I often talk to contractors in my posts about sales monitoring and billing systems. This may seem like a total waste of time but I assure you it’s not, if you start out with good contract administration practices when you receive the contract it will help your business out in the long run. The reason why I speak so much on the topic is because as a consultant I notice contractors who inaccurately reveal discounts to their clients, as well as inaccurately documenting and reporting their GSA and Open Market line items. In reviewing GSA’s OIG report posted last month it now appears that GSA has recognized it as well. As a contractor once you’re awarded your GSA contract it’s your responsibility to report and manage your sales and discounts. A simple way of managing that is to incorporate a workable billing system in addition to adding specific internal rules and regulations. By doing that it could also make it easier for you to report your quarterly sales at the end of each quarter. Now going back to the report it appears that for fiscal year 2012 audits it revealed that contractors had inadequate sales monitoring and billing systems. What stood out for me in this report is that it was based on only thirty nine audits. If this report is the result of thirty nine audits can you imagine what the response would be if the OIG performed audits on all of the current GSA contract holders? Take a look at the findings http://1.usa.gov/QdHS4I
Documenting your line items and discounts can be confusing at times, although GSA gives you a run- down of what is expected of you as a contractor a lot of their instruction does not go into much detail. The best way to get more detailed assistance is to speak with your GSA appointed Contracting Officer that is assigned to your contract. Hopefully you have someone in the company that specifically deals with the contract administration duties if not here is a quick tip to properly document your line items.
GSA Quick Tip: Document your invoices with the GSA contract number if the line item is a GSA sale and specifying the Open Market line items if the line item is an Open Market sale. Remember GSA considers any price at or below your schedule pricing a GSA line item so be careful how you document.
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