Attach_1_DRAFT_GSA SmartPay_4_Pricing_and_Performance_Work_Statement.docx

Pricing - Section B

GSA SmartPay 4 DRAFT Pricing Section

Table of Contents

B.1 Historical Spend Information The General Services Administration (GSA) SmartPay® program is the world’s largest government charge card and related payment solutions program, providing commercial charge card and payment related services to approximately 250 federal government agencies, organizations, and Native American Tribal organizations. The estimated total transaction value for all business lines is $1.1 trillion, should all option periods be exercised over the lifecycle of this master contract. Historical spend information is available on the Program Statistics page of the GSA SmartPay website, which reflects spend information – including value, number of transactions, and number of accounts – by business line and GSA SmartPay customers.

B.2 Pricing Categories The contractor shall provide commercial pricing for all products and solutions that meet the objectives and requirements of Section C. Performance Work Statement, which include the following business lines:

· Purchase business line

· Travel business line

· Fleet business line

The contractor shall provide commercial pricing for only the applicable business line(s) the contractor is providing commercial charge card and payment related services.

B.2.1 Contract Line Item Numbers The contractor shall provide pricing information for its commercial charge card and payment related services by contract line item number (CLIN) that include pricing through refunds and fees. CLIN types for this master contract are as follows, with descriptions from the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR):

· Firm fixed price (FFP) with economic price adjustments (EPA) - FAR 16.203 Fixed-price contracts with economic price adjustment.

· Firm fixed price - FAR 16.202 Firm-fixed-price contracts.

The contractor shall include descriptions of solutions or product category types in pricing information. Examples of pricing schedules and tables are in Section B.5 Pricing Schedules.

B.2.1.1 Refund Based Solutions or Product Category Types For commercial charge card and payment related services that include an associated refund for pricing, the contractor shall provide a firm fixed price (with economic price adjustment) minimum refund (i.e., basis points) that customers may earn from utilizing those solutions. Refund rates provided shall not be lower than the maximum GSA contract access fee (CAF), as described in Section B.4 GSA Contract Access Fee. For customer task orders, the contractor is highly encouraged to propose refund rates that are above and beyond the established master contract refund minimum. However, the contractor shall not propose task order refund rates that are less than the master contract refund minimums or propose fees instead of refunds.

If refund rates vary by transaction type (e.g., standard, large ticket, negotiated/preferred, enhanced data), the contractor shall provide separate refund CLINs or sub-CLINs by business line.

B.2.1.2 Fee Based Solutions or Product Category Types For commercial charge card and payment related services that include an associated fee (e.g., labor rates) for pricing, the contractor shall provide a maximum firm fixed price fee, based on the contractor’s commercial pricing for utilizing those solutions. For customer task orders, the contractor is highly encouraged to propose fees that are lower (e.g., reducing or waiving fees) than the established master contract maximum fee. However, the contractor shall not propose fees that are higher than the master contract fee maximum. Methods for payment of fees (e.g., direct charge to customer, deduction from earned refunds) will be specified and agreed upon in task orders.

B.3 Refunds The contractor shall conform to all provisions and requirements for refunds and refund validation, as required by – but may not be limited to – the following:

· Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-194)

· Office of Management and Budget Circular A-123, Appendix B - A Risk Management Framework for Government Charge Card Programs

B.3.1 Refund Calculation Methodology The contractor shall use its commercial methodology for calculating earned refunds. The contractor has the option to – and is highly encouraged to – provide a simplified refund methodology based on its commercial refund calculation methodology to help customers comply with refund validation requirements in the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-194). The final refund methodology will be approved by the GSA contracting officer, and the contractor shall provide the approved refund methodology to customers as documentation for the customer task order.

B.3.2 Refund Payment The contractor shall pay refunds to customers based on the highest established hierarchy level, unless otherwise specified and agreed upon in task orders. The contractor shall pay refunds to customers quarterly by the 15th of the fiscal year quarter. Payment terms and any differing frequencies shall be specified and agreed upon in task orders. The contractor shall comply with requirements, as described in Executive Order 14247 Modernizing Payments To and From America’s Bank Account.

B.3.2.1 Initial Refund Payment Unless otherwise specified and agreed upon in task orders, the first refund payment is due by the 15th calendar day of the fiscal year quarter, following the start of task order transactions.

B.3.2.2 Fourth Quarter Refund Payments The contractor shall pay fourth quarter refund payments in the same manner as previous quarters, unless specified and agreed upon in task orders or for customers as described in Section B.3.2.2.1 Applicable Federal Government Customers.

B.3.2.2.1 Applicable Federal Government Customers A customer’s fiscal policy may prohibit acceptance of a previous fiscal year’s refunds in a later or subsequent fiscal year. For these customers, the contractor shall take into account the timing of refunds in relation to the federal government’s end of fiscal year, based on the subsections below.

B.3.2.2.1.1 Fourth Quarter Refund Estimates Should a customer require refund payments to be made in the same fiscal year for which those refunds are earned, the contractor shall estimate and pay fourth quarter refund payments either based on the customer’s previous fiscal year fourth quarter transactions or as specified and agreed upon in task orders.

For customers with no prior fourth quarter transaction activity or transaction information, the refund estimate shall be based on customers’ refund calculation for the third quarter, unless otherwise specified and agreed upon in task orders.

B.3.2.2.1.2 Fourth Quarter Refund Timing The contractor may pay fourth quarter refund payments at the same time as the contractor pays third quarter refund payments, unless otherwise specified and agreed upon in task orders.

B.3.2.2.1.3 Fourth Quarter Refund Adjustments There may be circumstances where there are discrepancies between the estimated fourth quarter refund amount and the actual earned refund amount. To accommodate these discrepancies in the fourth quarter refund payment, the contractor shall adjust the refund payment in the first quarter of the next fiscal year to reflect corrections. For the final fourth quarter refund payment, the contractor shall work directly with customers to finalize and pay any outstanding refund payments during the contract closeout process.

B.4 GSA Contract Access Fee B.4.1 Purpose The CAF is assessed by GSA to GSA SmartPay customers to recover costs for the GSA Payment Solutions Service Center (PSSC) to administer the GSA SmartPay program. The CAF rate is a set number of basis points applied against a GSA SmartPay customer’s earned refunds and determined by PSSC in accordance with Section G.1 GSA Contract Access Fee (CAF).

B.4.2 Contract Access Fee Remittance The contractor shall remit CAF payments to GSA on behalf of GSA SmartPay customers. The CAF rate will apply to all GSA SmartPay commercial charge card and payment related services, including interchange and non-interchange based solutions, and regardless of whether use of the solution generates a refund or includes a fee. For the final fourth quarter CAF payment, the contractor shall work directly with customers to finalize and remit any outstanding CAF payments during the contract closeout process.

B.4.3 Insufficient Refunds

The contractor shall remit a GSA SmartPay customer’s CAF to GSA regardless of whether the customer earns refunds from utilizing commercial charge card and payment related services. The contractor shall work directly with customers to collect outstanding CAF balances due to GSA, should there be insufficient refunds to cover the cost of the GSA CAF payment.

B.5 Pricing Schedules The contractor shall provide its commercial pricing in a pricing schedule with applicable CLINs.

B.5.1 Purchase Business Line The contractor shall provide pricing for commercial charge card and payment related services for the purchase business line. An example of a pricing schedule is provided below and is notional only. The contractor shall provide all CLIN and pricing information applicable – including the names of the product, description, whether the product has an associated refund or fee, and price – for services and solutions that meet the performance objectives of this master contract.

Example of Purchase Business Line CLINs - Base Year

Transactions

Example of Purchase Business Line CLINs - Option Period 1

Transactions

Example of Purchase Business Line CLINs - Option Period 2

Transactions

Example of Purchase Business Line CLINs - Option Period 3

Transactions

B.5.2 Travel Business Line The contractor shall provide pricing for commercial charge card and payment related services for the travel business line. An example of a pricing schedule is provided below and is notional only. The contractor shall provide all CLIN and pricing information applicable – including the names of the product, description, whether the product has an associated refund or fee, and price – for services and solutions that meet the performance objectives of this master contract. If pricing varies by account types, including centrally billed accounts (CBA), individually billed accounts (IBA), and hybrid liability accounts, the contractor shall provide separate refund CLINs or sub-CLINs.

Example of Travel Business Line CLINs - Base Year

CBA Transactions

IBA Transactions

Hybrid Transactions

Example of Travel Business Line CLINs - Option Period 1

CBA Transactions

IBA Transactions

Hybrid Transactions

Example of Travel Business Line CLINs - Option Period 2

CBA Transactions

IBA Transactions

Hybrid Transactions

Example of Travel Business Line CLINs - Option Period 3

CBA Transactions

IBA Transactions

Hybrid Transactions

B.4.3 Fleet Business Line The contractor shall provide pricing for commercial charge card and payment related services for the fleet purchase business line. An example of a pricing schedule is provided below and is notional only. The contractor shall provide all CLIN and pricing information applicable – including the names of the product, description, whether the product has an associated refund or fee, and price – for services and solutions that meet the performance objectives of this master contract.

Example of Fleet Business Line CLINs - Base Year

Transactions

Example of Fleet Business Line CLINs - Option Period 1

Transactions

Example of Fleet Business Line CLINs - Option Period 2

Transactions

Example of Fleet Business Line CLINs - Option Period 3

Transactions

PWS - Section C

GSA SmartPay 4 DRAFT Performance Work Statement

Table of Contents

C.1 Definitions The following definitions apply to this performance work statement, any GSA SmartPay 4 master contract award, and any task order issued under the GSA SmartPay 4 master contracts.

Abuse: Use of a federal government payment solution to buy authorized items or services, but at terms (e.g., price, quantity) that are excessive, for a questionable government need, or both.

Account: A mechanism by which the contractor accepts a customer’s financial assets and holds them on behalf of an accountholder at the customer’s discretion.

Account Number: A numerical or alphanumeric means of identifying a specific customer or account. This may be tied (e.g., embossed, encoded, encrypted) to a physical charge card.

Accountholder: Any individual issued an account at the request of a customer. This may also include any vehicle or equipment (e.g., fleet applications). Accountholders include individuals with physical charge cards and non-carded accounts. May be referred to as “cardholders.”

Accountholder Agreement: A written agreement between the contractor and accountholder describing both the accountholder and contractor responsibilities. This includes both physical charge cards and non-carded accounts.

Accountholder Application: An application provided by the contractor and used to apply for an account.

Acquiring Financial Institution: The merchant’s financial institution that accepts payment from an accountholder, using a contractor-issued payment mechanism.

Ad Hoc Reporting: Ability for the customer to request reporting from the contractor, based on commercially available data and formats.

Agency/Organization Program Coordinator (A/OPC): Individual(s) providing management and oversight for establishing and maintaining accounts, government-wide reporting and issuance, and destruction of charge cards within each customer agency or organization.

Application Programming Interface (API): A set of rules and protocols that allows different software applications to communicate and exchange data.

Approving Official (AO): Individual (e.g., supervisor) responsible for ensuring a transaction or group of transactions is authorized.

Artificial Intelligence: Ability of systems to perform tasks that normally may require human intelligence or manual processes (learning, reasoning, recognizing patterns, solving problems, making decisions).

Assets: Customer owned or operated property. Examples of assets include pooled or shared vehicles, equipment (e.g., lawn mowers), license-plated trailers, and toll transponders.

Attestation: Formal declaration that a representation from a contractor is true, accurate, or compliant.

Authority to Operate (ATO): Authorization for an information system (e.g., federal government owned, contractor owned) to operate. The customer formally accepts the risk of operating the system.

Authorization: The process of verifying that a transaction being made is allowable given requirements, prohibitions, and controls established by a customer for that account.

Authorized Transaction: Approved use of a GSA SmartPay payment solution.

Automated Teller Machine (ATM) Services: Contractor-provided services allowing cash withdrawals at a terminal charged to an authorized account within dollar limits established by a customer.

Automation: Use of technology to perform tasks with little or no human intervention.

Background Investigation: The process of reviewing both confidential and public information to investigate an individual’s history of reliability and trustworthiness for purposes of accessing personally identifiable information or controlled unclassified information.

Bank: A regulated financial institution licensed to provide financial services (e.g., accept deposits, provide loans, issue charge cards) to individuals, businesses, and governments.

Bank Identification Number (BIN): The beginning identifying digits appear on a physical charge card or account. The BIN uniquely identifies the financial institution issuing the charge card.

Basis Point: One hundredth of one percent.

Billing Cycle: A specific recurring time period between when an invoice or statement of account is processed.

Billing Cycle Date: The cut-off date for which charges are processed for the billing cycle.

Billing Date: The date of the official invoice or statement of account sent to the customer.

Brand: A financial institution that dictates where payments can be processed and facilitates the payment process between accountholders, cardholders, merchants, and issuing financial institutions. Responsible for partnering with financial institutions that make the rules for acceptance of payment solutions, including interchange fees. Also referred to as networks.

Business Day: Days that the federal government is open for operation, which excludes weekends and federal holidays.

Business Line: A group of payment solutions or payment activities with common functional characteristics (e.g., purchase, travel, fleet).

Calendar Day: Any day of the week, including days falling on a weekend or federal holiday.

Canceled Account: An account that is canceled due to an undisputed balance remaining unpaid for the prescribed number of days after the date of the invoice or statement of account on which the charge first appeared. An account may also be canceled for multiple suspensions.

Card Present: A transaction conducted using a physical charge card as the method of payment, at the point of sale.

Card-Not-Present: A transaction conducted without a physical charge card (e.g., over the phone, online) as a method of payment.

Case Management: Allows for the review and documentation of at-risk transactions.

Cash Advances: The withdrawal of cash from an automated teller machine (ATM) or financial institution.

Centrally Billed Account (CBA): An account established by the contractor at the request of a customer organization, for which the customer organization has liability for payment.

Central Liability: When a customer organization is liable for payment of an account balance, as reflected in an invoice or statement of account. Includes solutions that are centrally billed (e.g., centrally billed account).

Charge-off: An account with an unpaid balance determined to present a risk of being uncollectible by the contractor but recoveries can still be pursued as the debt is still owed.

Charge Card: A method of payment issued to an individual or an entity that is associated with an underlying account used for making payments. A charge card is not a credit card, as no line of credit is established, and the balance owed is due and payable in full upon receipt of the statement for each billing cycle. Charge cards can be issued in both physical or virtual formats.

Closed Loop Network: A payment system in which a single entity manages the entire transaction process — issuing the payment method, processing the transaction, and accepting the payment — without relying on outside financial institutions of other brands and networks.

Cloud Computing: Delivery of computing, data, and infrastructure related services (e.g., servers, storage, databases, networking, software, and analytics) over the Internet.

Contract Access Fee (CAF): The fee charged by GSA to cover the cost of operating the GSA SmartPay Program. The CAF is remitted by the contractor – on behalf of customers – to GSA.

Contract Line Item Number (CLIN): Identifies business line product, service, and fee offerings as separately identified and priced line items in the GSA SmartPay master contract and task orders.

Continuity of Operations: Actions taken by the contractor in the event that a catastrophe, disaster, or unforeseen major event may disrupt operations domestically or internationally, to ensure GSA SmartPay program operations continue uninterrupted.

Continuous Monitoring: Ongoing, real-time process of collecting, analyzing, and acting on data to maintain awareness of threats, vulnerabilities, and the effectiveness of security controls.

Continuous Vetting: Ongoing background review process used to evaluate whether a cleared individual continuously meets security clearance and suitability requirements, in accordance with the Trusted Workforce 2.0 initiative (or equivalent).

Contracting Officer: A person with the authority to enter into, administer, terminate contracts or task orders, and make determinations and findings. Contracting officers are assigned by GSA for the GSA SmartPay master contract and by ordering offices – which may include GSA contracting officers – for task orders.

Contracting Officer Representative (COR): An individual or individuals (e.g., primary, alternate) designated and authorized in writing (e.g., GSA SmartPay master contract, task order) by the contracting officer to perform specific technical or administrative functions. This can include authorized designees (e.g., contracting officer’s technical representatives).

Contractor Performance Assessment Report (CPAR): A formal evaluation of a contractor's performance on a specific federal government contract or order, documenting how well a contractor performs against the requirements of the contract or order.

Control: Policies, rules, procedures, and tools used for management and accurate oversight (e.g., prevention of fraud, misuse, abuse). May include measures that are preventative, detective, and/or corrective.

Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI): Information that is sensitive but does not have a security classification (e.g., secret, top secret), as described in 32 CFR 2002 Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).

Convenience Check: A contractor’s commercial mechanism that is written, dated, and signed against an account. Generally used for payment of merchants or individuals that do not accept other GSA SmartPay products.

Credit: A monetary amount that is added to an account for specific reasons (e.g., returned item, invoice overpayment, successful dispute) that reduces the amount due from the customer or accountholder to the contractor.

Creditworthiness Assessment: An assessment used as an internal control to ensure that accountholders are financially responsible, in accordance with Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-194) and OMB Circular A-123, Appendix B - A Risk Management Framework for Government Charge Card Programs.

Cross Border Payment: A transaction in which the payer and the recipient are located in different countries, which may involve different currencies, financial institution systems, and regulations.

Customer: Any federal government agency, federal government organization, or organization meeting the criteria, as described in Section C.3.1 Customer Eligibility participating in a GSA SmartPay task order.

Customer Organization: A customer business unit. Also referred to as “federal government organization.”

Data Mining: An automated process used to scan databases to detect patterns, trends, and/or anomalies for use in risk management, spend patterns, and other areas of analysis.

Debit: A monetary amount that is deducted from an account, as a result of an amount due from the customer or accountholder to the contractor.

Declined Transaction: Transaction where authorization has been refused.

Delinquency: An undisputed account balance that is unpaid for the prescribed number of calendar days or more, past the invoice or statement of account date.

Dispute: The mechanism for which a customer or accountholder questions the validity of a transaction made to an authorized account.

Domestic: Locations existing in all 50 states of the United States of America, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, and U.S. possessions.

Electronic Access System (EAS): The contractor’s commercial system that provides account access and management and oversight functions of the contractor’s payment solutions.

Enhanced Data: Additional data provided beyond Level 3 data.

Enhanced Data Transaction: Transactions in which merchants received discounted processing rates with a brand, based on the level of data provided.

External Fraud: Fraud that is enacted by individuals or parties that are outside of the federal government or GSA SmartPay customer users.

Fees: Charges from a contractor for use of a solution or solution feature (e.g., ATM fee, convenience check fee, foreign transaction fee, late fee).

Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR): The set of regulations mandated for use by the majority of federal government executive agencies for acquisition of supplies and services with appropriated funds, as set forth in 48 CFR § 1-52. Some agencies and organizations may have additional deviations to the FAR and other supplemental acquisition regulations (e.g., Department of Defense FAR Supplement).

Federal Government: Refers to the United States federal government, as defined here.

Federal Government System: An information system used or operated by an executive agency, by a contractor of an executive agency, or by another organization on behalf of an executive agency.

Federal Holidays: Authorized holidays recognized by the federal government when most federal offices are closed. Federal holidays are identified through the Office of Personnel Management website.

Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS): Standards developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which establish requirements (e.g., security, interoperability, data processing) that non-military federal government agencies and contractors must comply with, as described here.

Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2014: The act that defines a comprehensive framework to protect federal government information, operations, and assets against threats, available here.

Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP): A standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services used by federal government agencies and customers, as described here.

Financial Institution: An establishment (e.g., bank) that offers financial services and focuses on dealing with financial transactions, such deposits, checking accounts, loans, or various investment services.

Fiscal Year (FY): The federal government’s fiscal year is from October 1st through September 30th.

Fiscal Year (FY) Quarter: One fourth (or three months) of the fiscal year (i.e., Oct-Dec, Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, and Jul-Sep).

Foreign Currency Conversion Fees: A fee associated with purchases made in a foreign currency.

Fraud: Any act of corruption or attempt to cheat the federal government or corrupt the government’s agents, including but not limited to, the use of government payment solutions to transact business that is not sanctioned, not authorized, not in one’s official government capacity, not for the purpose for which the charge card was issued, or not as part of official government business.

Government-to-government Transactions: Payments between different federal government agencies (inter-governmental) or within the same federal government agency (intra-governmental).

Gross Credit Loss: Written-off balances on accounts that reach the prescribed number of days past the closing date on an invoice or the statement of account.

Gross Refund: The refund amount to be paid to the customer before any deduction or adjustments (e.g., GSA CAF, fraud).

GSA City Pair Program Mandatory User: Customers and users required to use the GSA City Pair Program, as identified in Attachment 5 - GSA City Pair Program Identifiers.

GSA City Pair Program Non-mandatory User: Customers and users eligible but not required to use the GSA City Pair Program, as identified in Attachment 5 - GSA City Pair Program Identifiers.

GSA SmartPay Data Warehouse: The electronic platform owned and operated by the GSA Payment Services Solution Center in which transaction and/or program data is received from the contractor, aggregated, and normalized from contractor systems, to allow analysis of GSA SmartPay spend and transactional data.

Hierarchy: The organizational structure of the customer, which may be composed of multiple levels from the accountholder to the highest management level of the customer organization.

Hybrid Liability: Liability that is shared between individuals and the customer organization (e.g., joint and several).

Identifier: Unique method of identification (e.g., customer unit, GSA program such as the GSA City Pair Program).

Individual Liability: When the individual accountholder is liable for payment of the account balance, as reflected in a statement of account. Includes solutions that are individually billed (e.g., individually billed account).

Information System Security Officer (ISSO): A federal government representative responsible for creating and instituting measures to safeguard sensitive information.

Integrated Card: Solution that combines two or more GSA SmartPay program business lines.

Interchange Fee: A fee paid by the merchant’s financial institution to the charge card issuing financial institution for processing merchant payment transactions. In most instances, the interchange fee is a percentage of the total transaction amount and is passed on to the merchant through the merchant’s financial institution’s fees.

International: Worldwide locations that are not included in the definition of “domestic”.

Invoice[footnoteRef:1]: An official written document requesting payment for transactions to the contractor. [1: The terms “invoice” and “payment” used in this PWS shall not be construed to have the same meaning as the term “invoice” and “payment” used in clause FAR 52.212-4 Contract Terms and Conditions - Commercial Items, and related clauses, whereby the term means a contractor’s bill or written request for payment under the contract for supplies delivered or services performed. Payment of transactions incurred or payment solutions utilized by a customer shall not be construed to mean “supplies delivered or services performed” for purposes of this clause and related clauses.]

Issuance: The process in which a contractor makes a payment – both physical charge card or card-not-present solution – product available to an authorized user.

Issuing Financial Institution: A financial institution that offers payment solutions to customers and authorized users.

Large Ticket Transaction: Transactions exceeding a specified dollar threshold, as processed by the merchant and recognized by brands or networks.

Level 1 Data: Standard commercial transaction data that includes – but is not limited to – the total purchase amount, date of purchase, merchant category code, merchant name, city, state, transaction date, transaction reference number, and other data elements as defined by applicable brands and networks.

Level 2 Data: Includes all elements of Level 1 data, but may also include sales tax amount, company information, and other…