MAS Roadmap: Gather Information

Complete These Forms

Many parts of your offer involve completing forms. We explain why the forms are required and how to complete them below. 

1) Agent Authorization Letter (if applicable)

If you have a third-party agent, such as a consultant helping you prepare or negotiate your Schedule offer, you will need an Agent Authorization Letter.

2) Letter Of Supply (if applicable)

If you (the offeror) are not the manufacturer of the product(s) being proposed, you need to provide an acceptable Letter of Supply. Required elements of the Letter of Supply vary based on the type of products you sell. The Letter of Supply Template provided will lay out the required components of the letter.

• If you offer commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products and your proposed products come from a manufacturer who provides supplier authorization data in the Verified Products Portal (VPP), then a Letter of Supply is not required. To determine if your products come from a manufacturer participating in the VPP, please visit the Verified Products Portal Participation Dashboard.
• For more information about the Verified Products Portal, see attached "MAS Contractor - VPP Implementation Q&A [PDF - 122 KB]"

For more information, see clause I-FSS-644 [PDF - 109 KB] of the solicitation.

3) Price Proposal Template

Use one of the price proposal templates provided to complete a pricing proposal. The template required will be based on the type of services and/or products you have selected.

Templates can be found under the Required Templates to Submit Through eOffer (as applicable) section of the MAS Scope and Templates page. 

For more information on how to complete the Price Proposal Template, refer to the MAS Solicitation, provision SCP-FSS-001, Instructions Applicable to All Offerors, Section III, Price Proposal. Complete all sections of the template, noting an N/A for sections that do not apply to your offer.

Additional applicable instructions for pricing requirements on individual SINs can be located in the large category attachments.

Compile This Information

You need to have information about your company and the work you have done to input into eOffer. Each element you will need and what each will be used for is described below.

1) Financial Statements

Gather your company’s financial statements for the previous two-year period (audited, if available). At a minimum, each financial statement must consist of a balance sheet and income statement. The GSA contracting officer will use this information to ensure that your company is financially stable. Explain any information you disclose that reflects negatively upon your business.

*Offerors who are newly formed entities (less than two years old), lacking two years of corporate financial statements, may be eligible for the Startup Springboard program, which allows providing financial documentation that demonstrates the offeror's financial responsibility in lieu of submitting two years of financial statements.

2) Subcontracting Plan (if applicable)

Unless you are designated as a ‘small business,’ your company is required to provide a subcontracting plan. ‘Other than small” includes:

• nonprofit organizations
• educational institutions
• 'large' businesses

Your company size will be determined by the NAICS code that represents the projected preponderance of work under your Schedule.

GSA expects "other than small" businesses to provide opportunities to small businesses who can perform successfully as subcontractors.

The Small Business Subcontracting Plan is part of the MAS solicitation provision SCP-FSS-001, Instructions Applicable to All Offerors, and is posted on the MAS Scope and Templates page. Use the plan in the solicitation as a guide to understand what information will be required in eOffer.   

3) Technical Proposal

The technical proposal details information and examples of your company’s experience and is used to prove that your company can provide the products and services being proposed.Your technical proposal must include narratives, along with past performance information, which you will submit via eOffer.

Note: The eOffer Past Performance module is being updated to be consistent with the instructions outlined in SCP-FSS-001 Instructions Applicable to All Offerors. 

For more information required for the technical proposal, please review the category attachments and MAS Scope and Templates incorporated into the solicitation. For more instructions related to technical requirements:

• Review SCP-FSS-001 - Applies to All Schedules
• Review applicable large category attachments relevant to your offerings
• Draft the following narratives within eOffer:
  • Factor One - Corporate experience (10,000 character limit).
  • Factor Three - Quality control (10,000 character limit).
  • Factor Four - Relevant Project Experience - this only applies if you are offering services. You will have to submit a narrative describing two relevant projects.
• Gather the following information:
  • Factor Two - Past Performance - Open Ratings report and narrative for any negative feedback.
  • Factor Five - Technical Capability - certain Special Item Numbers (SINs) require more information and/or certifications. See the solicitation for further detail.

4) Professional Compensation Plan (if applicable)

You must submit a professional compensation plan for your employees if you are proposing professional services. The plan explains the company policies on salaries and fringe benefits for employees who will work under your contract. Your Company’s general compensation practices are often found in an employee handbook. Individual compensation disclosure is not required.

To see if you are required to submit a plan, see the Cover Page of the Solicitation and for more information about this plan requirement review FAR part 52.222-46.

5) Previous Notification of Determination to Not Exercise an Option Letters (if applicable)

Include with your offer copies of any cancellation or rejection letters received within the last two years for any previously awarded Schedule contracts or submitted Schedule offers.

6) Commercial Supplier Agreements (CSA) (if applicable)

If applicable, Commercial Supplier Agreements (CSA) must be submitted with offers. 

CSAs must be from the manufacturer. If you are the reseller of a product, any changes to the End User License Agreement (EULA) must have a signature of approval from the manufacturer.

Agreements must be in an editable format (such as Microsoft Word), preferably with the portions of the documents that are federally non-compliant already removed.

7) Commercial Sales Practices Format (CSP-1) (if applicable)

MAS provides two options to meet its pricing requirements: 1) Commercial Sales Practice (CSP); and 2) Transactional Data Reporting (TDR). With either option your company provides a list of proposed prices for all offered products or services, including any additional descriptive and supporting information.

CSP (Traditional route): When using the CSP method to provide pricing information, you will complete a price proposal template where you will indicate the discounts your company currently provides in the commercial marketplace. This will then be utilized to create a discount ratio that your company will be required to track and maintain throughout the life of the contract.

Additionally, under CSP you will describe what you offer to your customers compared to what you are offering the federal government. We use this document to verify that you are offering your BEST price to the government.

Our goal is to obtain equal to or better than your "Most Favored Customer" (MFC) under the same or similar terms and conditions. This is called "Most Favored Customer" (MFC) pricing. CSP-1 information is only required with contracts that are not participating in the Transactional Data Reporting (TDR).

Transactional Data Reporting (TDR)

TDR is optional and is currently available for 63 Special Item Numbers (SINs), as listed at the TDR page. If you choose to participate in TDR your proposed pricing will be compared to like or similar items and a pricing variability will be applied for negotiation. With TDR you do not submit the various discounts your company provides nor is your pricing tied to a Most Favored Customer (MFC).

8) Commercial Price List or Market Rate Sheet

You should have already identified your business’s commercial price list while you were preparing your Price Proposal Template. You need this document to help show the prices you provide to your current customers. If you do not have a commercial price list, please provide a Market Rate Sheet if your firm maintains one.

The GSA CO will use these documents as a starting point to evaluate your company's pricing. This is different from your Commercial Sales Practice that is listed above.

9) Pricing Support Documentation

You must provide supporting documentation for each product and/or service you are offering and enter it into the Price Proposal Template. We use this to verify the information you are submitting is accurate.

Examples of supporting documentation: 

• Published and publicly available catalogs
• Price lists
• Copies of invoices
• Contracts
• Quote sheets

There must be a clear and relevant relationship between the supporting document and the proposed price it is meant to support. Each supporting document must be clearly labeled with the name of the corresponding proposed product or service.

If your current Commercial Price List (CPL) or Market Rate Sheet (MRS) does not cover the period of past sales reported on the Commercial Sales Practices Format (CSP-1), if providing an offer under the traditional clauses, you must also provide a copy of the CPL or MRS that does cover the majority of that period.

10) Price Narrative

Prior to a contract award being made, the GSA contracting officer must determine that the proposed prices are fair and reasonable. To help the CO understand your pricing proposal you must provide a price narrative as part of the offer submission. 

If you are providing an offer through the Commercial Sales Practice/traditional format you need to demonstrate that this pricing is also the same (or better) than what you offer your MFC. If a price offered to GSA is not equal to or better than the price offered to your designated Most Favored Customer, your narrative must explain the rationale for proposing such a price in a way that the contracting officer can determine that the rate is fair and reasonable. You must explain any deviation from your commercial sales practice, including the specific circumstances and frequency of the deviations.