A buyer preparing a GSA Schedule order for a fourth-quarter project often needs a complete solution: the services on your schedule, plus a few products, licenses or other items your contract does not list. It is tempting simply to add them to the quote. The rules do not allow that casually. The FAR provides two distinct ways to include items that are not on a schedule in a schedule order, and they work very differently. This is general information; check your contract and the current rules before quoting.
Open-market items
Items that are not on a contractor’s schedule are often called open-market items. The FAR permits an ordering activity contracting officer, for administrative convenience, to add them to a schedule order or blanket purchase agreement only when several conditions are met:
- All acquisition rules that would apply to buying those items outside the schedule have been followed, such as those on publicizing, competition, commercial acquisition, contracting methods and small business programs.
- The contracting officer has determined that the price of the open-market items is fair and reasonable.
- The items are clearly labeled on the order as items not on the schedule.
- All clauses applicable to those items are included in the order.
In practice, the first condition is the hard one. If the open-market portion would have required competition on its own, adding it to a schedule order does not remove that requirement. For a contractor, the safe course is to identify any non-schedule items clearly in your quote and let the contracting officer decide how to buy them. Quotes that mix non-schedule items into schedule pricing without distinction can be found unacceptable.
Order-level materials
Order-level materials, often called OLMs, are a different tool. They are supplies or services acquired in direct support of an individual task or delivery order under a schedule, when those items are not known at the time the schedule contract or schedule BPA is awarded. Their prices are not set in the schedule contract; they are established at the order level. Unlike open-market items, OLMs are bought under the authority of the schedule program, using the procedures in the schedule’s OLM clause and its dedicated special item number.
The rules for OLMs include limits and documentation requirements. The ordering activity must determine that OLM prices are fair and reasonable, the total value of OLMs on an order is capped as a share of the order’s value, and the contractor must follow the purchasing procedures the clause requires. Not every schedule holder has the OLM special item number, so check your contract before proposing them.
Choosing the right path
- If the item is already on your schedule, quote it as a schedule item.
- If it cannot be known until the order is defined and directly supports the work, OLMs may fit, if your contract includes them.
- If it is a known item that is simply not on your schedule, consider adding it by modification before the next opportunity, or identify it as an open-market item and let the contracting officer decide.
- When in doubt, ask the contracting officer how the agency wants non-schedule items handled.
Getting this right protects the order. An agency that buys non-schedule items improperly invites a protest, and a contractor whose quote blurs the line can find itself at the center of one. The FAR’s schedule rules, including open-market items and OLMs, are in Subpart 8.4 at acquisition.gov, and GSA explains OLMs at gsa.gov.