Ordering from GSA schedules for purchases under the Simplified Acquisition Threshold. Understand when you need competition, how to conduct it, and what documentation you must keep.
GSA Federal Supply Schedules are pre-competed contracts. But that doesn't mean you can skip the ordering process. Learn the streamlined ordering procedures under GSAM 538.71 — they're simpler than you think.
GSA Federal Supply Schedules (also called Multiple Award Schedules or MAS) are pre-competed, pre-priced contracts between GSA and commercial vendors. When you order from a GSA schedule, you are not conducting a new procurement — you are placing an order against an existing contract.
The schedule contract already established that the prices are fair and reasonable at the contract level. Under the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO), FAR 8.4 now points directly to GSA's own ordering procedures at GSAM 538.71. The current Simplified Acquisition Threshold is $350,000.
The critical thing to understand: GSA schedules are a contract vehicle, not a procurement method. Ordering from a GSA schedule still requires you to follow the ordering procedures established by GSA at GSAM subpart 538.71.
A few conditions must be met before you can place a GSA schedule order:
The requirement must be a commercial product or service. If it's available on a GSA schedule, it's commercial. If it's not commercial, it won't be on a schedule.
You must confirm the vendor has a current, active schedule contract. Check GSA Advantage or GSA eLibrary. Schedules expire. Always verify the contract is still in force before you place the order.
What you're ordering must be on the contractor's schedule. If it's listed on their schedule contract, you're good. You can verify this on GSA Advantage or eLibrary.
Ordering from GSA schedules satisfies the competition requirement. You do not need a separate J&A or competitive action on the open market. The pre-competition at the schedule level is your competition.
Per GSAM 538.7103-1, for orders at or below the micro-purchase threshold (MPT), you can place the order directly with any schedule contractor that can meet the need. No additional competition is required beyond the competition already inherent in the schedule program.
You still need to verify that the contractor has an active schedule and the item or service is on their schedule. You should also try to distribute orders among FSS contractors when possible. Document the file: what you bought, who you bought it from, the schedule contract number, and the price.
This is the core of GSA ordering. Per GSAM 538.7103-2, for orders in this range, you must seek competition among schedule holders. How you do it depends on whether the requirement is clearly defined.
If the product or service is clearly defined and available at a fixed price (538.7103-2(a)), you have four options — use any one:
If the product or service is NOT clearly defined — it involves a statement of work/objectives, order-level materials, or is not available at a fixed price (538.7103-2(b)) — you must either:
In either case, evaluate the quotes, award to the contractor offering best value, and notify unsuccessful quoters.
GSA schedule orders under the SAT don't require heavy documentation. Your contract file just needs:
Check out the File Checklist tab to track these as you build your file.
Your shop needs 50 ergonomic office chairs for a building renovation. The estimated cost is $35,000.
This is above the micro-purchase threshold ($15,000) but below the SAT ($350,000). The chairs are a clearly defined, fixed-price item — so you can use the simplest competition method:
Under the SAT, you have flexibility on how to compete a Schedule order; a single quote can be sufficient when properly documented. eBuy is still the cleanest tool to solicit two or more sources, especially when you want a clean record of who saw the requirement and who chose not to quote. This walkthrough covers the screen-by-screen flow using a small-business set-aside for office furniture as the example.
Three decisions to make on paper first:
Log in to ebuy.gsa.gov. Click Create Request. eBuy asks what type of request you want to create:
Pick RFQ. Click Continue.
eBuy presents 12 large categories that mirror the MAS structure. Each one drills down into subcategories, then into MAS, then into specific SINs.
At this point eBuy knows the universe of contractors on the SIN. It will now ask you to filter that universe.
Two filters on the Select Contractors screen. Both shape who actually sees your RFQ.
Socio-Economic Designation. Each entry shows how many contractors on the SIN hold that designation. If you set aside under FAR 8.405-5, pick the appropriate box. For our example we pick Small Business, which on this SIN shows 185 holders. Two-or-more rule is satisfied; the set-aside is appropriate.
Subgroups. Many SINs are sliced into subgroups that further specialize the contractor pool. SIN 33721 has six: Casegoods, Desks and Systems Furniture, Filing and Storage, Miscellaneous Office Furniture and Accessories, Seating, Tables and Collaborative Furniture. Pick the subgroup that matches what you are buying. For our walkthrough, Miscellaneous Office Furniture and Accessories.
Before eBuy lets you write the RFQ body, it asks: "Would you like to allow contractors to offer supplies and/or services under one or more of the following Complementary SINs?" with options for Ancillary and OLM. Both are real, and both are useful. Quick translation:
Both are off by default. eBuy adding them does not expand or shrink your pool of contractors who see the RFQ. It just puts the contractor on notice that they may include those categories of items in their quote. For our walkthrough, we pick YES on Ancillary (we want installation quoted) and NO on OLM (the requirement is straightforward enough that we do not anticipate off-schedule materials).
eBuy presents a structured form. Fill it in the order it asks:
Delivery. Pick one: a number of days After Receipt of Order (ARO) for supplies, or a date-of-award-to-date-of-completion or specific period of performance for services. Furniture with installation typically uses ARO for delivery and a completion date for installation; document both in the attached SOW.
Attach Documents. This is where the Section L / Section M analogue lives. The minimum useful attachment set on a competed schedule buy:
Line Items. Optional in eBuy because the same information can live in your pricing-schedule attachment. Use the eBuy line-item function for simple, small-CLIN-count buys. For a complex pricing schedule, attach an Excel and skip the line-item entry.
Shipping Address or Place of Performance. Required. Use the actual delivery address; it appears in the contractor's order for routing.
Submit. eBuy distributes the RFQ to the filtered contractor pool. Quoters submit through eBuy. The CO monitors via My Requests, can issue amendments (which require quoter acknowledgment), and can answer questions through the eBuy Q&A function. After close, eBuy locks the quotes and the CO downloads them for evaluation.
Evaluation, award, and order issuance happen outside eBuy: the CO documents the technical-acceptability determination, price-reasonableness analysis, and best-value or LPTA selection in the contract file, and issues the order through the agency's contract writing system.
Most COs writing their first eBuy RFQ pause at the Attach Documents step because there is no equivalent of FAR 52.212-1 / 52.212-2 to drop in. The download below is a starting point. It is built around a sample scenario (squadron conference and break room furniture refresh, small business set-aside, LPTA basis). Replace every bracketed field, swap in your salient characteristics, and you have an Attachment 1 ready to upload.
FAR Part 8 analogue to FAR 52.212-1 and 52.212-2. Submission method, format, required content, validity period, late-quote rules, technical-acceptability factor, price-reasonableness method under FAR 8.404, past performance, tiebreaker, reserved rights. Sample scenario included for reference.
↓ Download (DOCX)Per-CLIN structural, performance, and compliance specs (ANSI/BIFMA, TB 117 flammability, GREENGUARD or BIFMA e3 emissions, TAA, PFOS/PFOA prohibition). Built around the same squadron conference and break room scenario, with eight CLIN-by-CLIN spec blocks ready to tailor.
↓ Download (DOCX)What you should have in your file for an under-SAT GSA schedule order. Check them off as you go.
The ordering procedures for GSA Federal Supply Schedules. Under the RFO, FAR 8.4 points here. This is where the actual rules live now — MPT, above-MPT/below-SAT, and above-SAT ordering.
Open GSAM 538.71The FAR subpart on GSA schedules. Post-RFO, it's been streamlined to a single section that directs you to GSAM 538.71 for ordering procedures.
Open FAR 8.4The official GSA online shopping system. Search for FSS contractors, verify contract numbers, survey pricing, and place orders.
Visit GSA AdvantagePost RFQs to FSS contractors electronically. One of the four competition methods under GSAM 538.7103-2 for orders above the MPT.
Visit GSA eBuySearch GSA schedule contracts by contractor or product category. Verify schedules are current and confirm the item is on the contractor's schedule.
Visit GSA eLibraryThe official RFO deviation guide explaining what changed in FAR Part 8 and where the ordering procedures moved.
Open Part 8 Deviation Guide