read more

• GSA Schedule Changes May Significantly Increase Small Business Contracting
  

  The federal government has not met its stated goal to send 23% of all federal contracting dollars to small businesses. The shortfall represents around $5 - $6 billion annually. Recently-enacted legislation requires the Small Business... read more

• Negotiating Your GSA Schedule Prices
  

  The General Services Administration Acquisition Manual (GSAM) that governs the evaluation of a GSA Schedule proposal contains the rules that govern the evaluation of a GSA Schedule proposal. See: 538.270 Evaluation of multiple award schedule... read more

• Feeling Restricted by the Number of Labor Categories That GSA will Award?
  

  Small companies are often handcuffed by GSA's requirement that a labor category cannot be offered to GSA until such time as it has been sold and you have an invoice to document the sale. And how does a small business acquire the required sales history... read more

• GSA Schedules: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
  

  GSA Schedule contracting has always been plagued by the impracticality of the "most favored customer pricing" concept and the restrictiveness of the Price Reduction Clause. Yet both haven't kept nearly 20,000 contractors from pursuing the award of a... read more

• GSA Schedule Compliance: Small Biz and the GSA
  

  Why not encourage and support small business participation in GSA Schedule contracting by loosening the experience and number-of-years-in-business requirements somewhat? Why not have 100,000 GSA Schedule holders rather than fewer than 20,000? Why... read more

• GSA Schedule Compliance: Eliminate Industrial Funding Fee
  

  One answer to this dilemma is to eliminate the Industrial Funding Fee as the funding method for the GSA Schedule Program. Dramatic, yes. But money could be funneled from the notoriously ineffective Small Business Administration to fund the GSA... read more

• GSA Hourly Rate Dilemma
  

  Most companies offer services to GSA on an hourly-rate basis. And then federal customers demand fixed-price bids based on your awarded hourly GSA rates. Most experienced federal contractors know that the hourly rate really doesn't matter that... read more

• Defining Discounting: Are There Any Answers Out There?
  

  For many, the idea of writing a proposal for a GSA Schedule contract ranks just short of "I'd rather stick my hand in a fire. Both hands. Up to the elbows." The same is true of proposals to extend GSA contracts for 5 more years. Why are GSA... read more

• Think Big and Team up with Other GSA Schedule Holders
  

  GSA encourages teaming arrangements among schedule holders to satisfy complex agency needs. Federal buyers often seek "complete solutions" through a single purchase, rather than multiple buys. Because most companies can't do everything, they... read more

• Defining Prices for a GSA Schedule Offer
  

  The single biggest problem in making an offer for a General Service Administration (GSA) schedule contract is defining prices. GSA's expectation is that companies have a standard price list, whether it's published, or a strictly internal... read more

• Disclosing Discounting Practices
  

  The biggest stumbling block for many companies in making a General Service Administration (GSA) schedule offer is GSA's requirement to disclose your "Commercial Sales Practices." Companies new to the federal market often respond, "Do what?"... read more

• Countering the "World's Biggest Customer" Argument
  

  The problem most companies face when trying to argue that GSA's prices should be higher than your Most Favored Customer is that GSA will almost always say: "We are the world's biggest customer, and we should have better than your best price even... read more

• GSA's Maximum Order Threshold
  

  A Maximum Order Threshold (MOT) is specified in the GSA Request for a Proposal (RFP). The amount of the MOT is negotiable, and its significance is often missed. The key is that the Price Reduction Clause does not apply to orders exceeding the MOT.... read more

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