Occupancy and utilization reporting guidelines

Agencies are required to report occupancy and utilization rates for:

Space in public buildings (as defined in 40 U.S.C. § 3301)
Federally leased space occupied by the agency

An agency head may exempt individual public buildings from utilization monitoring if determining that such monitoring would be detrimental to national security.

Data reporting requirements

What must be reported

GSA-controlled spaces: Use the Occupancy Agreement, or OA, number.
Non-GSA spaces: Use the Real Property Unique ID, or RPUID.
For each space, report:
- Daily occupancy totals for the preceding two weeks (ten weekdays).
- Office usable square feet, or USF, associated with each OA or RPUID.

Physically present government employees and contractors must be included. However, remote workers and those on official travel for that day should be excluded.

When to report

Ten weekdays (Monday–Friday) per biweekly pay period; weekends are not required, even in 24/7 facilities.
Holidays count as reporting days.
Submissions are due the Wednesday following the pay period; if Wednesday is a holiday, submit on the next business day.

Design standards

The 150 USF per person design requirement applies to all office spaces—leased or federal—except for public-facing areas.
This requirement is not retroactive— agencies need not redesign existing spaces to meet the standard.
SCIFs and emergency-only areas are evaluated case by case.

Square footage & space definitions

For USF calculations, use the table below:

Considered “typical office space”	Not considered “typical office space”
Workstations (open office), private offices	Print shops, light industrial (e.g., mail centers)
Circulation, conference rooms, training rooms (unless agency mission)	Labs, holding cells, sally ports
Regular office storage and administrative space (e.g., file, copy, mail—not warehouse)	Warehouses, vaults, secure storage, weapons rooms
Collaborative areas, break rooms, pantry/kitchenettes	Fitness centers, locker rooms, occupational health units
Waiting/reception areas (non-public facing), privacy rooms (e.g., wellness rooms)	Data centers, public-facing waiting areas
Auditoriums, libraries	Spaces atypical of commercial office environments

Reporting Logistics

Submitting your occupancy data

Data is submitted via OMB Collect, which is accessible through MAX.gov (PIV cards are required)
- Each agency designates two POCs
The POCs will receive an excel template by email every two weeks.
- Google Sheets can be used and converted to excel files.
- Excel files can be uploaded to Google Sheets, edited, and exported as an excel file.
Notes or comments cannot be added in the template; however, details can be explained in the annual reporting per OMB M-25-25.
You may withdraw and revise submissions up until the biweekly deadline, but not after the final deadline.

Handling errors

Bureau names must match the official GSA list — locate the file named “Agency_Bureau_List_for_Occupancy_Collection.csv” on connect.gov.
Weekday occupancy values can be corrected by using must be integers, or round decimal values, accordingly.

Viewing & annual reporting

Biweekly data becomes available on D2D.gsa.gov.
Annual narrative reporting, including notes or context, should follow guidance in Appendix II of OMB M-25-25. Full instructions will be released at a later date.

Special considerations

Public-facing spaces must be reported, but their waiting rooms are not included in office USF.
Vacant buildings, spaces under renovation, transition, or awaiting demolition must be included.
Emergency and disaster-only spaces should be treated similarly to SCIFs per agency determinations.
If an agency has space in a building with multiple OAs, the occupant agency should report utilization rates for each individual OA.
- If the agency’s method for gathering utilization rates does not delineate between OAs, the agency should allocate between the OAs to the best of their ability.
For non-GSA spaces fully or partially occupied:
- Fully occupied spaces should be reported by the OA.
- Partially occupied spaces should be reported by the landholding agency.

Tools & resources

We have various tools and methodologies that support reducing space to reflect requirements and optimize the federal footprint.

Contact

E-mail USEITQuestions@gsa.gov for questions about data submissions, changing POCs, or OMB Collect issues.