Small businesses often face an uphill battle when winning government contracts. One of the significant hurdles small businesses face is understanding the competition and correctly pricing the contract and labor categories. Do you know that a tool called GSA CALC provides information about the labor category prices awarded on GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contracts? GSA CALC allows users to review the fully burdened Not-to-Exceed Ceiling Rates awarded under GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contracts. The General Services Administration manages GSA CALC. To make the best out of this tool, you should clearly understand it, and this blog will enhance your understanding.
GSA CALC is a pricing research tool on buy.gsa.gov to support government acquisition professionals in gathering pricing business intelligence. The CALC tool searches for hourly rates within previously approved GSA MAS contracts. It identifies matching labor categories and their associated prices based on specific search criteria and applied filters. Furthermore, it provides a range of pricing information for the chosen services.
This data corresponds to the same information in the text files available on GSA eLibrary and displayed on GSA Advantage. The rates presented within CALC are fully inclusive hourly rates, reflecting the rates granted at the master contract level. This differs from rates established at the task order level, which may vary and, in some cases, be significantly lower than those at the contract level.
How to Use GSA CALC Effectively:
The tool helps conduct market research and develop Independent Government Cost Estimates while saving time spent on market research and price analysis for federal government contracts. The CALC tool is valuable to contractors by helping with market research, particularly for labor categories offered to GSA. The tool can assess the relative competitiveness of a vendor’s price to other vendors’ prices on GSA contracts.
When you reach the website of GSA CALC, you will be prompted to select –
- Hourly Labor Ceiling Prices
- Prices Paid
Hourly Labor Ceiling Prices:
Choose this option to search the awarded hourly ceiling prices on Multiple Award Schedule contracts. These prices are often referred to as “cap” pricing because they represent the maximum a contractor can charge for a given labor category in accordance with their base contract. The prices shown are often discounted based on specific individual task order award conditions.
To begin, conduct a general search based on your preferred work category. You can perform a broad search or only search for labor categories that match your particular labor category title – this can reduce the results if you are seeking more specific data. You can search by vendor name and contract number for more information on a specific competitor.
Let’s check the average hourly rate for the Program Manager labor category; the results generated are based on the current data; the average hourly rate for a Program Manager across all GSA MAS contracts is $166/hour. The data also provides the Program Manager’s standard deviation, ranging from $120/hour to $216/hour.
We can find the list of contractors who offer this service and further narrow our search by selecting from filters-
- Education Level
- Experience- This ranges from 0-50 Years.
- Price Range- This ranges from $0-$1000 Years.
- Worksite
- Business Size – You can select between small business and other than small business.
- Security Clearance
- SIN Number
- Contract Year
- Category
In addition, you can download the data as an MS Excel sheet for better analysis. The chart can also be downloaded in PNG format or PDF format. Below the chart is the table from all the contracts from which this information has been derived. On CALC, it is also mentioned that the date on which this information was updated.
Prices Paid:
Access to this portal is restricted to federal employees and contractors with .gov / .mil email. This data source can be utilized to search prices paid for information related to GSA’s Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs).
GSA CALC is a useful tool for determining the ceiling price ranges for labor categories, ensuring informed decision-making and contract negotiation. It further offers pricing information and data for GSA labor category prices. Understanding the market a contractor wants to enter helps him evaluate whether his prices are fair and reasonable. This is when GSA CALC comes in. Using this tool, contractors can quickly understand their competitor’s pricing through a few clicks rather than going through lists and files of data from GSA eLibrary or GSA Advantage. Up to 50 rates are displayed on each CALC search page, but the entire data set can be downloaded. The tool also provides insights that give contractors a better understanding of the larger population of data, such as ranges (highest and lowest prices), average prices, and standard deviation. This data is helpful for contract negotiations. Getting into GSA negotiations with an informed outlook on the GSA-awarded labor categories can make a big difference when negotiating with the acquisition officials. Overall, GSA CALC is a highly beneficial tool in understanding the ranges of ceiling prices for a given labor category or labor category type.
GSA CALC can provide great market and labor rate insights to contractors. This tool’s knowledge and effective utilization can help small businesses get an edge over the competition. Our team at iQuasar is proficient in using tools like these, and we will guide you through the process, help you gain market intelligence, and improve your Proposal Development efforts. Please feel free to set up a meeting with us to learn more about our wide array of Proposal Development services.
