Attachment 1 - PWS_Utility Invoice - Management Processing and Payment.pdf

Performance Work Statement

Office of Financial Management Utility Invoice - Management, Processing and Payment for

The General Services Administration Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO)

Office of Financial Management, Pegasys Financial Services (PFS)

PFS

VERSION: 1.0

DATE: 02/05/2024

Table of Contents

1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION 4

2. BACKGROUND 4

3. OBJECTIVES 6

4. SCOPE 6

4.1 Managed Services 11

4.1.1 Utility Account Management 11

4.2 Invoice Processing 14

4.2.1 Utility Invoice Receipt 15

4.2.2 Utility Invoice Data Extraction 16

4.2.3 Invoice Validation and Authorization 17

4.3 Invoice Retention, Deletion and Accessibility 21

4.4 Utility Payment Information and Posting to Vendor Accounts 21

4.5 System Access 23

4.6 Accruals 23

4.7 Reporting 24

4.7.1 Reports 24

4.7.2 Data Gathering Ability 24

5. TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS 24

5.1 Timeline 27

5.2 Executive Requirements 27

5.3 Project Management 28

5.4 Technical Requirements Relating to Invoice Management, Processing and Payment 28

5.5 Integration Services 30

6. SERVICE REQUIREMENTS AND PERFORMANCE STANDARDS 30

7. QUALITY ASSURANCE PLAN 32

8. MEETINGS AND PERFORMANCE REVIEWS 34

9. TRANSITION MANAGEMENT 35

10. DELIVERABLES 35

11. SECURITY REQUIREMENTS 38

11.1 Access Control and Authentication 38

11.2 HSPD-12 Compliance 39

11.3 Non-Disclosures 40

11.4 Organizational Conflict of Interest 40

11.5 Section 508 Compliance 40

11.6 Data 40

11.7 Conflict, Security and Privacy 41

11.8 Unauthorized Commitments 41

12. GOVERNMENT FURNISHED PROPERTY/GOVERNMENT FURNISHED INFORMATION 41

13. PLACE OF PERFORMANCE 42

14. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE 42

15. CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION 43

16. KEY PERSONNEL 44

17. COMPLIANCE WITH FEDERAL GUIDELINES – GOVERNMENT REQUIREMENTS AND

CONTRACTOR RESPONSIBILITIES 45

1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The General Services Administration, Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO), Office of

Financial Management, Pegasys Financial Services (PFS), is issuing this solicitation for receipt of quotes to accomplish a significant reduction in the cost and government manpower resources for managing, processing, and paying utility invoices into a single integrated environment to be managed by a single contractor. Consolidation and management of utility invoice processing must include a seamless migration of all utility account data with no interruption or downtime of invoice processing and payment services to Agency end-users or utility vendors. This solution will align with the GSA’s initiative to modernize operations utilizing 21st century services, as well as improve stewardship of the taxpayers’ dollars.

This effort shall result in an integrated utility invoice processing, payment and invoice management solution to support GSA and its respective utility vendors. The Offeror shall function as the utility invoice processing, payment, and invoice management contractor for all specified utility vendors. The applicable fees charged for providing services shall be included in the service rates for processing, paying and the management of utility invoices.

The Government intends to award a contract to a single Offeror (who will provide services directly and not through subcontracts) as a managed service overseen by GSA OCFO PFS. The successful Offeror must be a vendor utilizing a proven web-based account management system to provide utility invoice management including account management and issue resolution, invoice receipt, invoice processing, invoice storing, accrual generation, payment and reporting for all accounts regardless of invoice formats (i.e., paper, electronic) or mode of receipt (i.e., e-mail, mail, fax, automated download, etc.).

2. BACKGROUND

The Pegasys Financial Services is responsible for the oversight of the processing and payment of utility invoices for the General Services Administration (GSA) and its high-profile tenants that include Courthouses, Judge Offices, Border Control Ports of Entry just to name a few. Utilities used by GSA include water (potable and non-potable), electricity, renewable electricity, geo-thermal, natural gas, Ethanol 85 (E85), propane (LPG), steam, chilled water, #2 and #6 fuel oil, diesel, biodiesel, kerosene, coal, sewer, and trash collections services.

Utility invoices are submitted by each utility vendor electronically and/or in paper form or retrieved directly from the utility vendor’s website by the managed service provider for processing of invoice charges and payments. The current utility invoice processing systems contain data for approximately 800 vendors and 3,400 active utility accounts. The Government estimates it will receive approximately 40,800 utility invoices per year. Utility invoices may represent multiple utility meters from multiple locations. Invoices are received daily based on monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual services.

Past Three (3) Years of Historical Invoices

Year Invoice Count

2021 37,922

2022 37,547

2023 37,068

The General Services Administration (GSA) needs the ability to collect and report on energy, renewable energy, and water consumption and costs for Federal Buildings in order to meet requirements of Federal Agencies by Rules, Statutes, and Executive Orders. These include The

Energy Policy Act of 2005, The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 and Executive

Order 14057 - Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability.

Federal Agencies must provide accurate cost and consumption data by location for the Annual

Energy Report, the Department of Energy (DOE) Compliance Tracking System, The Office of

Management and Budget (OMB) agency scorecards, as well as for internal agency measures reporting.

To meet the above reporting requirements, the Performance Work Statement (PWS) requires that the contractor provide data files containing specific data fields for all utility invoices processed, including those with credit balances. This file shall be provided weekly for all invoices processed the previous week. The file shall be made available no later than three business days after the final bill is processed for a calendar week.

Utility accounts may be billed separately by a vendor; multiple accounts may be invoiced on a single consolidated bill; or an invoice may include multiple utility types, i.e., gas and electricity or water and sewer. Renewable electricity data to be captured may be invoiced with the regular utility bill or it may be billed separately. Regardless of the billing format, cost and consumption data must be captured for each individual utility account and service type. To effectively report cost and consumption, GSA requires the Contractor to capture specific data elements from each invoice.

The objective of this Performance Work Statement is to detail the requirements for the structure and contents of the account data file to be provided under this contract. The

Contractor must have the ability to output the data into a standard format as specified by GSA to be ingested into GSA’s energy and water tracking and reporting system. Acceptable file formats include, but may not be limited to, Excel and .csv.

3. OBJECTIVES

The objective of this contract is for the Government to obtain a solution that will meet the government's requirements for utility managed services through:

a. Utilizing a proven web-based utility account management system, be able to electronically ‘read’ utility invoices that are retrieved from utility vendors websites or manually accepted, store, and process invoices for payment for GSA utility vendors, regardless of invoice formats (i.e., paper, electronic) or mode of receipt (i.e., e-mail, mail, fax). The account management system will be required to display account related information contained on the GSA Utility Account Masterfile as defined by the

Government in addition to utility invoice and payment related information.

b. Obtain a service that requires the Contractor to manage and resolve issues with utility vendors concerning utility accounts and invoices, and pay utility invoices accurately and on time with very little input from GSA personnel

c. Improvement of GSA’s monitoring and tracking of energy and water usage through

Contractor-provided invoice storage, audit management, reporting, interface of energy and water data into customer systems, financial analyses, and data warehousing tools.

4. SCOPE

The scope of this contract shall include the management, processing, and payment of GSA utility invoices. The Contractor shall have the ability to produce a single bill for all services covered. The Contractor shall provide all necessary resources (management, supervisory, labor, tools, materials, and other items and services) to perform the scope of work. Specifically, this work includes:

a. Managed Services – The Contractor shall provide a solution where the Contractor will serve as the primary party responsible for the identification, tracking and resolution of issues that arise on utility accounts and invoices.

b. Utility Account Management - The Contractor shall be responsible for establishing new accounts in their platform and processing account changes based on information provided by GSA

c. Invoice and Payment Processing - For each invoice, the Contractor shall receive or retrieve the invoice, upload into the contractor’s system, validate the invoice, authorize, or approve for payment and disburse if required by GSA.

d. Utility Payment File – The Contractor shall provide a utility data and payment file as directed, in the format specified by GSA

e. Reporting – The Contractor shall provide reports in compliance with Federal law, regulations, policies, and GSA requirements

f. System Access – The Contractor shall provide the Government with real-time electronic access to utility invoices and related account information

g. Accrual Processing - The Contractor shall prepare and submit a monthly accrual for each utility account, in the format and calculation method specified by GSA

h. Historical Account and Invoice Information - The Contractor shall import historical GSA utility account information such as invoice images, key invoice data elements and payment data

The Contractor shall capture and retain the data elements listed in Table A from available utility invoice fields and map them to the GSA data file. The Contractor shall use automated methods, i.e., Optical Character Recognition (OCR), wherever reasonably possible to accomplish this task in order to ensure accurate and consistent data capture. In instances where data must be input manually, Contractor will ensure that clear information and training are provided to staff so that usage units are captured consistently and accurately each billing period, and so that costs are allocated to the correct utility type (in case where multiple service types appear on the same account). The performance standard for data quality capture each month from non-scanned (e.g., no OCR) electronically-parsable billing data is at least 98% accurate (measured monthly, provided that GSA has initially confirmed the parsing results proposed by Contractor and there are no changes in utility format during the measurement period from the format validated by GSA). If data capture accuracy falls outside the acceptable in a measurement period, Contractor will correct the inaccuracies and re-process the invoices if necessary. For other invoice types, Contractor will use validation tests designed to establish that captured data falls within reasonable tolerance ranges

(invoices outside the tolerance range will be flagged for review, which may require assistance by GSA to resolve). Data will be captured as defined in Tables A and B below. In the event there are invoice level charges on a multi-service invoice (such as late fees or other charges that are not clearly identified to a service type), the charges will be allocated on a pro rata basis based on total costs allocated to the individual services.

Table A: Weekly Data File Requirements

The data shall be provided in a file type (i.e., Microsoft Excel or .csv) to be ingested to an

Energy Tracking System.

Field Name Notes Data Source

GSA Region Number Value = 1-11 GSA Utilities Masterfile

GSA Building Number XXNNNNXX; example CT0013ZZ GSA Utilities Masterfile

Utility Account Number Account number assigned by utility vendor; may include numbers, letters, spaces, special characters. Account number format must include all numbers and letters; however, the Contractor may opt to exclude spaces and/or characters from this field. The chosen format must be consistent across all GSA accounts.

GSA Utilities Masterfile

PDN number Account number assigned by GSA;

example B9N02417.23

GSA Utilities Masterfile

Utility Type Values = electricity, renewable electricity, electric demand, natural gas, steam, chilled water, hot water, propane, geothermal, biomass, fuel oil, water, sewer (includes wastewater, stormwater), trash, recycling, other

GSA Utilities Masterfile

Service start date Beginning meter read date; if utility type has multiple meters with different dates, use read from main meter (usually largest usage).

Invoice

Service end date Ending meter read date; if utility type has multiple meters with different dates, use read from main meter (usually largest usage). For bills with both service

Invoice dates and meter read dates that differ, meter read dates shall be used.

Total usage Aggregate usage for all meters of the same utility type; see Table B for details, definitions, and business rules for capturing usage.

Invoice

Peak Demand (electricity only) Aggregate of peak demand (kW) for all electric meters on account

Invoice

Total Cost Total cost allocated to service type on bill; if bill contains multiple service types with unallocated taxes and fees, the amounts should be prorated to the utility types based on totals before fees.

Invoice

Table B: Details of Data Capture for Utility Service Types

Utility Type Common Unit(s) Definition Notes

Electricity Renewable Electricity kWh kWh kilowatt hours kilowatt hours

Renewable electricity consumption may be displayed as a separate meter on the bill, annotated in the body of the bill, or billed separately from the regular electricity bill.

Electric Demand kW kilowatts Where multiple values are provided, Peak kW shall be captured

Natural Gas CF

CCF

MCF

Thm Dth Gj cubic feet hundred cubic feet thousand cubic feet therms dekatherms gigajoules

Where some multiple of cubic feet and therms are both provided on the bill, therms or dekatherms shall be captured.

Steam lb mlb, klb mmBtu pounds thousand pounds million btus

Capture consumption only.

Do not include demand, contract or capacity units.

Fuel Oil #2 gal gallons

Chilled Water ton hr kton hr dton ton hours thousand ton hours decatons

Capture consumption only.

Do not include demand, contract or capacity units.

Propane gal gallons

Geothermal 100 gal 100 gallons

Biomass mmBtu million btus

Water gal dgal cgal kgal cf gallons ten gallons hundred gallons thousand gallons cubic feet

Capture aggregate consumption for all water, fire line, and irrigation meters on bill. Where multiple units are dcf ccf kcf, mcf cm af ten cubic feet hundred cubic ft thousand cubic ft cubic meters acre feet provided, i.e., ccf and gallons, either unit can be used. However, that unit must be picked up consistently each billing period. Do not include consumption for sewer, wastewater, storm water, or condensation meters.

Sewer, wastewater, stormwater n/a n/a Do not capture units;

Costs for sewer, wastewater, and stormwater shall be aggregated, unless specified as separate in the Utilities Master File.

Other utility types, i.e., trash, waste, recycling n/a n/a No usage units are required to be captured.

4.1 Managed Services

4.1.1 Utility Account Management

a. Provide a workforce to maintain utility account records (GSA Utility Masterfile) with defined data elements for approximately 800 vendors and 3,400 active utility accounts.

b. Contractor will perform Account management which entails:

1) Account transition activities

i. The Contractor shall perform all work required to transition operations from the current contractor based on a project plan and deliverable dates.

ii. The Contractor shall participate in regularly scheduled and recurring meetings with the Government to review progress toward achievement of milestones, objectives, and deliverables under the contract. The date, times, and locations (e.g., teleconference or

Government location) of these meetings will be agreed to between the Government and the Contractor and defined in writing by the CO.

iii. The Contractor will perform transition activities such as establish the

Government utility accounts, create accrual, invoice files and reports based on defined requirements and data elements and participate in system and user acceptance testing. Any issues caused as a result of the transition such as increased disconnect notices, past due balances, system issues must be addressed immediately by the

Contractor to ensure there is not a disruption in services.

2) Utility vendor account access control.

3) Resolution of issues related to GSA utility accounts (e.g., late fees, shut-off notices, misapplied payments, removal of unauthorized fees, past due balances).

4) Contractor will ensure Government-supplied letters of authorization and remittance address change notifications are provided to utility vendors upon approval by the Government. The Contractor will respond to inquiries and follow-up if changes are not made timely.

5) Establish new utility accounts to include account number, billing or payment frequency updates, effective date, contract expiration date, termination, cost allocation rules, etc., based on Government-furnished information using a mutually agreed upon method.

6) Contractor shall process utility vendor account changes as requested by the

Government via tickets submitted through the vendor’s platform. These requests include without limitation: adding a new utility account, deactivating a utility account, and modifying cost allocation rules. Contractor will also modify vendor remit information or invoice frequency supplied either by Government or utility vendor.

7) Upon Government or Vendor notice of change, Contractor shall work diligently to update vendor profiles and manage changes in vendor account numbers resulting from a change in software platforms, mergers, acquisition, or cessation of business, with the mutual goal to ensure the GSA is not double billed or charged late fees and continue to maintain uninterrupted utility services.

8) Depending on the disbursement method, the contractor may be required to accommodate multiple utility accounts that require use of the same GSA vendor and address codes.

9) Contract beginning and end dates must be captured in the solution and utilized to ensure invoices and accruals are not processed for service periods before or after the contract effective dates.

10) Upon Government or utility vendor notice of a change to utility vendor name, address or banking information, Contractor will work diligently with the

Government to immediately ensure the vendor information is updated for each impacted utility account in the Contractor's system.

11) There should be minimal escalation of account issues from the Contractor to the Government. If a utility vendor account requires additional validation, verification, escalation, or closure, and cannot be resolved by the Contractor working with the utility vendor, the Contractor will identify the issue to the

Government through their automated tracking and ticketing system. The

Government notification provided must be in an efficient manner that can be tracked, assigned to a user, and contains relevant data (e.g., vendor name, account number, issue category, vendor contact information and notes concerning action taken to resolve). The notification mechanism must have a manner to track progress, reassign to another user and indicate when the issue is resolved.

12) Contractor will obtain and manage access to utility vendors' websites on behalf of GSA. The Contractor will establish account credentials and maintain access to the utility vendors' websites. The account usernames and passwords will be made available to Government users in the Contractor’s system for each utility account.

13) Contractor will promptly provide the Government with any utility account correspondence that requires action or response from the Government such as backflow testing or inspection notifications. The correspondence must be provided to the Government within 2 business days of receipt and in an electronic format that contains a PDF image of the correspondence.

14) Contractor must immediately advise the Government of any disconnect notification (received via email, separate letter or on a utility vendor’s invoice) and will work with the Government to resolve the underlying issue and prevent disconnection by the utility vendor. If the Government receives the disconnect notice first, the Government will inform the Contractor and the Contractor will promptly work to resolve the underlying issue to prevent disconnection.

4.2 Invoice Processing

a. Contractor Responsibilities

1) Provide an integrated utility invoice processing and account management solution to support GSA OCFO and energy reporting for the Office of Facilities

Management (OFM).

2) Provide a workforce to perform all aspects of utility account maintenance and invoice processing related functions for GSA utility accounts (e.g., invoice retrieval and entry, validation, issue research and resolution and reporting).

3) Contractor must demonstrate ability to provide a proven web-based utility account management system with ability to retrieve invoices from utility vendors websites, accept invoices electronically or manually, store, and process utility invoices for payment to utility vendors, regardless of the invoice formats (i.e., paper, electronic) or the mode of receipt (i.e., e-mail, mail, fax).

4) The solution will provide monitoring controls for invoice exceptions and issues that will require manual review or action by the Contractor’s workforce to resolve and ensure invoices files are submitted per performance standards allowing the payment to be disbursed by the utility vendors due dates.

5) There should be minimal escalation of invoice issues from the Contractor to the Government. If the issues cannot be resolved by the Contractor working with the utility vendor, the Contractor will refer the issue to the Government.

The Government notification must be provided utilizing an automated ticketing system where issues can be tracked, assigned to a user and contain relevant data (e.g., vendor name, account number, issue category, vendor contact information and notes concerning action taken to resolve). The notification mechanism must have a manner to track progress, assign to another user and indicate when the issue is resolved.

6) The Contractor will identify and resolve keying or data errors related to accounting allocation, consumption data, amounts or anything that was incorrectly captured from the invoice.

7) The Contractor's solution will generate an invoice file per government specifications. The Contractor will submit /upload the daily invoice file into the Pegasys Vendor Customer Self Service (VCSS) portal.

8) The Contractor will notify the Government of any invoice file transmission errors and will notify the Government if an invoice file will not be transmitted.

9) The Contractor will have the ability to pause invoice file submissions and make bulk updates to required (e.g., BBFY) fields as requested by the

Government to accommodate the Government’s fiscal year-end processing or other situations as needed.

10) Solution will allocate utility account charges and associated accounting information as defined per the GSA Utility Masterfile.

11) Extract and load consumption by unit of measure for utility invoice data elements as defined by the Consumption SOW attached.

4.2.1 Utility Invoice Receipt

a. Contractor Responsibilities

1) Retrieve utility vendor invoices from vendor websites based on account frequency (billing period, i.e., monthly, quarterly, etc.) and bill cycle will be presumed to be 30 days unless provided otherwise by GSA.

2) Contractor will work to retrieve invoices (including manual download and escalation where required) beginning on the expected availability date with a goal to complete retrieval within 15 days after the expected receipt date. In the event a vendor invoice is either not available for retrieval (following periodic attempted retry) or has not been received as expected within 15 days from expected bill date and cannot be resolved by contacting and working with the vendor, the Contractor will identify the condition to the

Government.

3) Identify and obtain missing utility invoices from the utility vendor.

4) Receive utility vendor invoices from vendors or the Government via email with file attachments.

5) Receive, scan, and upload invoices from incoming mail from vendors or the

Government.

6) If a utility vendor account requires additional validation, verification, escalation, or closure, Contractor will identify the issue by assigning a ticket in the contractor’s platform for Government to investigate and resolve. The

Contractor’s system will provide email notification to the Government's point of contact.

7) If the amount due on the invoice reflects an overall credit balance or zero amount due. The Contractor will capture the invoice record and image under the utility account in the Contractor's system. The Contractor will not issue payment for these invoices.

8) Contractor will advise the Government of any disconnect notification and will work with the Government to resolve underlying issues to prevent disconnection by the utility vendor. If the Government receives the disconnect notice first and informs the Contractor, the contractor will promptly work to resolve the underlying issue to prevent disconnection.

b. Government Responsibilities

1) Provide all available data related to accounts migrated to the platform from

Government or a previous vendor, including URL, banking information (ACH instructions) and access methods.

2) Support authorization escalation where letter of authorization is not sufficient.

4.2.2 Utility Invoice Data Extraction

a. Contractor Responsibilities

1) For each invoice, the Contractor must extract and load the following information and baseline data elements along with usage and meter information into the Contractor’s solution:

a) Account Number – The utility vendor account number or subaccount number (each account or subaccount number is a single invoice regardless of consolidation).

b) Bill Date – The billing date as provided on the utility vendor invoice.

c) Invoice Receipt Date - The date the invoice was received by the

Contractor.

d) Due Date – The due date in which payment is due to the vendor as provided on the utility vendor invoice as available.

e) Previous Balance – The reported previous utility vendor account balance due from the prior invoice as reported by on the utility vendor invoice (as available).

f) Payments Applied – The reported applied payments as reported on the utility vendor invoice (as available).

g) Adjustments – Header level utility vendor account balance adjustments as reported on the invoices. These should be included as part of “current charges” to be paid.

h) Current Charges – The newly generated charges in aggregate on the utility vendor invoice.

i) Amount Due – Total amount due on the utility vendor invoice.

j) Late Fees – The total amount of the penalties applied for untimely receipt of payment identified as such on the utility vendor invoice.

k) Past Due – Calculated as amount due minus current charges as reflected on the current utility vendor invoice.

l) Service Start Date – The minimum start date of service in which the invoice charges are incurred, provided at an meter level as reported by the vendor. If this is not provided by the vendor, the bill date will be used to calculate a start date.

m) Service End Date – The maximum end date of service in which the invoice charges are incurred, provided at an meter level as reported by the vendor.

n) Meter Number - The meter number on the utility vendor invoice.

o) Usage - Previous and current usage on the utility vendor invoice.

p) Total Usage - Usage on the utility vendor invoice.

q) Type of Service Provided - The type of utility provided on the utility vendor invoice (e.g., electric, gas, water).

r) Unit of Measure - The measurement used for the energy and water usage on the utility vendor invoice.

s) Special Notification: Special notices on invoices that should be brought to GSA’s attention; especially shut-off warnings and notices of shut-offs.

4.2.3 Invoice Validation and Authorization

The Contractor will validate accounts are authorized before invoices are processed and submitted to the Government for payment. Edits are required to identify possible improper payments.

a. Contractor Responsibilities

1) Review and approve flags assigned to the Contractor as described below.

2) Allocate charges using Government provided financial allocation rules that can be supported by existing system allocation capabilities. Contractor will notify the Government when allocation rules cannot be supported.

3) Approved utility vendor invoices will be assigned for daily transmission to the

Government's financial system, in the approved format, to allocate charges and request funding from the Government.

4) Research flags that cannot be validated through information in the platform

Specifically, the Contractor systems will include edits for the following:

a. Account out of Balance – The amount due on the invoice is greater than current charges, indicating a possible past due balance. Contractor will confirm payments for previous invoices have been sent and no previous invoice was received. In the event all invoices have been received and paid, the balance will be researched by the Contractor.

b. Amount due < $1 – The amount due on the invoice is less than $1, which cannot be transmitted to GSA financial systems. Contractor will close out the invoice without requesting funding or making utility vendor payment. The amount due will be paid with subsequent invoices once the total invoice amount is greater than $1.

c. Duplicate Service Period – The service dates identified on the invoice are a duplicate of another invoice received on the utility account. Contractor will confirm that the invoice is not a duplicate. In the event of a duplicate, the

Contractor will remove the invoice. In the event it is not a duplicate, the

Contractor will research the flag. Government invoice approval may be required

(i.e., corrected invoices).

d. Expired Contract – The end dates for an account (if provided by the Government on the GSA Masterfile) have passed, the Contractor will request new financial code information or end date updates and update the system. The Contractor will ensure invoices with service periods outside the contract effective date are not submitted for payment until information is received from the Government that extends the effective dates of the contract.

e. Utility Account Not Recognized - The account number on the utility vendor invoice is not contained in the GSA Masterfile of utility accounts. The Contractor will verify there is not a data entry error and contact the Government if the account is still not identifiable.

f. Late Fees - A late fee is contained on the utility vendor invoice. The Contractor will verify that a previous payment was paid late, and the late fee is due. The

Contractor will pay the late fee if valid or contact the utility vendor to resolve erroneous late fees.

g. Financial Code Allocation Mismatch – The GSA Utility Account Masterfile does not have financial allocation rules or coding information to align with the utility vendor invoice. Contractor will request financial allocation or coding information from the Government and process.

h. Inactive Account – An invoice has been received for a utility account that has been deactivated for invoice processing. Contractor will confirm with the Government to either cancel or approve invoice for payment and process in accordance with

Government’s instructions.

i. Old Invoice – An invoice has been received with a bill date that is prior to GSA’s transition date to the Contractor. The Contractor will confirm with the

Government to either cancel or approve the invoice for payment and process in accordance with Government’s instructions.

j. Previous Invoice Missing – A gap in the service period (i.e., start date on current invoice is more than two days from the end date on previous invoice) has been identified between the current invoice and previous invoice received on the utility account. Contractor will review and identify if an invoice is missing. In the event the invoice is missing, and it was not available for timely retrieval, the Contractor will retrieve or request the invoice from the utility vendor.

k. Review Adjustments – The utility invoice has account adjustments that affect the amount due on the invoice. Contractor will review adjustments and add to the amount to be paid on the invoice in addition to the current charges. In the case where the adjustment is unclear on the utility invoice, the Contractor will contact the vendor and validate the adjustment.

l. Service Period Overlap – The service period of the current invoice overlaps with the service period on another invoice on the utility account. Contractor will verify the invoice is not a duplicate. In the event of a duplicate, the Contractor will remove the invoice. In the event of a data entry issue with service dates, the

Contractor will correct service dates. If the reason for overlap cannot be identified, the Contractor will research with the vendor to resolve the issue.

m. Subsequent Invoice Received – An invoice has been received covering a period that predates the most recent invoice processed and that may have been paid already. Contractor will confirm the amount to pay, if any, based on the subsequent data. Utility may send a true up invoice or for example, a total amount due may have been paid on a future invoice, which already includes the older invoice’s current charges.

n. Variance Threshold Exceeded – The utility invoice has a substantial cost variance when compared to the highest and lowest charges on the same account during the preceding twelve-month period and is flagged if the highest or lowest charge is exceeded by a predefined, customizable threshold. The Contractor will investigate and if the flag is valid, will contact the Government for approval.

o. Level 1/ Level 2 Approval Required – For large dollar utility invoices (e.g., current charges greater than $50,000 or as agreed), Invoice will be reviewed and approved by a Contractor senior level employee. In the event the approving employee doubts the validity of the invoice, the Contractor will contact the

Government for approval.

p. Permanent Hand Review Status (PREPA) – The accounts for PREPA in Puerto Rico may be identified by Government for Agency review of all invoices before payment of any invoices to PREPA due to risk of erroneous billing. Contractor will not pay any invoices for PREPA accounts so identified until approved by the

Government.

4.3 Invoice Retention, Deletion and Accessibility

a. The solution will transmit a weekly file as per government specifications of invoice images and associated account / invoice information. More frequent transmissions may be acceptable based on system capabilities of the Contractor and the

Government. A unique identifier must be provided to link the image file to the associated account information.

b. Images and associated account / invoice information must be provided for all invoices received and approved for payment as well as invoices with credit balances and zero-dollar amounts.

c. Solution will warehouse information relating to utility accounts, invoices, and payments for six (6) years and three (3) months.

d. Twelve months of historical utility account and invoice information as well as invoice images will be loaded into the Contractor’s invoice processing solution and will be accessible to the Government users.

4.4 Utility Payment Information and Posting to Vendor Accounts

Payments to utility vendors for invoices can be disbursed in 1 of 2 options. GSA will determine which option will be utilized upon award.

a. Contractor is responsible for disbursing payments to utility vendors upon receiving funds for approved utility invoices, the Contractor will transmit the Government’s payment to the utility vendor by method supported by the utility vendor. Contractor will default to electronic payment methods where possible. Contractor will pay vendor charges using funds provided by the Government. However, the contractor will not be individually liable for vendor charges. Contractor will not process payment without prior funding approval authorization.

1) Contractor Responsibilities

a) Work with utility vendors to accept electronic payment methods.

b) Issue payment to utilities vendors utilizing electronic payment options

(i.e., ACH, credit card, etc.)

c) Contractor should remit payment to the utility vendor within two business days of receipt of Government funding.

d) Will post all payment information accurately in the Contractor's system for utilities payments processed. Payment related information should be posted within one business day of (i) disbursement and of (ii) payments being reported to the Contractor as cleared. Contractor will receive the payment confirmation details as defined by the requirements per the

"Utilities Advice of Payment File Generation Specifications" document that will be provided by the government.

e) Verify payments have been transmitted successfully by processing bank notices (i.e., bank settlement reports). Bank settlement report data including payment method, payment date, document number (i.e., check number), and clearing data will be uploaded to the contractor's system and information accessible to the Government prior to subsequent invoicing period for the vendor.

f) Issue manual check payment in the event the utility vendor does not accept electronic payment methods. Contractor will upload the clearance date of checks into the contractor’s system prior to the subsequent invoicing period for the vendor. When required, the vendor will request proof of payment.

g) Identify, research, and resolve payments that have not cleared within 2 weeks. Contractor will be responsible to follow up with vendors to troubleshoot discrepancies prior to re-issuing payments.

h) Identify erroneous utility payments (i.e., duplicate, overpayments, payment to incorrect vendor) and notify the Government within one (1) business day of identification of issue.

i) Contractor will be responsible to work with the utility vendor for resolution of invoice payments which have been remitted and are not reflected in subsequent invoices.

2) GSA is responsible for disbursing payments to utility vendors

a) The Contractor must be capable of receiving invoice payment confirmation details from the Government and recording the information in their system. Contractor will receive the payment confirmation details as defined by the requirements per the "Utilities Advice of Payment File

Generation Specifications" document that will be provided by the government.

b) The Contractor will be responsible to engage with the utility vendor for resolution of invoice payments which have been remitted and are not reflected on subsequent invoices (i.e., unpaid balance, outstanding balance).

c) There should be minimal escalation of issues from the Contractor to the

Government. If issues cannot be resolved by the Contractor working with the utility vendor, the Contractor will identify the issue to the

Government through their automated tracking and ticketing system. The

Government notification provided must be in an efficient manner that can be tracked, assigned to a user, and contains relevant data (e.g., vendor name, account number, issue category, vendor contact information and notes concerning action taken to resolve). The notification mechanism must have a manner to track progress, reassign to another user and indicate when the issue is resolved.

4.5 System Access

a. The Contractor shall provide the Government with real-time electronic access to utility invoices.

b. The Contractor shall provide 48-hour advanced notification for any system down time for scheduled maintenance.

c. The Contractor shall notify GSA within 30 minutes of an unexpected outage and immediately when the system becomes available after unexpected outage.

4.6 Accruals

a. Provide a monthly accrual file based on Government file specifications, requirements, and business rules.

b. Accrual file will interface with the Government’s accounting system and the calculation for each utility accounts accrual will be defined by the Government based on the proration of the last payment amount and the service period.

c. Accrual files must have the ability to be downloaded into an Excel format for review and validation.

d. Contractor must have the ability to adjust accrual file generation and transmission dates and make bulk updates to required fields (e.g., BBFY) to accommodate the

Government’s fiscal year-end processing or other situations as needed.

e. Notify the Government of any file transmission errors.

4.7 Reporting

4.7.1 Reports

a. Create ad hoc reports with defined data elements and criteria per government specifications. The following reports (as defined per GSA specifications) should be available from the contractor’s platform:

1) Masterfile Report

2) Past Due Balance Report

3) Credit Balance Report

4) Late Fees Paid

5) Tax and Miscellaneous Charges Report

6) Deactivated Account Report

7) Invoice and Payment Detail Report

8) Missing Invoice Report

9) Unprocessed Invoice Report

10) Monthly Service Fee Report (Contractor invoice support)

4.7.2 Data Gathering Ability

1. Interfaces for daily invoice files, monthly accrual files, end user building, account, and usage/cost data input, editing, and deletion.

2. Ability to extract data from a variety of different systems and file types, including but not limited to utility invoice images, API, text files, PDF, Microsoft Excel, Google documents.

3. Ability to transfer invoice images and metadata using a Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) with the frequency defined by the Government.

4. Ability to extract and store data fields from invoices as needed to comply with energy and water monthly reporting requirements, i.e., energy and water consumption units, kW demand, cost, purchased renewable energy, etc.

5. Correct monthly use and cost data resulting from corrected and credit balance invoices issued by utility vendors.

6. Ability to project estimated energy use and cost data for monthly reporting when actual data is not yet available.

5. TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

The Contractor shall meet the following technical requirements:

a. The Contractors solution shall be either:

1) Contractor provided/operated external system - as required by the reference in Section 11.1(1.1)

2) Cloud system (SaaS) - as required by the reference in Section 11.1(1.2)

b. The Contractor shall meet GSA’s security requirements (see Attachments 1a and 1b).

c. At the Moderate impact level and higher, the contractor is responsible for providing an independent Security Assessment/Risk Assessment in accordance with GSA IT Security

Procedural Guide 06-30: Managing Enterprise Cybersecurity Risk.

d. The Contractor shall provide a Service Level Agreement (SLA) which shall contain backup, disaster recovery and business continuity services; monitoring and performance processes; metrics to demonstrate compliance such as availability, reliability, responsiveness, and user experience; and reporting mechanisms including issue tracking and reporting processes and resolution timeframes.

1) Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, with tolerances outlined in the SLA and approved by GSA.

2) Provide performance and functionality metrics, specifically, web page views and load times.

3) In the case of service interruptions, the SLA shall indicate response times and update frequencies until resolution.

4) SLAs are metrics that are important to the business line – could be up time, etc.

e. The Contractor shall conform to GSA IT’s enterprise architecture as follows:

1) Integrate with GSA’s electronic collaboration solution (currently Google Suite

Enterprise)

2) Include a system architecture diagram.

3) Use modern integration solutions so that the proposed solution can easily integrate with other enterprise document management solutions, digital signature solutions, and applications as GSA architecture evolves.

f. The Contractor shall provide and maintain a technology roadmap for operating and maintaining the solution throughout the duration of the task order.

1) The Contractor shall propose configurations and solutions that lie within the technology roadmap.

2) The Contractor shall propose and implement configurations and solutions that are operable and maintainable within COTS releases, upgrades, patches, platform updates, bug fixes, and other industry standard software modifications.

3) The Contractor shall propose and implement configurations and solutions that enhance and do not degrade operability, including all integrations.

4) The Contractor shall ensure development technology stack, components, software, or frameworks used in solution are up to date. The Contractor shall update, troubleshoot, and correct issues in solution deriving from third party components, frameworks, GSA infrastructure or security updates. The

Contractor shall provide a 'software bill of materials' or scan results of the source code to ensure compliance with known component end-of-life dates as requested by the government.

g. The Contractor shall be able to exchange data according to industry best practices and in compliance with all Federal guidelines.

h. The Contractor shall be able to exchange data with GSA legacy infrastructure (see

Attachment 1) and data transfer protocols, including Extract Transform Load (ETL) tools and Application Program Interfaces (APIs).

i. The Contractor shall create a data architecture plan based on technical discovery and scope for GSA approval. The Contractor shall maintain and update the data architecture plan throughout the duration of the task order.

1) The Contractor shall include a description of the database technology to be used and the processes employed to manipulate data.

2) The Contractor shall describe security boundaries and interconnects in the data architecture plan.

3) The Contractor shall include an expected data model, entity relationship diagram and a data dictionary or equivalent information to permit GSA to maintain GSA's enterprise data model.

4) The data architecture plan shall describe interfaces for sharing structured data with other IT systems.

5) The Contractor shall provide a data schema for data downloads and transfers so GSA can inventory the type, quantity, structure, and relationships of data housed in the solution.

6) The Contractor shall incorporate infrastructure in the data architecture plan that supports common data operations (e.g., emergency procedures, data imports, data backups, external transfers of data).

j. The Contractor shall create and maintain a project plan and schedule. Contractor shall update and submit these deliverables to GSA on a regular schedule, to be approved by

GSA.

5.1 Timeline

The Government’s milestones include:

FedRAMP (Attachment 1a IT Security Procedural Guide: Security and Privacy

Requirements for IT Acquisition Efforts CIO-IT Security-09-48)

a. - If FedRAMP authorized offering, then GSA will conduct a CRM assessment

(typically 6 weeks to ATO).

- If an external information system (CoCo) offering, then GSA will conduct a moderate Assessment and Accreditation (typically 4 months).

b. Vendor complies with security policy to achieve an Authorization to Operate

(ATO) for a SaaS (Moderate) or External Information System in accordance with

Section 11.1 requirements prior to using GSA production data or prior to go live rollout, whichever occurs first.

c. Without a FedRAMP authorization within 1 year of contract award; GSA will not be able to use the product for the option years and will not proceed with exercising the remaining option years (See Attachment 1a, Sections 4 and 5).

5.2 Executive Requirements

a. The Contractor shall maintain a fully configured and compliant system throughout the execution phase, including but not limited to hosting, licensing, integration, functionality, and support at full scale.

b. The Contractor shall maintain a FedRAMP ATO for a cloud solution.

c. The Contractor shall maintain and update all artifacts created in earlier phases of the task order including but not limited to:

1) Data architecture plan

2) Project plan

3) Technology roadmap

d. The Contractor shall maintain all GSA configurations and integrations through all updates and releases of the underlying solution.

e. The Contractor shall provide technical support for GSA IT Service Desk contractor support personnel.

1) Provide Tier 3 help desk support or its equivalent, in collaboration with the existing GSA IT Service Desk.

f. Provide the means and metrics to be used to measure the quality and responsiveness of user support and how that data will inform appropriate adaptations in the user support model.

1) Contractor shall include scripts, support and training to GSA IT Service

Desk support personnel. Include resources and training delivery methods made available to GSA and external users to help themselves. These can take the form of user forums, web pages, video instruction, chat sessions and other interactions.

2) Contractor shall include how the solution will deliver information to GSA users and core team members about new features, upcoming releases, product line changes to the proposed solution, maintenance periods, and outages and other events that will affect GSA users.

g. Contractor support for this solution…