Is a GSA Schedule worth it for you?

A GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract is a sales channel, not a revenue guarantee — most Schedule holders sell little or nothing through it. This calculator does the honest break-even math: what it costs to get and keep, versus what you realistically expect to sell.

Inputs

Expected annual sales through the Schedule ($) Steady-state, once ramped. Be honest — do you have buyers who asked for a GSA vehicle, or is this hope?

Gross margin on that work (%) Revenue minus direct cost of delivering it

Out-of-pocket proposal cost ($) Consultants typically $5k–$30k; DIY near $0 cash

Internal hours on the offer DIY offers commonly eat 80–200+ hours; consultant-led maybe 40–80

Loaded cost of those hours ($/hr)

Ongoing admin (hours/year) Quarterly sales reporting & IFF remittance, price-list updates, mods, TDR/CSP compliance

Verdict

Upfront investment

–

Cash + internal time

Net benefit / year

–

Margin − IFF − admin

Break-even

–

After award (add 3–6+ months to get awarded)

IFF / year

–

0.75% of Schedule sales

Line	Amount / year	Where it comes from

How this works & where the numbers come from

Industrial Funding Fee (IFF): GSA funds the MAS program with a fee of 0.75% of Schedule sales, which you report quarterly and remit through the FAS Sales Reporting Portal. It's baked into your GSA pricing, but it's still margin you don't keep. [GSAR 552.238-83; GSA Vendor Support Center]
Minimum sales requirement: GSA can cancel a MAS contract that doesn't produce at least $100,000 in sales in the first five years (60 months), and $125,000 in each five-year option period after that (updated by GSA in 2024 from the old $25k/2-year rule). If your five-year expectation can't clear $100k, the math says don't bother yet. [GSA MAS solicitation 47QSMD20R0001 & gsa.gov/mas — verify the current figure in the solicitation you'd bid under]
Timeline: plan on roughly 3–6 months from submission to award for a clean offer (longer with clarifications), plus your own prep time before that. That delay is why break-even here is measured from award, and why a Schedule rarely rescues a pipeline emergency.
Eligibility basics: the standard path expects two years of corporate experience and financial statements (the StartUp Springboard program lets newer firms substitute key-personnel experience), a published commercial price list or market-rate support, and ongoing Trade Agreements Act compliance for products. [GSA MAS Roadmap]
What this calculator won't tell you: whether your buyers actually buy through MAS. Check where your target agencies spend — if their orders flow through GSA eBuy/Advantage in your SIN, a Schedule is a doorway; if they buy through open-market RFQs or other IDIQs, it's an expensive plaque. Look up your SIN's sales on GSA's Schedule Sales Query (ssq.gsa.gov) before deciding.

Disclaimer. FedCite is a private publication and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the U.S. Government, GSA, or any federal agency. This calculator is general information, not legal, accounting, or business advice. Figures like the IFF rate, minimum-sales criterion, and processing times change — verify them in the current MAS solicitation on SAM.gov before making decisions, and treat the verdict as a framing device, not a recommendation.