A GSA contract is a pre-negotiated agreement between the U.S. General Services Administration and a private business that lets the business sell products or services directly to federal, state, and local government agencies at prices both sides have already agreed on. The most common form is the Multiple Award Schedule, or MAS, which covers 12 broad categories of commercial goods and services. Getting one typically takes six months to a year of preparation, and keeping one requires steady reporting, catalog upkeep, and enough sales to meet GSA’s minimums.1U.S. General Services Administration. Multiple Award Schedule
How the MAS Program Works
MAS contracts (also called GSA Schedules or Federal Supply Schedules) are indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity agreements. The government doesn’t promise to buy a specific quantity from you. It agrees that when an agency needs what you sell, it can order from you at the prices already locked into your contract, without running a fresh competitive solicitation.1U.S. General Services Administration. Multiple Award Schedule
The program is organized into 12 Large Categories covering most of what the government buys commercially, from IT and professional services to furniture, industrial products, security, and travel. Within each category, specific offerings are classified by Special Item Numbers, or SINs. Your application proposes the SINs that match what you sell, and your award spells out exactly what you’re approved to offer.
Each MAS contract runs for a five-year base period with three five-year option periods, for a potential total of 20 years. GSA decides whether to exercise each option based on your performance, compliance, and sales activity. The 20-year runway is earned, not automatic.
Who Qualifies
GSA expects an established company. You generally need at least two years of operational history, financial statements covering that period, and past-performance references demonstrating that you can deliver on government orders.2U.S. General Services Administration. Roadmap to Get a MAS Contract Companies with less than two years in business may still qualify through GSA’s Startup Springboard pathway.
Your products or services must already be commercially available. GSA is not funding research and development; it wants to see items that have been tested, sold, and delivered in a competitive market. You’ll also need to show financial stability, typically through audited or reviewed statements and evidence of consistent revenue.
One prerequisite is not optional: active registration in the System for Award Management at SAM.gov. This is the federal government’s central database for entities doing business with any agency, and registration must be complete before you can submit an offer.3Acquisition.GOV. Subpart 4.11 – System for Award Management SAM registration is free but takes two to four weeks to process, and it has to be renewed annually.
What You Have to Do Before You Apply
Two training requirements must be completed within the 12 months before you submit an offer, and missing either one gets the offer rejected outright.
The first is the Pathways to Success course, a three-to-four-hour program covering how the MAS program works and what GSA expects from contractors. The second is the Readiness Assessment, a self-evaluation that must be completed by an officer of your company who is also an authorized negotiator on the offer. It cannot be done by an outside consultant or agent.2U.S. General Services Administration. Roadmap to Get a MAS Contract
You’ll also need a digital certificate to sign and submit through GSA’s eOffer portal. GSA accepts Non-Federal Issuer certificates from IdenTrust or Operational Research Consultants, and Department of Defense ECA certificates.4GSA. Digital Certificates – eOffer/eMod Foreign companies use IdenTrust. Issuance can take a few weeks, so start early.
Submitting Your Offer
With SAM active, training complete, and a digital certificate in hand, offer preparation begins. This is the most labor-intensive part of the process, and it consumes most of the six-month timeline.
The offer is built around GSA’s consolidated MAS solicitation. You identify which SINs fit your offerings and assemble a proposal that includes detailed pricing, technical documentation showing your products or services meet commercial standards, and administrative paperwork covering your company’s background and financial position.
Pricing draws the most scrutiny. GSA wants evidence that the prices you’re offering the government are fair and competitive against what you charge your commercial customers. Under the Transactional Data Reporting program, which is now mandatory for all MAS SINs, contractors report line-item transaction data monthly rather than disclosing their full commercial sales practices at the outset. TDR also exempts contractors from the traditional Price Reductions Clause and most-favored-customer requirements, which gives more pricing flexibility after award.5U.S. General Services Administration. Transactional Data Reporting Requirements
Everything goes through eOffer. After submission, a GSA Contracting Officer reviews the package. Expect back-and-forth. The officer may ask clarifying questions, request more documentation, or push back on pricing. Negotiations can run weeks or months depending on the complexity of your offering and how quickly you respond. The process ends when both sides agree on final terms and GSA issues the award.
Trade Agreements Act Compliance
If you sell physical products, this is where contractors most often stumble. The Trade Agreements Act applies to all GSA Schedule contracts and restricts the country of origin for anything you sell.6Vendor Support Center. Trade Agreement Act (TAA) Compliance You can only offer products manufactured in the United States or a TAA-designated country, or products substantially transformed in one of those countries into a new and different article of commerce.
Substantial transformation has a specific legal meaning: the product must emerge with a new name, character, or use distinct from its original components. Repackaging or relabeling does not qualify. GSA maintains a list of more than 100 designated countries, including most of Europe, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and many developing nations.7U.S. General Services Administration. Look Up Trade Agreements Act-Designated Countries Notably absent from the list are China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. If your supply chain runs through any of those countries, you have a compliance problem to solve before you apply.
TAA violations can lead to contract termination and potential False Claims Act liability. Audit your entire supply chain before submitting your offer.
What Happens After the Award
Winning the contract is where the real work starts. GSA expects active management from day one, and falling behind on obligations can get a contract cancelled.
Catalog Upload
Within 30 calendar days of award, you must upload your electronic catalog to GSA Advantage, the online portal where government buyers browse and place orders. New contractors get a welcome email from the FAS Catalog Platform with instructions. If your catalog is rejected, you have 30 calendar days to fix and resubmit.8U.S. General Services Administration. Requirements After Getting a MAS Contract Until your catalog is live, buyers can’t find you.
Sales Reporting and the Industrial Funding Fee
Every MAS contractor reports transactional sales data monthly through the FAS Sales Reporting Portal, with reports due within 30 days after the end of each reporting month. Reports are required even if you had zero sales that month.9General Services Administration. FAQs – FAS SRP Under TDR, you report up to 16 data elements per line item.
The Industrial Funding Fee is 0.75% of every dollar sold through your GSA contract.10GSA Vendor Support Center. MAS and VA FSS Industrial Funding Fee (IFF) Rates It funds GSA’s operations and is due at least quarterly, within 30 days after the end of each quarter. You can remit monthly with your sales reports if you prefer. Late IFF payments trigger delinquency notices and can put your contract at risk.
Minimum Sales Thresholds
GSA doesn’t keep contracts open for companies that aren’t selling. Under GSAR clause 552.238-79, you must reach $100,000 in total contract sales within your first five years and $125,000 during each subsequent five-year period.8U.S. General Services Administration. Requirements After Getting a MAS Contract Fall short and GSA may cancel the contract, typically after a warning that gives you a chance to respond or ramp up marketing. Holding a Schedule and waiting for orders to appear rarely produces enough activity to hit those numbers.
Contract Modifications
Your contract evolves with your business. Modifications go through GSA’s eMod system and can add or delete SINs, add or remove specific products and services, request economic price adjustments, submit price reductions, or update administrative details like company address or points of contact.11GSA. Quick Facts About Mod – eOffer/eMod Price increases aren’t automatic; you have to justify them, usually by showing that your commercial prices have gone up.
Small Business Set-Asides
Federal law directs agencies to steer a significant share of contract spending to small businesses, and the MAS program has built-in mechanisms to do that. Purchases between the micro-purchase threshold and the simplified acquisition threshold are automatically reserved for small businesses, as long as at least two qualified small firms can supply the item at a fair price.12U.S. General Services Administration. Set-Asides and Special Interest Groups
Beyond general small-business status, several socioeconomic designations unlock additional set-aside opportunities:
- Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB): at least 51% owned, controlled, and primarily managed by one or more women who are U.S. citizens.
- Small Disadvantaged Business / 8(a): at least 51% owned and controlled by U.S. citizens who are economically and socially disadvantaged and admitted to the SBA’s 8(a) program.
- HUBZone: principal office in a historically underutilized business zone, with at least 35% of employees living in a HUBZone.
- Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB): at least 51% owned and controlled by a veteran with a service-connected disability as determined by the VA or DOD.
If your company fits any of these, make sure your SAM.gov registration and SBA certifications reflect the status before you submit your offer. Contracting officers use procurement tools that filter specifically for these designations.
What It Costs and How Long It Takes
GSA charges no application fee, and your first two digital certificates for eOffer access are provided at no cost. Additional certificates are purchased from the authorized providers.
The real cost is preparation. Many companies hire consultants who specialize in GSA proposals. Full-service firms typically charge between $15,000 and $25,000 for offer preparation, depending on the number of SINs, the complexity of your pricing, and how much documentation you need built from scratch. Fees well below $15,000 tend to signal incomplete service. Whether you hire help or do the work in-house, plan for three to six months to prepare a strong package, and expect the full timeline from first steps to award to run six months to a year.
After award, your ongoing costs are the 0.75% IFF on all contract sales, the staff time for monthly TDR reporting, and the effort to keep your catalog and modifications current. None are large individually. Neglecting any of them can put the contract at risk.