GSA has released the Multiple Award Schedule TDR User Guide, providing MAS contractors with substantially more detailed guidance on how Transactional Data Reporting should actually work in practice.
This is more than a list of required TDR fields. The 43-page guide explains how contractors should classify different types of sales, which fields apply to each scenario, when line-item versus invoice-level reporting is appropriate, when supporting documentation is required, and how to handle several situations that have historically created questions.
GSA also makes clear that this is intended to be a living document. The agency plans to update the guide as MAS-TDR evolves through the current grace and trial periods and beyond.
For contractors building or updating their TDR reporting processes, this guide should become an important operational reference.
The Biggest Change: TDR Reporting Is Now Scenario-Based
One of the most useful aspects of the guide is that GSA does not treat every MAS sale the same.
Instead, the reporting workflow starts by identifying what was actually sold.
The guide separates reporting into several major categories:
- Non-configurable products
- Highly Configurable Products (HCP)
- Fixed-price services or solutions
- Hourly priced labor categories
- Configurable or miscellaneous services
- Order-Level Materials (OLMs)
- Volume and prompt-payment discounts
That classification determines how granular the TDR submission needs to be, which fields should be populated, and whether supporting documentation is required.
This is an important operational point. Contractors should not build one universal rule that populates every TDR field the same way for every transaction.
Line-Item Reporting vs. Invoice-Level Reporting
The Quick Reference Guide on pages 14-15 provides perhaps the most useful summary in the document.
For example:
- Non-configurable products: report product-level detail.
- Highly Configurable Products, Path A: report invoice-level detail and provide supporting documentation.
- Highly Configurable Products, Path B: report product-level detail.
- Hourly labor categories: report labor-category-level detail.
- Fixed-price solutions established at the order level: report invoice-level detail and provide supporting documentation.
- Fixed-price solutions established at the MAS contract level: report line-item detail.
- Configurable services: report line-item detail where possible. If only invoice-level detail is available, supporting documentation may be required.
This distinction is critical because GSA is effectively connecting the level of transactional detail reported in SRP with the ability to trace that transaction back to the contractor’s awarded MAS offering.
The less traceable the reported transaction is, the more likely supporting documentation becomes necessary.
Supporting Documentation Is Now Part of Certain TDR Workflows
This is one of the areas contractors should review carefully.
The guide establishes several circumstances where supporting documentation accompanies TDR reporting.
For HCP Path A, where sales are reported without line-item detail, contractors should upload a Bill of Materials, invoice, or other documentation that substantiates the underlying line items. This applies to orders made after July 1, 2026.
For fixed-price services or solutions established at the order level, GSA instructs contractors to provide the Government PWS, SOO, or SOW when the order exceeds $1 million in total contract value and was awarded after July 1, 2026.
For configurable services reported only at the invoice level, the Government PWS, SOO, or SOW is required for awards made after July 1, 2026, regardless of dollar value.
The guide states that these Government documents should not be revised and should be authored by the Government. It also warns contractors not to upload classified documentation or sensitive proposal documentation.
In applicable cases, the supporting documents only need to be uploaded once.
UCIDs Are Becoming Increasingly Important
The new guide also reinforces the connection between FCP and TDR.
Where a valid UCID exists in the FCP Services Plus File, contractors are frequently instructed to report it exactly as awarded.
For example, hourly labor categories with a UCID should use the approved UCID as a 1:1 match. When there is no UCID, contractors may instead have to report the labor category name exactly as it appears on the GSA pricelist.
GSA even notes that contractors can establish UCIDs in FCP to avoid having to report labor category titles.
The practical lesson is simple: catalog data quality is increasingly becoming TDR data quality.
Differences between CRM/ERP terminology, invoice descriptions, FCP data, and TDR submissions can create unnecessary compliance flags or rejections.
Federal Customer Means the Funding Agency
The guide provides useful clarification for the new Federal Customer field.
For federal sales, contractors should report the two-digit Treasury Agency Code of the agency that funded the requirement.
If the customer is instead identified as an eligible non-federal entity using SCP, SDP, or OTH, the Federal Customer field should be left blank.
This distinction is worth building directly into automated TDR processes rather than relying on manual interpretation every month.
Product Reporting Requires More Transaction Data
For product sales, contractors now need to pay particular attention to:
- Order Date
- Ship Date
- Five-digit ZIP Code Shipped To
- Federal Customer
- Manufacturer and MPN consistency
- UCID where applicable
For non-configurable products, GSA instructs contractors to report each product individually.
Options and accessories can also require separate line items. The guide even provides specific formatting instructions for manufacturer names and part numbers when product options are involved.
This means contractors with high-volume product sales should make sure their order management, ERP, shipping, and TDR reporting systems can reliably connect these data points.
Services Have Different Rules
The guide provides much-needed distinctions between service reporting scenarios.
For hourly labor, contractors generally report each labor category separately using the hours and hourly price shown on the invoice.
For labor categories with valid UCIDs, the UCID should match the Services Plus File. For labor categories without UCIDs, the labor category name should match the GSA pricelist.
SCLS labor receives even more specific treatment. GSA provides a prescribed format combining the labor category name, applicable Wage Determination number, and revision number.
Fixed-price services follow a different workflow depending on whether the solution was established at the MAS contract level or created at the order level.
This is another reason why a single generic “services TDR” process may no longer be sufficient.
GSA Also Clarified How to Report Discounts
The guide contains a dedicated workflow for volume discounts and prompt-payment discounts applied to an entire order rather than individual line items.
GSA instructs contractors to report:
- A negative quantity representing the number of discounts
- VD as the Unit of Measure for a volume discount
- PPD for a prompt-payment discount
- A positive Price Paid per Unit representing the discount amount
- A negative Total Price Paid
For example, 10 discounts at $50 each would produce a reported total of negative $500.
Supporting documentation is not required for these discount entries.
Returns Finally Have a Clear Reporting Formula
The appendix also gives contractors a straightforward procedure for reporting returns.
GSA instructs contractors to replicate the original transactional data, with several important changes:
- Unit of Measure = RTN
- Quantity = negative number of returned items
- Price Paid per Unit = positive original unit price
- Total Price = negative quantity × positive unit price
This creates a negative transaction that offsets the original sale and helps prevent contractors from paying IFF on returned merchandise.
The Grace Period Does Not Mean Reporting Is Optional
GSA reiterates an important distinction regarding the current Grace and Trial periods.
For applicable contracts and newly required fields, GSA will not take enforcement action for good-faith errors in formatting and populating required data fields during the applicable period.
But contractors still must:
- Report sales every month, including zero sales where applicable
- Complete required TDR fields
- Pay the correct IFF on time
- Avoid intentional misrepresentation
The Grace Period for contracts with a TDR effective date on or after October 1, 2025 runs through December 31, 2026.
The Trial Period for the newly required Ship Date, Order Date, ZIP Code Shipped To, Federal Customer, applicable UCID, and Cloud Service Type fields also runs through December 31, 2026.
GSA also identifies three additional fields that are expected but were not yet officially implemented when Version 1.0 was published:
- Order Type
- Worksite
- Order Discount
GSA states that these fields will receive their own six-month trial period once implemented.
A Practical TDR File Upload Workflow
Based on the structure of GSA’s new guide, contractors using the SRP File Upload method should consider organizing their monthly process around the following sequence:
- Identify the transaction type. Determine whether the sale is a standard product, HCP, hourly labor, fixed-price solution, configurable service, OLM, etc.
- Determine the required reporting level. Product-level, labor-category-level, line-item-level, or invoice-level.
- Map the transaction back to the MAS contract. Validate SIN, UCID, manufacturer, MPN, labor category, UOM, and other applicable awarded data.
- Populate only the fields applicable to that reporting scenario. Some fields are required for products but intentionally left blank for services and vice versa.
- Validate the new TDR fields. Particularly Federal Customer and, for products, Order Date, Ship Date, and ZIP Code Shipped To.
- Calculate totals before upload. For file uploads, Total Price Paid must generally equal Quantity × Price Paid per Unit.
- Determine whether supporting documentation is required. This should be part of the reporting workflow, not an afterthought after the SRP file is prepared.
- Review SRP flags and correct the source process. During the Grace and Trial periods, contractors should use compliance notifications to identify recurring mapping or data-quality problems.
TDR Tips Contractors Should Take From the Guide
A few practical rules stand out throughout the document:
- Do not mix invoice-date and payment-date reporting. GSA allows either approach based on preference or commercial accounting practices, but the selected method must remain consistent.
- Do not use your MAS contract number as the Order Number/PIID. If no PIID was issued, the guide permits an invoice or purchase-order number as a last resort.
- Do not enter “N/A” simply because information is unavailable. In several reporting scenarios GSA specifically instructs contractors to leave fields blank, and entering “N/A” can cause a rejection.
- Match awarded data exactly where GSA requires a 1:1 match. This is particularly important for UCIDs, MPNs, manufacturer information, labor categories, and UOMs.
- Report at the greatest practical level of detail. Invoice-level reporting is not simply an easier substitute for line-item reporting. In several scenarios it triggers additional documentation requirements.
- Validate data before generating the upload file. Contractors processing significant transaction volumes should consider automated checks against FCP catalog data, invoices, order records, and shipping data before submitting the monthly SRP file.
What This Means for MAS Contractors
The most important takeaway from GSA’s new guide is that TDR is becoming less about filling out a monthly spreadsheet and more about maintaining a traceable data chain from the MAS contract through the order, invoice, fulfillment record, and SRP submission.
For contractors with automated sales reporting, now is a good time to review field mapping and validation rules.
For contractors still preparing TDR reports manually, the new guide provides a much clearer decision framework, but it also demonstrates why understanding the underlying transaction type matters before entering data.
And with GSA explicitly stating that Version 1.0 will be updated as the program evolves, contractors should treat the guide as a living operational reference rather than a one-time announcement.
How well does your current TDR process map your actual orders, invoices, catalog data, and shipping information into SRP?
